The irregular spacing of the MGB blades attenuates fan noise. The blade angles are (in degrees): 47.48, 55.92, 54.89, 47.64, 44.42, 63.78, and 45.87, respectively. The plastic is yellow. I painted my fan black.

This fan is a direct replacement for the stock fan on the TA/TB/TC (more about the TD/TF in a minute). The work is best done—troublesome, I know—with the radiator off; in other words, while your radiator is down at the shop being re-cored. Installation is straight forward, while taking note of the following.

The boss hole in the MGB fan fits nicely over the pulley boss with about 8 thou clearance around the edge. It may be that Rover is sourcing its fans in Taiwan, because the fan’s boss hole is not exactly round. Does this sound familiar? In any case, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the fan boltholes are centered precisely around the pivot point of the fan. Or at least they appear to be. And they line up nicely with the holes in the pulley. There are small differences, though. The plastic fan holes have metal inserts in them whose holes are slightly larger than the pulley boltholes. In addition, the radial distance of their respective holes from the central pivot point is different; the fan boltholes are a tad more distant. Closer investigation with the bolts installed reveals that their shafts butt up against the inner rim of the fan boltholes, centering everything up...well, almost. With the bolts loosely fitted, the fan can be adjusted slightly and moved a thou or two in one direction or another over the pulley boss. By tightening and spinning the pulley by hand (pulley installed), then loosening and adjusting as necessary, the fan can be centered within tolerable tolerances. I’m somewhat hamfisted, so if I can center mine perfectly—you can, too. Remember that this is a very lightweight fan, so being off center a thou or two shouldn’t create problems. When the installation is finished, don’t forget to check for any interference with hoses, etc.

With the radiator back in place, I was able to insert a 1/4-inch wrench with a 3/8 socket attached between the blades. Lock washers were added as a safety measure. With the bolts loosened, I was able to reach in and remove them by hand. When reinstalling the bolts, look for the bolt hole on the back side of the pulley boss to help locate your position. Perenthetically, using your fingers, the larger holes in the fan hub enable you to easily find (blind) the hole in the fan, then move the bolt around a bit to locate the smaller pulley hole. My hands are like catchers’ gloves. If I did it, you can do it.

I wasn’t able to check the MGB fan installation on the TD or TF. Given the thickness of the fan hub that holds the blades and the additional spacer on the TD/TF, the fan may wind up too close to the radiator. But I don’t think so. Eyeballing it, it looks like it will take the new fan with the spacer installed. If not, two alternative suggest themselves: 1) remove the spacer and see if the pulling power of the seven-bladed fan is still an improvement, even when farther away from the radiator; or, 2) reduce the height of the spacer to allow room enough to get your fingers and a 1/4-inch socket wrench with a 5/16 socket into the space. I leave it to a TD/TF owner to play with and let us know.

Vapor Lock: Leave the car in the parking lot for five minutes on a hot day after a long run and chances are the gas in the float bowls will have vaporized. The car may start, but you’ll wind up looking like a thirteen year-old learning how to use a manual clutch with the car bucking its way out of the lot as little drips of fuel get through the carb. Only when enough cooling air has passed over the carbs does the problem go away. There is a solution.

Any numbers of heat shields are available. I like the one from Brown & Gammon in the UK (email: sales@ukmgparts.com). The shield is made from heavy-gauge, machined aluminum giving it a nice, finished look. Copper riveted to the back is a thin layer of asbestos; itself shielded with a layer of aluminum. This is the layer closest to the manifold. The closest distance of the manifold to a float bowl is 1.2 inches, while the manifold clamp is even closer—just over a half-an-inch. Radiant heat is the main culprit here, as most of the conductive heat is blown away by the fan. As installed, a nice extra is the tunneling effect of the shield, keeping the conductive heat between the heat shield and the manifold and blowing it along the tunnel to the rear.

You may have to do a little Dremeling in spots, as the spaces in the shield through which the manifold clamps protrude aren’t quite large enough. Ten minutes with a Dremel are all that’s needed. In addition, the nut on the end of the throttle arm that connects with the bottom of the throttle link may hang up on the bottom edge of the shield. Don’t want any hang-ups there. Two fixes: Dremel a little vertical channel in the bottom of the shield to allow the nut to pass freely; second, move the throttle return spring clamp that’s attached to the inner bolt of the starter to the outer, right-hand bolt. If you keep it on the inner bolt, it tends to pull the throttle arm in toward the shield. Moving it to the right has the opposite effect. After doing this, you’ll find the throttle return spring too long. Any automotive store will have a throttle return spring that you can size to fit.

Finally, if you want to go the distance and fix all potential cooling problems, make two more changes. First, don’t use the Moss fan belt. It’s too short. Moss knows this but refuses to get the correct belt. Instead, order a belt (part no. 434-120; Goodyear stock number 22394) from Skip Kelsey at Shadetree Motors [(925) 846-1309l—email: kelsey@shadetreemotors.com]. This notched belt is slightly longer, moves your generator farther into the bulge on your bonnet and so, opens the space between the tach reduction gear housing and the distributor. Keep your belt loose—just enough to turn the generator—to avoid overtaxing the bearings in your generator.

In addition, consider installing a radiator overflow tank. I found a used MGB overflow tank—all brass with an inflow/outflow tube and an overflow tube attached. It holds 2.5 pints of water, more than enough. After wire-brushing all the crud off and repainting the attaching strap (don’t forget to get that, too), I polished it up and installed it on the inside, upper, forward edge of the firewall—in other words, at a 45 degree angle inside the firewall. It comes with its own radiator cap, so you must remove the rubber seal on the end of the cap to allow overflow water to escape out the overflow tube in the neck without pressure behind it. Route two hoses: one from the radiator overflow tube to the inflow/outflow connection on the overflow tank, another from the tank’s own overflow tube back out the firewall and down somewhere toward the tranny.

Making these modifications to your cooling system should make you, your significant other and your car’s engine very happy.

Cheers, Skip