Topic

Since last Oct this is what me & my lovely husband has done to my MGF.....

Had mk2 centre console with brushed alloy sorrounds
New gearknob
Media player without CD slot
Gearstick shortened
New binacle surround in technical grey to match console
Electric door mirrors
Speaker bar with speakers
Windbreak(personally I don't like it so that's coming off)
3rd brake light
All new matching tyres.
Also... Like new hood with glass heated rear screen.

Once Russell has done head gasket next sat Andy will be fitting alloy inlet manifold off a VVC with modified 48mm alloy throttle body.
Induction kit
Led daytime running lights
Rear boot spoiler
Air con fitted.

I'm so excited to finally be able to drive my car in 7 days & counting

I hope that Andy realises that fitting a VVC alloy manifold is NOT as straight forwards as many think. Have just fitted an alloy TF manifold to my 99 MPi and it required swapping the fuel rail, loom and injectors but using the TF return pipe and using the MPI sensors.

On a better note I know how you feel counting down the days and hours ......................................... sadly as yet I have no deadline of goal as I keep finding more needing doing and the budget has hit the buffers.

Thank you.... I have spoke to my hubby & he assures me he has everything needed to do job & it's all off a '98 VVC.

Sorry you haven't got a time when you can be out having fun in yours....

Anyone with any ideas on getting more BHP would be very welcome as I am a old school girl racer & I love speed

After driving Andys VVC I loved the way it handled with the power & I know mine won't be as fast as his was but I defo want a sports exhaust system to give it a nice throaty sound.

Soooooooo excited

Fitting the VVC manifold I am assured will lose torque and not gain power. The MPi has smaller inlet ports so by fitting the VVC manifold you will intorduce a sharp step where they join which of course is not good for flow. I asked these very questions about 10 months ago about making the MPi more equal to the VVC as I have both. This is the port mismatch:-

To help a little I chamfered the port edge to lessen the sharpness:-

as to whether it will make any difference but I feel it should help a little.

The best "bang for buck" is the induction system. If I were you I would be removing the resonator box part of the F's induction and fitting a good cold air feed induction which is sadly not cheap or as I did fit the slightly larger TF aif box and bracket and modify it to front intake and route the intake hose the the N/S vent to it draws it's air from outside the cars engine bay. I never got around to fitting a perfomance panel filter int eh box though so ti still has a std paper element inside.

Andy willl not like me for suggesting this though as it's a right cow of a job to remove the resonator box .Unless one drops the subframe it has to be cut up and removed in pieces and that polymer it TOUGH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fitting a TV5 (52mm) throttle body will improve responsiveness evenover that of a modded 48mm TV1 as I found BUT .................................................................... BUT it will not gain you power ................................... well maybe 2 bhp if your lucky but more liek 1 bhp which you will never notice. The responsiveness however is very noticable .

Next on noticable improvements is a proper performance exhaust manifold ................................................ these it seems do actually give an improvement in BHP but also the more important torque and as you losing some with the VVC manifold it's a must really. Now the bad news they are spendy ...................................... around £500 or maybe a bit less. The sports rear box (silencer) might give around 3-6 bhp and again those cost around £350-£500 and not ALL will actually give an improvment other than exhasut note it seems.

That's it for blt ons really yout then in the realms of flowed heads and it REALLY GETS SPENDY for a decent head flowing job your looking around £1200 upwards.................................... and then to get the most from it your into new higher lift and longer duration cams .................................. then vernier cam wheels ............. Oh yes and welcome to the Dark Side .

I am no expert and really a begginer at this tuning lark but this is what my enquiries have led me to so far.

With "Blue 33" my 97 MPi I swapped the TB for an alloy one after the polymer one started to stick at around 4000 rpm tried a 52mm one and it was nice but wanted to try the 52mm one on the VVC so swapped them over so she has a dewedged 48mm one fitted now. Fitted that modded TF air box and she has a mild steel after market exhaust ................................. not a psorts one just one supplied by Kwik-Fit it seems. It came off "Elsie" my VVC after she fialed her MOT on Emissions and I had a newfront pipe and Bosal box waiting so got a new CAT and fitted the new system. one hanger had come adrift on the GTX box so after rewelding it's not on Blue as her original box developed a rust hole.

Anyway I got her booked onto a rolling road dyno locally and she is puttign out 125.9 BHP corrected at the flywheel or 102.1 BHP at the rear wheels. The idea was to get a base line figure to work from. All this has changed since acquiring the 75th Anniversary edition and "Blue 33" will ahve to be sold as I cannot keep three MGF's.

