Thread: Hello from an old member

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Sounds real nice!
On the Sci Fi note, I couldn't believe Dr. Who Series is 50 years old now and still going strong! Still like Tom Baker as my favorite Dr.

Originally Posted by 34_40

The original "The Day the Earth Stood Still", is a favorite of mine also.. a lot like that MG of yours!

The view out the windshield is crowded now! LOL..

Ha Ha!!
I havent actually sat in the car with the new pipes fitted as the footwell is full of tools and oil bottles. I'm sure it will look quite odd when I race it. Especially as I'm expecting to see a nice flame display when I hit it hard We have a few night racing events next year so I'm hoping the MG will put on a good light show. Especially if I drill the pipes and fit some small copper pins through them ???

Night races should prove spectacular!! I'm loving the copper wire/pins idea also... Hmmmm..

Originally Posted by 34_40

Night races should prove spectacular!! I'm loving the copper wire/pins idea also... Hmmmm..

Green flames would be quite a surprise to the folks watching eh!

And I now have my wheelie bar mounts made and ready to fit when I can find some time ?

The guy who makes them is very good. I told him that I could not slide them onto the axle case so they would have to be made to slip on from behind. I gave him the tube diameter and he got to work on his cad and laser machine. When they arrived I was a little confused at first because I did not understand why they did not just have a U shaped cut out to go over the axle case? Then it became obvious You cut off the odd looking part, flip it over and then slide it on from the other side to enable a full weld around the axle tube.. Brilliant

I was going to buy some sheet steel and then spend many many hours in the garage cutting, grinding, drilling and filing with the hope of making 4 brackets that might be similar. But for the sum of £53.00 these were made and delivered in 3 days. At this price for 4 brackets it was not worth me even attempting to make them myself.

That's a very innovative use of what would otherwise be a piece of scrap, or with a sloppy fit if he simply made the piece complete and sent instructions to cut out that front piece. Your friend is a good designer, and laser cutters are awesome tools.

I hope all you folk have had a great Christmas so far ??

We had a great Christmas day at home. Myself and the wife + our 4 Children and partners + mother in law.
Then on Boxing day the same again + my wifes brothers and sisters + children saw us once again filled to capacity with 23 for dinner and lots of fun and games up to about midnight when folks drifted off back to their homes in various parts of the UK.

Friday was a day of rest for all of us. And today I got the MG towed to a friends workshop (as my truck has broken down) and got the Roll Cage welded in and the Zoomies finished. My Truck wont be fixed until Monday so I cant actually test fire the new exhaust until then. I've hogged out the header flanges now to match the ports on the heads. The stock header exhaust flanges are 22mm wide. My head exhaust ports are 28mm wide + a few mm taller as well.

I know these dimensions sound small compared to USA heads on bigger motors but its enough for me at this time

The Zoomies have been wrapped in heat tape to just under the hood line. Lambda probes are now re fitted into the front pair and the EGT probes will be going into the rear pipes real soon. The new Hoosier Slicks are here and will be fitted next week onto my old 70's Slot Mags to get the MGB ready to rock for the first outing on 18th Jan for the Paul Walker Tribute day at Santa Pod Raceway. Then on the 19th for a RWYB test day.

I still have a big list of jobs to be done for 2014 but these will have to be done as time allows over the next few months. As the car stands now she is ready to race again. I have not made my usual mistake of starting 10 jobs over winter when I can really only finish 4 of them. I still need to finish the wheelie bar installation and fit the new transbrake gearbox. But those jobs will get done during next season after I have got some runs in. My weekends are getting consumed by work which pays the bills eh? So I'll just fit in my car works as time allows.

I'll be happy to hit the strip next month with fresh slicks and the Zoomies fitted so I can do some tuning.

As you can see in the picture. I have also finished the rain proofing for the new pipes. No rain is gonna get down these pipes in a hurry eh ?

Happy Holidays Pel Nice work.

ahhhhhhhhhhh---those were the days---either tennis balls or beer cans for the headers

Happy New Year folks !!

I managed to finish fitting the zoomies and also got some nice new Hoosier slicks fitted. I also did a few minor jobs which needed doing.

I took the car to Santapod on Saturday 18th Jan to attend the Paul Walker tribute day. This was a fund raiser that Santapod agreed to host for free for around 140 car clubs who wanted to do something. Santa pod reduced the entry ticket price from £10 to £4 to get folk into the venue. All entry ticket proceeds went to Paul Walkers charity "Reach Out World Wide" . The amount donated to ROWW was just under £29,000.00 or approx $48,000.00 so that was good I guess.

