I've been building MGB engines for about 9 years now off and on,
and the best thing I can say about the oiling system is "It sucks
bilge water!". On the first two engines I built I used the
standard oiling system but drilled out the 1/8" core plug on the
back of the head and tapped it for a tubing adapter. then ran
copper tubing from tee I added on the oil pressure gauge port on
the block. This gives the rocker a "Full flow of oil" the normal
method is oil on the read of the cam squirts up in to the head
through a ~ 1/6" grove cut in the rear cam journal once every
revolution of the cam. After autocrossing a few years later I
found with coil over shocks, spax in the rear over rated springs,
nylatrion bushings and BFG R1 tires the oil pressure would
suddenly drop under heavy cornering. This finally lead to the
famous John"ROD KNOCK"Ross incident at a CMC street autocross
where the entire city could here my crank forge the steel backing
of my #2 rod bearing into some sort of steel foil. I think MJB
could attest to this. Any way I then stated using the extended
sump which is quite easy to build with some sheet mettle and a
few hours with a torch. The most important thing is to "Extend
the oil pickup 1" into the sump. This is how you get more oil on
top of the pickup (extending it) less sloshing (the baffle) lower
heat (more oil to heat up). I've since added an acusump this year
and used the engine in my '65 EP MGB (sfishers old car) and have
changed the copper tube to the head to a piece of braided
stainless brake line ( the copper used to fatigue and break every
few years). Now with 430 compound Good Year Eagles(very sticky
slicks) and have had no oil problems at all.
The plans for the extended sump can be found in the back of
the Bently MGB manual.
John Ross
'64,'65,'68 MGBs
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