Jason's 1983 MK1 MG Metro - In Australia!

''This all started with an email from a friend saying “This would be a cool little runabout”..with a link to a “gumtree” ad. My name is Jason Birmingham & I live just north of Sydney, Australia. The Metro never officially came to Australia in any form, so here, the Metro is a very rare beast indeed. This particular car was located in Tasmania 1600klm & an overnight ferry trip to the south. A plane flight to Tasmania & a road trip home seemed doable. I would like to say that it was an easy trip home, but an old car, with little or no mileage on it in the last 3 years, Hydragas units with no gas left (hydragasless!) & ancient tyres made for a slow, VERY uncomfortable & anxious trip home. The oil pressure switch center blew out, spraying engine oil everywhere, two tyres expired & I broke the seat mounts off the floor with the bone jarring ride home…. But I DID make it home... testament to the toughness & durability of these little cars

It was meant to be a “Tidy up & put it on the road” job, but one thing led to another & it ended up as something else. The suspension was the first thing to attend to. Firstly, I am a fan of Hydragas, that was one of the things that attracted me to the car in the first place, but the MK 1 & 2 metro were compromised (in my view) by the individualised Hydragas units. Well, mine received a bit of a re-vamp, with MK3/4 interconnected Hydragas units & piping. I “re-gassed” the used MK3 units (Ebay) & fitted the interconnecting pipework from the MK3. I had to mess about with the length of the hydragas connecting rods to achieve the right front to rear balance, but it all turned out lovely. I removed the front & rear shock absorbers to achieve an awesome smooth soft ride (I’m old okay!). A rear sway bar tidied up the body roll. Also replaced were all the suspension knuckles, upper ball joints, lower control arm inner & outer bushes, and front & rear sway bar bushes. The steering rack was also replaced with a new old stock unit, along with a new steering coupling & upper steering column bush...So it got a good going over.

I was unhappy with the performance of the standard A+ engine. I felt that it didn’t really feel as lively as it should.. It was a “bit of a dog” we’d say in Australia. It seemed healthy enough, excellent compression, no rattles,“bugger all” oil consumption etc etc, it just felt lazy... Well after a lot of thought, I decided to go the Turbo route. This is a big story on it’s own, here's the spec so far.''

 Engine

• Garrett T15-45 water cooled turbo on a custom made exhaust manifold.
• Induction is via a GM throttle body injection unit adapted to the original intake manifold & controlled by a Megasquirt 2 control unit.
• Ignition is by a Ford EDIS4 ignition system, controlled by the Megasquirt 2.
• Intercooler is a hybrid Air to water intercooler .
• The standard A+ cylinder head had the combustion chambers enlarged to 26cc to reduce compression ratio.
• The pistons had 1mm removed off the top & dish to lower compression ratio (cylinders bored 0.5mm oversize)
• Cometic head gasket of 1.5mm, + ARP head studs (to lower compression ratio)
• The main & big end bearings are all standard sizes, but replaced.
• The camshaft was worn, so a low mileage A+ unit was sourced, with new cam followers, timing chain & tensioner.
• All rotating/reciprocating engine parts were balanced.
• The exhaust is a 2” straight through system, with a 16” long glass packed resonator up front, & a 16 “ twin chamber fibreglass rear muffler (quiet with a nice note)

  Gearbox

• The gearbox was smooth & quiet, with nice quick synchromesh, so I decided to leave this alone until it explodes (shouldn’t be long now!).
• I replaced the crownwheel & pinion to a 3.1 final drive to give me more relaxed highway motoring. The motor has plenty of torque to pull that ratio.
• I also changed the diff to a 4 pinion cross pin diff. I replaced the primary gear bushes whilst I was at it.
• The clutch is new, but standard. It will be replaced with a Metro turbo clutch, as the standard one is barely adequate & I want to up the boost level.

 Suspension, brakes and steering

• The brakes are upgraded to Metro turbo ventilated units.
• EBC “black stuff” brake pads, I dont like these though, as they are really dirty (maybe that’s why they call them “black stuff”) & they squeal like crazy. 

Exterior

• Falcon 165/60/12 tyres.
• LED headlamp conversion.
• John Brown wheels (Dunlop replicas)

 Interior

• The standard front seats have been retrimmed in a similar herringbone pattern to original.
• Alpine head unit.
• Rockford Fosgate Power series 4” front speakers in original position.
• Rockford Fosgate power series rear speakers in MK2 rear shelf mounts.
• JBL under seat sub woofer.