Hello everyone.
It's another off-season for the Morgan Sprint Series (www.speedmog.co.uk) and it looks like Missprint and I are moving up the classes again. We have spent 2 years in Class 1 - Standard Carb 4/4 upto 1701cc and 2 Years in Class 3 - modified 4/4 upto 1701cc.

Time has flown by during the last 4 years and we have had a great time, lots of fun, some great successes and met some amazing people. Setting many class records, Missprint beating me several times and a rare outright Morgan FTD!!

We have undertaken a lot of development work on the little 4/4 CVH:

Year 1 - Basic race prep - roll-bar, rear suspension hoop, AVO's, bucket seats, scuttle roll-bar, brake reaction bars, race screen. Engine 89bhp & 80FtLb



Year 2 - Blueprinting - Cross-hatch'ed thick wall head, Newmann cam, new block, turbo crank, new carb, minilight weels. 89bhp & 105FtLb




Year 3 - Modification - bore out block 0.5mm, High Compression Pistons, Lightweight Flywheel, New gass-flowed cross-hatched head, solid lifters, race cam, oversize valves, twin 45's, close ration gear-set, omex 3d ignition ecu. 130bhp & 110FtLb - http://www.talkmorgan.com/ubbthreads.php/galleries/42661/2



Year 4 - Experemented with different cams, upgrade to 4 pot brakes.. that's pretty much it. 135bhp & 110FtLb



Having come to an end in terms of CVH development - there are very few High Power CVH engines out there and the route to this peak requires custom pocketed pistons which I'm not interested in for the cost/bhp benefit.

Through this process we have a great idea on what works and what does not on the CVH.. in the end though I've decided that progression is the order of the day.

You have probably heard me talk about the Zetec E conversion for the CVH cars for a while....I'm going to put my money where my mouth is!! - The Zetec E providing a very cost effective upgrade which mates easily to xflow and CVH technology/fitting - similar to many many older Morgans out there. It's readily available in stock injection setup, twin carb and finally throttle-bodies.

Over the last few months I've been working on the research required to complete this conversion as well as sorting out the designs and spec's I'm interested in.

With parts already arriving, over the next few months I'll be working on:
1) Getting engine built (I've developed a good relationship with a Motorsport engine builder - more on that exciting development later). It will be a 2000cc Zetec E black-top engine on Webber DCOE's but will be built to look like a Cosworth BDA with the ancillaries, water rail etc all in period position and look. Should be a real treat on the eyes.
2) Undertake some work on the body of the car to deal with some anticipated aerodynamic issues that will make their presence felt at an increased average speed. Handily Young-One's other half happens to be a PhD Aerodynamicist and he's offered to knock together a flow dynamics computer model to help in this area.. .it's going to be tricky though as we need to stay within the race regs - no large rear wings and the silhouette needs to be retained.
3) Deal with driveline issues - possibly new tyres (size, type, brand) and possibly a Limited Slip Diff.

Through this process I'll keep you all in the loop with photo's and it does mean that there will be an opportunity for a few people to benefit initially from the previous CVH development work at a cost far cheaper than the original build to me. I'll be keeping hold of the original unmolested engine but that's only one of now 3 engines I have - in various states of tune. All parts have been stored in an engineeringly minded way so are top notch condition with little running hours on them. I'll list these out later - when they are no longer needed, but if anyone wants the inside track then drop me a private message.

The "target" is to get the 4/4 to:

1) 750kg's (currently at 790kg's)
2) 240-250bhp (currently at 130bhp)
3) 180FtLb of torque (currently at 110FtLb)
4) Spend significantly less that purchasing an alternative Morgan 4/4, +4, V8

I suspect these targets are going to be just that, we'll be a little off target with each but it sets the aim-of-the-game.

That's all for now.... I'll keep you updated on developments as they happen.

Cereal,

Good luck with the coming year and the developments all sound go.

But and it is a VERY BIG BUT, I can't believe you've admitted to being beaten buy a GIRL

At least I didn't have to pay extra for it.. I think that makes me one lucky guy . Maybe it's her national tendencies coming out.

Thanks for the vote of support btw... it's going to be one very exciting development.

Although not particularly interested in modding my car, I found the write up and the photoes really interesting. Good luck with your plans.

Hey,

I knew there was something interesting coming. I'm looking forward to seeing this out in action!!

Pal of mine in S. Glos is putting just the same motor in his road going CVH 4/4. Will be on carbs, Omex ignition. Not going racing though.

Hope all goes well - look forward to reading the updates right here!

Cheers,

Great write-up Andrew and congrats to both of you on your success' so far!

Looking forward to hearing more about your racing exploits and of course, Missprint's too.

Cheers
Brian

First two photos at Curborough - who is that sitting in Smithy's car - doesn't look like him!
2nd two at Gurston. Fifth also at Gurston?

Looking forwad to an interesting season!

Cheers,

Why did you choose the Zetec E, and not the Mazda VVT 2.0 lt. as in the new +4 SS. Was it because of the easier fit to gearbox etc?

Broadly yes... the Mazda VVT is a more expensive unit new or used. It also requires a more expensive ECU (to control the VVT), alternative flywheel and bellhousing (as it does not mate to a standard Ford bolt pattern). It also has a reversed orientation with intake on the RHS and the Exhaust on the LHS as you face the front of the car.

This would mean modifying the bay pannels and fabricating a new exhaust whereas I'm aiming to use as much off the shelf as possible. Remember I already have the intake holes on the car.

I also wanted to keep the car looking reasonably period. The Duratec would stick out and there is no parts to make it BDA-a-like.

The latest Morgans run the Mazda/Ford Duratec derivative and have done for a while... it would be simpler to purchase a new car. I also think the cost of engine only upgrade would begin to overlap in the "buy a new car" terrarory.

Think of this as an easy and cost effective upgrade for any older 4/4.

The first pic is probably the taster day so not sure.
Last pic is Castle Combe

Cheers - Hope to catch up with you and Team Miller at a few more events this year.

Yep: first pic is a taster day, that's Emily, my baby daughter, who had a great day there. Since then, she's done an autosolo and a CT. No sprinting though.

Really fascinating update Cerealsurfer......keep the details coming AND some photos too!!

UPDATE 1

Well it's been a couple of weeks now I thought I'd let you all know how things are coming along. TBH it's mostly been a lot of planning and phone calls.

Main engine

2 weekends ago we dropped our donor 2.0 Blacktop Zetec E engine upto our engine builder. A large package of parts arrived from Raceline just in time to take some of the key components, Alu Sump etc. up with the engine.

Since then we've been in regular contact sorting out the Clutch/Fly combo and choosing to to get the Cylinder Head soda blasted and 4mm ball bath polished.

The Water Rail from Raceline whilst Alu looked a quality component the finish was "cast" style and whilst neat it's possibly not in keeping with the BDA cover or how I want the engine to be finished aesthetically. So we kept hold of this and popped it over to Premier Plating a neighbouring company. They buffed the surface on their industrial wheels to give a really shiny finish.



Unfortunately their smallest wheel is not quite small enough to get into the corners, so out came the small polishing and porting kit to get it really shiny all around. You can see the difference where the lips and tight corners are.



We'll now ship this back to the engine builder for incorporation into his workflow.

Next up Tyres
Last year we saw G-D-S test a Yokohama road tyre for the factory on the track. Toyo's T1R's have dominated the scene for a while as the size of 185/55/15 is pretty hard to get and the performance price point makes them ideal. A couple of years ago Yokohama launched a tyre called the Advan AD08, it's lineage sits on the 1B side of the Yokohama product line but it'a a 1A tyre. To give you an idea the AD08's have a wear rating of 180 Vs. 280 for the Toyo's. The main complaint for the Toyo's is also the flexibility of the side-wall which allows a lot of lateral movement when pushing them. This year Yokohama introduced a 185/55/15 and a 205/50/15 into their range which has attracted me to take a look. To get an independent view I nipped along to Adam's and Page the UK's largest Yokohama Motorsport dealer who is also a Toyo leading agent for a discussion with him (handily he is also just round the corner from us). We whipped a couple of tyres off the shelf and compared to our current wheel tyre set-up. I'm looking for a wider tyre for the rear to help control some of the power we're going to have available. In the end, we ordered a test set to trial how they fit onto the car, after all we've not tried a 205/50/15 on the rear and we have to be careful on the fronts as any wider tyre (even in moulding tolerance) could potentially interfere with the top end of the sliding pillar spring.

To give you a comparison here is the difference on the rears.



Having test fit both a front and a rear, I'm happy to report they both fit fine and I'm looking forward to measuring on the telemetry system the increase in lateral G that this set-up allows.

Dash
The next activity we have to get sorted is our dash... the current set-up is partially not currently working (spedo) and we've been running on a faulty rev-counter which wanders badly. In order to integrate the Omex 200 ECU and the Race Technology DL1 I already have I've decided to upgrade the Dash 3 we have to a RT Dash 2 (they also handily offer an upgrade scheme to control costs). It's a full dash with indicator, headlight, parking brake etc. it's indglo, completely programmable and a 3 way serial is available for seamless integration. It also meets the MOT and RTA requirements so can completely replace what we have.





