It was now too late for the March 2008 Slverstone event, MGOT kindly managed to re-sell and credit my entry fee. I had booked the day off work and decided to go anyway and try to get some passenger laps.
I had a very enjoyable day at Silverstone and plenty of passenger laps, most memorable being with Sid Owen in his K series powered MG Midget, the combination of a very experienced track driver and fast car meant we were passing just about everything on the circuit!
The car went well all evening, only problem, after a few sessions was some clutch slip.....
...I solved this by removing the split pin that dangles out of the bell housing drain hole, drilled it out to about 6mm. Then sprayed loads of clutch & brake cleaner through the hole.
.....The Next track day outing is Donington Oct 2008 with MGOT, one year on from when the engine blew.
These three photos are by kind permission of Xtreme Sports Photography.
.....Dunlop bridge not long before the circuit was temporarily closed for the aborted F1 modifications.
.....Redgate Corner, the car went well all day, and no reoccurrence of the rocker arm or slipping clutch issues.
One minor problem was one cell of one of the two six volt batteries went down shortly after sign-on. So I needed a push start before each session...
.....After the trackday I replaced the two six volt standard batteries with one small 12V sealed battery out of my portable battery booster. Later I fitted a second battery of the same type in parallel to provide more capacity.
This set-up works fine and a massive weight saving over the standard batteries.
.....Back to Feb 08, prior to fitting the engine I brought a rev limiter, then tested it using a pulse generator circuit.
.....Nearly 7000RPM without an engine!
I fitted the Rev Limiter incase over revving was a factor in the last engine going down.
.....Back to Silverstone in March 2009. Weather not so good with rain and hale. Lots of spinning!
The car ran very well, only problem was a puncture. Brian kindly shot off and got a new tyre fitted at a local garage.
The photos on the bonnet were taken of an FIA car at the show to assist with fitting.
Brians P4 also in this Shot.
These two photos were taken by Brian.
In April we also took part in an Open Pit Lane Track Day at Donington.
Again the B ran well all day!
The interest in getting this old engine going again apart from the "sheer challenge" was to use it as a test bed for initial development work on an SC Conversion for my B & Brians MG Special.
The SC CONVERSION project has been a joint effort between myself and Brian Evans. Lots more info on the SC conversion to follow...
Although the B has ran well on road and track since the DIY engine rebuild, it is time to get some more POWER!
Not looking too bad... Before storage I put plenty of oil into the bores which seems to have paid as it turns over fine!
This is a +40 Gold Seal engine. At this stage I only intend to do a light rebuild, although there are quite a few bits unique to this early engine that are missing including starter motor and water pump. Finding these will be another challenge!
I brought a water pump for the 3brg project here, but when offered up it wasn't correct for this early engine, I shot back to the show and the trader gave me a refund without hesitation.
other shows visited this year in the B inc Race Retro & MG Live at Silverstone.
JulyView of the 3 bearing crank in situ.
The Cam on this early engine has additional drive cogs for a mechanical Rev Counter.
....
Here I use a honing tool on the 3 BRG Test Engine.
This is driven by a flexible drive from an electric drill. Plenty of oil was used on the grinding stones.
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