Thanks for your comprehensive reply Donnie.

Some more thoughts on my oil pressure, comments would be much appreciated.

I took off the pipe to the gauge and turned over the engine, expecting oil to flow out of the adapter. No.

So I poured lots of oil through the adapter to ensure that the pump was primed properly. Still no joy. Next thing was to check the pump. Off with the sump and oil pump, which was full of oil, and even turning the gear just a little produced a surge of oil. Pump working ok then. Unfortunately now need a new gasket which won't arrive till tomorrow so nothing more today. I trawled the internet for ideas and found a site explaining the oil flow routes for the B engine.
Pump to pressure relief valve(not stuck open) to cooler (not fitted) to filter to main oil gallery with the gauge, before going to the main bearings.

When I checked my engine the adapter for the oil hose to filter is next to the adapter for the gauge. I looked closer and they are linked.

I now understand that I have the wrong cooler adapter,without the inch or so of pipe connected, which blocks off the main gallery from the cross feed from the pressure relief valve. I have ordered one, hopefully also tomorrow, but my question is, even if the filter is bypassed, surely there should've been pressure in the system, somewhere, registering on the gauge or forcing oil out of the gauge adapter???


If this doesn't worked I am stumped. If the pump is working, where is the pressure going???

Another update for those interested. Having phoned the MGB hive for a new sump gasket and adapter I spoke with their engineer to see if he had any ideas. He suggested that I may've used the wrong oil pump gasket as the gasket set includes two, one for the 3 bearing engine and the other for the 5.

I looked in my gasket set(good job I kept what was left) and found an oil pump gasket. A little bit sceptical I removed the oil pump again and found that the one I had fitted didn't completely cover the oil pump and at the top of the scavenge tube, where the oil goes into the pump there was no gasket. The B-Hive engineer thinks that the gap is enough for air to enter the pump and unless the revs of the engine are high enough, there would be very little pressure.
Sounds plausible although it is a very small gap(the thickness of a gasket).

I fitted the gasket and when my sump gasket and adapter arrive I will try again.

Wish me luck.

Any been there before? or thinks this is probably it?

Hi Peter.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with your type of engine, so can't comment on the details.

When you say you turned the oil pump manually, and oil gushed out, do you meant you were able to turn the impeller whilst it was still on the engine, or had you removed the pump to do this?

If the former, (based of Ford engines) I can't see how the pump would be able to turn as it would be engaged in the camshaft - if you were able to turn it, that suggests it isn't engaged.

If, however, you removed it completely first, then ignore my paragraph above!

I hope it turns out to be as simple as that gasket - blimey, you wouldn't believe it would you!

I hope even more that the engine survived its 'dry' run...

I'd strongly suggest that all tests from now on are done without the engine actually firing up - just crank it only.

Fingers crossed.

Indeed I did remove the oil pump. It can't be turned in place as there is no way of getting to the spindle.

And I will in future disconnect the ignition wire. I have already given the internals a good coat in oil in case they has been starved a bit.

I'll keep this forum updated with the progress. I really hope it's that *@!"£ gasket.

Fingers crossed

Hi Peter

If you wish I am willing to come over and give you a hand.

Mark

Hi Mark, thanks for the offer. I'll give you a call.

I fitted the new gasket and oil pipe adapter and tried again.

Success. I finally have oil pressure. But now I can't get the engine to fire properly. Must be carb related as I fiddled with those whilst waiting for the gasket. When I say fiddled I mean that I set them up by the Haynes manual. Must be straight forward (I hope).

Nearly there!!!!!!!!

Excellent news, Peter.

That's really quite frightening - that the wrong gasket (when given a choice of two!) should have such a dramatic effect.

Good luck with the carbs!

Hi Peter. I've not looked at the forum for a few days, I see you've solved the oil problem, if the engine is running hot it can be a result of it running weak. I see you've "played". with the carbs. I.ve got a carb balancing tool give me a call if you want to borrow it or a hand setting it up.

Ok

Now the car has started ok, and I need to "tweek" and balance the carbs. I have fixed the tacho. There are two white wires from the bullets. One to the Ign. switch and the other to the coil. The male bullet needs to go to the switch and the female to the coil. As the current would've been flowing the wrong way through the induction wire I may've been getting "negative revs!" or a diode could've just cancelled out the induced current.

Now off to tweek the timing and dwell angles.

Nearly there

A big thank you to Mark Staley.

He visited this morning and helped me setup my dwell angle, timing, tappets and carbs. The engine runs sweetly now, not run-on and a good tickover. So much so that I drove it into the garage when finished. Can't wait to get all of the electrics working now. Just need to save up the fortune to buy a Findhorn windscreen.

Then the paint shop, then the trim, then the SVA.

I can almost see the finishing line now.

Thanks again Mark.

You can almost see the finishing line? You must have good eyesight...

(The journey is (almost) as much fun as arriving!)

Good luck, and keep us posted.

Agreed, I have to have "mini victories" to keep me going, and also if I couldn't see the finishing line, then what's the point in going on, even if it is a miniscule dot on the the drifting horizon.

LOL