The current dash will be taken out this week and a replacement template will be cut from Alu sheet. A new layout will be designed next weekend and we've decided to cover it in Carbon Vinyl to keep things simple.



Other things that have now been sorted:

Availability of LSD, Race Fuel Tank, Anti-tramp bars and the supply of a side exit exhaust (and ongoing supply for 2.0 Zetec E conversions made to template) - watch this space.

That's all for now folks... more work and pictures soon!!!

Cereal

Cereal, I did enjoy reading your update. Thanks

Thanks for the pictures Cereal and the update. Look forward to more soon!

Where are you going to fit the KERS and the DRS??

KERS...DRS.....LOL

Given all that bright work there will be plenty of OOOs and AHs.

Seriously though it looks like it is going to be a show car as well as a race car. Stunning! I hope to see it in the metal one day.

Give Billy Bellinger a call ref your LSD (JB Sports Engineering) email me if you want his number.

I'll drop him a line as I need to sort out both the LSD and getting it put into the housing.

Sorry it's been quiet on the western front. I've been busy in the background though so here's an update with plenty of pictures.

First Job - Dash
A couple of weekends ago we stripped the existing dash out of the car, handily where we had rebuilt most of the car a couple of years ago all the labelling of the wiring harness is still in situ. Saved a bit of a job.



We then stripped down the old dash as we'd added and cleaned up various aspects to make it suitable for racing rather than driving miss daisy.



This could then be used to make a new dash blank, as I mentioned earlier, I looked at a carbon sheet for a dash but its pretty pricy and I'm not sure its easy to work with?? Anyhow an aluminium plate with Carbon effect viynl seemed a better easier and cost effective option. So we used the old dash outline to create a Aluminium dash blank outline. As I am going to use a Race Technology Dash 2 most of the old gauges and dash lights are not going to be needed so we also need to sort out a new layout.. anyhow, first off lets get a blank sorted....



Now to sort the layout, as a race car visibility and proximity is important, from experience, whilst the glove box cover mounted telemetry system was easily mounted and usable it was not really easy to get to from the driver seat whilst strapped in. Something closer would be nice. None of the headlight, indicator, warning light lamps would be needed as they are integrated into the Dash 2 and neither will be the oil temp, oil pressure and voltage gauges. So in the end only the switch gear and the fuel gauge is required.

Handily the Dash 2 is the right shape to be seen by the driver through the steering wheel - none the less, it's outline was traced to ensure location of the display.



Having cut out all the holes required the DL1 telemetry mount needs to be bonded to the blank - the mount needs to hold the DL1 horizontally and in a secure fashion. Given the slight incline of the dash in a Morgan a custom bracket needed to be fabricated. We decided to bond the bracket to the dash as a bolt type attachment would only mess up the front of the dash when the vinyl is on.







Once the bond was dry we took the dash down to a local sign company we use to get it Vinyl wrapped. They do several types of carbon wrap from shiny finish mostly graphic print through to matt finish, thick texturised realistic carbon finish. After some consideration we decided on the matt finish as we have had in the past, mainly on Aero's reflection problems with the turned ali dash plate. The only downside is that this type of vinyl cannot be wrapped around sharp angles which means we have had to trim around the dash blank rather than wrap over the edges. I don't think this is going to be a problem though as all the dash components have facia covers so you'll never be able to see the edge and we have painted the lower edge of the ali plate in black. Any-how, the picture below shows as far as we have progressed on this job.




Replacement fuel tank & Limited Slip Diff

I've made a number of calls this week, chasing down progress of the fuel tank and bracket (Mulfab) and talking to J B Sports Engineering (Billy Bellinger) about getting the 7HA axle refurbished and fitted with an LSD. When I spoke to JB he said there was a choice, refurbished original 7HA plate LSD, Gripper (new style plate type) LSD and Quaife ramp style. All reliable and about the same price. So Quaife unit was the one I went for. So need to strip out the rear Axle to send it off and at the same time strip out the tank and wooden boards that it sits on.

So this week the car started out on all 4 wheels running and mobile, I think this is the last time its going to be like this until its finished.

First job was to strip out the old tank, having drained the tank we disconnected the filler pipe, which was perished (Which was an eye opener given its only 4 years old) followed by disconnecting the fuel gauge sensor and disconnecting the fuel feed and return pipes. As we won't be needing the wooden planks under the fuel tank for the new tank we cut them out and dropped the tank out that way.



You can see the fuel pipes we fitted as part of the race safety prep a couple of years ago sticking up in the middle of the spare wheel tank opening.



You can also see the wheel centralising and lowering blocks just under the near side of the axle.

The new tank will be one of these...



mounted by a direct mount bracket which allows quick access



Having sorted out the tank, next on the list was the back axle. This needed to be stripped out of the car and packaged off to be sent to JB Engineering this week, once this was done the car is unlikely to be back on 4 wheels for a 2-3 weeks!!

First up stripping out the Avo's



Also disconnecting the rear brakes stripping the drums and shoes.

To get the axle out of the car, you have to take the half shafts out. Luckily they came out with only mild persuasion and we could strip them out quickly.



This meant we could easily drop the rear axle out of the car and package it up for JB Engineering.





This left a pile of parts that won't be going near the car again for a while, and in some cases ever again.



This left the little car pretty disabled with no rear end...

That's a lot of work for one day.. so we need to get packed up and get the car mobile for the week. So what we decided to do was to put the car back on the trailer using wood blocks as a cradle for the rear of the car. To get it onto the trailer though we needed to drop the car onto the trailer rather than lift it from underneath. So first up is to get the lift arms out using stands.



We can then "hang" the car from the lift arms. One strop round a wooden plank under the front chassis arms and then two short strops round the roll-bar as its attached to the chassis with some seriously over engineered brackets and bolts. We get a flying car!!





This allowed us to drop the car gently onto the trailer which we slid under the floating car.





That's all for this week.. its all been put away for the week. Mulfab should be sending the tank back next week along with the Anti-tramp bars so I'll post photo's. The Dash still needs finishing so I'll be back on that next week to get that ready for when the engine arrives and the harness can be connected up.

Thanks Cereal......some really fascinating stuff there

+1
and the cost, where you are?

Currently within target... ie. less than the cost of upgrading to either a +4 or +8 racer.

The engine is the interesting part for us, Zetec E engine conversion packages will be offered based on the work we are doing. Standard 2.0 (130-150), Fast Road 2.0 (150-200) and Sprint 2.0 (200-250). Options around brakes etc. will be offered along side.

We are working with an Engine development company to make these off-the-shelf with pre-coded ecu's (designed for us) to control costs. Twin DCOE's or TB's

Thanks for the posting, good to be kept abreast of your progess.

Excellent stuff!
Like the bit about 'flying car'. Look forward to seeing it fly when it's all back together

Yes, it makes a really interesting read Andrew.

Good luck to you and Missprint for the season.

Just seen your mogworksracing web site. I can see that I may have to make it a favourite.

re "The engine is the interesting part for us, Zetec E engine conversion packages will be offered based on the work we are doing. Standard 2.0 (130-150), Fast Road 2.0 (150-200) and Sprint 2.0 (200-250). Options around brakes etc. will be offered along side.

We are working with an Engine development company to make these off-the-shelf with pre-coded ecu's (designed for us) to control costs. Twin DCOE's or TB's" - Is this something you are going to offer the general public?

Yep.. that's the idea, there are plenty of pre, x-flow and cvh Mogs running around for whom moving to more modern tech will give ease of drivability, maintenance and reliability.

The trick for us is to keep the cost down and utilise as much of the existing kit as possible (gearbox etc)... and TBH keep the engine looking reasonably period (including looking into modified DCOE castings with injector fittings). Ford is also a period Morgan supplier of engines so the Zetec E should have no cultural challenges around authenticity.

Hopefully using our experience we will be able to get a repeatable and by-the-numbers approach which gives a predictable outcome and quality.

I guess I am going to have to buy your Dad a few pints at the next TVMOG noggin.

Another weekend and another chance to get some work done on getting the race car one step closer to the first race of the season.

First off this weekend was checking out the new tank which arrived from Mulfab along with the Anti-tramp bars. Second but main activity was getting the dash finished as it was still a dash covered blank.

Fuel Tank
A big box arrived from Mulfab this week as expected which heralded the arrival of the foam filled lightweight tank. So in a very Christmas style moment, first activity of the day was to open the box and quickly compare to the old tank.



You can see the tank vent on the left (red) and the dip stick on the right.



You can see in this picture the mounting bracket which does away with the wooden boards.



At the rear on the left you can see the LHS and RHS pick-up pipes from inside the tank and also the Fuel return pipe if you are using injection (or some carbs have this).

I asked Mulfab for a tank which I could use with Carbs but also use with injection in the future if I wished, so this tank is suitable for both.



The tank itself is foam filled to stop sloshing



This is looking inside the tank where the fuel gague sensor goes..



A quick check to compare to the old tank and all's good!!!



That done... on to getting the dash sorted.

Sorting out the Dash
So onto the main job for the weekend getting the dash in.

This is how we left the dash... as a black cut out covered in carbon effect vinyl.



So we need to take things forward, I've dummied the gauges and switches up to the dash blank so really the next job it so graft on the RaceTechnology Dash2 harness to the original Morgan loom.



