Unloading and some fixes

Back at home. By coincidence 67 hours (or ⁶🤷⁷ for potential Gen alpha readers) after I started the trip in my 1967 MGB. As you can imagine I could not stop smiling after I had the result from the rolling road tests. With now 2000km on the new engine it became even smoother. The only downer was a speed bump in London city. The middle section of the Moss Tourist Trophy exhaust system sits too low. Why they decided to have an additional flange and two pieces between the manifold and the rear silencer is also unclear to me.

It turns out to be difficult to get the right sized gaskets and after I hit the speed bump with the middle flange – the front gasket started to blow thru again. I had the issue with Maggie for a few years. It was the main reason to switch to the Maniflow system as Andreas – a fellow MGB owner from Munich – suggested.

But as I had the Tourist Trophy system, knew that it is good for an engine with torque and needed to weld a bung for the Lambda sensor to it – I decided to use it on Mildred going forward. After unloading the car – which took quite a while – I changed the front gasket once again. Following a recommendation of Peter Burgess son – I will fabricate my own gasket out of 3mm cooper. But for now – my last fitting replacement gasket went in (after some required modification for the bolts)

As much as I wanted to change the oil pressure relief valve at the same time – I came to senses before unscrewing the head nut completely. With the exhaust system in place and the car just on an axle stand – there is no way I would be able to get the new spring in again. When I checked the valve a few weeks ago – the inlet and exhaust were off. So this has to wait a bit. What needs to change for sure is the middle section of the exhaust. And I have an idea for this…

While I was gone the Mini front subframe was also painted with 2K primer. One of the new parts I got is a MED sump guard. Most of the time you will install this on the car. This usually means you fiddle with the nuts on the backside of the frame. As I have the frame on the bench right now – it made sense to weld the nuts to the frame. I am certainly not a good welder and the (not yet cleaned) welds look ugly – but they hold and work. Once they are covered in paint nobody will see them anyway😉

With a family vacation to Crete coming up soon there will be not much time for the garage this week. Hopefully the subframe and Miffi’s engine block are ready when I return.