Well Greg I feel qualified to answer that question, I just went through that
with my B. I have a
1969 MGB, I used the RV8 headers that Ted Schumacher has manufactured (I bought
them from Glenn
Towery). These are the "through the fender" headers that have the slip joint
after the collector.
I used the late MG chassis engine mounts, the V8 rubber mounts, and Glenn's
engine mounts.
There will be some modification required on your steering shaft, but very
little. You will need a
new u-joint to replace the stock one. I purchased a Borgeson u-joint, (Flaming
River makes one
too), a hot rod shop will have one. It would be best to bring the old one with
you to the shop, but
if you can't, just tell the guy/gal its a Jaguar u-joint (3/4" and 48 spline).
The reason you need
the new j-joint is for space considerations, the old one is much to "fat". If
you don't have a
local hot rod shop a place like Jegs or Summit will have one.
You have no choice where the steering shaft goes, as you proceed you'll
understand what I am saying.
The shaft obviously will have a "starting point" at the rack and has to go
through the engine mount
that is attached to the frame. When you line things up you'll see he angle
will be wrong so the
shaft won't go through the engine mount. Here's what I did to solve the
problem. I installed the
frame mount, slid the shaft through it, I set the rack on the rack brackets and
put the rear bolts
through the rack to the rack brackets for alignment purposes. At this point
you'll see the problem
with the angle of the rack and the rack brackets. I made a cut through the
rack bracket, the only
way I can explain this is to have you visualize cutting a piece of pie in two.
Now you can "lever"
the upper part of the bracket up to meet the rack. When the bracket is
parallel with the rack you
weld it at this new angle. I just plated both sides of the bracket.
Of course now you have to lower the hole where the steering column goes through
the fire wall so it
will meet the steering shaft. I cut out the cone in the firewall, loosened the
two bottom bolts on
the steering column, connected the shaft to the column with the new u-joint and
then welded the cone
back into the fire wall.
During this process I test fitted the engine with the headers installed to
check clearances. (by
the way, by the time your done doing this conversion you will be an expert at
inserting and removing
the engine)
Once everything was welded in place I found the left rear lower header manifold
bolt interfered
slightly with the u-joint. Carefully grinding on the u-joint, and the bolt,
solved this issue (but
it turns out it wasn't as necessary as I thought). After I installed the
engine and drove it, I had
to remove the engine again (don't ask), when I put the engine in the second
time I had less
interference with the u-joint. It has to do with the MGB V8 engine mounts,
they are rubber and sit
at a 45 degree angle, and fit in a slot on the chassis brackets. So you have a
little room for
"clocking" the engine. My engine sits VERY low and back, a little higher would
give a bit more
clearance (however may cause other interference problems).
When you're all done you will be amazed that anyone could have ever conceived
the engine will fit at
all (thank you Ken Costello).
Good luck, have fun.
Larry Hoy
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-mgb-v8@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-mgb-v8@autox.team.net]On
>Behalf Of Julie Ann Phillips
>Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2000 10:59 AM
>To: v8 list
>Subject: RV8 header/steering modification
>
>
>I recently read in the mgcars site that NO steering mods are needed when
>running the RV8 header in the chrome bumper B.Does anyone know if this
>is true?
>
>Greg
>
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