I've had a 74 CBB in my garage, unmoving, since September 2000, the day I
bought it, and drove it fourteen miles to home on brakes so bad I should
have never driven it.
Fates conspired to keep me from working on it. (Actually, the dotcom crash
conspired. Took a 35% pay cut after the dotcom disappeared. Managed to keep
the too-expensive house AND the MG!)
So now I'm ready. I WILL get this car on the road this year, but it needs a
substantial amount of work. Body is solid, but the electrics are a mess,
most gauges are 100% non functional, paint is embarassing. And then there's
the engine.
Odometer has 69999 on it. The previous owner's title showed 69999 when he
titled it in 1993. I bought through a middle man after an estate sale, so
there's zero information about the history of the car. I'm going to
probably pull the engine this weekend or next (A process complicated by the
fact that my gearhead father in law who would have been my main help
recently broke his collar bone and so is not really able to help
physically.)
So in the coming months I'll be peppering you with a variety of questions
as I make decisions at each step. Since the engine is first up, let me ask
two, to help me start the path right.
The car currently leaks a considerable amount of oil from dipstick.
While I'll certainly ensure that the dipstick is correctly installed,
someone once mentioned that this might be due to an incorrectly configured
ventilation setup. The middle man I bought it from had replaced a few
things, oil filler cap included. As far as I can tell it is not vented.
Should a 74 18V (actually, it's a 73, long story) have a vented cap? The
curved tube out the top of the valve cover goes to a T fitting, one arm
goes to the charcoal canister, the other branch is plugged. The front
tappet cover is connected to a Y fitting, with each of those branches
attaching to the intake manifold on the DGV. Air pump is missing, the air
rail is attached, but the end is capped.
I'm not in tune with how this system is supposed to work to know where to
start.
Upon advice from this list many moons ago, and since cars older than 25
years are not subject to emissions testing in Ohio, I have planned from the
start to take this car back to 67 desmogged state. I plan to replace the
DGV with a set of AUD135 type HS4's that I bought off ebay (two HS4's,
linkage, manifold, heat shield and aftermarket filters for $175, you can't
argue with that price, even though they do need to be shipped off to Lawrie
for a complete rebuild).
So, question 1 is, what should the ventilation path look like with both the
DGV and SU if I'm going to be 67 spec? I have the Bentley manual, but the
diagrams therein are a bit confusing to someone who has never seen a
working MGB engine bay in person.
Hmm, let's call this question 1b: The other oil leak is from the front
tappet cover, and it looks like it's been beat on a bit. Doug Jackson has a
replacement side plate that covers both holes, but has no vent tube, and he
recommends venting off the rocker cover tube.
I've seen a few emails here from people who have, and love, this system,
and I've also seen the pundits here saying how this couldn't possibly work.
Since both sides can't be right, I'm wondering what the deal is. With the
solid side plate in place and running the vent elbow on the rocker cover to
the intake manifold, is this sufficient venting? Is a PCV valve required? A
vented oil cap?
Question 2: I'm getting a bit of oil from the head, near the #2 and
#3 spark plugs. It's probably just a bad gasket, but I'm concerned it might
be a crack. I'm going forward with the assumption that I'll need a new
head, though I'm hoping I'm wrong. I plan to get one of the all aluminum
heads, but would like to know, should I get old or new spec? Since I'm
desmogging and going for 1967, logic would say get an old style head, but
the new style head has larger valve openings. Should I get the newer style
head and plug the air rail holes because I want the larger valves? Or
should I get the older style head? Or should I even care?
_______________________________
Chris Thompson
1974 MGB Chrome Bumper Roadster
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