Most of the original gauges and warning lights are all integrated into the single Dash2 chassis so there is going to be a lot of soldering. The Dash2 also has channel expanders which allow the addition of 4 Analogue inputs to be wired directly into the Dash display and passed back to the RachTechnology DL1 for logging purposes. I happen to have spares left on the DL1 but this could be used for Engine Temp, Battery Voltage, Oil Pressure etc... It does also do Fuel gague function but apparently it can be hard to calibrate so I've decided to stick with the original gauge. In my case the DL1 will also feed a GPS speed to the dash for display. I've invested in a special cable which connects the RaceTechnology DL1 Data Logger to the Dash2 but also has a connector for the Omex 100 ECU allowing RPM etc to be fed directly from the ignition controller.



Having labelled up the multi-pin connectors it was time to start cutting down the redundant parts of the original Morgan Loom and soldering on the main connectors. This was done as sympathetically so we could save/re-use as many of the connectors or laps as possible if we needed to in the future. We also shrink wrapped the joins to protect them from corossion.



You can see this is going to be a long job with 20 or so connectors to get through... Dad and I settled in for the afternoon. The result of a lot of soldering and use of a heat-gun can be seen in the pics below.





.... several hours later.....this was all sorted. So now to offer up the dash to the car and get it mounted.... the first fit can be seen below.



You can see the DL1 on the mount we bonded onto the dash last weekend. It seems to be working out great. There were a few extra holes to drill to mount the dash up as we had intended to put screws across the top not just the sides.

You can see by looking at the back of the dash how the RactTechnology loom cleans up the harness. You can also see the DL1 with it's sensor set wired in.



Back of the rocker switches and DL1.. you can really tell there are less dash items to wire in.



So.. what does all this hard work look like...? time for the reveal.



I'm pretty happy with the look, nice and sharp and pretty minimalist which is a good thing considering you want all the important information right in front of you.

Question is, does everything work, that's a lot of wiring that could be incorrect.. do ya feel lucky????? we handily the methodical approach we had taken meant that everything worked first time around



We tested all the functions that are wired in, which is all the lights, there will be some more elements once we get the engine back from the builders. But given it was getting on for 8pm, it was time to call it a day. Time well spent.





That's all for this week!!!!!

I'm in London tomorrow. If I escape early enough, might stick my nose around the door.
Serious progress! And use of midnight oil

Cheers,

If I knew you were going to post pictures of the inside, I would have cleaned off the marker pen notes!

Just shows it's made by engineers and not by machines. Makes it more real somehow.
Thanks for your work.......

I'm probably a bit thick.......but if the tank is full of foam how come the interior shot showing Simon's marker pen notes?

That's the internal void where the fuel level sensor goes

Does the foam affect the time for filling the tank?

No idea not filled it yet.. but I would expect not given the viscosity of fuel.

Simon H will probably be able to give a more definitive answer

Good to see the car in the metal this afternoon.
Thanks to Brian and Ann for the coffee and chat while I unwound from a wasted trip into London - calling in to High Wycombe was the highling of the day

Cheers,

How much lighter was the aluminium fuel tank compared to the original?

John

That should say highlight...

Be interested in the tank too - my steel one will need replacing one day and I'd like a little greater range...

Cheers,

Well I had a huge adventure with the fuel tank yesterday. I'll post some photo's but the net result is it's not in the car but back to Mulfab for some adjustments....

Sorry things have been a bit quiet, unfortunately sometimes life gets in the way.. anyhow, this weekend back to business!!

General Update
Unfortunately we have run into a few delays over the last few weeks.

Engine
PEC the conrod manufacturer has had some delays in importing the Zetec E rods we need. It's a bit annoying as we went with PEC for a couple of reasons, one of which was turn around time. If we knew this delay would exist we would have gone with another supplier, Arrow/Cosworth or Carrillo. Anyhow, latest news is that they are coming through and we should have the engine sometime next week. We've also been resolving the Flywheel and Clutch combo, initially we were going to use a modified 1800zetec flywheel with a Zetec clutch and longer thrust bearing. However when the donor flywheel was checked the Clutch bolt holes were a couple of thou out and would cause extreme vibration at the RPM's we're looking at. Plan B was to use the modified TTV Zetec flywheel and Pinto clutch on my existing CVH engine. Unfortunately this flywheel does not have a Crank position trigger pattern milled into it, so in the end "it's no dice" on that front. Now we are back to open options I'm inclined to go with the "right" option, so I'm thinking of going for a TTV Zetec Superlight Flywheel with either a 7.25inch or 5.5inch clutch pack. Ideally a twin plate ceramatallic 5.5 inch package to keep rotating masses down. Anyhow, jury is still out on this, tbc next week.

Axle
Having shipped the back Axle up to JB Engineering three weeks ago, I'd not been aware that they were in a 2 week shutdown for charity work. An honourable task to be delayed by and now they are back they are turning around the axle pronto but this only started Tuesday last week when they returned. ETA on this is likely to be next week as well....

Could have the engine and axle back at the same time!!

Main Update - Fuel tank
This week we lifted the car back off the trailer and went about fitting the tank. We quickly ran into a few snags. The tank is, in outline "the right shape", just the filler and the fuel sender unit is in the wrong place for our car. Possibly this is suited to an earlier 4/4. Anyhow you can see the problem below.




So... following a quick phone conversation to Peter at Mulfab (who was very accomodating) we spent the rest of the day revising/remarking the layout for a replacement to be made. In addition we designed the swirl pot we need which can be used now for carbs but also in the future if we go injection.

Firstly we needed to validate the outline measurements of the frame. We unbolted the tank from the frame and mounted the frame in position. Using an extended square we measured the limitations of the volume of the space. Once checked we knew that the tank itself would fit into the available hole using the carrier. The problem seemed to be specfically the location of the filler and fuel sender unit. The filler snags the rear frame of the driver tub and there is not enough height for the fuel sender unit to protrude above the tank - as the tank would almost touch the top of the evailable hole.

We re-mounted the tank to the frame and held it up on an axle stand and used masking tape to mark out the limitations and revised attachment fitting locations. As it will have to be a new tank, we have also taken the opportunity to mark out ideal locations for the LH and RH fuel pick up connectors and the fuel return connector. These have been marked out to be ideally placed for a rear mounted 1.2lt swirl pot. (the white paper cylinder).





We had been advised to put the swirl pot where the battery used to be, behind the seats, whilst this probably works, it doesn't help accessibility and would require quite a lot of pipe-work..... so we had a look to see where else could work. In the end we've plumped for a swirl pot just over a litre above the LHS of the tank. If we moved the connectors to the top of the tank this would result in much shorter runs of pipework and easy access to both the swirl pot itself and all three of the fuel pumps.

Our proposal is the following:





On the RHS at the rear of the swirl pot there are the two lift feeds coming from the RHS top surface of the tank. The output feed to the engine is at the lower front (you can see the existing metal fuel pipes sticking up). The overflow from the top of the swirl pot can feed back down into the return just to the LHS of the swirl pot. The remaining feed that we won't need right now but will do in the future is the injection return. It's the second of the metal fuel pipes sticking up and will also have a feed back into the Swirl pot.

The net result is the following outline:





Next week could be a big week with many things all happening at once, the axle and engine could be ready to return. The Fuel tank shortly after.

We need this to happen as we only have 7 weeks until Race 1 (5/6 May) and once all this hardware is fitted the Librahds exhaust needs making/fitting. Once this has been fabricated the engine can be started for the first time and the 3D ignition ECU and carbs need sorting.

It's looking like things are going to get busy!!!

So where did we leave things....!?
Ah yes.. Engine - delayed due to con rods, Fuel Tank - Back to Mulfab for re-manufacture and Axle still with JB Engineering getting sorted out.

So where are we now....?

Mulfab came up trumps... thanks for turning round a great tank in a short space of time along with custom swirl pot! JB Engineering also delivered the axle so we've had a couple of pretty major jobs on. We were aiming to have the engine back this weekend as well but it looks like that is going to be next week now – not that we’re short of things to do, but we are slightly behind plan on getting things turned around, handily I’d planned some slippage time into the programme so we’re still ok for the 5th/6th May first race.

First job on the list was to get the Axle back in, we were also installing anti-tramp bars as well so these jobs can get done at the same time.

The anti-tramp bars require some modification of the heel board to get them tucked through into the cabin to slide onto the front spring mounting bolt.



In the week the seats were removed and the relevant modifications were made to the heel board.



Peter up at Mulfab said that the metal bar across the rear edge of the heel board base needs modification (a notch cut out) so the anti-tramp bars can articulate to the lowest point without bending them. You can see the problem below, clearly the Anti-tramp bar is not going to go low enough to put the bolt through.



In our case this was not enough and in the end decided to remove the cross bar and cut the board back to the heel board and move the cross bar forwards. You can see where we have removed the bar and cut the board back.



Whilst this makes an ideal fix for the Anti-tramp bars it introduces a complication with the brake line mounting bracket which needs to be cut off the cross bar as the flexi pipe is too short otherwise. So what to do there? We decided in the end to cut a small piece of angle and re-weld the brake pipe bracket to keep it in the original position.



