Just baffling … MGB oil pan modification. Part 1

[@ronkluwe4875]

Rob - When I had my engine built for my MGB, I lucked out in that there was a local MGB shop in SoCal that was owned by an ex-Offenhauser racing mechanic who raced his own MGB's. He had a couple of his retired Offenhauser buddies do the machining on the engine (the head is a work of art and I almost didn't want to reassemble it, but rather put it on display, LOL) and he dry assembled the engine 3 times prior to final assembly to check tolerances, etc. prior to final assembly. The engine is a strong Stage 3 engine for street use, including the oil pan baffle. The one modification he made to the baffle from the Special Tuning layout was to add return "slots" along the perimeter of the baffle so that there was more return area for the oil to get into the bottom of the pan to the pick-up. These were right at the edge of the baffle, and if I remember correctly were about 1/8" to 1/4" wide by 1" long and there were 3 each on the long sides and 2 each on the short sides. The engine has great torque and HP and can easily rev to 7,000 RPM with no issues for over 20 years now. BTW, one other thing he did while working on the engine was to take a small ball peen hammer and tap on the outside of the block at all of the water galleries and jackets to break loose any rust scale and/or casting sand (this was after hot tanking the block). He collected what came out to show me and it filled about half a small Mason jar. He told me that he always did this on high performance MGB engines to ensure the galleries and jackets were not occluded with crud that would cause cooling issues later, especially at the #4 cylinder. He also told me that years ago he had been informed that casting of the blocks at the MG factory (or their supplier) wasn't always of the highest quality and that the block factory did a poor job of ensuring all the casting sand was removed from the internal galleries and this led him to doing what he did.

[@MGB-learning]

Great video!

[@mgbgtguy]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@CrisHarrison]

My B had A&E pistons one winter in NJ going up our drive 30deg or so with ice on it I tried tried to get a running start (2lane rd), one of the pistons the top decided to leave the rest of the pison above the wrist pin. Just broke clean in half. I was in school at Trenton State, and no more cash. Oh, well, that was life😢

[@CrisHarrison]

On the pan, you could weld a tube to hold the stick. That would get rid of the hole. Easy Pesy Lemon Squeezy.

[@mgbgtguy]

That’s actually what I’m thinking about doing👍🏻

[@CrisHarrison]

@mgbgtguy don't think 🤔 just do it. I had more than a few MGs, maybe a good half dozen.

[@bradthurlow5503]

Did you consider that the oil needs to fall down into the pan as well? You can’t make all the tolerances too tight, can you?

[@mgbgtguy]

Yes I did. The baffle will be higher than the oil pump strainer, plus a few strategically placed slots or louvers will aid in that