The down side was that all the cars on site were pretty much road cars and not 1/4 mile cars. I guessed that I would not get much track action due to cars dropping shafts and tranny's on the start line. But this was not the case. The race director made a decision not to glue the track so we could get as many cars down the strip without breakages. So I knew that I wasnt going to do much when I decided to roll the MG into the fire up lane. I didnt mind because over 7000 people got to watch a days racing and drifting + all the other things that were laid on. There was a 4 wheel drive lambo that managed a full power pass to reel in 11.2 seconds I think. That made the crowd very happy. Then fat boy Pel rolls up in the MG for a go on the new Hoosiers As expected she broke loose within a few seconds and decided that she wanted to run in the left lane instead. I backed out just enough to get off the nitrous and she then decided she wanted to do a Salsa dance with a hard back end wiggle ? So I just tickled it to the 1/8th and shut off. She managed to run a 12.1 by coasting for nearly the last 1/8th which was good.

MG B V8 Roadster - Heavily modified - Santa Pod Raceway 12.17 - Paul Walker Tribute 18/01/2014 - YouTube

I spoke to the race director about the Sundays RWYB and he said that the track would be fully prepped. So I rolled out at about 1pm on the Sunday for a proper pass. The engine tune was the same as last year and the track was pretty good despite it being just 47 degree's F. They had to work from 7am to 1pm to get the track dry enough to glue as we have had so much rain that moisture keep seeping up onto the track. So I had a first test pass and ran a 9.6 with no real drama. I was happy with that as it got me straight back on the PB number from last year as a good start to the season.

Perry at the Pod 190114 - YouTube


Then I prepped the car for a second pass. But this time I decided to start and add some timing back into the engine. I had been running around 8 degree's retarded last year while testing. I'm not sure what the ign timing should be for this new build so I was running safe rich and safe on retard. I added just 3 degree's of timing and went back to the start line. And I have to say that I am very happy with the increase in power that the 3 degree's made. Sadly my Moser custom shafts were not as happy
When i hit the loud pedal the car just lit up and hit really hard for about 2 feet ??? The left hand shaft sheared off and the right hand shaft is twisted as hell !!

Perry Stephenson breaking stuff again - YouTube


So I will now fit a pair of MGB 1800cc drive shafts to get me rolling for Sundays RWYB challenge round. I think I can leave the nitrous off and pull in some 12 second runs to get some points.

The new plan is to have Moser make some more shafts but this time with Ford 9" 31 spline ends. I have found a Ford mini spool kit that I think I can graft into the differential without too much hassle. That will give me a shaft that is 20% thicker that should be good for more power?

I've ordered the mini spool from Summit so I can see how much machining needs to be done fit it. This should be a fun project I think. Ford 9" parts grafted into my 39 year old MGB rear axle ??

Happy Days!

Pel

OUCH! Sticky new tires.. add in more power = parts consumption. I guess you found another weak link!

And we call this fun right?!?!?

The second run was real nice. Sorry to hear about the broken bits, but I love watching the old MG fly down the track.

Greetings friends!

Here is the update from this evening in the garage !

I have shelved the Ford 9" side gear idea now. In fact I have dropped the idea of modifying my MGB diff to take Ford 9" shafts all together now. Mainly because I have fitted a Ford 9" spool into the axle case with very little effort ?

Ford spool bearing mounts = 1.78" O/D. MGB diff gear internal dimension = 1.77" nominal.

So two mins polishing the spool ends with fine grit paper and light oil is all that was needed. New MGB diff bearings in the oven at 200C for 20 mins saw them slipping on nice and snug. And within 10 seconds of cooling they were locked on hard.

Ford 9" spool is only 70 thou wider than the MGB diff cage. So it fits right in and I just need to shave 35 thou off each bearing shim to make it fit. And the spool flange face is only a few mm away from being in the right place to make my crown wheel / ring gear mesh perfectly with the pinion gear?

With very little work indeed the Ford 9" spool drops in like it was made to be there ???

I have now paid for my 31 spline shafts which should be on their way from Procomp in California.

This is not the finished item. Buts its so close its almost funny to think that I would have been able to drop the spool into a stock MGB axle this easy ??

That's pretty cool! How did you decide to even try it? Had someone else tried it before?