New dustshield/guard for the B

[mgtony]

I removed the worn and torn dustshield from the car, this sits in the engine bay between the radiator and the engine block. Made this new one from some 1.5mm ali treadplate, two pieces riveted together.
Brightens the engine bay up, got a pair of chrome K&N's waitng to go on and then I'll take some pics.

[na]

very nice - that should hold the oil nicely

and give you somewhere to rest your mug of tea

note about K&N cleaning - the filters start out red with proper use they soon go grey (i.e. you actually drive the car for more than a few miles a year)

under normal conditions you only need clean and recharge them after 50,000 miles (used to be 100,000 I'm sure, but that's inflation for ya)

I personally also like to add those (poorly cast) very stubby stub stacks (gives a nice sound) you may or may not need to change the needles in which case it's rolling road to get it really accurate and only worth doing if your car is in good condition having been already . . .

wait for it . . .

fully and proprely serviced, maintained and repaired

not aimed at you now Tony, but if your car's not fully and proprely serviced, maintained and repaired you should do that before adding K&Ns

[mgtony]

Looks like they'll stay red for a while then!
I've got the stub stacks aswell, looked at them yesterday and also thought they were a bit rough, so I smoothed the inside of the cone bit with some wet and dry paper. This can't do any harm I presume? Got AAA needles to go in.
Put some fresh oil and new filter on last week, will put a fresh petrol filter on aswell. The cars running lovely as it is, but hopefully will feel the improvements with all the new bits fitted.

[na]

mgtony said:

Looks like they'll stay red for a while then!
I've got the stub stacks aswell, looked at them yesterday and also thought they were a bit rough, so I smoothed the inside of the cone bit with some wet and dry paper. This can't do any harm I presume? Got AAA needles to go in.
Put some fresh oil and new filter on last week, will put a fresh petrol filter on aswell. The cars running lovely as it is, but hopefully will feel the improvements with all the new bits fitted.

yeah I smoothed the cone and the back, I'll also add gaskets behind them next time they're out as I can see muck gets behind them

On my prevoius Spridget I changed to rich needles which gave a bit more noise but no notable difference in performance except using a lot more fuel so I swapped back

Don't forget a full service and on the rest of the car (oil & filter change a full service does not make) - but put the K&N set up before the service or you wont know which gave the most improvement, you'll be adjusting settings at the service anyway and try with existing needles first to see which suit

For service and setting carbs there's a good book you can get

[Richard Moss]

Interestingly (to me at least) lergendary engine tuner Bill Blydenstein used to say that a little roughness in the inlet tracts or ports could be beneficial as it introduced a degree of swirl to the airflow, giving better mixing of the fuel and air.

By the way, the dust shield looks great.