MGB now in service

Just in time for the snowy winter months, Oliver, the convertible MGB, is now ready to be pressed into service. Today's post highlights the final touches: tires, brake bleeding, preparing the windshield for rain and the dash lights. oh, Hapy New Year.

New Shoes

I had lamented the body roll during the last test drive when I did the alignment (See MGB Alignment). I knew the tires were old, and wanted to remove that variable first. So, on a day when I had to miss work for a routine dental cleaning, I bopped past the local Les Schwab Tire Center and got Oliver some all-season tires. I haven't forgiven the other Schwab for not tightening down the boots on the steering of Flash (Jetta TDI), but I thought a different Schwab might be okay. I hit the Schwab on Lower Boones Ferry, which was under construction. For a mid-week, mid-morning, the place was buzzing. They were able to serve the need though, and had a new set of 195/65R15 tires on within an hour. I asked them to give the brakes a bleed while they had it on the rack, but they didn't. They checked the brakes and indicated that they might need a bleed, but didn't do anything about it. Les Schwab, you are just not the same tire shop that you were 10 years ago. This may be the last of our business together.

The tires are nice, though a little louder than I expected. Perhaps that will shift as they age, though I've found tires usually get louder, not quieter. The drive from Beavo to the dentist, then the tire shop and then back home was a great test. Morning rush hour meant lots of rubber-band driving, so lots of clutch, brake, low gear driving. Oliver did that in stride. On the way home, the morning rush was over, so the highway was fairly clear. So, I could get Oliver up to a much higher speed. That was super fun, but the brakes still were a little softer than I'd like. I made a plan to bleed the brakes the following weekend.

Brake Bleed
I have tried to get the last air bubble out of the brake system a few times. I bled the master cylinder (see MGB Sponge Brakes) and thought I had the air out of the system then. I was wrong. And, after having that belief confirmed by the Les Schwab folks, I knew I needed to get it right this time. I started on the rear wheel furthest from the master brake cylinder. I put the rear end up in the air, removed the rim and got out the MityVac. The bleed screw is a 5/16", and I think my prior challenges before came from a combination of little errors that I corrected this time:

First, rather than use the box-end of the spanner, I used the open end this time. I found this did not encourage the vacuum line to lift off the bleed screw.
Second, never let the vacuum drop below a few pounds of vacuum in the line. In fact, I made sure I had no less than 5 pounds of vacuum in the line when I closed the bleed screw.
Third, I started with brake fluid in the vacuum bleeder canister, and made sure it always had some. I think this prevented air from working it's way back up the bleed line.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, I never let the master cylinder reservoir fall below half-full. By doing all these things, no air was introduced into the system.

So, I was able to follow all the other good practices: monitor the fluid coming out of the bleeder for bubbles, minding that tiny and/or large bubbles mean the seal of the vacuum bleeder is not perfect. You are looking for a small bubble. Also, bleed far more than you think you really need to. There is nothing wrong with completely replacing the fluid in the line from the reservoir to the bleed screw.

Windscreen and Wipers
While driving Oliver late last Summer, I found that seeing through the windshield was virtually impossible when I turned into the sunset. This is a fairly common problem in Oregon because so many of the roads run due east-west, and the low-hanging sun finds its way directly in your face in the weeks nearest to the equinox. I think this is why the US-26 west of Portland is called the Sunset Highway. To remedy, I used the Rain-X Xtreme Clean. I'm sure there are other and arguably better products out there, but I had it in the garage. Like the directions said, I cleaned the windshield with glass cleaner, then applied a small amount of the RainX stuff onto a damp clean cloth. I rubbed it a bunch in a circular motion and then wiped it clean. Except for a few deeper gouges from bad wiper scratches, the windshield looks considerably better. I failed to take a picture before I started. Honestly, I just jumped in and did it before thinking about taking pictures. To complete the rain-readiness, I replaced the 2 nasty stiff crumbly old wipers with a pair of new ones I got in one of my other orders from Victoria British.

Dash Lights

I had one last thing that I needed to solve before Oliver was road-ready: his dash lights didn't really work. I tested them in a dark garage and found that the tach and the cigar lighter were the only things that lit up when I turned on the headlights. That won't do. The rheostat that controls the brightness of the dash lights is a common failure part, and finding a replacement for the late-model (read: rubber-bumper) MGB is pretty difficult. Many of the usual part places don't carry it. Many owners simply wire around the switch so the dash lights are full-bright when the running or headlights are on. I did this on Oliver (leveraging a 10amp fuse from the feed line to a wire-splitter which I then wrapped with electrical tape), but I may still replace the switch.. Getting the old switch out was a real bear, since the nuts had frozen in place and the set-screw for the knob had as well. I effectively destroyed both, so I'll need new for both if I decide to install a dimmer. Still, with the hack in place, all of the lights come on so no bulbs needed to be replaced. Winner! I had been thinking about adding some fog lights, so if I don't replace the dimmer, that hole in the dash would be perfect for a fog light switch. Hmm..