With the brake bracket re-welded



The Anti-tramp bars could now be easily mounted appropriately with no interference or potential bending issues.





Onto the Axle

The new Quaife loaded Axle casing was slotted back into the chasses and mounted up with the Anti-Tramp brackets and longer U-bolts. Unfortunately these do not clear the chassis at full articulation so a slight recess needs to be put into the chassis so that the bolts clear ok.



With the recess cut

Once secured into the car the first half shaft was slotted into place, located into the diff end, re-fitting the shims that came off the car and the backing plates and hub re-attached along with AVO adjustable shock. Onwards to the O/S!! (pic shows the back plate removed)



Upon attempting to slide in the O/S half shaft it located ok into the diff splines but then bottomed out, mechanical interference somewhere along the line was not allowing it to fit.



After a bit of head scratching and phone calls, it turns out that whilst the axle is the same the new diff is slightly different in size which means the shims need to be custom spaced upon fitting the half shafts. The reason the N/S had slid in ok is that it had pushed one of the planet gear axle's through to protrude to the O/S, (the shiny dot at the end in the pic below)



hence mechanical interference (can be seen by the circular imprint in the masking tape on the end of the half shaft in the pic below).



So in the end we stripped back down the N/S and tested the imparted theory which allowed the centralisation of the half shafts and diff planet gear axle... so.. now we're stumped as we need 3.5mm worth of shims each side to progress... more head scratching next week to source those!

Next up, the revised tank.. our pencilled up design was as follows;



Mulfab's revision can be seen in it's full glory (we hoped it fitted ok)!



Frst off, we offered up the frame to make sure that went in ok. It did, stage one completed - all's well.





Now onto step two. Getting the tank itself into position, this was a little more tricky. To get the tank in, we lifted the tank into position from the top and held it up then positioned the frame underneath, this is not how it's supposed to be done, the tank is supposed to be mounted to the frame and swung up into position using the rear ledge of the tank frame as the fulcrum on the rear cross member. Our car however has the rear axle locating spacers which put the diff slightly too close to swing the tank up, never mind, we got it into the car anyhow, it just made getting the bolts done up which mount the tank to the frame a little tricky..

Following a first fit we dropped out the frame and tank, put wood preserver onto the wooden board and drilled the holes for the mounting frame, we also cut to small additional tabs to help provide some additional structural support to the front edge of the tank, the frame is quite thin here and we wanted a bit more meat in the bracket.



Once in, we took a look at the space between the diff and the tank,



there was a moment of concern about the handbrake actuation leaver, which sticks out to the rear of the axle, this also needed to fit!! in the end, we modified the actuation leaver slightly and also found another piece of ali to act as an armour plate to attach to the tank just in case (don't want risk puncturing the tank for any reason).



I managed to pop down to a local professional hose attachment supplier to get some advice, help and fuel supply parts. Having evaluated the Goodridge ali attachments and PTE Vs. Rubber armoured hose, in the end I opted for steel attachments crimped onto rubber armoured piping. The Goodridge system uses a proprietary size hose and it's REALLY expensive as well the PTE piping (Goodridge or generic) does not really want to bend much so I'll see how I get on with the rubber option.



Swirl pot in situ.



With all this in place we had to call it a day, whilst it does not seem much to fit the amount of got-ya's we've had to navigate has been significant and has drained time like nobody's business.

Phew! It fitted....

If anyone's interested- I took a series of photos as I was fabricating the tank- to show just what goes into making a Mulfab competition tank
Let me know if you'd like me to post them up

Hey.... Would be great to see...

Add them into this thread and show what gets done!

Simon H definitely post your photographs there will be lots of us interested in seeing what's involved in making one of these tanks.

Certainly will!
Curious how much weight saving there is over a steel tank too?

Andrew, the same applies as to building a kit car - allow at least three times the original estimated time (and cost!)

Seriously, looking good. Shame I won't be at the inaugural run at Ty Croes.

Cheers,

This thread is/was excellent reading and useful to me. I hate to think that it will soon end. A big thank you, Cerealsurfer!

Frank

Onto more work tomorrow... however, really exciting today, I went and picked up the new engine!!

It's not completely built up yet but it's looking really smart.

Easter Weekend - Marathon Update

So this weekend there is a lot to do.

• Finish back axle assembly now the shims have arrived
• Set up rear brakes
• Basic first fit on engine
• Test clutch
• Engine Bay Fuel system
• Engine Bay Cooling System
• ECU & Dash sensor set installation

Axle
JB Engineering came up trumps with the axle shimms, their local engineer managed to whip up some shims at short notice. 2 x 1.7mm shimms for each side. Shipped overnight last week meant we could get onto this first thing. They worked a treat and we were able to box back together the rear axle and get the hubs re-assembled, brake drums etc.



The armour plating on the tank worked a treat and with a minor adjustment to the hand-brake bracket there is space for movement with minimal risk.



Basic Engine First Fit
OK so this could be complicated or not so complicated. Either way this was not going to be a simple job. On reflection it could have been a lot more complex.

So... first thing was to look at the engine mount situation ont the engine side, secondly we need to check the bell-housing dust plate for bolt pattern and coverage. We happened to have a 1.8cvh to Type 9 dust plate and on Thursday a quick re-direct on a Cornwall to High Wycombe journey via the Morgan Factory sorted a set of rare aluminium 1800 Zetec blacktop engine mounts.

So first up - checking the engine end.. the engine mount on the Off-Side was an easy fit straight on. just need to sort a set of bolts.



On the Near-Side things were going to be more complicated. The aluminium castings were missing one bolt hole and on the Back Top block there is a manufacturing tab which sticks out. Having thought about how to tackle this we decided to manufacture some custom spacers to hold the bracket in the right place. First up, drilling the final hole.



You can see the spacers in the picture below...



Once the upper brackets were mated to the engine the lower brackets need to be located into the engine bay and some way of connecting them together.



In the end we decided to re-use the new engine mounts we put on the car last year. however having lined the engine up in the engine bay at the correct height they were slightly too short. So I cut out 6 Aluminium spacers and put 2 on the bottom and 1 on the top to create the height required. Dad drilled and helicoiled the aluminium to make maximum use of the shape of the lower mounts and the existing holes already in them.

They look really smart mounted into the car:





You can see their lateral alignment when looking up from underneath.



At the same time we used the 1.8cvh to Type 9 dust cover to check the mounts... it fitted fine with only minor adjustments needed, mainly due to the thickness of the Aluminium casting of the sump. Two minor tabs needed to be trimmed.



We did note however a small plate did need to be made to cover a moulding difference on the O/S of the block to bring it out to the bell-housing. You can just see the hole on the pic below.



Amaizingly this leaves us after one day with the engine mounted - all be it basically in the engine bay.





For a bit of a distraction, we decieded to make a new rear brake pipe. Once fitted this meant that we could bleed the brakes.



Not bad progress.

Time to sort out fueling in the engine bay....

Out comes the Twin 45's set-up from the old car. The PiperCross induction system is not going to work this time around, the rpm's this engine is likely to pull is, I suspect too much flow for this system and the spacing is wrong in the back plate.



As an alternative set-up I've decided to start with a full ITG Race Filter - interestingly the one I've gone for is from a Cosworth DFV F1 engine. It's not designed to be used on the road.

So down to stripping down the old set-up. First-up, taking the housing off.



Secondly, dismantling the intake manifold.



To re-assemble the carbs on the new manifold the central cast spar between the centre two intake tracts needed to be cut out to allow the throttle balance bar to rotate. Also the balance bar tab needed to be trimmed slightly as the central intakes are about 5mm closer together. In addition the new back plate blank needed to have all the holes cut out. Try cutting out 8 trumpet attachment holes, 4 x 51mm intake holes and 2 x 14mm breather intake holes all in the right place. Do I sound smug!! I should be, I managed to get them all in just the right place in one hit, no final fit adjustments needed. Trumpets installed, looking good.





We re-attached the throttle cable routing tag and trottle linkage. fully operational. Will need to get some 40mm chokes to replace the stock 38mm ones in the twin 45's at the moment.

All the wheels are now back on... for the first time in about 5 weeks.

Well that didn't last long...!

Front wheels off to drop the original radiator out. To do this I dropped out the steering rod.



The new radiator is for a +8, this is more handy due to the enhanced cooling I think we are going to need and also the location of the pipe spigots is more ideal.



After a series of installs and removals, adjustments of the car brackets and spacers on the top spindles, cleaning up the existing fan etc.. the new radiator in installed.



We wired in the fan switch as it's only a resistance fit and has been known to pop out under pressure. You can just see it in the bottom of the picture above.

The new tank install looks pretty smart.



You can just see the water rail return pipe from the thermostat housing just at the right of the picture below. The N/S radiator return pipe is almost ligned up just in front.



The final state of the engine bay.....



Now onto the fuel system at the back of the car. We cleaned up the fuel sender unit and adjusted the float to the correct height. A bit of a trim of the rubber gasket and the sender unit bolted in. A provisional location of the swirl tank was also tested, we needed to make a small tab extension to the mounting bracket so some measuring required.



