Tuning the B series engine for a reasonable cost

[LUMRobbo]

Hey guys,

Apologies if this has been covered numerous times before, but I was just wandering if there were any outfits that can tune a b-series engine for not a massive outlay.
my housemate has a Mk1 Escort and classic Ford engines seem to be massively tunable costing small amounts of money.
Is this the case with the B or does it not tune without expensive componentry being utilised.
I only want to get a few more horses from mine, a target of 120-130bhp would be ample I think, just to lift the performance up a notch or two without going to V8 power or any other engine for that matter that could be used.

Thanks in advance for any information

[M3 Mitch]

Well about 100 bhp is not too hard to come by, using the European "high-compression" pistons and in general taking the engine to the state of tune it had in the late '60's stock. I personally think the SU carbs are an integral part of the car's personality and so will stick with them on my car but you can get better mileage and performance with a 32/36 Weber, or for all-out power side-drafts. You could fit the "stock-type" aluminum head to be able to run a bit more compression. You can uprate the cam some, but don't go too far (and this is a matter of taste and preference, depends on what you want). You can go to a header although the stock exhaust manifold is not that bad.

If you put on the bigger SU's, the right cam and header, you could get to 110 to 120 bhp without ruining the charachter of the car.

You could go all the way with side-drafts, aluminum cross-flow head, header, and an aggressive cam with compression to match it, and probably get into the 140 to 150 bhp range but it would not really be a pleasant car to drive at anything below about 8 tenths...

There is a good book out on uprating the MGB engine and it would be worth your trouble to find it.

All the above assumes that your engine is tight and sound, if it needs rebuilding that will have to be part of the deal. Upping the power on a tired engine is certain to finish it off if you exercise the loud pedal much - and if not, why bother?

[Alex M]

The book Mitch is referring too is 'How to powertune the B-series engine' (or something like that), it's written by Peter Burgess and is part of the SpeedPro series.

Concerning your question: 'speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?'. The 'first things' will have a great power improvement/money invested ratio (stuff like K&N filters, Piper 270 cam, rolling road,...) but the more power you want, the more expensive it becomes (less hp/£)

Mitch mentioned that once in the region of 140-150 hp, it tends to become undrivable. I must disagree: my car has a '60s crossflow head, is bored to 1950cc, has a piper 285 cam and some more work done to it. It produces 150 hp at the flywheel (124 at the wheels) and is as docile as a kitten around town, when driven calmly. It'll 30mph in 4th and easily pull away when the pedal is floored.
The key is to choose components and setups in such a way that they actually improve what was there. (I know people who've dumped rally cams in otherwise standard engines and then started complaining about drivability... )
Now, I'm not saying I'm an expert, so I asked other people to help me at that. Chris Betson (Octarine Services, the build process of my engine's at www.octarine-services.co.uk/alex1950.htm ) advised most of the components (cam, pistons, ...) and Peter Burgess (yep, the same guy) modified the head without me saying exactly what to do.
The result is wicked...

fwiw,

Alex

[M3 Mitch]

Well obviously Alex is right because he did it. My comment about bad drivability at say 140 to 150 bhp was based on trying to get there staying with the stock bore and stroke, and using big carbs, big cam, and a loud header.

The exact HP is higher than I had guessed, but my point is that there is a ceiling that you can't get past without sacrificing drivability.

If you build a clone of Alex's engine, or maybe scale back a bit and skip the 1950 cc kit, that should do it for you.

I personally find the approx. 100 bhp that my more or less stock '72 B (it has Euro pistons, 2-row cam chain, but is otherwise stock) makes for a satisfying ride. MGB isn't a 427 Corvette.

Good luck, post back saying what you eventually do and how well it works.

[klassiekerrally]

I had the engine of our B blueprinted. Costs a bit extra, but I think it is worth it. Should get you some extra horses I've heard, but even if not, it runs sooo smooth, it's worth every penny.
And to go faster the engine is not the only thing to modify: I fitted Koni dampers a few years ago (hey, I'm dutch) and that was a vast improvement over the lever-arm dampers. Suddenly I was able to go through corners much much faster, which ofcourse is what it's al about with such a car.

[Alex M]

klassiekerrally said:

And to go faster the engine is not the only thing to modify: I fitted Koni dampers a few years ago (hey, I'm dutch) and that was a vast improvement over the lever-arm dampers. Suddenly I was able to go through corners much much faster, which ofcourse is what it's al about with such a car.

But the question is: do you think that'll convince the girl in the other seat when her teeth are about to be shaken out?

Alex (with Koni's at the rear and uprated lever arms up front )

[klassiekerrally]

She'll be so frightened of my driving, she can't say a word
Actually, I think it still is quite comfy...
But then, I think an Elise is comfortable too

[mgv8]

Fit a rover V8 get 150 to 200bhp and more mpg then the old 4. Having said that the 4 duse make a nice sound..