The V8 Owners Forum -

ive always wanted gilbern for years,throw away the v6 and fit an efi rover v8,but have never seen one in the flesh,but a chance chat with a guy about cars,he comented he had a mk2 gilbern,well to cut a long story i ended up with the car ,it was last tested in 1988,one family owned from new origional bill of sale,all receipts of everything spent on the car.
this is were my bottle went as to taking out the v6 lump and fitting a v8 ,lets face it would you,seriously?
cheers Al

Would I seriously?
Yep,without question.
Of course if you like chesse.........


Cheers
Paul

Hi Al,

Would this be the car I remember from my younger days called the Invader ? Alot of people won't agree with me on this but my personal opinion is that such a car should be preserved in original spec....ish...

I was looking at tuning the 3.5 in my factory BGT, but with not many mods you soon reach the kind of power that in all likelyhood will knacker the original 4 speed plus o/d on fourth gearbox. So I'm thinking, OK, put an LT77 in it, problem solved. Then I think hmm, with an LT77 I can have even more power ! This is then a case of do I really want to bother rebuilding and tuning my old 3.5 (very limited for a number of reasons) or do I go for a 3.9.. etc etc. Anyway, before I become boring (which I probably have already), I decided to keep the old girl factory original, with just a few tasteful mods, all of which can be reversed if you wanted the car back to totally original.

If it were me I think I'd be inclined to go along similar lines with the Gilbern.... Must be alot of reversible mods you can do to improve performance and roadholding etc without taking it's (ish) originality away.. Is it the 3 litre Ford engine in it ? How about a rebuild and a supercharger... keeps it kinda period but alot quicker

Anyway, I agree with your thinking and you're certainly no mouse, In the case of some cars I believe we have a responsibility to preserve them for the enjoyment of future generations....

It looks a lovely example of a very pretty car, quite frankley leaving that horrible v6 in it is an act of total crualty the only engine more revolting than the essex is that hideous v4 tractor engine ford made for far too long. Do the decent thing pull it out and put a nice V8 in it preferably the 302 it always should have had. In many cases I can see the desire for originality but not when it involves inflicting an essex V6 on some poor car.
Best regards
Mike

yes is an invader mk2 ,the suspension is mgc , you can get an mgb with a v8 in ,you would think there would be some v6 in an mgb,but i have never heard of one,unless the mgb has a different suspension to the mgc,thought it only had different hubs one 4 stud and other 5 . might be wrong but i have never seen the underside of an mgc.
its the rearity of car that is on its side.
i like cheese on my cracker.Al.

Nice car, yet another car I always wanted. As much as I love the sound of a V8 leave the V6 in and keep it original, there's not many decent examples about.

Have to agree with the keep it original opinion, if you start swapping engines you could destroy it's value.


I know the Essex V6 is a heavy old lump but the one in my 3.0 Mk1 Capri with 140 BHP gave the car very good performance and I'd assume the Gilbern is probably a bit lighter.

There used to be tuning parts available to easily provide 170 BHP.

Probably worth joining the Gilbern Owners Club they could point you in the right direction.

MGC body shell is totaly different chassis wise from the bulkhead forward and has double wishbone and torsion bar front suspension and no crossmember.

Makes fitting a V8 a piece of cake but donor cars are too expensive, but has been done.

Have a look here for some interesting MG's

http://www.britishv8.org/Photos-MG-Conversions.htm

Edit, Also just found this.

http://www.essexengines.com/power%20charts.htm

Kevin

had a play with the gilbern today,engine sounds realy nice,i only need to bleed the brakes,but i am having trouble,will have to borrow a preashure bleeder.cant wait to go for a drive.
cheesey Al.

Good stuff Al, it looks in great nick, any more pics ?

here are a few more photos,it seems that the car has a vinyl dash,most of the mk2 have a vaneer dash ,it was a factory option i think it looks better,

Would I replace the V6 - in a heartbeat.
Originality or Modified well in this instance - I would still rip the V6 out in a heartbeat. I would go a half way to nod toward originality and make a further 33% improvement by fitting a SBF 302. Not original granted but surely not worth less.

Andrew

Essex V6 isn't that bad I've had three Scimitar GTE's and enjoyed all three and would buy another if I could find a good example.

Is that an 8 track stereo you have got there under the dash?

oh yes ,8 track it never took off,bit of a problem getting decent tapes though,i think i will run the car for a bit and enjoy it .it was going to be used everyday but now im having doubts as it is to good to leave out in all weathers ,so for now its a fair weather car
wimping out mouse.