Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Mr Bumble - the engine cover.

Nice job

Dave as always great fun to read your activity & depressing to realise currently I don't have the time. Roll on retirement & greatings from Dubai for the next 36 hrs

I've been at it a year now John, and working ten days a month is pretty good. I'm not ready to jack it in yet but there are days when I could easily pull the plug.
I had a surreal experience just before I left work tonight. One of the cleaners came in and asked me how I was enjoying partial retirement - even knew who I was. Spooky. Apparently cleaners know everything.

I'm with you Dave. The mk1 roadster rules OK. If it wasn't for that sump it would be perfect.........
Nick

It's not too late for someone to re-engineer the sump with a modified oil pick up. I still don't understand why MMC don't do this with Superform. They would sell like hot cakes. The only other thing I would change is to up the Getrag gearing slightly in 5th.
But the dash is fabulous compared to what came after.

Post Photobucket Re-Boot from November 2013:

I left off with a teaser photo of the aluminium engine cover.

This is a good idea with the 4 cylinder because rain can enter through the louvres and collect between the cam covers, and on the coil pack. I started off with a sheet of 1.2mm aluminium.
It's necessary to make a hole for the oil filler.
Initially I was going to use the tapped holes in the cam cover to secure this, but decided there was another way.........
Here it's just resting on the engine.

The two images from here are not available.

I decided to contour the cover and to fix it to the stainless water hose using U bolts.



Here is the shaping gear.........
The wooden blocks were a really useful addition.......





This is the trial fit of the brackets.......



And this is the final spec, with neoprene.



Test fitted, corners rounded off..........





And finally, I added edging - it looks better, even though the water will have to climb over the edge. On the trailing edge, I've turned the edge up, and used thicker edging to keep water off the coilpack.







The test will come in summer, if the cover retains too much heat. We'll have to wait & see!

Then I turned to the heater box seal. It's much less well made than on the Roadster, and is just thick foam with one side glossy. On the nearside, the gossy side faces out, on the offside, the glossy side faces in.



In the end I decided to line both sides with 3mm standard density neoprene, and I also packed the ends to make a better fit.



Last job this afternoon was to add a couple of coats of yellow paint to the wood around the bulkhead, and clean off the surplus gunge around the bulkhead screws.

Time to resurrect this (rambling) thread, after the recent discussions and experiences with water in the plug holes.
In theory it shouldn't happen because the Duratec cover has a raised lip around each plug hole. I suspect that a fine spray settles on the rubber plug caps and over time drips around the seals into the holes. Once in, its a reasonably sealed environment so even when it gets hot, the water won't easily dry off.

So I've made a front baffle plate - and am now seriously in need of some more aluminium sheet..............
First the basic shape.



Brackets test fitted.





Covered with Reflect a Cool, top seal fitted in neoprene.



It sits quite well on the two cam cover studs so rather than mess with tiny nuts, I've held it in place with two lengths of rubber tube which are a snug fit over the studs - visible here. (Will pull off with needle nosed pliers).



Hey Presto!

Very neat covers Dave ...they just look so right.

Makes me wonder why the factory do not fit these.

You could sell a few of those!

Dave what alloy do You use for Your DIY? I am learning more and more about how to form aluminum from You. As My DHC does not have louvers but still trying to make a sill cover. PJB's plastic gutter will not work. Too many angles.