When we regularly used our MGB Tourer to actually drive long distances it was surprisingly reliable as well as very comfortable.
Limited trunk space, though.
For the ignition system I have one word. Luminition.
To be honest, I've found that the more I drive it, the more reliable it becomes. I've had times where it was a near daily for me for a month or more just because the weather was nice, and those were the times when I could basically count on it to just be able to jump in and go anywhere.
Back in my single days, when I first bought the car, in the nicer months a nightly cruise to wherever the mood struck was a several times a week ritual. Issues were few and far between, unless for whatever reason I ventured very far on that accursed stretch of road known as I-71 between Louisville and Cincinatti. In all seriousness, I drove a decent distance there twice. The first time was a spur of the moment evening drive to Madison, Indiana. I went there on the back roads in Indiana, but it was getting dark and late and decided to hop across the river at Madison and come home on the interstate. About 20 miles from home, the ignition condenser(I later figured out) decided it was a good time to start going out, and I just managed to limp it home. The second time, I was going to a friend's house north of Cincy to work on it for the weekend. I was in stop and go traffic at about 8:00 at night where 71 merges into 75, and one of the carb floats or needle valves decided to get sticky. It was fine as long as I was moving, but kept flooding out and dying any time I stopped for any length of time. I pulled over a few times to whack both carb float bowls with a screwdriver handle, but that was a temporary fix. I made it, though.
I made the mistake in 2020 of having someone else who should have known what they were doing rebuild the engine rather than doing it myself. In that time I also got married, changed jobs, and moved 300 miles. The shop drug their feet telling me they couldn't get it to run right, and I finally told them to just give it to me how it was January 2021. I drove it to my parents house across town, barely making it up to 25(and my wife following me panicking because we were going so slow) only to get there and find the plug wires hooked up wrong
. I spent the next morning tuning it, then hopped in that afternoon for the 300 mile drive home without an issue.
I've spent the time since fixing all the little things they did wrong, and never being fully satisfied with how it was running. I suspected a cam timing issue, but of course getting to the timing chain with the engine in the car is a bit of a process. I'd started working on it in January, then the baby decided to make a bit of an early arrival and time has been scarce since then. Just about a week ago, I was able to finally pull the timing chain cover and found an un-deployed chain tensioner. Even though the chain is new and tight, there's still some slack in it and I suspect that the cam timing "wandering" explains some of what I've had issues with. Now I just need to finish buttoning it back up. I hopefully also fixed the timing cover oil leak that has been there since I got it back. I have another over around the oil filter side of the engine, and I suspect that they likely didn't get out the old O-ring between the block and the filter adapter.
Hopefully I can get it back on the road before the weather turns too cold...
BTW, I ran a Pertronix for a while, but now am back to points with a Winterburn CDI ignition module. The points just serve to trigger the module, and should last as long as the rubbing block will hold up since they aren't subject to the high voltage arcing in a Kettering-type points system. I've been happy with it, and it has been reliable.