So, now with the number of cars available meaningfully reduced (See Herd Thinning), Oliver will be seeing some road time. We really only have one regular-driver car: Flash. Flash will continue to see 95% of the drives through winter, but when we have those rare needs to be in two places at once, and mass-transit can't abide, we can safely drive Oliver. I intend to slowly work through the interior replacement work, but won't be officially taking Oliver off the road to do it. This will make for an interesting few months.

Thanks, as always, for following along.

MGB Sponge Brakes

During the various test drives as I solved for the various leaks I described in my last post, the brakes have been spongy. If I lightly pumped the brakes a couple of times before using them, I could stop well, but that's not a safe situation. Before I could go on a real test drive, I'd need to fix them for real. Today's post covers that.

Master Cylinder pre-fill
The brakes were spongy since I completely re-did them. after bleeding and re-bleeding the system at the wheels, I concluded that there was air in the master cylinder. I hadn't bench-bled the master before install, so it seemed pretty likely that the issue was there. In retrospect, I should have pre-loaded the master cylinder with brake fluid by the process folks call a "bench bleed". This is where the master cylinder is set in a vice with the shipping plugs still in it. Using a pair of pliers, the activation lever is moved back and forth while brake fluid is added through the reservoir. Once the chambers are filled, the master cylinder is installed into the car. In the MGB, the master cylinder fits onto the end of the brake booster, so this could have been done.

Getting the hard lines attached can be an interesting challenge. As I look back on my efforts to get my master cylinder in, I suspect I would have leaked brake fluid all over the engine compartment. So, while I probably could have done it the "right" way, I think the way I solved it could actually have saved the paint on my driver inner fender.

de-Sponge
So, since I didn't do the bench bleed, nor think much about air in the system at all other than pulling it out at the wheels, I figured it had to be air in the master cylinder. To solve, I took the bleeder hose from the MityVac kit. It's about 3 feet (1 meter) long. I put a coffee filter on one end to catch particles from the hard lines and dipped it into the master cylinder reservoir. I put the other end on the driver-side front wheel bleeder. Then, I pumped the brakes moving brake from the reservoir through the master cylinder, down the hard line, then the soft line to the brake caliper. From there, it passed out the bleeder into the clear hose and traveled back up into the reservoir. The key here is to keep the coffee-filter end in the fluid in the reservoir. Without that, air stays in the system. So, keep topping off the reservoir and keep pumping the brakes until there wasn't any air in the clear hose.

This worked great, except I couldn't close the bleeder without re-introducing air. I tried 3 times before I had spread brake fluid all over the inside of the tire and the garage floor. I succumbed to the obvious: remove the tire first. Yes, I failed to both mention and do that above. At any point before you connect the clear line to the bleeder screw you should remove the driver side front wheel. Why yes, that does sound obvious. If you don't, you'll be like me and try to do this with limited success because getting the bleeder closed without letting in air when the wheel is still on is virtually impossible.... especially if your car is on the ground (not on a lift), and its on the ground in a garage that's full of projects, parts and tools... and sports equipment... and camping gear... and laundry machines.

Anyway, after washing off the brake fluid, I set up again, and had the line bubble-free on my fourth attempt. This time, I was able to get the bleeder closed. I proceeded to quick-bleed the other 3 corners, but virtually no air bubbled appeared. Another test drive, and the brakes were nice and responsive. I haven't tried the stomp-on-the-brakes test that the car shows on Velocity TV do, but I will be next time I take the little car out.

That's it for this time. Thanks, as always for following along--

Bleeder done

Today's post is mostly to express thanks to one of our readers that offered a suggestion for the bleeder. I'll then cover the steps take to implement the suggestion. First off, I haven't been very good about thanking anyone and everyone that has posted comments or sent email about what I'm doing. The blog was hit by the spam-machines, so every posting has a bunch of junk responses / comments in various languages offering all kinds of opportunities for me to share my private information for a get-rich-quick scheme or another. It seems that the spam-machines have moved on to other blogs or sites, so I can now go through and read the comments. Please keep them coming, I appreciate the supportive words.

