1978 MGB v8 Conversion Sebring Kit- RRG '17

[GavinJ]

Right i've been on here ages and never done a proper readers rides thread so heres goes.

I've had my MGB now since 2004, first ever classic and it was a completely standard '78 rubber bumpered MGB GT.

It has gone through many looks, engines (x3)and rear axles/diffs (on my 4th!) and ive loved it apart from the Numerous mechanical failings

Now I didn't know how to start with this thread as i've got literally hundreds of photo's so I will skip through some pictures year by year and finally get upto date where the serious work is taking place.

How she looked when I bought her in 2004 for £2000.



Half cage and bucket seats, harnesses fitted so I could get her on the track with some safety,

First Trackday with www.mgs-on-track.co.uk

A very often sight on the drive....

Car driven daily for almost two years..

Some more track action...


Piston rings then let go after the above trackday,

Puffing smoke from the dipstick,

Perfect Excuse for a V8 ;D out she goes...

Being a rubber bumper shell only minor tunnel mods needed to allow clearance for the lt77 5 speed box, engine mounts etc need no mods.




(all seam sealed and tidied up after this but don't have a pic)
V8 in place,

Slight clearance issue with the current carb/filter set up!

Good view though!

I was told it would be tight and they wasn't lying,

V8 Axle and prop being fitted easily the most expensive part of the conversion,

Oil pressure always nices to see on a v8!

How it ran for a bit, bonnet bulge is a baking tin from asda

After this it underwent a major revamp but I seem to have misplaced the progress pictures for now,
Mod's were,
Debumpered, Sebring rear valence, st front spoiler, custom bonnet, lowered and some fresh paint (£500 self prep jobby)....


Steel bulge off a Mistubishi Prajero and louvres off a hotpoint microwave grafted in ;D

End result,


The 3.5 v8 then started rumbling quite badly on start up so new engine time and were now at about 2009 and this is how she looked before she was taken off the road this time for the 3.9 v8 EFI to be fitted.




Yet to be posted the 3.9 v8 installation, new cills, floor repairs, inner wing repairs and sebring kit.....just want to post this before I lose it all!

[GavinJ]

A couple of vids of how she sounds

[sowen]

Cool MGB , such a transformation!

[GavinJ]

V8 build time - I bought a second hand 3.9 v8 off here for a very good price, sold as being bought from a breakers and arrived on a pallet complete with loom ecu etc as it was an EFI engine.

Upon first inspection it seemed very clean and with the water pump pulley snapped off, so it looks like it may have been pulled from a something with a front end smash and it was an auto so the fly wheel needed to be swapped over.

So I then set upon stripping both v8's down as I had to swap the front timing cover, water pump etc as you need to fit p6 items in order for it to fit the engine bay, shorter water pump and swap the sump over etc...
The old lump,

and the new one,



All painted and all bits swapped over well most it,



Next thing was to tidy up the engine bay and was oily, rusty and a complete mess if i'm honest, the inner wings had been battered by the manifolds so a tidy up was needed,

From this,

To this,


Lift off time,


Engine in,



Improved manifold clearance and air flow,

[GavinJ]

New bonnet needed as the injection plenum is rather large! you can get the plenum machined down but as i've always wanted to do this on a budget and carry out everything myself, only thing ive not done so far is the £500 paint job but did prep that myself so another plan was needed....

Then I found an advert is my local rag for a fibre glass mgb bonnet with bulge £70, so went to have a look and the bulge is spot on looks like an rv8 styled bonnet which is exactly what I need as an mgc bonnet does not allow the clearance...


I then did the dangerous thing of poking around with a screwdriver and created this,

Never a good sign is it? so to come is lots of rust! hopefully get them uploaded in a bit.

[Tom Majeure]

Love the MGBGT. Just needs a set of LeMans styley light covers to finish that road racer look!

[GavinJ]

Right here's some rust....
I started out by cutting away a section where my screw driver had gone through to find,

Cut some more....

So it was clear that although the bulk of the outer sill was fine, but the inner was not.

I then removed the front wing as its had never been removed in all the time i'd had the car but i'm glad i did.





Hmmm as you can see its going to need full sill replacement, inner wing repairs and now to check the floors...


Not bad at all as i was expecting the worst.

This was replicated on the p/side and required the same repairs

[GavinJ]

Now a top tip to you all don't take loads of resto pic's on your iphone then forget to back them up and then get it stolen on holiday

So some gaps here but sums up whats been done and you can see my dad doing the welding, I chop it out he welds it back, so its a massive bonus for me with this project - he is using gasless wire for the welding as we have no gas at the moment.

Out go the sills,












More to follow..

[GavinJ]

[GavinJ]

Sebring Kit Time....

[Tom Majeure]

GT Sebring is deffo on my "list". It seems your old man is pretty handy with the hot metal glue stick too. Great work!!!!!

[GavinJ]

Cheers Mate, yeah he is super quick to as he does it for a living, in return he gets to use it and go on all my trackdays with me it works well for us both!

[martinp]

the Midget in your first track day picture is my old one! sadly missed but last heard of racing in a historic series in Portugal,

Nice build Very impressive.

[DWDarkWheels]

Nice fabrication skills there, that man! It's a shame to cover that inner arch repair.

Grafted-in bonnet vents also are a nice bit of "Adopt:adapt:improve" thinking.

[montythemole]

Excellent work there. Always fancied a v8 MG?

[GavinJ]

Bit more progress



Just measured and i'm hoping for 10" banded rostyles at the back.

Lots of work has gone on behind that arch, to allow full clearance - the original inner arch removed and replaced and has been extended out etc...will do a stage by stage photo of the otherside.

[GavinJ]

Finally had chance to start getting some prep done,


Now time to measure how much width i can get away with...

Looks a little lost now


The clearance..


The size!?


6"+4" band = 10" happy with that or do i push for 11" with stretch?!

[sonus]

I'd love to see an MGB with some stretch

[ChasR]

I would too .

One thing to remember (but you probably already know) is that the MGB's NSR arch has less space for the wheel in one respect than the OSR arch. But seeing as you have measured from that side, I would say you should be fine .

Great project, I shall be keeping my eye on this .

[Tom Majeure]

Is that due to the axle not being centralised or is it a quirk with the shell like on a Renault 5 ?