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Hello everyone. My name is Mary and I am an owner of a London Roadster. It was handed down to me by my grandfather. I’ve been checking out this forum for quite some time now so I figured I’d finally join. I do not know much about my car..just that it is a stunning roadster that was custom built on Detroit by the London Motors Corp in 1985 and It has a Porsche based 4 cyl engine with a fiberglass body.
I am very excited to meet others with a London Roadster, especially from PA 🙂Hiya Mary, good to have you here.
Confusing me by saying “Porsche”, I’m new to these replica cars and Volkswagen so I could only guess you might have meant the VW Type 1 engine designed by Porsche(?). Haven’t heard of anything other than that and Chevy or Ford forward engines. A whole lot I don’t know still, too.Fantastic that you have the London Roadster from your grandfather. Always wish I had my grandfather’s 1969 Malibu!Many of the LR owners at tdreplica, for sure.Welcome Mary, The London Roadster from the factory had a special built VW motor that had much more HP than a stock VW. Welcome to the group.
Welcome Mary ! I to have a London Roadster . I live in Western NY . I suspect that it a VW engine . Post a engine pic . We will let you know if its a VW engine . As you will find out there is not a lot of info on these cars .
Welcome Mary.
As you can see by the first 4 responses to your post, it is highly unlikely that you have a Porsche engine in your TDr and most likely, you wouldn’t even want one. If I had a Porsche engine in mine, I’d pull it, sell it and replace it with a Type 1 VW (standard beetle) engine. They (VW & Porsche) engines do have many things in common, but are not really interchangeable. The Porsche has different cam, crankshaft, pistons, connecting rods, flywheel, clutch, heads, valves and exhaust, to name a few. Plus similar parts for a Porsche would cost about 4x what VW part does.
VW engines are good reliable engines.
I see you live in Pa. Why not come to the Import and Kit car show in Carlisle in May?
Welcome to the forum, Mary! Glad to see more people from PA here. Hopefully we can meet you in Carlisle.
Vicenç - (bee sense)
Pembroke Pines, FL
1986 Aston - BCW Model 52 - "Montse II"(1983 FiberFab MiGi II - "Montse")
Welcome aboard Mary!
You’ll learn a lot about your LR and TDr’s in general here.Like the others said, it’s about a 99% certainty that you have a VW engine.But in the unlikely event you do have a Porsche engine, you’ll be able to sell it, buy a newly built VW engine, and have enough left over to buy a dozen TDr’s!Where are you in PA?Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Welcome Mary ,
Do yo have a VW chassis or custom tubular chassis? Either way you have a good solid built MGTDr by London Roadster. Do you still have all the manuals and paper work? I woud be happy to fwd to you if not…cheers …jebarry2015-04-24 11:52:41
Heck, a Porsche 914 itself has a VW engine in it. Modified of course, but that car was even marketed in Europe as a “VW-Porsche”. Porsche itself uses a lot of Audi engines today, and it’s own engines aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Google Porsche Boxster and “IMS” if you want to see. A lot of Boxsters have engines that grenade due to piss-poor design which Porsche won’t admit — even though they changed the IMS design about 4 times to eliminate the problem — then eliminated the IMS entirely in 2010 with the redesign. There is a whole cottage industry to fix IMS problems on Boxsters. Porsche makes beautiful cars but they are greedy and don’t care about their customers. I won’t buy another unless it is a replica.
Welcome. I’m also from PA. Out by Reading. Surely you can make Carlisle.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"Thank you so much! You are all so kind. To be honest, I know nothing about the engine. I have a poster that my grandfather made a while ago and it says,
” 1985 London RoadsterLimited (1500) EditionBuilt in Detroit by London Motors Corp.Porsche based 4 cal custom built engineRack and Pinion Disc Breaks Fiberglass bodyIndependent 4 wheel suspension “I live near Scranton, PA. I would absolutely LOVE to go to Carlisle to see other Roadsters. I’ve never even seen others before.Someone asked me about having a manual and about the engine.. I do not think that I have the manual. I have a bunch of papers that I have to sort through to see what I do have.I will take a picture of the engine and post it and I would really appreciate anyones input on it so that I can learn as much as possible about the car. All I know is that I love driving it and polishing it 🙂Unfortunately, I have a recent issue with it. It would hold a charge. I had the battery tested and it was good. It will start with a battery charger on it but when I turn it off, it would start back up.Any advice or does anyone know of mechanics that know about the car or have worked on their car before? Keep in mind that I am near Scranton..so I guess this is a question for someone in PA.Uh oh! She loves polishing her car. We’ve got to get her to come to Carlisle. I’ll bring the wax.