Bleeder
Reader payaso de la mar suggested trying
"a brass needle valve normally used for evap cooler or fridge icemaker tap....they have i think 1/8" pipe thread and taps that size are cheap, or you can 'make' threads with JB weld."
Most excellent idea! I had to stop at the Home Depot / Lowes anyway for some ant killer (nasty little buggers seem to be the bellwether of Spring) so I hit the brass / copper fittings section. I found this tiny brass valve that should work perfectly.

To the right, here, is the picture from the Home Depot website. The store SKU is 543241 (manufacturer's pn is PB9103-CP), and it retails for $5.30, which seems spendy. Still, the right part is always cheaper than wrong part after wrong part, which has been the story of this conversion, sometimes. This valve is maybe 3 inches from top to bottom and weighs less than 0.1 pounds. With the little nipple on the end, I'll be able to route the spill-off to the overflow bottle during bleeding. Sweet.

Install and Use
I had added a copper "T" in the lower radiator line for the install of the bleeder earlier. I had used the same copper "T" near the oil cooler, so I know the oil-cooler related hose would fit the smaller opening on the "T". I had some leftover donor hose from the oil-cooler circuit, so I took about 2" of rubber, and hose-clamped it to the "T". Into the other end, I inserted the old plastic nipple from the first replacement coolant flange (that goes on the front of the head). If you'll recall, I accidentally smashed one of these flanges trying to install the engine early on. From the pictures that have my shop in the background, you can tell I don't exactly throw much away, so I had that flange lying around. A quick cut with the saw and I have something to screw the valve into. It fits into the opening, albeit tightly, and it holds up to pressure.

Now, when I want to bleed the lower end of the system, I can connect a stretch of clear plastic tubing (so I can watch for bubbles) to the valve and run the other end into the overflow bottle. Simply run the engine a bit with the valve open slightly, and the air in the lower end should come out the bleeder. Perfect.

I'll add pictures of this later on, maybe when I'm working out the kinks of the bleeding. UPDATE: here it is in-situ. I was out working on theelectrical and snapped this yesterday.

pictures:
top - image taken from the Home Depot website of the valve
middle - my yellow Lab, completely wiped out from a day of playing
bottom - the bleeder in-place, hooked up to the lower radiator line

Good Day, Sunshine

Today was the first day of daylight savings... or yesterday was the last day of it. Either way, we set our clocks forward an hour last night. Here in the North Woods, that means that it doesn't really get dark until after 7. This opens up all kinds of after work opportunities.... or does it? This week, both of my kids start lacrosse season, so time will quickly get consumed by Spring. I did get the coolant overflow bottle bracket fabricated, though, and I think I have something going to the bleeder.

Bottle Bracket
Since my welding skill is crude and low, it took most of the day on Saturday to fabricate a relatively simple bracket. Near the beginning of the project, I got a '01 Jetta/Golf TDI bottle. I thought about locating it in a few different spots, but I settled on near the firewall on the passenger side. This places it nearest to the air-bubble lines and close enough to the coolant pump. The bottle needs to be high enough to completely flood the engine, yet below the engine lid. Building the bracket took that into account as well as the form of the bottle. I shot it with some rust proofing paint, and I need some longer bolts, and it will be ready for 'final' install.

Lower Rad Hose Bleeder
There's a reasonable concern about air bubbles passing from the radiator circuit into the coolant pump. This could cause the engine to overheat. Anyway, I used some of the old hose as donor material, and put in another "T" just in front of the block inlet. I'll have to figure out a reasonable way to block that off. I could use a PEX valve, I suppose. It would allow yet another way of feeding coolant into the circuit when the day comes to fill it, though. Hmm...

That's all I really got done this weekend. Next weekend, is the beginning of Spring Break, so I have low expectations for getting much done. I'll try to wrap up the bracket and the bleeder so I can check the coolant system off the list. Then, its on to the air filter, and then the electrical. Fun!

pictures:
top - rough fit of overflow bottle
bottom - looking south-west off the Broadway Bridge at night

Hal returns

I'd thought I was going to get a bunch done this weekend, but it just didn't work out that way. Friday was mostly lost to work and messing around with my welder. Saturday was lost to pulling ivy, and the sore muscles that follows.

Today, the weather was beautiful, and I only had a few commitments. Between running kids around, taking the dog to the park and going to a lacrosse parents meeting (and watching the Olympic hockey gold medal game on tv), my day was quickly consumed, though. My wife returned from her weekend at the Oregon Coast with a late birthday present for me: one of them big red tool chest things. So, of course, I spent a bunch of time messing around with that. It's an oldie that was made in America (by Kennedy), and with a little graphite on the slides, it works very nicely again. As you can see by the over whelming clutter behind it in this picture, I needed this very badly. We hope this is the beginning of a much better organized sub-single car garage where we keep just about everything that is used outside.

