Posts Tagged ‘MG’

Adding Stiffness

Friday, June 11th, 2010

I’m sure many men and women out there will understand the importance of stiffness. The last thing anyone wants is something that’s supposed to be nice and stiff being all floppy and weak, worst still breaking off all together.

As I’m sure you’re aware I’m talking about MGZS Clutch brackets. They are prone to cracking and bending resulting in a sloppy clutch pedal or worse still a total loss of the clutch.

We have developed a modified bracket which addresses all of the weak points on the original design and reinforces any stress points inherent from the original mass production.

These brackets along with most other ZS180 parts ar available for MG Zed Bits http://stores.ebay.co.uk/MG-Zed-Bits?_rdc=1

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Full of hot air

Friday, June 11th, 2010

We do lots of development work on this customers track day car. Work is always done on sensible budgets so it’s enjoyable engineering solutions to a cost and often using parts which aren’t quite meant to fit. It seems more fun trying to engineer a way to fit a round peg in a square hole rather than spend 2 thousand pounds on a brand new billet aluminium square peg or a carbon fibre round hole.

This time we had to make a few adaptions up to mount a larger turbo. All of the flanges and pipes need making for air, oil and water. Next on the list was to pipe in the largest radiator we could squeeze between the chassis rails and not infringe on the intercooler. Once this was done we decided residual underbonnet temperatures would be no good for the air intake so it had to be moved. Fortuantely this car hasn’t been seen by an MoT tester for some time so lights are an unecessary luxury, and a perfect place to scoop up some cold air.

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Hot Oil Headache part 2

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

No sooner had we completed the ZR than a ZS needed a rather large oil cooler fitting in to help deal with the extra power his new turbo was producing. Unfortunately on this one the front was already full of radiators and intercoolers. The solution? Put the oil cooler at the back.

A tunnel was cut to allow the air up to the cooler and vents were cut to duct to the rear. Pipework was easy this time thanks to a standard sandwich plate and plenty of room to run the hoses through the car. It still needs finishing off and painting but we need to give it a run and check to see how it controls the temperatures first. If oil runs too cold it’s worse than having it too hot.

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Hot Oil Headache

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

If you had spent lots of thousands of pounds on a shiny new race engine you’d want to keep it safe.  When this ZR Trophy spec race car was fitted with it’s new 200BHP Janspeed built K series the owner was told he must be careful not to let the oil overheat.

Oil temperature has never been a problem in the past due to the oil/water intercooler fitted but now an extra oil/air cooler was required to satisfy Mr Engine Builder. Space behind the bumper wasn’t a problem but mismatched pipe threads, odd bore sizes and torturous pipe routes meant this job used a whole weeks worth of swear words in one day. It all went together in the end and now if the engine goes bang we know it’s the driver’s fault… Not that racing drivers ever make mistakes of course.

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MGZS T16

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

We’ve worked closely with this customer for some time and his skills and ideas have become ever more adventurous. When faced with the usual K series headgasket failure he was easily talked into a T16 engine conversion. He has tackled a lot of the work himself including wiring and hydraulic installations  but the mechanical engineering side has been left to us. The process is fairly simple- line up the driveshafts, get the engine as low as possible and make some  mounts. Then all you have to worry about is  the fact that none of the driveshafts are the right length and nothing else on the car fit’s the engine. It’s during a project like this you realise how many things there are connected to an engine. We’re currently working on new front suspension location points to give better traction and make the most of the new engine position. Development of cars like this is never ending but the owners enthusiasm seems endless so we’ve plenty to work with. 

DSCF1611 The rear wing is nothing to do with us by the way!

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Retro rides

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

 Another classic which came to us recently was a lovely MGB GT. It came to us for a few little jobs and some electrical wiring faults.  It already had a sports exhaust on and the engine was so sweet and revvy. This car was obviously someones pride and joy and understandably so.

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We also had this wonderful little chevette in which needed some exhaust work and an MoT. The customer has done a lot of work himself and this car should become a popular sight out and about n track days next year.
Mk1 Escort

MG ZS track day car

Monday, July 20th, 2009

MGZSWe have worked with some guys in recent months in developing their MG track cars. One is an MGZS multi purpose family car come track day hack which interestingly is a diesel with enough torque to snap your neck thanks to a thoughtful remap and neatly installed intercooler. The other is an all out stripped bare and nicley set up MGZT V6. This has been built on a budget and has come to us to have some of it’s rough endges smoothed. With both cars looking good we headed for Donnington for some driver training. Wet weather made for an exciting day but great fun was had by all for a very small outlay.

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