All right. As we discussed last week, the MGB needs to have its
pistons replaced. A cursory inspection seems to indicate that the
bores are undamaged; you can still see the machining marks, so I
might not even rough them up with the bottle-brush hone thingie I
have always wanted to use.
My piston-replacement question has to do with the choice of pulling
the motor (what? again?) or dropping the pan and pushing the piston
and rod up out of the deck of the block with the motor still bolted
to the bellhousing.
I'm not looking forward to pulling the motor -- it's such a chore --
but I'm really a phobe when it comes to lying all the way under the
car, in a position as would be required for removing the pan (not
to mention the rods). Every wobble makes me think the car is going
to fall on me. And I further understand that a few of the oil pan
bolts, those occluded by the crossmember, are almost impossible to
remove.
So my question is for anyone who has dropped the pan on an MGB and
removed one or more pistons without removing the block:
How ugly a job is it? How far up do you have to get the car? What
kind of jackstands did you use? What would you do differently if you
had to do it again?
Thanks for any advice, encouragement, or data you can provide.
--Scott
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