V8NOTE314, Buying guide 3, V8 Workshop Notes template, V8 Register, MG Car Club

314
MGBGTV8 buying guide footnotes
Geoff Allen (Team Blue 2101) from Cheshire was at the Factory for 27 years, much of it in Rectifications Department, has a few footnotes on the buying guides provided by Dave Wellings and Gordon Hesketh-Jones. (Dec 04)

Exhaust manifolds
Check the exhaust manifold web between the two central outlets for small cracks starting to develop. This can happen due to over tightening of the manifold bolts to the cylinder heads which stops the manifolds from sliding in relation to the heads as the engine warms up. I have seen in extreme cases manifolds that have broken into two parts as the results of this.

Dual oil pressure/temperature gauge
It is true that some early V8s were fitted with 1800cc oil & temp gauges, probably by mistake and then some were not picked up by the inspection checks. There were two different V8 gauges fitted during the production run, the early ones had the oil pressure calibration a full 180 degrees whereas the later gauge had a lesser sweep. This was introduced at the time

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of the relocation of the oil gauge pipe - we were told it was due to the needle not returning fully to zero so in effect they shifted the zero point up the scale slightly. Some of the later gauges also have a small red sector at the top end of the temperature gauge. Quite a few oil filter housings had the redundant oil gauge pipe threaded hole fitted with a blanking plug.

Sun visors
Only a nit pick point really but no production V8s had vanity mirrors fitted except possibly the final two cars - 2902 and 2903. Any that are fitted have probably been stuck on by previous owners or had the sun visors replaced by the sun visors fitted to MGBGTs from 1997 which are black on the inner side with a vanity mirror on the passenger's side and a small "pocket" on the driver's side. The pocket was reputedly included to hold the driving licence - not a good idea in this day and age of light fingered brigade. The mirror was inserted into the visor on these later models which would leave a hole if removed.