Mary, on your problem – it sounds like you may need to flash your field on the generator, unless you have an alternator instead of a generator. If you can post some good pics, we can tell you.
Do you plan on doing your own maintenance? Oil, brakes, timing, valve adjust? If so, buy John Muir’s VW for the Compleat Idiot (we all use it).
How long did your TDr sit before you drove it the first time?
Good luck with your new toy.I’ve had the car about 10 years or more. It never had any issues until now. I took it out for a few rides in the past month and all of a sudden this is happening.
Mary, I would check the ground cable. I had the same problem. I put a second ground cable on and it starts much better.
Dick,I just don’t understand why all of a sudden. If it is because I need a second ground, would it happen at a random time like this?
Mary :I would remove the battery cables and clean the posts with a wire brush . Also the cable ends. After a while the cables build up oxidation and electrons can’t flow . The oxidation will look glossy. In college course in automotive mechanics professor said 90 percent of electricial problems are caused by battery. Cleaning battery posts is an easy fix.
Welcome to the group Mary. It appears from the photos that you do indeed have a VW engine. It looks to be a 1600cc dual port engine with a generator and external voltage regulator. Very solid type 1 engine. I would suggest one thing. If you look at the photo with the voltage regulator on the top right hand of the fan housing, there are round ports on each side of the fan housing. Hard to tell from the photo but I would make certain that they are blocked off. If not you will lose a lot of cooling air around the cylinders and that is very not good.
newkitman2015-04-24 17:53:49Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The ShackMary. I hope we can meet you in Carlisle in a month or so.
I believe your starting problem may be battery related. How old is yours? I like using a deep cycle boat battery, as they last longer, but still every five or six years you tend to need a new one.As for grounds–they corrode. Usually, cleaning the old chassis ground when you clean the battery terminals will get you up and running.Her’s my 2 cents on the engine: the lower tins, including the “sled tins” that go under the cylinders and the floor tins that fit between the engine and (on the original Bug) the edge of the engine bay, look to be missing from your car. The engine will last longer and run better with them. If you come to Carlisle we can show you what you’re missing and maybe even get some replacements fitted.We’re always working on these things on the showfield. It’s totally normal.
Mary, you say that you’ve had the car for 10 years. And that you’ve “never had any issues until now”. Should I take that to mean that you’ve never replaced the battery?
The battery (regardless of how it tested) is a good bet. And of course, you can check for good clean tight connections while they are replacing it. My last battery failed after 2 months.
Sure does have a custom look alright. Thanks for the picture!
No coil for distributor… guessing that means electronic ignition (edit: nevermind, uneducated guess. Or expecting a different kind of coil for EI. Nothing I know about myself!).Heat risers not connected, and I don’t understand what the pair of hoses are for. Seem to go from #2 and #4 exhaust heads (or side of valve covers?) to somewhere around carburetor.No crankcase vent hose either, or I can’t see it anywhere at the oil filler.It’s interesting and different. Just wish I knew more about these engines.The fact the engine kept running when connected to a jump starter is curious, but you don’t say how the connections were made… battery alone, or battery and a metal part? Can’t imagine why it didn’t stop if so.LRH2015-04-25 01:08:51
Your engine looks like mine . I could never figure out the hose that goes from the fan shroud to the carb so I replaced it with a air filter . The holes in the shroud is an easy fix . Go to your local hardware buy expandable drain plugs take the car with you to get a good fit . They look good and they are cheap . In my opinion plugging those holes and any other holes in your shroud is very important
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