Thread: 51 MG restoration.

You do good work Mike!

Longest rip to date today.
Took her down to the res for some cartons of smokes and a refuel.
4 hours round trip and she handled it beautifully.
Even shutting her off while there for a 10 minute break and no vapour lock or hesitation upon restarting.
Love that msd system as well as the new carbs.
Hard to say which gave me a better bump as they really fill different weaknesses,,and compliment each other so well.
Terrific pull in third and fourth gears, and seemingly more room to go, if there was another gear to go into.

Originally Posted by MikeB52

Longest rip to date today.
Took her down to the res for some cartons of smokes and a refuel.
4 hours round trip and she handled it beautifully.
Even shutting her off while there for a 10 minute break and no vapour lock or hesitation upon restarting.
Love that msd system as well as the new carbs.
Hard to say which gave me a better bump as they really fill different weaknesses,,and compliment each other so well.
Terrific pull in third and fourth gears, and seemingly more room to go, if there was another gear to go into.

Oh that 'EXTRA GEAR' is coming to a Shop Near You.

Originally Posted by MikeB52

Longest rip to date today.
Took her down to the res for some cartons of smokes and a refuel.
4 hours round trip and she handled it beautifully.
Even shutting her off while there for a 10 minute break and no vapour lock or hesitation upon restarting.
Love that msd system as well as the new carbs.
Hard to say which gave me a better bump as they really fill different weaknesses,,and compliment each other so well.
Terrific pull in third and fourth gears, and seemingly more room to go, if there was another gear to go into.

These are the moments that you have worked so long to achieve! Enjoy them!

I'm sure you said so before, at least I seem to remember that you did, but howuchore HP do you think you picked up with the mods that have been done?

Gains of 20% at the low and mid band, original engine, 1.2 liter inline 4 put out around 65 hp.
I’m running a 2.0 liter bored out to 2.2 almost, with bigger pistons, shaved head and the upgrades to electronics and new carbs so modestly around 130 hp now. All going out to a 4 spd with 4.55:1 gearing still. Hence my next upgrades will be transmission, and/or rear diff gearing as I can special order 3.79:1 gears still from Moss.

Just a lil update.
Need someone with Tom’s experience to help me figure out how to change out the ring and pinion on a banjo style rear end.
Struggling to secure a 5 spd, and weighing the gain on just the rear end tweak vs the tranny change or both..
Also getting pricing on having my steel wheels straightened out as that is still a vibration source at high speeds I think.
I can get the rear end gears for around 800 Hun.
The tranny conversion is 2k plus the price of the tranny itself, about 1k it seems..
After some more drives I’m sure I have the torque to handle the 3.7 ratio and that alone should get me up to hiway speeds, but at high revs..
Maybe I do this in stages starting with the rear diff first, , see the gains and re assess.
Like I say, she’s wicked peppy up to 60, then there are no gears or revs to play with as she sits.

That's beyond me.
I know it doesn't help you but, my dad swapped out the transaxle in our Corvair because it was leaking and slipping. He thought the one he was putting in was the same. It wasn't. Now to drive at 50 mph it's turning 3500 RPM. It's got lots of pep off the line. In fact, you only need to use 3 out of the four gears it's got. He plans on swapping it back out to a proper gear ratio next year. Maybe you are having somewhat the same issue? I mean, Both of these vehicles are low HP cars and old (the Corvair is a 63). Not even close to the same vehicle. But it makes me think.

I don’t use first either Jerry, act like it’s a 3 spd.
In hindsight those monster fat whitewalls I had must have been compensating for all these issues and I never realized it. Makes sense looking back, those massive tires covered a lot of ground per rotation and I’ve lost all that now.

A taller tire in the back ,will give you more top end…or Highway gear…