Curiosity got the best of me yesterday, and I went
to look at the afore-mentioned 318-powered MGB. Fully
expecting the usual hack-job, I was pleasantly
surprised to see it well don, or at least as well done
as shoehorning a Chrysler V-8 into a B could be.
Specifics; The owner told me it was a '78 model (I
don't know, but it does have rubber bumpers), and he
got it from a guy who owed him money. It runs & drives,
but is nowhere near being smog legal. It uses the 318 &
automatic & looks like it's mated to the stock B
rearend. They had to hack up the footwell a bit to
clear the tranny .which could use a bit of tidying.
Underhood is *tight*, but well done. The
distributor just clears the heater box, and the water
pump pulley just clears the stock B radiator. The
header are handmade that exit thru holes cut in the
fenderwells and then turn down thru tiny mufflers,
exiting in front of the rear wheels. Very clean exhaust
system.
The car doesn't use rubber motor mounts, but instead
bolts the engine (using beefy brackets), directly to what
could be considered the frame. On the driver's side the
"frame" was notched & gusseted to clear the starter. The
tie rod had to be notched to clear the water pump
pulley. Altho these sound like botch jobs, all look
very thorough. About the only half-assed things I
noticed were the hack hole in the hood to clear the
carb, the roll bar out of something completely
different, and the unfinished tranny tunnel.
Hell, for $1200 I'd say it's a far better deal
that the "new" MGBV8 ! If you're interested, in the
sake of anonymity, here's the owner's #s;
Kevin wk(408) 435-8005
hm(408) 335-2153
cheers-
dstone@sc9.intel.com
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