After a lot more time, locating the lift pumps, attaching the swirl pot, bending the fuel lines and cleaning up the donor Volvo rotory fuel feed pump we are all finished for the weekend.... who needs a shed!



A few more sensors, samco water hoses and get the fuel lines cut and crimped those systems will be ready.

I was hoping to get the exhaust fabricated and jig made by Librands supplier, but time is running out and so I'm beginning to think about searching around for someone more locally. Simpsons is only just up the road and they are one of the best - if somewhat expensive (and it would be a one-off rather than a repeatable off-the-shelf unit).

The measurements are pretty big,

Headers 1" 7/8 - 28" Long (to 1st join)
Secondaries 2" 12" Long (from front of 1st join to front of 2nd join)
Outlet - 2" 1/2
Included angle of mergers no more than 18 Degrees

Getting there... still a lot to do though!!

Fantastic progress.

Waiting for next weekend's installment

For the exhaust try Chris Tullett in Aylesbury
I know Matt Simpson well and Chris is on a par if not better, and in my experience a smidge cheaper

Having rung around today, you can imagine not a lot of luck. I've tried Rob Wells over at Librands a few times.... But I'm guessing he's away.

In the end Hayward and Scott were able to re stack some work and fit me in. I was so thankful, I was getting worried this was going to be a challenge too far!

Another weekend and another update

So.. outstanding jobs to do

• Source & Install alternator
• Swap miss-labelled starter and install
• Trim ignition leads and install
• Final fit fuelling lines
• Swap out the 36mm chokes for 40mm chokes
• Remove old (RaceTech Coil) and re-wire for Ford Coil (they provide a replacement plug for this)
• Sort out coolant pipes
• Fabricate Idler pulley bracket and install idler

So first-up Fuel plumbing.
So you've seen the layout before, we decided to down-size the bore of the piping to keep the flow rate up. Using the connectors I had sourced we were also able to confirm routing and final combinations of ends. Having measured the routing we bagged up one pipe package at a time and popped down to the hose company and had them made up. You can see the result below. All we need to do now is use the switched feed (from the fuel toggle switch on the dash) to a local relay to power up the pumps. But it looks great. You can also just see we had to fabricate a fuel filler neck.. otherwise we would be hunting around for a pipe for ages.



Next up fabricating the idler pulley bracket.

I've looked at all the options on the market for this and seen most of them in situ on cars. All have pro's and con's. I'm a big fan of keeping the cam wheels & timing belt covered. After all you don't want a stone killing an expensive engine. You'd be pretty disappointed. Luckily on the CVH Perspex versions had been made and I managed to get my hands on one. For the Zetec E this has not been so easy. Possibly because on Ford installations the lower part of the pulley cover is actually the engine mount.

Anyhow, one school of design option uses one of the bolt holes just above the water pump to secure the pulley wheel in the correct position. Unfortunately this means you need to removed the cover - looks fancy - not very practical.

Second school of design uses the bolt holes on the engine mount to put a horizontal bracket across - advantage is you get to keep the cover on, down-side is that it bends and squeals like hell, even when re-enforced.

So our decision was to use the Raceline bolt mounted approach (school 1) and mount it on a bracket (but not how School 2 do). So we decided fabricate a bracket which uses several spare threaded bolt holes already on the engine using 5mm steel. Having come up with the design I popped up to the local Forge (yes we have a old-school village forge locally to us) who do heavy custom engineering jobs (like make beacon tower tops from the old Armada warning system). Anyhow.. they are a local metal supplier and they've been friends of the family for ages.

So whilst I was up there getting some steel lengths I saw their friction saw (this place is full of serious metal tools). Given the friction saw blade is about 8mm thick and about 50cm diameter I though you'd find this funny... it clearly takes some getting going.



Once back after some work we came up with the following... I don't think this is going to bend. Look top left of the engine.





I don't have a photo of the Alternator install.. in the end I used a Raceline Alternator mount and a Brise Mitsubishi small form factor Alternator (which self disengages) designed for a BDA with an 80mm lightweight Aluminium pulley to gear it down. I suspected that the top mount could be a problem as I'd read about install problems on the net.. the recommended Alternator from Raceline is just too big for a Morgan.

In the end, the bottom mounts were ok and the unit was perfect in size. The top adjuster bracket from the kit was a waste of time though.. luckily we have a load of old arced adjusters from old Alternator installs which fitted perfectly as they have a dog leg in them. Sorted.

It looks a really smart install.. just need to run the wiring from the N/S to the O/S to get it connected.

Whilst on this side of the car I also whipped the carbs apart to put the larger chokes in.

Another faf was the ignition leads, these were from Retro Ford. As the cam cover is new it clearly needs special lead ends to seal the holes... so I picked up a set of 8mm race leads in blue. As Retro Ford specialise in old-school conversions their leads are designed to be run down through the inlet manifold 2 leads between 1&2 and 2 leads between 3&4. This means you hide the coil under the inlet manifold ala BDA. On this departure from the stated strategy, I wanted to keep the coil on the back of the engine, where Morgan as Morgan have a recess in the bulkhead here and it's easy to access for maintenance. We have the ITG filter to contend with every time if we put it under the manifold. So this meant I had a bunch of Ignition Leeds all the same length for a variable length install... well that looked rubbish. So having borrowed a set of Lead fabrication crimpers (these things are seriously expensive) I took apart 3 of the leads, shortened them and re-assembled them shorter to make a uniform curve onto the coil.. much better.



The last job of the day was fitting the starter... again this was a time consuming job... just bolt in.. nope.!

As the raceline starter we had been supplied was wrong last week.... Right part number on box and on sealed packet which the starter was in.. but wrong part in the bag! We could not check the starter hole in the dust plate. Dag-nam-it... it would be slightly different... if we'd used the other dust plate we had it would have been a no-brainer to get in.. but as it was we were be-jiggered if we were going to drop the engine out of the way to swap it.. in the end we used a special air powered needle nose band sander to enlarge the hole. We also ended up "adjusting" the sump slightly to get clearance in all the right places.. you can see how close it is - and this is a small form factor geared down starter!



Unfortunately I have not been able to work on it today, but dad's sorting out the coolant system, the fuel & Alternator electrics and the coil harness. Unfortunately the Oil pressure sensor and the Oil temp sensor had not arrived Friday so these will go on next week. On Sat I need to take it to get it's manifold made.

Apart from the time element, modifications that you are having to make challenge your engineering skills and inventive thought processes. Great stuff.

Nearly there!!!

So this week has been a week of clearing off the smaller jobs.

• Plumbing in the cooling system
• Testing the fan operation
• Extending the Alternator loom and wiring it in
• Drilling, tapping and installing the Oil Temp sensor plus wiring in
• Installing the Oil Pressure sensor
• Wiring in the Coolant Sensor
• Fitting Oil Filter & Filling with Oil (Calibrating dip-stick)
• Filling with Coolant
• Filling some fuel, Calibrating the manual tank dip-stick, testing the fuel gague in cockpit, testing plumbing, completing electrics for pumps
• Re-fitting seats

Coolant System
We use a combination of Samco hoses to make the shapes requried to plumb in the coolant system, in the end this was a combination of 90 Degree bends with joiners. This made the closest OEM looking solution. We tested the over-ride switch and and bridged out the otter fan switch and the fan runs fine both times. Looks like the coolant system is all complete.



Fuel System
We ran a heavy duty feed to the rear of the car and decided to use the existing dash mounted switch to power up some relays to act as a local switch for the 3 pumps. We filled the tank one gallon at a time and notched the tank dip-stick each time. This will give a way of accurately managing fuel level given the usual challenges of the Morgan OEM fuel gauge. That said, the fuel sender and the gauge is working fine. Having plumbed and wired everything in we flipped the switch to prime the swirl pot... sorted.. step one completed. Step two, testing the Volvo main pump... well... let's just say it was a little over-powering. The main pump blew the fuel filter apart!! So in the end we reverted to a high flow Facet unit and mounted it recessed where the Volvo unit would have been.. So now.. it's all working.



General Wiring
The alternator wiring was extended from the N/S to the O/S and using the Brise instructions the loom adaptor they provide was spliced together, which means we also now get a battery light on the dash. The horn had to move slightly to the front side of the cross head. We knew the alternator may need some spacing once we had a suitable 5 groove belt and having turned it by hand we found that a slight miss-alignment meant the belt wound itself off. So with an extra washer on the alternator it stayed on ok.. so all set on that front.
The other wiring that needed sorting was the ECU and Telemetary sensors. The Oil Temp (important for racing), Oil Pressure (variable, not 7psi switch) and Coolant Temp. So Friday night we spent most of the night soldering these and splicing them into the relevant looms. Dash, DL1 and Omex.

Next Steps
This morning I trailered the car round to Hayward and Scott to get the exhaust fabricated. There were some other interesting cars already getting sorted out. Anyhow, this week will see the exhaust manifold and side exit system fitted. Which leaves getting the ECU set-up next Monday.

This is handy as the TyCroes final race regs came out today.... We're number 20 and 201.

Was that luck or was it planed that way? I assume all you have to do is stick on or pull off the "1" depending on which of you is piloting.

I think that following this saga means that I am going to have to come and watch you race at least once. Thank goodnees for low cost flights

Well hey.. that's really flattering.

