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Comment by djsumdog | Hacker News Reader

Back in University, we had one guy in the dorms who said his Uncle Bill put a Miata engine in an MGB. We were contemplating how that would even remotely be possible; looking up pictures of forums boards of both engine bays.

"Well I guess, if you remove all of x, y and z and made custom mounts..."

We later learned this guy ones one of those bullshitters who would lie about everything; told us he was in the national guard and hat to shoot rubber bullets at people looting stores after tornadoes. He was our age and had one of those civilian IDs they give military family members.

Next semester we ask the guy if his uncle will bring his MGB to the car show we were putting together. "Oh he sold it." .... right ...

Anytime we had some crazy idea for our cars. "I wonder if I could convert my mom's Maxima to a 5spd," the respond would always be, "I BET UNCLE BILL COULD DO IT!"

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While I'm not saying the guy in college wasn't a liar, there have been many MGB conversions to a V8.

http://www.advanceautowire.com/mgbgtv8/ is just one that I know of. Though I only know because when I was younger, my parents had MGs, sadly my siblings all got one for graduation and I didn't. They figured I would want the computer more.

Indeed, absurd engine swaps are not too uncommon in the automotive hacking/hot-rodding world.

Here's one of the weirder ones - a 3-cylinder diesel into a 1970 muscle car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rxf2WZvEbc

6 rotor RX4 800hp street legal - from a crowd down south that do silly things.

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/worlds-first-6-rotor-mazda-...

In the UK they do put K-series[0] engines into the MGB.

[0] The K-series is the descendant of the T16, which is the descendant of the M-series, which is the descendant of the O2-series, which is the descendant of the O-series, which is the engine that we /designed/ for the MGB, but never was put into the MGB before it was canceled. The O-Series instead went into a bunch of work vans and other hateful boxes instead.

So he might have sort of been right. But he was probably still a royal bullshitter.

>The K-series is the descendant of the T16

Descendant only in the fact it came later. The engines share nothing from memory. The K series was an all new small capacity engine (1400cc) on release. Compared to the O, M and L (diesel) it's a fully aluminium block and head with steel damp liners. The K series had its bore and stroke upped to bring it to 1800cc after launch, along with adding variable valve control with the VCC engine.

The two engines share very little in common, the most frequent thing being they're normally both attached to a a PG1 gearbox.

Source: UK MG owner that used to own 300bhp ZR.

K16 was the motor in the early Lotus wasn't it? I know from my 214 days you could 'easily' change the cams to give more power. I assumed this was what they did for the MG versions. I enjoyed working on the K8 and K16 engines.

Apt username. Is that you, Mr. B?

I've driven a Sunbeam Tiger, which is a Sunbeam Alpine with a Ford V8 engine. 1960s technology - too much power, crap suspension.

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