Who will win?

 

Looking good jeff.

 

Thanks! I'm in the middle of cleaning up my garage right now, so no updates to speak of. Gotta get back out there and make some room to take the 20B off the engine stand and stuff. Fun!

 

Still moving stuff around in the garage. I came pretty close to installing an engine in the Midget last night. I decided to not swap trannies right now, and just get it running with what it's got. 3rd and 4th are a bit noisy, and when it comes time to rebuild the engine (it needs a good porting job), I'll then swap the tranny as well. I'll try to get the engine in the MG today.

 

Cool.Then it'll be one more running set of wheels.

 

There is a lot of missing chrome inside the 13B. At least 20mm or more at its widest part on the front housing. It extended as far as the eye could see (from below the leading plug, down to the bottom and beyond). Both sides of the front housing are missing chrome. The rear side of the rear housing is also missing chrome, though a little less than the front.



The apex seals feel normal in their slots, with still plenty of spring under them. It always starts with the choke on. However, if it's warm, it's hard to restart if it stalled for any reason. But if I shut it off to go into a store and return a few minutes later, it usually starts pretty fast. I was deeply disturbed at how much chrome was actually missing, considering how semi-decently the engine has always ran. Really low on power, but I always blamed the 12A-ish exhaust ports and a restrictive exhaust. It also had a stock REPU flywheel, but my friend's REPU's R5 13B with the same type flywheel always reved quicker and higher, with more power etc etc.



Well, now I know the real culprit. Ok, so when I get some money (lol), and my other two rotary projects are running, I'll pull this engine out and rebuild it, and swap trannies at the same time. At least the engine is in the car now. Whew!

 

So you put it back in the car then?If your chromes is shot then you need new housings.

 

Well, it had enough power to move the REPU with a heavy flywheel, and it hasn't really ever gotten less powerfull as far as I can tell. Infact, all the little ignition mods I've done have actually improved the power quite a bit from where it was when I first got it running. Changes for the MG include a light steel flywheel, and it will no longer use a clutch fan. I'm sure it will feel more powerful now. A smaller, lighter car can only help. I can't wait!



I'm not really concerned about the missing chrome. It's been like that for years lol. The apex seals and springs only have around 10k miles on them (probably more, but not too much more). The tranny and rotor housings will get changed eventually. No point upgrading the engine's power producing potential untill the diff can take it (the PO has killed a couple stock rearends with the old streetported '73 12A and its heavy stock 30lbs flywheel, so I expect some life out of it with the light flywheel).

 

yeah ive pulled apart a couple of 12a's with no chrome left on em, i guess they run but i dunno how well



mike

 

Yeah, they run reasonably well if the apex seals are good. They do get hard to start though. I expect my engine to run for another 10k without to much trouble. Of course I'll probably swap everything around next year or something. The urge is hard to supress. The 20B will definitely get done before it though.