Double drives usually have the extra number added to make ID easy. We tape over the extra number in the driver change-over area.

As for the season.. if you do decide you fancy coming over. Probably the best spectator experiences are at either Goodwood on the 4th August, Curborough 2nd Sept or Castle Combe on the 27th October.

• Goodwood will have sun (fingers crossed), a wide selection of entries and good facilities an plenty of places to stay.
• Curborough is the MSCC Club Sprint, there will be only Morgans there (probably about 40), you can see the whole track, although not many places to stay locally.
• Castle Combe will probably have the season decider race and has good viewing facilities - it's been dry over the last 4 years but not necessarily warm, sunny or easy to get to.

If you do decide to pop over, message me and we'll make sure you are welcomed.

Peter...I'll probably go to Curborough to spectate. Cheap flight to Birmingham and I'll put you up.

Coming into the home straight..

We only have 1 week to go before race day...!!

Luckily we only have a few things to get done and they are all scheduled.

Exhaust

This weekend I picked up the car from Hayward & Scott. The exhaust is absolutely mad!! Today we started sorting out some strategically placed heat shields to protect some of the electrics. It seems a shame to put heat wrap round these but I suspect they'll end up getting wrapped when I get a chance to sort out getting the wrap.





The collectors have been made to spec and look great. The hole in the inner wing has had to be enlarged to get the primaries through. They then run smoothly under the wing. To the first of two silencers, first one before the mounting bracket and the second, much larger one after.







Dash buttons
The Race Technology Dash 2 has a number of screens that you can navigate through, in order to navigate these screens there are optional buttons. I've decided to access these extended features and sorted out the buttons. Missprint spent some time today sorting out the layout and getting them sorted. I thought it was a great job, nice design.



Wheel holder
We noticed that the way we were attaching the spare wheels to our trailer last year was rubbing off the powder coating. This year as shown earlier in this thread I'm running almost semi slicks which don't do so well in the wet. So this year I've decided to put last seasons Toyo T1R's on the spare set of Minilites I have and use them as wet's.
I'm going to get the burgundy wheels powder coated blue, just not in time for this weekend. Anyhow, the net result is that we need a more suitable way to transport but protect the wheels. So using a sewing machine we purchased from F H Douglas when he shut down. We made a custom cover... hopefully this will help.

A really great thread you've created, Cereal, charting the transformation of your car. Best of luck in the first competitive outing- do keep us up to date with the result and also with the rest of your calendar- I'd like to see the car in action. Gerry.

Thanks guys.... Just had the news hot off the press.

230bhp @ 8000 rpm and 160 lbft torque across most of the rev range.
223bhp with the standard bonnet on

Power is being constrained by being delivered 40mm trumpets not 45mm. That will get sorted shortly!

Expect to see 230-240 once these and the bonnet scoop is sorted.

Pics and graph to follow once I get them from dad.

Wow! another 100 horses up on last year! Gerry.

Great, can we listen/watch?

Update 10 - Engine set-up


So today dad took the car upto Northampton Motorsport to get the Omex ECU and carbs set-up.

First off - strapping the car onto the rolling road.



Next getting the fans set-up, sorting out the jets and loading up a stock zetec timing map. Would it start first time???

Well it started, it was on the rolling road for ages getting run in and set-up. We learned a few things eg, the rubber bushes on the alternator gave up due to the heat, we had some ali ones machined whilst we were there. The ECU won't talk to the dash system quite the way we wanted and the sample rate on the dash system is currently set too high.. so the numbers change too quickly.. though I can program that out easily.





The pipes blued nicely, the manifolds near the cylinderhead were glowing at one point. They look great!!





So it looks like I have some electrics to sort out, wiring the RPM sensor into the DL1 to get it integrated into the dash system. Also tune down the sampling frequency of the Oil pressure and temp sensors.

Net result is:

230bhp @ 8000 rpm
165lbft from 3000-7000

Great thread Andrew and superb looking car. Good luck to you both for the racing season.

Best wishes
Brian

Hi,
Very interesting thread, I follow every week with great interest. It remember me when I did this kind of job by the beginning of the seventy's, with an Alpine A110. This is a big and ambitious project and you made a really great job.
I wish you will have the right weapon to compete for your new season.
I don't tell you "good luck" because here in France we never say that, to be sure all will be right for you.
BR.
Daniel.

Update 11

Quick update to give you the Power Graphs and the Weights. Not sure if it was in racing trim... i'll calculate the actuals and let you all know.

Very interesting- you must be well pleased with the result of all your hard work. Why does the power drop like a stone after 8,000 revs? Is it a rev limiter cutting in?
Gerry.

Yes... at the moment as the engine is fresh, we have put the rev limiter at 8000. In addition the smaller trumpets cause the curve to level off as you can see.

I have a set of ITG fully radiused 45mm ram pipes arriving tomorrow which should help keep power up with the bonnet down.

After the first season we are likely to up the limit to 8500 or 9000 to get the benefit of the continued climb.

I'd like to have heard it at 8000!

Good Luck for the weekend guys.

Thanks Guys!!

I'm making a vid blog of the weekend... Not sure what it will come out like.. But keep your eyes peeled.

Best of luck to you both!

+1

Shame I won't be amongst the spectators...

Good luck!

Update 12 - TyCroes Double Header Weekend

So... we packed up our race car onto the trailer and we had also hired a camper for the weekend to give some shelter. TyCroes is an excellent track with great, clean facilities but there is little local accomodation and we didn't want the nause of having to pack everything up leave and come back.

Friday we set off in a slow moving convoy on the 5 hour journey upto TyCroes North West Wales. It ended up taking 7 hours pretty much due to accidents on the M56 and severe concestion. Luckily the sat nav warned us of this and we were able to take diversions, unfortunately the local "A" roads arn't exactly quick... but better to make progress than sit in traffic!!!

Once we arrived we saw where the general cluster of campers were, Simon Baines was already there whith his roadster and camper all ready set-up. Luckily we had put in an extra camping power extension lead which meant we were able to get our own spot without having to be too on-top of the others.

Having sorted out the camper, Missprint too the opportunity to drive the car around the paddock, getting used to the clutch take-up and bite point. We also found that the starter button was a little sticky, which needed sorting as it was causing the starter to stay engaged - a little lube sorted that out and it sounded great.

Unfortunately the 10pm circuit restraunt close as advertised on the regs was round to be an error, as we rolled in @ 9:15 and were told they shut at 9pm. Luckily we had packed some pizza's and the camper had a suitable grill

Saturday morning saw us get registered and looking forward to using the car in anger, the format of the day was to be a single 2 lap practice of the National Circuit followed by timed laps from mid morning.

For us TyCroes was to be a combined shake-down and systems test. We'd been cleared to run the engine at full race power having had tne engine builder run it in for us. So were keen to track the Engine Temp, Oil Pressure, Oil Temp to make sure the cooling systems etc. were all up to the task.

Luckily the weather was kind.. tbh... all weekend. Sat was windy cold but dry and sunny where as Sunday was no wind, sunny, warmer but with very occasional minor light showers... nothing to worry about though.

First practice saw Missprint and I experement with the launch engine speed.... we both dialied up somewhere around 4000-4500 and dump the clutch, from our limited runs around the gariage and paddock we knew how easy it is to stall.....! Anyhow, Missprint off first lit up the tyres and leveraging the max from the LSD gracefully power slided the car off the startline and onto the main track... ($41T it's fast!).. Having had Missprint disapear and then a few nerve wracking moments re-appear from the top of the National circuit she re-entered the pits with a massive (and I mean MASSIVE) grin on her face!! She loved the package and attested it was hugely powerfull but very easy to drive especially throwing it about on the limit and bieng able to play with the power to drive the car through the corners. You can imagine I was keen to have a go...... Having completed my run, I can certainly attest that it's FANTASTIC... it's a bit like driving an Aero flat out.. but without the weight very attractive - much to the nervous faces of the rest of the Morgan racers.

Following a check of the mechanicals and temps etc. back at the paddock we were quite happy that the overall package was working great.

Out for timed runs, Missprint and I were keen to see what the little car could do... having found confidence in the car on the inital run, we sighted our braking points and turn-in's, we decided to see if we could get things smooth and ride the power round the track. Things could not have gone better, Missprint and I rung up two further times on the board.... Missprint posting a time 2 seconds off target and I was just over 2 seconds under already.. it does not get much better. Simon Baines in the roadster had done the sums, on scratch, taking into consideration his 3.5% penalty for 1B racing tyres Vs. our 1a road tyres, I was ahead... I could be giving his Roadster LW a run for it's money, regardless of handicap.

Unfortunately (and this is where the story turns a little sad)... on my last run just as I was coming around the final bend to cross the finishing line, it looked to the crowd like I'd locked up the front tyres... unfortunately the smoke got worse....... and worse...... until I crossed the line slightly sideways having slid in my own oil...

Huston... we had a problem.!!

I flicked the kill switch and coasted down the grass and into the pits...

Prognosis... catastropic failure of Piston 1!! munched valves and terminal damage to the cylinder head... our weekend was over. Good news is however, my pre lunch time was quick enough to win the Sat race.. a bit like a goal from the 1/2 way line. On Sunday we ran the scoring admin and headed off for an early shower... today I've whipped the engine out so the engine builder can do an investigation tomorrow... I'm not holding out much hope.