Turbo to inter-cooler
Between errands, I put together the solution for getting the charged air from the turbo to the inter-cooler. Using the hose that came with the engine, I simply cut it in half and connected it with a 2" stretch of 1-1/4" pipe. At the inter-cooler end, I'm using a copper step-up.

Enter Hal
After getting some tools stowed, Hal arrived. This was the first time I've seen Hal since before Christmas, so we had quite a bit of catching up to do. We ran through the progress I'd made, and he generally agreed with my decisions. It was nice to have another set of eyes look it over. We decided to punt on the dog-bone mount until we get the engine running, and we'll determine if its needed then. Also, he won't be doing the exhaust work. If we find a better muffler, then, great. Regardless, the routing of the exhaust will be done by an exhaust guy. We set the order of work for the next couple of weeks:

cooling system
1- get the 90* bends at the radiator
2- integrate bleeder in the "lower" hose
3- fabricate bracket for the overflow bottle, install bottle
4- finish running hoses

Intake
1- complete inter-cooler to intake charged air line
2- find and incorporate an air cleaner

Vacuum
1- run vac line to the turbo waste gate
2- run vac line to new air cleaner

Electrical
1- plug in everything I can in the engine compartment
2- accelerator pedal install
3- next.... detail the rest of the electrical work needed, and revisit this list.

That should get me through the next couple of weeks. If I can get that much done, I'll just have the electrical system to do. That list isn't that imposing, so I'm optimistic. Hal will be involved for the accelerator pedal install. More next time....

pictures:
top - new tool storage birthday present (yeay!)
middle - turbo to inter-cooler charge air line
bottom - charge air line installed

Birthday, engine pass

I made progress on lots of little things since that last post. First, I had a birthday. Woo hoo. The wife and kids took me out to a hockey game after a day-time cycling picnic. Great day. Then today, I sold off my old pancake engine. Quite a weekend. The engine sale should cover some of the cost of the Riviera pop-top I bought on lay-away from my friend Toby. Other than the engine, I took a big bite out of the intake (EGR elimination) and cooling system work that's left.

Pop-top for an engine
Like I mentioned above, I verbally agreed to taking Toby's old Riviera pop-top. In my last post I went into the what and why. I sold my engine with the idea that I'd be taking that money to Toby for that pop top. I'll still have to scratch together a little more, but I'm a good half-way there now. Harry got the engine for a steal, IMHO, but I want it gone, so my sick-of-it-being-there cost me some cabbage. Oh well. It'll run well for Harry, and at his price, I don't owe any explanations or anything if it doesn't run as well for him as it did for me.

Inter-cooler / Intake Progress
I got most of the pipe set to route from the turbo to the intercooler intake. I need a short section (2") of hardpipe to span between 2 thick rubber lines, and that end is done. I haven't given any thought to the air filter yet, but I know that is next after the intercooler-to-intake portion is completed.

Early on, I made the decision to omit the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) system on the ALH engine when I installed it into the bus. First, it feeds sooty exhaust into a damp intake creating a sludge that eventually gums up the intake. When the hot dry soot hits the damp oily intake, we get goop. The oil comes from 2 places. First, there's the PCV (positive crankcase valve). The PCV allows for the pressure that builds within the engine to be released. Because this pressure is not pure air (it contains a little oil), the EPA doesn't want that vented into the atmosphere, so it is routed into the air intake. The second source is the turbo. As a part of the lubrication of the turbo, some oil gets into the air passing through. Since we can't eliminate this second source, we're left with the soot. I intend to run at least B5, so that should eliminate the soot that would have been routing into the intake at the time of combustion.

Eliminating the EGR
To cut the EGR circuit out of the process, there are a few different things that need to be dealt with. First, there's the EGR that's bolted onto the intake. This is pretty easily removed and replaced with a "race pipe". It should be noted that a vehicle that does have to pass emissions will be in violation of emissions laws if this is used. Once the intake-side has been removed, the exhaust end needs to be blocked off too. A plate can be constructed by tracing the gasket on some mild steel. Dieselgeek offers a kit for replacing the EGR and the exhaust bit. Link here. I also removed the EGR cooler. Dieselgeek has a kit for that too, but I'm not using their replacement for that.

Oil Cooler / Upper Radiator Hose
I changed the "upper" hose. I had just a simple run from the engine outlet to the radiator. I looked at the hoses that came with the engine and noticed that the upper hose has a sensor in it and the lower hose has a bleeder. I took the upper hose and cut it off just past the 90* bend. To that I tied in the sensor and then a copper 1-1/2" / 1/2" T so I could tie in the oil cooler. The picture to the right here is the completed "upper" before installing. After separating the oil cooler feed hose from the return, I cut it down to about 4" long and routed it between the cooler and the "upper" hose. Once I integrate a better 90* solution at the radiator, I will probably be able to eliminate 24" of hose I had laid out earlier.

