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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - Cast Aluminum MG Valve Covers

I just bought a set of these from http://www.mgbv8parts.com and am very impressed with the quality compared to all cast valve covers I have ever seen.

They don’t come with the sparkplug wire clips, but the covers are drilled and tapped for those clips and it’s necessary to install them or at least insert bolts into the holes because the to ones on the top go all the way through. The only pictures I have found of the clips that go on the sides to route the wires to the rear plugs is an illustration that’s at a bad angle. Could someone say if those clips hold one or two wires each? Also please say what material the four clips are made of whether it’s brass, aluminum, plastic or whatever.
George Champion

Hi, George,

If the aftermarket valve covers have the holes in the same place as the Factory loom clips, then I know exactly how they look and where they go. The clips are all made out of black plastic, and are standard Rover items.

The two screw holes on the top of the covers near the front are for a 4-wire loom clip held by one screw in the middle, this clip holds all 4 wires from the distributor cap to each cylinder bank. Grooves moulded into the bottom of the clip intersect the parallel ribs in the top of the valve cover, locating the loom clip at about a 30 degree angle on the top of the cover. This clip is Rover part number 603672.

There is a loom clip for a single wire that screws into one of the small bosses on the outer side of the RH valve cover, this clip hangs down slightly below the bottom edge of the cover. This clip is designed to hold the plug wire to the rear cylinder. This clip is Rover part number 587477. There is no corresponding clip on the LH side, because this hole is used for the dipstick tube bracket. Note - this clip may have been present on Rover installations, but deleted on MG V-8 installations, although the Factory MG V-8 manual has some drawings showing it in place.

There are also one or two loom clips that hold 4 wires, but are free floating with no holddown screw. These go on the 4 wires leading to the RH bank of cylinders. These are Rover part number 603673. One of these goes half way between the distributor cap and the 603672 loom clip on top of the RH valve cover, the other goes on the outer side of the RH valve cover, as the wires begin to curve down toward the spark plugs. This second clip may not have been present on MG V-8 installations.

The securing screws are coarse thread, fillister head Phillips screws, similar in appearance to the valve cover securing screws but smaller. The Rover part number for these is 78862.

Remember that the Manual recommends that you do not run the plug wires for cylinders 5 and 7 next to each other in the loom clip. The order of the wires in the LH loom clip should be 1-5-3-7, with wires 5 and 3 crossing over each other to reach their plugs. This prevents crossfiring between cylinders 5 and 7, which are adjacent in the firing order.

Also note that Rover V-8 plug wire sets have straight in boots at the distributor cap for those wires going to the LH bank, and right angle boots on those wires going to the RH bank. I searched and scrounged to find all original Lucas boots for mine.

The good news is that I might have a full set of these loom clips available, since I bought some spares when restoring my GT V-8. E-mail me offline and we can talk.

Hope this helps,
Paul Kile
"No Detail too small for the Discriminating Enthusiast"
Paul Kile

Paul,

Such an incredibly thorough answer is more than I hoped for. You are the perfect source for this type of information after your painstaking restoration. I will e-mail you as suggested. Thank you.
George Champion

Paul, you have excelled yourself !
David

"There are also one or two loom clips that hold 4 wires, but are free floating with no holddown screw"

Two, one for each bank. One bank has the loose clip fitted between distributor and fixed clip, the other bank between fixed clip and plugs, because of the angle of the distributor cap. I *think* the former is the RH bank and the latter the LH, but it is obvious when looking at it.

PaulH.
Paul Hunt

To others that may want to add these covers to your conversion, be forewarned the tubes that are for connecting to the flame traps crowd the centrally mounted carburetor. They can be removed easily and replaced with plastic 90 degree elbows found in the PCV section of auto parts stores.
George Champion

This thread was discussed between 30/08/2001 and 04/09/2001

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