Cross Flow Head....how did you do it?

I have a 1969 MGB with a MSX Crossflow head, dual weber sidedraft 40D's. Unfortunately, my vehicle is also a right hand drive as I bought it in London and drove it home (living in Italy currently). This being said, I wanted to know if there were suggestions out there on how to make it easier to access the distributor and the oil filter? Right now, to access either of these involves removing the Weber carbs completely which in itself is a project. I dread the day a problem arises with the distributor during a trip of some sort.

Please let me know any ideas that you have or have completed successfully with your vehicle. Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated to avoid a crisis down the road.

Thanks in advance!

Very Respectfully,
Keith Plant
'69 MGB Roadster RHD

you have bumped into the principal drawback to the crossflow head. it is time to reconcile.

Electronic, distributorless ignition is the obvious choice. Are you working with a scanctioning body that won't allow an alternate ignition system?

I have a distributor with a petronix firing system. What type of system are you talking about distributorless. I don't think I am familiar with this setup...but of course, being in Italy I am sheltered quite a bit from most setups. Unless you are talking about the system I already have, but I'm worried about accessing the actual distributor unit just incase there is any future problems with it. Also access to the oil filter is a problem....

you might also get the oil filter adapter where the filter is screwed on from underneath. that Might improve access

Remote oil filter adaptor? You can probably find one from someone selling B-series racing parts.

I use an Electromotive HP1 - No distributor at all. It's an older version of what they now call XDI. Go to www.electromotive-inc.com. Here's an excerpt about the product.

"Direct Fire" ignition fires the spark plugs directly from the coils and not through a distributor cap and rotor. This is accomplished by using multiple coils, each with two spark terminals. The coil terminals are connected to the spark plugs, allowing one cylinder to fire on compression while its companion cylinder fires simultaneously on exhaust. Open spark gaps in the rotor and cap are eliminated, making wear and moisture problems a thing of the past.
What sets XDI apart is the ability to charge multiple ignition coils at the same time. This increased dwell time means that full spark energy is available over the entire RPM range (up to 9600 at 12 volts). Unlike Capacitive Discharge systems that only put out one very short spark, the XDI puts out a full energy, long burning spark at your highest and most critical engine speeds. Long burn times assure effective burning of even lean fuel mixtures.
The brain of the XDI includes dual digital microprocessors using patented spark algorithms (patent number RE 34,183), which takes the electrical signal from the crankshaft sensor, identifies the two missing teeth and then keeps track of the remaining 58 teeth. The XDI determines engine speed and computes the spark advance from your knob settings. Setting the timing advance curve is a simple task that anyone can understand.
In addition to synchronizing and firing the plugs at the correct advance angle, the XDI also computes the exact dwell to produce 9 amps of coil current. Coil charging is measured dynamically, so changes in RPM, battery voltage, or temperature are all accounted for on every spark. This corrects any errors that are caused by battery voltage or coil temperature changes and insures maximum spark energy.

Got some photos of that set up on a B Basil?

The site is interesting but they don't quote prices as I suppose they do business only through their dealer system. I know that I won't take time to call one of them so can you fill us in on what a four cylinder suite would cost in a box?

Jack

I've had mine in my A for years and it was about $400 10 years ago. I have no clue today but if you remind me on Monday (PM) I'll call them from here in the states and PM you back. There are several good crank-fire ignition systems out there. I like theirs because of the service I've received - they had mine for a few days to check out the operation once and mailed it to the wrong place. They shipped me a brand new one at half price. But they shipped that one to my engine builder's place too. So they overnighted a third one to me for free. I have 3 units for the price of 1.5 :-) Let me know and I;'ll help you get prices and literature in Italy. Basil

Wow - that is a very impressive system. I'd also be interested in knowing how much.

How does it sense TDC? Off the crankshaft or the distributor gear?

side bar

Electramotive is/was a product of Don Devendorf and friends. Don was one of Kastner's fastest TR "factory" drivers back in the 70s. Really something to watch in the GT6. (drifting? the GT6 invented that!)

The TDC is set manually on mine. There's a pick-up wheel that mounts to the balancer and a magnetic sensor. The wheel looks like a gear with a bunch of teeth but at one point, there's a tooth missing. When the sensor sees that missing tooth, it knows to fire. Mine has three timing settings - one for initial timing, one for timing at 3000rpm and one for timing at 8000rpm. The older unit like mine then curves the timing I dial in in between rpm ranges. I use 10 degrees BTDC initial and 32 degrees BTDC at 3000 rpm. I then set it to retard to 30 degress BTDC at 8000. So, at 2000 rpm it's moving up on 30 degrees and at 6000 rpm it's down to 31 degrees or so. The newer units look much more sophisticated but I like dialing in timing with just the turn of a potentiometer. I'll try to get some info on Monday and post it here. Basil

Basil,

I am definately interested as well in the distributorless system. Please post some information Monday and I will check it out as well.


As for the suggestions with the oil adaptor, I have checked those out but since I have a right hand drive, flipping the oil adaptor is out of the question because of the steering rack. I would gladly relocate the iol filter IF there was a kit for relocation and also if I was sure that the oil pressure would not be effected.