This is what the carb should look like



The shavings you can see in this picture are bits of piston that have been expelled back through the carbs.



There was also a bit of coolant mixed... which means the coolant system has been compromised in the head.



Taking the engine out today, you can see some of the damage in Cylinder 1 inlet - the valve stem is bent.



In the exhaust port things are a little more serious.. they valve heads are snapped off and completely destroyed.



Not a happy day in the end

B*gger!

Not good news but if it is that fast then better luck next time.

+1, what can I say.

++++++++++++++++++++

expensive !!!!

All of the above... we wait to see what tomorrow brings...

It does however show the potential of the car and we are resolved to get it working again.

Down side is that with all the cancellations of races this season and other conflicts, it does put our season into jeopardy. We'll be working out what's possible now and how best to take on the championship with what's left of the season outstanding.

Hi Cerealsurfer

I wish you and your team most success and all the best. I like it very much to follow the posted developments she gets. It is very enjoyable and entertaining to read your posts regarding the proceedings of her. You are a real no compromise intensively focused - very competent - aficionado. And you are a windfall to enrich this forum.

Take on, this engine issue is something you and your team will cope to see a positive future.

Heinz

having seen Cerealsurfer and missprint at Curboro a couple of times,from the startline marshalls point of view, I have found this thread fascinating reading. keep persevering, hope the engine rebuild isn't too harmful to bank balance or seasons prospects.
good luck.

When you win, and I am sure you will (you only get out what you put in) this will look like a minor set back.

I know how you feel, cerealsurfer. In my case apart from the crankshaft and surprisingly the cylinderhead nothing was reusable - not even the engine block. There are still 3 lonely bespoke Mahle pistons on my shelf...

Frank

Looks like we have a way forward, a temp install whilst a replacement engine is built.

We should be back out on the track ready for the race at MIRA on the 26th May.

Thanks for all your support guys!!

Well done, Cereal, wishing you and Missprint all the best at MIRA. Gerry.

Your not cheating and fitting a stonking V8 while no ones looking are you

Hope it gets sorted quickly. Have they found the cause?

It's ongoing but it looks like material failure.

Here are some pictures from the weekend...

Plenty of Morgans in the paddock for Saturday.



This weekend there was going to be 3 cars in our class (Class 7 - upto 2000cc Modified 4/4) including another freshly finished car a Rutherford Lightweight with a Zetec E with variable cam on a Magajolt ECU.



We set-up our paddock tent and made ourselves at home.. just in case of the rain.

It was interesting getting used to the clutch when launching, the wheelspin was very smooth - as it looks. Missprint was up first.





Morgans take over parc ferme....



Next up.. my turn...



For the rest of the weekend, there was still fun to be had sorting out the times... well someone has to do it!!

Good, sounds like you have an inkling of the failure. Are you building a complete new motor?
What's the temporary fix? Inquiring minds and all that!!

Update 13 - Findings and What's next?

Our engine builder partner has stripped the engine to investigate what happened, as the engine by all the data we have was operating within limits. It looks like there was a miss casting of the No.1 piston which caused it to fragment and cause cascading and terminal damage to the block, cylinder head and No. 1 rod. Interestingly it looks like this was very progressive and could have begun before the weekend even started.

So.. what next.

Luckily we have a close relationship with our engine builder... having notched up a win even though we missed half of a days racing he's keen to get us back out winning with one of his engines in the car.... so...

He's going to supply an interim engine, a stock Zetec with minimal modifications such as cams. I'll take the car up with dad and fit this into the car on Sat next week and he'll set-up the ECU in the afternoon. That will get us back out racing in time for MIRA.

In the mean time, he's already started sourcing all the parts required to build a completely new engine, as you might expect we will be using a higher quality piston manufacturer.

At the mid season point when the new engine is ready we'll swap out the two and come back with the new one. All the while we will be sticking with Class 7 and as we are using a new block, we don't have to worry about a re-bore taking us into Class 9.

I have to say Northampton Motorsport have been very professional and if nothing else this has increased the ties between the two of our respective companies. You can expect more joint projects in the future.

Troy's put what's left of No. 1 piston and the two snapped off valve heads to one side. I'm going to get them cast into glass to make a reminder paperweight!!

He's also taken some pictures, if I can I'll post some when I get them through.

Forged pistons are not available?

Sorry... Speedy typing on my part there... the Wossner pistons are forged... Hopefully we won't be running into he same problem next time... !!

I have no idea of common practice in building race engines at this level but given the cost of such disasters is xray checking of rods and pistons an option?

Could be.. though you wouldn't expect necessarily to have to do this when using a well known manufacturer. Accidents happen and we're moving forward looking for the positives. You can imagine it also gives us an opportunity to look for more power in the next build

Quote cerealsurfer - ***Could be.. though you wouldn't expect necessarily to have to do this when using a well known manufacturer. Accidents happen and we're moving forward looking for the positives. You can imagine it also gives us an opportunity to look for more power in the next build ****

True Champion

Update 14 - Interim Engine Installation

So Troy from Northampton Motorsport has managed to get hold of a new Blacktop Zetec and a set of cams from Piper. The RWD packaging items have been stripped off the old engine and the call was made it's ready to drop into the car.

When dad and I took the damaged engine out we packaged up all the anciliaries and boxed them up. So having sorted out how to get back out racing for MIRA we decided to take everything up to NHM and put the engine in there borrowing a lift slot for the morning. We have then left the car there to be set-up and collect it in the week or on the way to MIRA on Saturday. It was great to experience another workshop and the different types of vehicles coming and going.. lots of 7 type cars!



You can just see another TM members Westfield FW400 having it's refresh in the background. It was just in the process of getting it's alignment sorted.

With the Zetec set-up we have found it easiest to put the engine in from underneath rather than from ontop.. therefore special tool No.1 (bottle crate on rolling platform) is required.



It's a tidy package and it's now just waiting to get set-up and run-in on the rolling road.



This package is interesting to us as it's a bog standard Zetec with the only modification being a set of piper cams and ARP rod bolts. In terms of the overall Morgan Engine packages, we are thinking this will give an option of testing and setting up an interim type package.

We are now curious to see what it puts out!?

You and I suspect lots of others!

I will await the report from MIRA...

Update 15 - Set-up and Race

Set-up
Having dropped the engine in to the car, we left it with NorthHamptonMotorsport to get set-up. We agreed if we get a chance we would pick it up late last week or worst case very early in the morning Saturday morning on the way to MIRA!!

Anyhow, Friday rolled around and we were contacted that it was ready to collect and so Missprint and Oldtimers went to collect it. (boy we were relieved that it was ready!!).

This time around the Stock Black-top Zetec with only ARP rod bolts (though RPM max is kept to 7500rpm) and Piper cams. 184bhp we thought was pretty good.



So back to the workshop and some pre-race checks, the dash system has been working great - this has been the best upgrade we ever purchased!!

Race

MIRA does not allow camera so no pics I'm afraid. It was an exceptionally hot day, we were keen to see how the engine would perform in the heat, we were keen to see if the water and oil temps could be be kept safe without an oil cooler. We're not keen to fit an additional oil cooler but if pushed we can go to an Oil/Water oil cooler placed within the engine bay rather than an air/oil cooler - as we have seen MANY damaged in racing.

Well the 30 Degree heat meant the paddock tent had to be put up from late morning. Everyone, even with sunscreen was just getting cooked. The heat though combined with the Dunlop handeling super grip surface means great grip. Downside is that those with Khumo softs were in real danger of turning into toffee... the Westfields with slicks only had 5 runs in them, having stated the tyres were just trashed. Luckily for them, the day only fitted 5 runs in anyhow. Looks like the soft end of the 1A tyres were going to be the way to go. Our Yokohama Advan AD08's have been a great choice. We've put our scrubbed Toyo T1R's onto, now powder coated blue spare minilites as wets.

Our car hung together great, a quick adjustment of the clutch after the first run we were all set to give it some beans. Not too bad for a car we only picked up the day before. We were also close to our handicap, so there was some potential.

Later runs proved we could shave off time, close runners were John Stephens and Chris Bailey so no room to let off....

Missprint and I kept plugging away shaving off time as we went.... the result was just what we were looking for. I managed to eclipse the class record securing the victory with Anne only a second or so behind... securing 4th place behind Chris and John. Not too shabby at all.

That was with a pretty stock Engine, just think of the possibilities with the higher power full race unit... well we'll be back onto that probably by Goodwood later in the season. The pistons are currently getting custom made to our spec.

Getting back to the fancy dash and telemetary system, we have been using it now for 4 years. I've overlayed the 2009, 2011 and 2012 and you can see the difference. The biggest change you can see is that at the end of the back sweeping curve going into the switch back in the centre of the track I'm going from 87mhp in 2009 to 104mph now... that's only 100m before a sharp right-hander where we pull 1.2-1.3 latteral g through the corner!


Each year, the speeds going up, corner speeds pretty much the same and very consistant between years. These were the fastest runs of each year, but it's very handy to use the info to get the consistancy from the start. It would be great to compare to other drivers at some point.