Bleeder to Bottle lines
After the main hoses, the TDI engine has a secondary coolant line system. These hoses are about 3/8" and pull air bubbles out of the high points of the system back to the top of the overflow bottle. The stock setup connects at 3 points: from the head, from the heater-circuit and from the EGR cooler. Since I have completely removed the EGR, I will replace that connection point with on from the "lower" radiator hose. I was able to get the lines connected for the heater circuit and the engine head, and set up a "T" for the lower hose. I have a pretty good idea where the overflow bottle will go, so I'll be working on a bracket for that next.

Cabin Heat Delay Complete
I took the hose from the heating circuit return, cut it up a bit, and tied the heat input and output together. This closes that circuit for now. There's a bleeder already in place, so I should be able to come back at this at the end of the Summer for cabin heat without sacrificing anything right now.... especially time.

Once I get the race pipe kit from dieselgeek, I will be a short stretch of rubber away from having the intercooler work completed. That short stretch will have to bend 90* twice within a very short space, so this may not be easy. I will continue to work both of these aspects of the project, though, to reduce down time. I'm certain I will need another 90* bend of turbo-charged air supporting rubber and I have a bracket to fabricate for the overflow bottle. That is where I'll pick up next time.

Pictures:
top - the old pancake engine. Good luck, Harry.
middle - upper pipe with the sensor and oil cooler "T" ready for install.
bottom - my boys at the hockey game.

Craftsman 'lifetime' warranty

I did actually get under the bus since the last post, but I gotta vent about how cheap Craftsman tools have become. The tools that I use were a Christmas gift in the mid-80's. My parents recognized I had some special affinity for tools at an early age. See, when I was about 10 I took their stereo equipment apart to figure out how it worked. I got it all back together again, and it still worked, but I'm not sure I learned much from it. What I did discover, though, was that a pioneer stereo will still work even if you leave a few screws out of it :)

So, when I hit 15, they gave me a set of Craftsman tools and one of those 3-drawer tool boxes. The set had crescents and ratchets (mini's, 3/8" and 1/2" sockets both metric and American). I've used them on every car I've owned from the rust-bucket '74 Camaro I unwisely bought when I was 16 to my current Jetta and the microbus. I love those tools, and the set is practically complete. Considering the number of moves, the number of cars, and friends I've had, that's quite a feat. About a year ago, my mini ratchets broke. I had 2, suddenly, I had none.

So, last week while my office was closed, I took my broken ratchets to Sears for rebuild / replacement. The guy behind the tools counter took a look at my ratchets and only accepted one of them as Craftsman. He could have been right, but I've never bought ratchets, so I think he just didn't know what he was looking at. He brought over a replacement ratchet for the one he thought was Craftsman - the one with the word clearly written on it. The replacement was nothing like the original except for the square bit. The switch is plastic. The ratcheting mechanism was plastic. I wasn't even sure the handle wasn't chromed plastic. I asked him if he had any rebuilt ones like the one I had. He said, "no, we haven't had anything that old in a long time". Great. "Do you have a rebuilding kit I could have instead of that (pointing at the plastic crap)," I asked. The tool guy looked puzzled and said no. I asked for my ratchets back and told him to forget it.
On leaving the store, my wife didn't initially understand. The wrench they were trying to pawn-off on me was a $6.99 wrench. My original wrench is worth more than that when broken. I'd rather rebuild the wrench at my own cost ($9 for a rebuild kit off the internet) than have a plastic piece of junk that will fail on me when I can't afford to be without a functioning tool.

On the bus, I slid underneath with some steel pipe on Sunday afternoon and thought about the routing of the coolant. At this point, I think I'll run it under the rear beam, and up over the right axle (but under and to the right side of the starter). Then, it should appear close to where the oil cooler and fuel filter are. It should be pretty straightforward to tie into the block and header in/outlets. All told, that would be 6 90* bends, 4 45* bends and a couple of straight joiners in rubber. It would be 6 straight sections of steel pipe. I need to find a rubber source that won't crush the budget. Maybe a visit to CarQuest would be worthwhile. I'll also have to think about fitting in a bleeder on each side of the radiator since there will be a high-point within the radiator otherwise. Or do I entertain the idea of flipping the rad over again? Eeee..... Can a bleeder be added directly to the plastic tank on the radiator? Hmm...

That's it for today...