TBH, I’d leave the exhaust on while taking the motor out. Much easier to fight rusty studs when it’s on your Workmate.
Personally having rebuilt an engine , and bought a new JK Preservation Parts engine off the shelf. The rebuild was quite fun to do and interesting. Unwrapping the plastic and taking the dust caps out of the really new engine was a totally different level of pleasure. There was still some tinware bashing to do, the new engine's aluminium case has different radiused corner fillets so needed clearancing the tinware with tinsnips. But so nice.. and then its so new it has to be run in ...
Also much easier to give them a good, regular dousing of PlusGas. It also sometimes helps to try to tighten them just a smidge if you can, to break the rust-weld before undoing them
I blew my engine up and fitted the JK preservation one of the type Mike used, refitted standard carb and my 123 dissy and it has started on the button ever since very happy with it. Good luck with your choice. A
..wish I lived any closer yo you I would come and happilly lend you a hand..good luck with whatever you decided to do anyway Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
One of my options is to sell the van as is, so I may list it on ebay as a project and see if any interest. Don't seem to be many cheap vans around at the moment just lots of quite high priced ones, working ones of course. The van was restored with lots of welding, new panels, new paint and much more about 7 years ago and apart from a few paint bubbles is very solid. It would need a new engine and interior fitting to make it a very usable van. Considering a new owner would need to spend about 4k, I would hope for 3k and would include a large variety of spare parts. The 5 rib gearbox on its own is worth good money. The van would suit someone who wants a Bay, but unable to afford the 12k plus ones. If someone bought my Bay, they would have put 7k into it and at that outlay, they would not likely lose money on it. I don't really want to sell my van but I have to consider all options. I wish I were 20 years younger with energy as even doing a few things on the van yesterday left me very tired and aching all over today. I think I will give the van a miss this week and wait until the weather warms up.
For what it’s worth, you sound quite down-hearted since this happened (understandably)..... you’re thinking of maybe selling the MGB to fund the Bay engine, or then maybe selling the Bay for £3k as a project, you ache after doing some (reasonably strenuous) work yesterday and are suddenly feeling old. For all manner of reasons, but primarily this last year of lockdown and all its associated rubbishness, it takes less to make us feel blue right now..... and it’s a terrible time to be making decisions! Have a week off, or tinker when you feel like it, accept the help of your neighbour when he can, and take it at a sensible pace. It would be a shame to start selling things and then regret it. Just my thoughts, of course.
£3k wouldn’t buy you a wreck. Yours sounds far from a £3k bus, regardless of its current engine issues.
I think if my son and grandson could be bothered, it would make all the difference to me. But neither are interested in helping me, just me helping them and I've done enough now. Yes I do feel a bit despondent about the van as it is one of the few pleasures I enjoy in my old age and would miss it if it were gone. Sunday was a bright warm day here and perfect to get the MGB out but of course the broken van has trapped the B in the garage, so can't drive that either. As suggested, I will give the van and my body a rest for a week or two and get back to it when the weather warms up and hopefully get my positivity back.
Definitely don't sell it without a working engine. You'd be better getting someone else to fit you an engine and then sell it afterwards if you still wanted to. Give it a while and see how you feel. Where abouts in the Country are you , i've forgotten?
I feel your pain, I look around and never anyone to help but plenty wanting help, take a pause and consider what will work for you, a good pal of mine has just done a resto on a customers mgb, didn’t realise how much the are worth now so don’t sell yours cheap !, Don’t be afraid to ask for help on here, I have an engine crane that works like a fork lift to take the engine out from below and capable of lifting the entire van up to a workable heigh , welcome to the loan of it anytime
Understood - See how you feel in a few weeks @mgbman , if you fall back in love with the van and restrictions ease i could pop down and i`m sure theres others who could help wrestle an engine in . I`m about 1 1/2 hours away .. If you do decide to sell please get someone to have a look and better valuation , £6k doesn`t get you much these days which is double what you`re asking - it`s certainly worth more than that . Disappointed with son/ grandson situation ...
More than happy to help engine wrestle under the expert tutelage of @Lasty. of course, he may not need my 'expertise'
