Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Series 1 Roadster - Sump

Bumping this post from 2010. It's all still relevant for the 3.0L Roadster, and newer owners may not have found this post.

So after 13 years, I decided to add a sump "snowplough". By this I mean a curved plate ahead of the sump, to deflect any road debris away from the front edge. Very occasionally I've found a brick in the road, or something dead, and the casting is fragile, so a bit of extra protection won't go amiss.

I decided to use 2mm Aluminium, despite advising myself and others not to use 2mm. because it's so difficult to bend without a metal bender. But it needed 2mm for a degree of strength. Having made a cardboard template, and got the shape and size right, I then tried to add a clean bend. It didn't work. In the end I used the garage door as a vice, and slowly added a curve. It was laborious.

But when done it looked like this



On my 2005 Roadster, the crosshead stay bars are fastened (each side) with two nuts and bolts vertically through the chassis, and one horizontally. The two vertical fasteners are ideally placed to secure the plough. However, later cars use a single vertical nut & bolt to secure a different stay bar with a slotted end, which is not as convenient.

To get the right depth, I changed the original bolts for longer, and then mounted the plate over the existing nuts.









Ground clearance, with my raised engine mountings, is 3&5/8", or 93mm. It's not much.

Do not confuse this simple plate with a steel plate sumpguard. That was not my intention. This addition is simply to provide another layer of protection against minor road debris, some of which is impossible to miss, especially in the dark.