Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) A view on GDI engines

Yes £110.00 per Gallon......I have run 2xCrafters for 5 years, nothing but a nightmare and very costly, one eat 2Turbo's in a matter of months, VW tried to charge for replacements......they didn't win.

So from what Eddie and Dean have said the problem does exist with diesels. Great.

Another thought. All diesels and most GDIs are turbocharged. The MMC motor is not. I wonder if that will have any impact on the problem.

I suppose the answer, if possibly illegal, is to remove the crank case ventilation pipe from the inlet manifold, seal the access point and take the crank case ventilation pipe into a nice collection pot which can be emptied from time to time.

Another thought. I'm so pleased my BMW V8 is not GDI.

I know of a couple of diesel engines with severe issues regarding coking up of valves (I work in central warranty for a manufacturer).

I would advise anyone who has bought a GDi Morgan to run it exclusively on Shell fuels, preferably Optimax. Shell are the only oil company I know of who have replaced all fuel storage tanks on the forecourts to catch all water vapour before being dispensed into the car.

Secondly, give it a damn good thrashing once a month (I'm available for hire incidentally).

Further to my call to the factory last week concerning this thread had a call from Mark Ledington re assuring me of the health of the GDI engine they have had no problems with overheating or carbon build up and had just serviced a car having completed 40000 miles! While this was a Ford engine the ECU was Morgan and of course no turbo to complicate matters? Not being an engineer would the ECU affect carbon build up on the intake valves? I asked if I could get a duratec engine instead. While he did not say no he implied this would be very expensive due to new systems wiring up the new dashboard etc. So as I am trying a narrow bodied car to morrow I am hoping this does not speak to me! As this would be a 'head v heart ' issue! Maybe I should look for a used car or mod My 4/4. I am impressed by the factories response they seem very keen to forge links with customers!

Have to say I am very pleased with the GDI engine, have run my Morgan's on Shell high octane fuel for years and will continue to do so with my current car and it gets used as a sports car should, lots of revs. I have read that a few years ago there were problems with GDI engines that were used for mainly short journeys and pottering about but not something that worries me at all. I could be proved wrong however whilst more than willing to be critical when justified, as I have been about Morgans lack of quality control, I have to say that the Morgan (ford) GDI is in my view a fantastic engine and whilst biased this is my third Morgan and I have driven many more. Each to their own but drive a car with a few thousand miles on it and make your own mind up.

Roger. I really would not get stressed about this. The GDI engine has twin variable cams and, out of the box, has much better mid range torque than the older engine. It is essentially a Mazda design and in various cars both Ford and Mazda have been running GDI engines for some time.

Take it out, drive it like you stole it, and if you stop smiling for the next week I will be surprised.

My friendly garage owner showed me a Peugeot 207 diesel engine that was complete coked up after 30,000 miles. He explained that the source of the problem was taking the worst emissions from the exhaust and reintroducing them into the combustion system. Combine this with careful driving and coking is the result.
These engines need to be driven hard as someone else has stated above.

Good advice and I think it applies to choosing the right fuel for all modern engines
The subject of fuel quality is becoming more and more important as engine tolerances are becoming critically small and 'supermarket' fuels are becoming cheaper and poorer in quality
The quality of Shell optimax is known in motoring circles to be of a higher quality. Higher octane of course but lower Ethanol and much cleaner to burn
I have been told by another engine specialist two weeks ago to only put this fuel in my car if I owned it and wanted to keep it for a long time
I now only put this in my Morgan

Fuel quality is, as Stewart says, ever more critical.
An interesting example is the difference in MPG we get with 's Merc; it has a 3L V6 turbo diesel (OM642) and puts out 261 bhp and 460 ft lbs.

Fuel consumption, Urban and Motorway

Tesco...............32 to 38mpg
Esso or Shell.......38 to 40mpg
Shell or BP "super".42 to 48mpg

Average over the last 3000 miles is 35mpg. Interestingly this is almost the same as I get from my BMW 2L GDI petrol engine....33.5mpg. When the lower cost of petrol is factored in, together with the longer service interval, the petrol car is cheaper to run. But not as much fun to drive. The Merc is a torque monster...actually more torque than the Plus 8!

The BMW mpg seems not to vary with fuel grade, I use standard shell as it is the cheapest here, now 119p a gallon from Waitrose, Quite why the diesel mpg should vary so much is beyond me, but I've seen this repeatedly over 3 years.

We no longer use Tesco diesel!