[Diy_efi] MGB EFI

[MarkoNTL]

Tyler Madia wrote:
> That's a very good question and one I, and most people with older
> cars, struggle with.  To upgrade the engine or not.  What I generally
> like is the styling, simplicity, and cost of the MGs but the
> powertrain is terribly inadequate by todays standards.  As much fun
> as the twin SUs are to tinker with on the weekends, the wife hates
> the manual choke and other assorted quirks of the carbs.  I'm not
> looking to make a corvette beater or anything but it would be nice to
> get in turn the key and go like a modern car.  The mileage benefits
> and engine longevity are also attractive.  Of course I just can't
> leave anything well enough alone either....
>
> Yeah, a nice rover V8 does very nicely in an MGB.  It even weight 14
> pounds less than the 4 cylinder, but alas I don't have $7500 sitting
> around burning a hole in my pocket ;-)

Mmmmm, yes, but I think you miss some of the features of an M or T Series
conversion. They're a development fo the B-Series, they're the same size,
and they do make MGBs a jump in, turn key, drive away modern car.

Talking in UK terms, the whole donor car with good engine - £250. RWD
sump/oil pickup/flywheel/starter - £40. New exhaust system - £200. Cut and
reweld intake plenum - £50.

Head gasket - £30. Water-pump - £30. Cambelt £20. Plugs £10. Dissy cap £10.
Rotor arm £10. Leads £20. Oil £20. Oil Filter £5. Coolant £5.  Air filter
£20. Injectors clean £20.

Miscellaneous wiring/plumbing/decoke etc bits - £50

Total cost ~£600 for buying and putting the engine in; £200 for giving it a
decoke and all the consumables its ever likely to need. Or in U$ terms about
$1300, plus whatever it costs to ship 250kgs from UK to US. Heck, you can
buy a BRAND NEW crated RWD engine for only £1400 ($2300), which would then
costs no mroe than £600 ($1000) to fit.

I wouldn't go the turbo route myself, 136bhp (probably 150 if you ported the
head lightly, and ran it tuned 'properly' (not for emissions!) on a
megasquirt and with no cat convertor) will be more than enough to "update"
the MGB and give the auto-choke, good driveability, good fuel economy/gas
mileage. (in the origional car, 1400kgs worth, and running tuned for the cat
convertor, it'll do 33 miles to the UK gallon on 75-80mph cruising, 35mpg at
65-70mph cruising, 27-28mpg on local trips. With the MGB being that bit
lighter and a megasquirt allowing that much more efficient and economical
tuning I'd expect 40mpg from an MGB cruising, and no less than 25mpg even
when "giving it death")

A further advantage of the M or T series conversion over and above a
Rover/Buick 215ci V8 is rev-range. Both my Land-Rover and your MGB have
fairly low-revving engines. Pop in an engine that puts out 130lbft of
torque, but uses more revs to generate power, as opposed to an engine that
revs low but puts out 200+lbft of torque to get the power, and the
gearbox/back axle won't disintegrate under the strain.

My interest is to go from 80hp SAE to 135hp DIN, about 15mpg to 23mpg, loose
the manual choke and burn-o-tronic points etc in a country where fuel is
more expensive than water... ;-)

Marko


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