That awful colour MGB GT

[LynehamHerc]

Its a long time since mine has been on the road but it used to be my daily and I always found the heater to be OK, even through the Yorkshire winters. Not good,but acceptable. Maybe my standards of comfort were a lot lower then.

[cros]

I did not know that about the heater. I knew there was an upgrade but wasn't aware it was just a sprite heater matrix. Is removing the heater box as bad as everyone makes out it to be? To be fair, this is a summer car, so I really only need the heater for demisting in weather like at the moment.

If the engine did suffer mass oil loss or the like, at least it would give the perfect excuse to send it off to Oselli for a rebuild.

Sprite matrix is different, the upgrade ones have more tubes, but I'm not sure they're much better. It's not that awful to get inside.
Rebuilding a B series is very straightforward, easier than putting it in the car. As a bonus you get to see some peculiarities of the design especially when you put that distributor driveshaft in. Another surprise is that the cheap 'County' pistons (Taiwanese I think) that are supplied for most cooking builds, are very decent in quality and, in my experience, last well. I wouldn't piss about with an iffy block or a dubious boring company though.

[cros]

IMG_20190615_105924614.jpg

Love those wheels. What year is the beast?

*Don't underestimate my hatred for this place, an academic sewer.

It's a 72, though it hung about for 8 months due to the 3 day week and everyone sharing a bath to save water. Obviously if there's a similar campaign like we had back then it would be even more effective given the size of the average 2019 whelk. No room for any water at all.
I digress, the wheels are wrong, but I have an aversion to rostyles. The poxy hole in them isn't always 'true', so they're better balanced on the car. I used magic dust instead. Its of no concern to many owners anyway as they dribble down the road at 45 which is a waste- I've happily kept up 85 crossing Germany. I know, a mere dribble by teutonic standards.

[Hooli]

I always found my Midget heater pretty good once I fitted a winter (82c) stat.

[fried onions]

Just what I did with mine. The original combined thermometer/oil pressure gauge had a defective sender, it was pants anyway due to the useless scale, and mixing of scales. I put one in that is graded in degrees Centigrade and noticed the engine was running far too cool - around 50 degrees dropping far below that on a long descent. A new thermostat of a higher rating cured it. It now sits at an ideal 70 degrees and I have a lovely hot heater.

[Hooli]

Mine was the later 1,491cc Triumph engine. MG fixed* the issue of people complaining about low oil pressure by removing the oil pressure gauge! (are you listening SiC?)
On the original stat it run just over 1/4 on the gauge & the heater was only ever warm, with the winter stat it ran just under half with a lovely hot heater. I run the winter stat all year round as it never got hot in summer anyway.

[SiC]

Are Oselli not as good or well regarded as they used to be then?

Its of no concern to many owners anyway as they dribble down the road at 45 which is a waste- I've happily kept up 85 crossing Germany. I know, a mere dribble by teutonic standards.

Useful to know. Around 75-80mph I get quite a lot of disconcerting wheel vibration. Possibly the rostyles causing it?

[fried onions]

If it came to an engine rebuild, which you shouldn't even be thinking about at the moment, you could easily build it up yourself. Of course you'd still have to send the crankshaft and block away for attention.

[fried onions]

The vibration will likely be wheel balance or tyres.

[LynehamHerc]

Peter Burgess near Derby has a good reputation. That's where I'd go.