Results

So at MIRA the provisional results for Missprint and I are as follows. Missprint - 4th with 7 points and Myself 1st with 11 points having set a new lap record.

So points so far on the board

Cerealsurfer
TyCroes National - 1st - New lap record - 10+1 points
MIRA - 1st - New lap record - 10+1 points

Missprint
TyCroes National - 4th - 4points
MIRA - 4th - 7 points

Next race Aintree in a few weeks....

Great write and results from you both. Well done.

Congratulations !!!!

Excellent, thanks for sharing those graphs too. Impressive output from a little modified powerplant.

The ever quicker times are outstanding - now almost drooling waiting to see the race engine in action!

Update 16 - Aintree

So on Saturday we were off to another new race venue... the reduction in races this year has left us travelling a little further afield than we are usually used to.



So on Friday we headed off to Aintree with the little car in tow. We are still running the interim engine and it was going to be a tough meeting as the entry field with 14 Morgans running with a couple of drivers with the home track advantage. One interesting competitor who was going to be there is Tim Harison with his 4/4 Special the 2.3 Duratec Cosworth lightweight. Whilst he is competing in Class 10 with the Roadster lightweights with nearly 300bhp on tap running somewhere around 750kg.. it's a serious piece of tasty kit.

Anyhow... luckily the day started dry and sunny...all be it with a blustry wind. We were later to find out how much the wind was to affect the times, causing noticable reductions in VMax on the back straight.

Unfortunately in practice there was an off in the Morgan camp, luckily the driver was fine but the car needed to be collected by the recovery crew to get it back to the paddock.

As the day progressed, it went from sunny and dry to absolutely torrential rain... we watched from the paddock tent as the single seaters and little Austin drivers got absolutely soaked.... the race meet was paused whilst the worst of the rain passed over.

We chipped away at our times along with the rest of the field heading towards the target.... as the weather cell swirled above the wind swung round, denting the runners VMax by 3-5mph on the back straigt through the speed trap before the finish line.

We are continually impressed with the engine dynamic and our only wish was to have the extra 1500 rpm to play with of the full race unit. The depression in the track at the back end of Bechars Bend being just at max rpm of 3rd when you really want to be able to snatch 4th.

In the closing run of the day, the wind and broken sun had dried the track with all runners chopping significant time off their previous runs... Missprint and I managed to get under the target time.. with another runner splitting us on his final run.

So in the final standings - Missprint came third with an extra point for getting under target and I came 1st with another 11 points in the bag.





Since the weenkend I've been in touch with Northampton Motorsport and the Cylinderhead has been machined and the we are only waiting for the valves to arrive from Supertech in the US for the engine build to commence.

We're hoping to get the full race engine in before Goodwood, but depending on exact timing of holidays and component delivery it may have to wait until Curborough.

For now the car is packed away as we are off to Assen in my sisters +4 .....

Congratulations on both of your results. Enjoying this topic.

Excellent! Well done both of you

I've seen the photo of our man's off - didn't realise it happened in practice. Guess that's another rebuild down at Semley...

Will see you at Curborough (my usual role), if not before.

Cheers,

+1

That's buggered my return dual drive at Curborough then..

That 4 point harness has earns it's keep.

Update 17 - Racing at Goodwood



We were hoping to get the Race Engine back in the car for this event but we are waiting for some final parts to arrive. The rest is sorted, initial build complete and final build underway, the install date has now been set.

So we were still racing with the interim engine, which tbh is proving to be quite competitive in it's own right.

The rain was torrential on the way down - Goodwood is not great to drive in the wet and it was Bad - Very Bad. One of our crew came down in his 4/4 and we were quite concerned by the shear volume of water on the road - literally rivers both sides and crossing the road on the hills. Luckily the rain stopped as we pulled in to the pits and fortunately the day dried up and in the end was nice and sunny - shorts weather.

There were a couple of adventures in the pits, helping out other competitors - as it happens in our class as well, a broken alternator bracket on one car causing the water pump belt to come off.. so no racing until that was sorted and the second being a snapped throttle cable - luckily we carry a spare so were once again able to get things going.

Due to an incident earlier in the year Goodwood sprints now start at the exit to the pit lane rather than 4 abreast across the track.. this has the net result of shortening the track and rubbishing out existing target times. So no extra point available... and afternoon times would be based on morning practice.

During the morning practice, we continued to struggle with the launch on this Engine, 1st Ratio - Fly/clutch combo. Without the Raw power of the Race engine, it's a fine line between the perfect catapult launch and bogging down. We also found that we were getting round the track "A LOT" faster than last year, Goodwood is a quick track on any day, however the approach speeds into the corners were a lot higher.

Over lunch, target times were calculated and set.

In the afternoon, all times came tumbling down, Missprint having a particularly close race with another Class 7 competitor Paul Bryan. Brian Lee pushed his car hard on his last run getting onto the grass following the chicane - a display of commitment and easily recovered. Mike Hughes's newly Zetec'd Rutherford Lightweight shows continual development and speed on the track - must have been the full display of support from his whole family as they had come along to watch. Clive Hall missed out on improving on his great time from last year in his well prepared Class 3 4/4 x-flow - but none the less put in a great showing at his perennially strong venue.

Mike and Jill Smith from ThamesMog dropped in with a chocolate cake to celebrate Mike's birthday - so a small party in the pits concluded the day.

In the end I managed to come in first, leading the field by 5.5 seconds and 7.5 seconds faster than my morning run. Chalking up another 10 points for me and Missprint battling hard to secure 2nd.

Next up... Curborough, the club sprint next month.

glad to hear the engine rebuild is going well,
looking forward to seeing all the sprint competitors
on the start line at Curboro next month,
I'm the muppet in the high vis
manhandling your cars into position.
praying for a dry day.

Great write up Cereal, it appears the season is going well for you and Missprint.
Keep going.

I'm looking forward to doing my usual stint at Curborough!

Update 18 - The Curborough 2012 Club Sprint



Hello again, I thought I'd better let you all know how things are going. It was, after all the 2012 Curborough MSCC Club Sprint last weekend. You would have all seen the info in Miscellany.

Whilst the race engine was ready to go back into the car, we've delayed plans to get it back into the car until the end of the season.. why, might you ask... well Woodstock the 1972 4/4 we purchased recently will be receiving the current temporary engine (it was just too good to give back) and the race engine will return to it's place in the blue and white car – however with injection rather than the current twin 45’s which will be staying with the interim engine in Woodstock.

Work is currently underway to strip Woodstock down before the re-build commences. When it's finished it's likely should be a mix of 700kg's with 190bhp. Probably a little lighter than the blue and white car as the 72 car's were slightly smaller/lighter than the 80's cars.

Anyhow back to Curborough... It's a course that is short, small, tight and technical. TBH, it's a course that I always find testing, there are few places to find time and small mistakes are punished severely. With many corners, good hooked up runs are few and far between, you always seem to walk away thinking there was an error that could have been better and unfortunately the times always reflect this. We knew that the Sprint car would be challenged, the 1st gear ratio is quite high and this causes challenges with the Fradley Hairpin where judicious flicking of the clutch is required to coax the car round the tight corner, this year also we would be complicated by the Diff locking up mid-corner inducing under steer. Hhhmmm. well. going to be a fun day then.

Missprint and I would need to drive the track faster than we have ever done before to stay in with a chance to win. (or even get close). We concentrated on feeling the flow, with the tarmac on Paddock Bend having been re-surfaced we needed to make new sighting points as the familiar 2 light patches of tarmac that used to be present were now gone!

It is however good to see that Curborough has experienced some renovation since it has just signed a 10 year extension to it's lease. Securing the future of the venue.

With a very low turn out (only 18 racers compared to the usual 30-35) we were going to be getting a lot of runs so as long as the track stayed dry the lap record times were looking good to get broken. There were due to be just over 20 racers but 2 cars broke down on route the night before, one broke a pushrod in the paddock before scruitineering and unfortunately another competitor lost steering control during practice and sailed into the boundary hedge/treeline. Luckily I think it only looked like wing and cowl damage which can be easily repaired. The cross head etc. all looked straight.

So it was left to the rest of the field to battle things out. Missprint and I blasted through practice. I put in my best runs before lunch, probably a combination of fresh concentration and jet lag - Missprint and I having only just flown back to the UK from New York the day before!

It was great to see Troy and Cooper from Northampton Motorsport come down (our engine builders) at lunch to see how things were going and have a good look around the paddock at the array of cars racing. Northampton Motorsport currently sponsor the Westfield Sprint Series.

Missprint and I were still out of sync and where I faded towards the end of the day Missprint came on stronger and stronger, continuing the head to head battle with fellow class competitor Paul Bryan who also has a Zetec engined 80's 4/4.

In the end, I managed to drop below the lap record by just over a second, securing victory with Missprint coming 4th overall. Not too bad as this is usually our weakest circuit.

To give you all an idea of the speeds we get upto I've mapped the track sections from the track map above against the telemetry info we have so you can see the speeds and distances we experience. At the bottom of the graph you have the distance in meters and on the left the Speed in MPH. Hope you all have fun looking through it, It's out fastest laps.