MGB: Where to go for rings, porting & polishing?

In my earlier posting "Down Three Quarts. You Read That Right," I might end up needing some engine work to stop my oil leaking or burning. It it turns out to need that (and I haven't checked anything, being too busy), where is the best place to get new rings done? I don't want to do this work, myself.

John Twist advises that new rings means honing the cylinders, crosshatching, fitting new rings, etc. -- and maybe replacing rod bearings, redoing the oil pump. And then maybe I should spend even more to have the head ported and polished.

If it turns out I need this, can any good British car mechanic handle the job? Or do I need someone more specialized? This is a first for me. I don't want to hand it to someone who doesn't have experience with this sort of thing. Any thoughts? I do have a good British car mechanic here in town, so I'll at least talk to him about whether he's familiar with this work.

If you decide to have the head P&P'ed, check with Sean Brown at Flowspeed. (He has an active thread right now, showing off some work he's doing for Jimmy Hilton.) He did the head and intake manifold on my '73 a while back, and the improvement was very noticeable. Doing the head work at the same time as you're doing the bottom end is exactly the right thing to do, as you can let Sean know what your final specs will be.

Most good machine shops should be able to handle the rings, honing etc. Since you're in SoCal I would expect that you have a number of speed shops that could give you recommendations. Porting and polishing is a bit more specialized

Had my engine machine work done by RD Machine in Chatsworh, He does MG work quite often.

Glenn

APT

Drew, I'm not local to you (Colorado) but I could do what's known as an 80/20 P&P job. 80% of the benefit for 20% of the labor cost of a fully ported race head. This approach has proven very effective for HOT street engines. Call me at 970 564 5822 for more specifics. Thanx!

Drew,

boring and honing can be one by most shops. If you go for boring, you should also consider upon HC pistons of the + .060 size! You will love the result!
Have the shop built the short block with new bearings then, as some times line boring is necessary and you do not realy safe much doing this asambley yourseld, as it is straight forward. At this stage, lightening the flywheel and balancing the crank and rods is a good idea that will give you a smooth engine and a few additional horses.
Porting and polishing the head is an other thing. It means porting due to your demands of power and the cam used, valve springs, guides, seat angeles, manifolds, distributer to be used, carbs... you might get an idea upon this when reading the Huffacker Manual in the Racing forum of the MGE.
For this kind of jobs, you will need some one experienced as SeanBrown, Peter Burgess or others.

If you just want to have a nice engine in your car, try to find a 1965 to 1966 5 mains one that is in good condition. It should fit your 1974 B without trouble and should make a real difference to the 18V you have now.

Ralph

In an area like Pasadena, CA there should be lots of good machine shops around. With the exception of the porting, the rest is pretty standard.

In my experience, it is rare that you can get away with simply re-ringing the engine. Typically, if the rings are worn, the cylinders are worn too. The absolute amount of wear is less important than the "taper". The wear is normally more near the top than the bottom. This forces the rings to expand/contract on every stroke. New rings won't cope with this situation for long and soon you will suffering loss of compression and oil consumption again. An easy (although not precise) way of gauging taper is to feel the ridge at the top of the cylinder. If there is no ridge, you probably just need to break the glaze on the cylinder walls and put in new rings. If there is much ridge at all, that is a sign you will need to bore and change to larger pistons.

But don't forget that a lot of oil consumption is via the valve guides - perhaps your cylinders are fine and all you need is a head job?

Both APT and Dave Headley are great options. I have a crossflow head, that Sean Brown worked on previously, at APT. I dropped in off personally, and Phil took care of me. Great guy and shop and they really know what they are doing.

Depending on your performance goal, I think a specialized British shop would deliver a better product. They would be more likely to have the correct equipment such as deck plates, seat cutter and most importantly the experience to get it right. A production engine shop can probably do okay, but they are working American iron all day, and probably are not interested in learning about a different engine. But each shop is different.

The bottom end work can be handled adequately by a competent speed shop in your local, however, I would really only consider having the head work performed by one of the two previously mention facilities. Those guys have done their homework and know the castings strong and weak points, other places that do not handle these particular castings on a regular basis could possibly do more harm than good and you would never know it.

Jim B.

Thanks Dave and everyone. What's APT, by the way? I'm starting to think I might even like getting this work done. Well, at least until I hear how much it's going to cost.

[quote=GERONIMO]
The bottom end work can be handled adequately by a competent speed shop in your local, however, I would really only consider having the head work performed by one of the two previously mention facilities.
Jim B.[/quote]

I had my Huffaker head screwed up by a local 'speed shop'. Its one of the 'most famous' ones in the valley. When I pulled the engine recently I sent the head to Sean Brown because I knew the speed shop had done a bad job (I sent it back once already and the valves were still leaking).

Sean told me they put the exhaust guides in the intake and the intake in the exhaust. The speed shop wasn't any deal either. After the head came back from Sean Brown its like my old head again fresh from Huffaker. Maybe even a bit better.

Moral of my story is use the experts unless you want it done twice. I decided to save money on the last rebuild and I've had to redo all the work because of it. APT will do a great job on the block if you can wait. You could ship to Hap also. I would never trust any shop again in L.A. Maybe there are some but I'd rather not have to have the work done twice if they don't take the needed care and attention.

A week or so ago I was down at Sports Car Craftsman buying some incidentals and I offered to let the shop owner Paul Diershow drive my B. After about ten minutes he walked back in and said "Holy cow Jay your B really rocks!,, who built this motor"

That would be Dave Headley sir

Jay's motor has one of my 80/20 heads as described above. Thanx Jay.