Well its a wee while but I will cut to the chase!
Stripped 140 VVC down to discover cracked valve guides, unmatched valves (suspect a rebuild after cambelt snap) so ditched for spares and went looking for a newer 160bhp MGF Trophy unit.... err or 160 Turbo MG TZ whichever came first. HURRAH picked up 30k 160vvc on ebay for £450 from metro-salvage in Bolton of all places. What a nice bunch of honest folks, even threw in the loom,ecu,box and subframe.
Delivered to my door for another £50 the next day!
Alas the Alarmbox (matched to ECU) was unavailable
Removing MK1 engine isnt too bad, just remove all the bits and bobs I thought.... alas the NS top gearbox mount is... well... err... bugger it! Just cut one side off so I could swing the engine FS and remove (have to fix that later me thinks).
Also from Bolton (yes they're far more friendly than southern folks) a custom built (CR) gearbox, longer first (closer to 2nd) and shorter 5th (closer to 4th). Arbitrary Torsion slip diff, ummed and arrrd about Final Drive, theres a 3.9 and 4.2 available for the PG1 box; now that 5th was reduced suspected a longer final drive would be wiser to avoid topping out on the long straights.
Great! Given a weekend from her indoors to fit it all
Made a few changes. Ground off gearchange bell crank "sloppy" OEM balljoints and welded on m4 bolts, as gearchange cable has m4 threaded ends for rod ends... good easy mod! Also used later PG1 bell crank which is reversed so doesnt protrude gearbox casing out towards the rear of the chassis, looks neater and will make removal easier.
Offered up 42mm Jenvey TBs (nice!). Bunged inlet ports and ground off 2/3mm radius to match TBs.
Also drill out Jenvey manifold for air bubbles to escape cylinder. Bend Throttle arm 3mm as its too close to the other pairs arm.
New cam belt and tensioner to be on the safe side.
Gearbox and engine slotted together nicely, time to lift in.
Easy peasy! All in and ready to hook up. Drive Shafts needed a bash with 3x3 timber despite popping off easily... must be the newer heavy duty PG1 bearings being a tighter fit me thinks.
Exhaust manifold, had to elect for the spare from older 140vvc which has smaller flange to match (custom Atom) down pipe. Note to self [make new manifold someday]
Alternator/Clutch cylinder, etc all easy peasy.
WIRING. "My advice is if you maintain this lifestyle you wont reach 30" Thats what the Doc said.... err Im 35 so must have the right idea
CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN.
Start from a totally clean garage and bench. Acquire at least 3 Haynes manuals, Rover200, Freelander and later MGZR/T along with copies of MGF diagrams (haynes never did the MGF! really!!!).
Decided to go for an EMERALD ECU, already have an early one in K-Powered MG-Midget, easy to configure, it works and you get lots of racing goodies.
So, I have a Single Plug (MEMS1/2) Emerald ECU and a (later) Single Plug (MEMS3) Motorolla engine loom. Not an issue if you can get your head round the fact theres also a non-motorola MEMS3 with 2 plugs (red n black) and that this and previous MEMS (ie 1/2) used the same engine relay unit ctrling fuel/Ign/Inj etc.
Cautionary tale: Having spent 5 days with a volt meter (10yrs ago now) not understanding why the dismantled relay unit was apparently working in total reverse to what was required only to discover upon purchasing a new one that it was in fact the AirCon/ABS etc relay and not the engine one.....
Decided to ditch MEM3(v2) engine loom as Relay unit is inbuilt into the Motorola ECU which was defunct.
No worries had spare MEMS3v1 loom from other VVC engine. Simply use small jewellers screwdriver to remove 36 odd wires from the red and black connectors and insert them into the new single MEMS1/2 Emerald plug.
Couple of Gotchas. Wasted spark or not to waste. How many coils you have!!
A few of the sensor sendors have different connectors, swapped the senders over.
Bit of soldering where later engine config differs.
Car loom plugs straight on. As did the relay unit.
Cup of tea.... OK I lie, 2 weeks later!!
Switch on... wow, fuel pump runs, dashboard ign light on, but no cranking
Bloody Alarm CTRL unit at the front of the car also imobilieses without the ECU. Despite reading up and seeing secret wiring diagrams there was no definitive answer. But a clue lay in the engine relay diagram, an earth that wasnt being earthed, gotcha!
Phut/Phut/Bang - coughs fuel out of the trumpets. Bearing in mind Emerald came with a std Map for this engine, whats up? Did I get the cam belt timing out? Well theres the smell of fuel, so maybe ign timing.... not forgetting the changes to the loom to incorporate 2 independently firing coils, swapping the coil feeds over.. wehey! Vroom vroom
Didnt last long, wouldn't rev and becomes harder to start. Just cant figure out whats wrong. "have you run out of fuel" sais mate at work, well really how on earth, 1 new fuel pump and FSE later and I concede that 5L of fuel in a jacked up Atom dont get picked up!!!
Stay tuned for pics and what happens next.