Having owned a '58 MGA Coupe for several years in college (just a bit
more than 10 years ago, BTW this is the only British car that I have
sold and regretted every singly day since), I have a few quick comments
regarding things to modify on an MGA of this particular vintage. The
engine, while it may be a lowly 1500cc B-series, is not all that bad if
its in a good state of tune. Freeway speeds are not an issue as it will
push over the ton mark given time. The thing to immediately fix is the
brakes! If originality is an issue, switch to MGA disks from a '59 or
later. If you do not care about originality, I would switch to MGB
disks as they are slightly larger and a lot cheaper to obtain.
Other suggested mods. Switch to MGB dual line master cylinder setup,
its just a good thing and much cheaper than fiddling with the integrated
clutch/master combination on MGA's. If you are going to put in any
engine with slightly more grunt, switch to a late model MGB rear axle
assembly as these have a better ratio for cruising with a torquier motor
than MGA's and as a bonus have slightly larger rear brakes for which
parts are cheaper and easier to obtain. Another mod that would be very
cool, but probably fairly expensive would be to install a rear axle from
an MGA MkII deluxe or an MGA Twinky with rear disk brakes, but parts are
tough to find for them and costs _will_ be very high.
As far as selections of running gear go there are a fair number of
things that you can do. I would not suggest going the rotary route as
the torque curve of rotary engines are not all than fantastic and
fitting them is not as easy as it may look. I would stick to an MGB
motor and bore/stroke it up to 2 liters. This engine will bolt right in
and requires no extra work. Other engines I have heard of are the Ford
3.0L V6 (this and a automatic tranny were popular for quite a few years
in MGBs). The one thing with using a different engine is the fairly
narrow transmission tunnel. I would bet that a Nissan twin-cam engine
and tranny would fit well, but don't know of anyone trying this combo
out. The Rover V8 would be nice, but getting it to fit under the hood
would require some real creativity and getting the tranny to fit will
also require some work. I have heard that early MGB o/d trannys will
fit into MGA's with some slight mods, however finding one of these early
trannys is getting harder and they do not have syncromesh 1st gear.
If it were mine to tackle, I would go with all MGB running gear and
modify the transmission tunnel to take the '68 or later o/d tranny.
Bore and stroke the B motor using ford pistons (grunt is what you are
looking for with B motors). Use MGB brakes all around with the MGB rear
axle. This way you can buy one MGB parts car to get everything that you
are looking for without spending a lot of time and cash to gather
multiple parts from multiple cars.
Now if only I could find an MGA Coupe without rust in need of a complete
running gear restoration, I may even think of selling the Sprite!
Jackson Zimmermann
jzimmerm@albemarle.org
'64 A-H Sprite (1275 & 5-speed)
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-spridgets@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-spridgets@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Rick/Carolyn
Sent: Friday, December 11, 1998 3:42 PM
To: Spridgets
Subject: Off Subject, MGA needs an Engine
Hi All,
It's foggy and dreary today in the the land of Sunshine. I wish you
folks back East would reconsider and send our good weather back.
On with my subject, I haven't been able to sell my A Coupe. I was
thinking of putting a "Gasp" non-original engine. I would post it to
the MG list, but the last time I mentioned something non-original to
them I received hate mail for weeks and started a war on the list that
still battles today. I still get some dissapproving looks at the shows
with Puddles because of the non original color I used on her. Can you
imagine the looks I'll get with a Full blown MGA V8 Coupe, Ye Gads LOL.
The MGA has a tiny engine compartment like the Sprite. If it will fit
in a Spridget it will fit in her. I believe I saw a nissan twin cam in
a Sprite at the Monterey meet last year. Anyone on the list ever use
it? The engine will need at least 150 hp to push the car down the
freeway. I was considering a MGB engine but it just doesn't have enough
get-up and go.
TIA
Rick
--
52 MGTD,Sparky 74 MGB, B-tris 76 XJ12 Coupe, Jacque
60 Bugeye, Puddles 58 MGA Coupe, Ruby
http://www.softcom.net/users/walters
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/4644
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