MGB: Hey, I'm Austin-Rover Online's Car of the Month!

Oct 07, 2008 20:12:18
TWHansen

http://austin-rover.co.uk/

Sent them a note the day after I bought it and, a month later, there we are!

Incidentally, it's been going well for the first thousand miles; for lack of time for wrenching I've had to bite the bullet and have a shop tend to it, in fact it's over at MG Limited here in Milwaukee right now having the master cylinder looked at. Under ordinary circumstances we'd do it all ourselves but I've committed to drive it to Syracuse, NY on Friday and really wanted the pros to look it over. I'm actually really happy with their work; the first bill came to about $480 but that was for new front brake pads/rotors, rebuilt driveshaft & u-joints, new fuel tank float & sender, carburetor adjustment and a whole host of small electrical issues (dash lights, O/D switch, etc.). Obviously it would've been cheaper to turn my own wrench as B parts, it turns out, are fantastically inexpensive, but given my work schedule, this was the more reasonable short-term option. Remember, I switched to this from a 1990 Audi 200tq, for which a pair of brake pads & rotors ALONE were $500 installed.

Oh, and the overdrive works perfectly - apparently the switch itself had corroded; they cleaned it and it's flawless.

The one concern I have is that in-town mileage has been horrendous - 15-ish MPG at best. Highway's better (20-ish) but the guys at MG Limited contend that the Zenith carburetors are generally crap. (They recommend the twin SU setup, although they charge a cool $750 parts & labor for that job...think I'll hold off on that...)

Neat place with a whole mess of neat cars around; they were in the middle of a bare-metal MGA restoration, spotted a TD and a Magnette and easily 20 MGB's, including a very sweet Rover V8-powered one.

Photos at the scene:


Oct 07, 2008 21:11:02
roland

Wow! are you ever fortunate. In this city, prepared to get hosed, majorly. I asked 2 of the three shops what was the cost of a basic engine rebuild. This last July it was $5000. In sept they quoted me $8000 - $10,000

If I could I'd ship my cars to Wisconsin to get the work done. Sheeesh!!!

Oct 07, 2008 21:15:49
Phil67MGB

roland Wrote:

Quote: "
In this city, prepared to get hosed, majorly. I asked 2 of the three shops what was the cost of a basic engine rebuild. This last July it was $5000. In sept they quoted me $8000 - $10,000
If I could I'd ship my cars to Wisconsin to get the work done. Sheeesh!!!
"


Oct 07, 2008 21:18:24
Phil67MGB

Sorry hit the send button without my comment....Stupid!!

wanted to say I just paid $3000 for an engine rebuild and that included Jeff Schlemmer for the Distributor and Jimmy Hilton for the Carbs

Oct 07, 2008 21:36:44
pmittler

If you got all that work for $450 you did well.
I have a spare engine on a stand that I did all the work on [except for machine shop] and I have $3000-3500 in it. It would have been $4-5k if I had had the work done by someone else. Mind you it is pretty much a totally new engine. Never been fired.

Oct 08, 2008 06:11:46
MRGHAN

I run a Zenith Carb on my 77 because of smog laws in Calif, but I consistantly get 23 mpg to and from work driven every day. I would expect that you need carb work.

Glenn

Oct 08, 2008 06:24:35
Car Prep Inc.

I took my '80 on a 200mi round trip this past weekend (San Diego and back). This is the longest trip since I bought her last November. I checked the gas mileage at 26 with a ZS carb. I thought that was pretty good.

Oct 08, 2008 06:43:59
lawnvett

Welcome aboard and seems you found good value and a color you like. My highway mpg with a ZS carb is about 25. If I take it easy cruising at 55 mph. I have managed to get 26.5. Hard driving in the mountians can range from 15-20 mpg. My 1978 is de-smogged but otherwise stock. If fuel efficiency is a top priority buy a different car.

Google
 
Web mgexperience.net


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