Mrs Andy the tyre man wrote: wrote:

Since last Oct this is what me & my lovely husband has done to my MGF.....

Had mk2 centre console with brushed alloy sorrounds
New gearknob
Media player without CD slot
Gearstick shortened
New binacle surround in technical grey to match console
Electric door mirrors
Speaker bar with speakers
Windbreak(personally I don't like it so that's coming off)
3rd brake light
All new matching tyres.
Also... Like new hood with glass heated rear screen.

Once Russell has done head gasket next sat Andy will be fitting alloy inlet manifold off a VVC with modified 48mm alloy throttle body.
Induction kit
Led daytime running lights
Rear boot spoiler
Air con fitted.

I'm so excited to finally be able to drive my car in 7 days & counting

What no brake upgrade Feeling evil now this is mine in progress:-

New discs before titivation:-

the calipers are new AP 2 pot ones....................................... now with nice shiney new S/S braided hoses:-

Her original brakes were shall we say ............................................. in very poor shape and needed reconditioning at least. After pricing it up it became clear that thse new AP's would not be much more expensive. Now I just need to sort out a servo brace .

You guys have been busy - personally I'd fit a 52mm throttle body, they do give you more mid range oompf, and a better induction, I have an K&N Apollo which has a great sound.

Induction sound is not improtant to me personally ............................................... the performance gain is what I am interested in only so will only consider those proven to give actual gains.

Plezier wrote: wrote:

Induction sound is not improtant to me personally ............................................... the performance gain is what I am interested in only so will only consider those proven to give actual gains.

Sorry, was thinking more of Andy and Mrs Andy.

Ahhh but Mrs Andy wants the Ooomph too .

TBH CBA as I know nothing.

Thank you Plezier for all the info......very interesting reading.

I have looked into upgrading brakes & discs to drilled & grooved with AP racing calipers & green stuff pads but they won't fit behind my alloys so will need to get the 16 inch or bigger alloys which is out of my budget for now.

It will be something to do in future but at mo I just want to get innit next Saturday and have some fun

I will be keeping the MG which I will be giving her/him a name so in no rush to do all mods straight away.

The help & advice on this forum is outstanding & I am made to feel welcome & not afraid to ask anything as no one judges you

Your welcome ..............................Ahhhhh yes the eternal problem ...................................... money, finance, and the the lack of ................................................... I am uncertain as to how effective drilled discs are there was a fad for drilled discs on motor bikes back in the mid 1970's. Mainly to help with wet performance as most were riding Jap bikes then and the Japs had not sussed out wet braking very well. In fact the Japs ahd not worked out braking very well at all nor handling but that's another story.

The Japs used Stainless for their discs so they looked good even if it rained where as the Italians, Germans and British used cast iron which braked well in all weather conditions but they did rust. Lockheed whoes discs were fitted to Norton and Triumph used a hard chrome finish which resisted rust but still worked in the wet but Lockheed used opposed pistion calipers whilst the Japs used swinging or sliding calipers that despite the theories just didn't work half as well which is why the Jap bikes above about 350cc capacity all had twin discs on the front yet the Norton Commando and Triumph Bonniville only had one yet out braked the Japs easily.

Anyway the fad became to drill the stainless discs to have somewhere for the water to be displaced to then boiled away, in the chamfered holes, and various patterns and spacings were tried for the holes. I drilled many for people on the dividing head in our home workshop. Howerever apart from a bit of weight saving and perhaps looking "cool" I doubt the holes did any real good. Eventually the Japs and established brake companies developed new pad materials which worked better. Brembo still used cast iron then some one developed a monel alloy suitable for discs. Very expensive but it found use in the racing crowd I understand.

Slotting is I believe more proven as it reduces pad glazing but increases pad wear and braking noise. For myself it seems that I am trapped in a quandry as to whether to buy grooved discs for the rear or stick with standard discs. They will however be fitted with Pagid pads like these:-

these came from Euro Car Parts and improved the rear braking noticably on the MPi. As I am no track demon this also raises the question do I NEED grooved discs???????

What I fail to understand is why grooved discs are priced so much higher than normal ones. In todays manufacturing these will be machined on machining centres with the holes drilled on the same machine that turns them. So the grooves and holes on the discs face would be machined at the same time if required and would take less than a couple of minutes extra over plain discs. So the only reason for the huge hyke in prices must be the greed factor to cash in on the must have fad for drilled and grooved discs. Being reluctant to fuel the fad adds to the quandry I find myself in over the choice of rear brakes for the 75th restoration

Guess I'll be boring and go with a pair of TRW plain discs .