MGBGTV8 Archives - which V8s had a small blue "BL" sticker between the thermostat housing and inlet manifold?
Restoration details can sometimes need clarification and a member in New Zealand, Roger Flatz, undertaking a very thorough restoration of a Factory MGBGTV8 was keen to know whether a small blue BL sticker, sometimes seen in photos of V8 engine bays, between the thermostat housing and the black inlet manifold (known as the "pair of trousers" at the MG Plant in Abingdon) was an original Factory item or an enhancement used by some enthusiasts. The V8 webmaster, Victor Smith, checked his own chrome bumpered MGBGTV8 - GD2D1 1089 G - which he has owned since June 1978 and there was no sticker or sign that one might have been there at any time. A query was posted to the V8 Bulletin Board seeking fellow V8 members' views.
Michael O'Leary got in touch to say "the rubber bumpered MGBGTV8 sales brochure pub no 3089 circa 1976 shows the engine bay of a MGBGTV8 and it has the sticker on the rear right hand side of the manifold". Looking more carefully at the set of marketing brochures already in the MGBGTV8 archives section of the V8 website you can see that small blue BL sticker in pub no 3089 first released in October 1974 and also see in the early brochure pub no 2962A dated July 1973 that there is no sticker seen there. So it seems the sticker was introduced in 1974, probably with the launch of the rubber bumpered model in the second half of that year.
You can see copies of both V8 engine photos from those brochures and a full set of the marketing brochures which featured the MGBGTV8.
Posted: 140114