We started on a new project for a customer, a 1974 MGB. This all came about when I was looking for an Fbody rolling chassis to do a LSx swap into for the shop. I saw an ad on Craigslist for a 1994 V6 in great shape about 10 minutes from my house. I called him and told him all I was looking for was the roller, and he said all he bought the car was for the motor and transmission to swap into his MGB but the project just sat around so the wife said get rid of them. I went over and met him, we talked cars for about an hour after looking at the Camaro and the MGB, we came to a conclusion that it was “meant to be”… me starting my own shop, looking for cool projects to get my name out there, living so close to one another, etc. So we put some plans together and here we are today.
The MGB had bounced barn to barn for 24 years, and sat in his garage waiting for the Camaro motor swap he didn’t have time to do for years too. The idea was originally to build it and give it to his daughter, so it has a little more meaning behind it now to get it done.
That’s how it came from the last barn and got delivered to his house. He cleaned it up some and put it away. Shortly after he found a good 1994 Camaro with the 3.4L EFI V6 and the T5 5-speed transmission behind it.
Both cars were moved to out shop and I got to work. Pulled the V6 and transmission and prepped it for a refresh and slight make over.
We went through the 3.4L and cleaned it up some. Put new gaskets, seals, replaced the timing chain kit, oil pan, water pump, thermostat, and whatever else was needed to make it reliable. We plan on running it on Mega Squirt so we can ditch the EGR and whatever else isn’t needed to make the motor run on its own. Also custom stainless headers will be built for it soon. We also took the intake manifold, valve covers, timing chain covers, oil filter housing and throttle body off and powdercoated them all in house to make it look as good as it should run. I even cleaned, sand blasted and repainted the bolts!
Now that it’s at Capital Region Customs this is how it looks.
Motor and transmission is out. Nasty old “heater core” is off the firewall tray, some unnecessary wiring was removed, fuel lines and filter removed. Original motor mounts cut off the frame horns and plates made to start the new mounts from.
I leveled the car off on the lifts safety pins and mocked the motor in place just on jack stands to get a ballpark for fitment. Put some autobody masking tape on the fenders and put a level across it to measure down to the highest part of the V6, the throttle body. It say about .75 inches above the fenders, but because of the curve of the hood, and the lucky placement of a support channel on the hood, it actually closed to the safety catch on the latch, but then hit the throttle body. Which is actually a good thing, because that meant all I needed to do was drop the motor down another 1.5” or so and the hood will clear. Oil pan will still be an inch or so above the front suspension crossmember for protection too. The only thing holding it back from going lower is the crank pully, it hits the stock cross member. But that’s not a problem when you have plasma cutters and welders.
So I measured the pully and found it to be about 6.5” dia. Cant get a hold of any 7.5 or 8” dia thin wall pipe, so I am forced to make my own filler piece for the notch. Since I don’t have a heavy duty slip roller that would curve 1/8th” sheet, I need to make my own forming tool.
I got a piece of 8” dia heavy wall pipe and made a simple clamp. Welded it all up and this is what I got.
You simply slide a piece of sheet, solid rod, flat stock, whatever you want to bend a 8” curve into, tighten up the clamping post and heat up the metal with the torches, then bend and hammer it around the 8” pipe to form the piece.
Back to the MGB, I located my centerline and plasma cut the curve out of the subframe.
Then welded in my filler 1/8th” thick plate, giving me 2+ inches of clearance to lower the motor more.
That’s all I had time to take pictures of so far. I will update the thread as more progress is documented. The motor fits in there like it was meant to be, and the shifter even comes up out the stock shifter location on the tunnel too. I am working on selling him on a 56 trim for it too. Wink wink!
