Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Changing Classes and Engine along with it!!!!

Great progress and looking really good.

Fascinating thanks for posting.

Getting close....

Update 44 - ECU swap and a spot of looming

So I've got a couple of clear days to focus on one of the jobs that I was not sure was going to work out.... the ECU swap is easy but given we have integrated the previously installed Fully Assembled ECU harness into the Race Technology digital dash and data logger I need to add in the extra wiring to get what we need to run the Injection system.

If you were doing this fresh you would not have this problem - it's just that I'm updating a prior install.... additionally I need enough stuff left to make up the ECU loom to put into Woodstock.

So in the car is the set-up in this image



and what I have purchased is the following with the idea to "rob" of this partially assembled complete loom what I need to integrate into the package above - simples right!!



After some investigation of the Omex 200 and 600 manuals online - both have common pin-outs - result so just need to get the extra wires in.

The Omex ECU plug comes like the following



The un-used pin holes come with rubber bungs into them - having got my hands on the plug these come out pretty easy... so now what to put in them...

Going over to the new partially assembled loom I pulled off the white centre cover from the front side - you can see it above - this is only held in place through tab friction fit so it should come off easily.

Next up - I wonder if the pins come out easily - I can't imagine you can't get them out - what if you made a mistake during assembly - you'd want to get them out.

After a bit of googling one night I found on a fiat web-forum a guy asking the same question and a response which suggested a small jewellers screwdriver down next to the pin releases it.

So armed with a very very small set of screwdrivers I gingerly slotted it down in what looked like a recess below the pin - with a small click the pin was released and I could easily pull it out of the ECU socket housing - looking closer the pins have a tiny sprung spur which clicks into place inside the housing.

So, what extra wires do I need - the Omex 200 was designed to run 3D ignition for carb engines, it takes RPM (so crank position sensor is already in place), Throttle position (so the TPS is already in place) and engine temp (so engine temp is already in place) and finally the coil wiring is already there. To run injection I need the Injector drivers (which come paired) and Intake air temp sensor. The Omex 600 is also capable of controlling the pre-charging of the high pressure fuel system (2 seconds burst on first stage ignition) and the rad fan (so you could replace the otter switch system).

So I stripped these wires out of the loom - they won't be needed in Woodstock as the Omex 200 system does not need them.

You get this lot to install under the dash



For us the ECU is held to the underside of the bulkhead by a foam lined aluminium holder - so swapping over is pretty easy.. you can just see the holder in the bottom left corner of this photo.. and you can also see where I have slotted in the additional wires into the ECU plug already in the car - this is really simple - you just thread the pins through the right way up and they just slot in.



Moving onto the sensors - before running the wires into the engine bay - lets work out where everything needs to go.. lets start with the easy one - the Intake Air Temp sensor.

It needs to go ideally in the air-box (or within the filter) but without disturbing the air-flow. So for us the back-plate of the filter is slightly off-set to the rear of the car so there is plenty of room to put this to the left of the rear most intake. A 10mm hole and its just a case of using a 1/2 nut (which did not come with the sensor) to secure it. Remember not to do it up too tight as it's very fragile and also to use some thread lock - you don't want a nut finding its way into the intake!!



You can also see from this photo I have already installed the Throttle Position sensor - one difference between the carb install and the injection set-up is that the TPS sensors have different plugs!! so I need to cut and join in the correct plug - handily I've ended up slightly awash with sensors so I have a spare two pin plug kit in the spares pack....

I'll come back to that when I crack out the soldering iron - for now there is still the small matter of the injector harness.....

One of the down-sides of doing a custom build is that you don't know all the variables in advance - you also can't always order a part off the shelf to do what you need... in this case - earlier I'd integrated the injector driver signal wires into the ECU plug - but these are only the signal cables - we still need to supply 12v to the second pin.

So out comes the injection plug boots x 4





Having studied the instructions and looked at how this was going to work - I need to run a relay swittched 12v to the injectors - I've decided to run four 12v feeds off of a core relay rather than daisy chain them. So I need to get the feeds run in.



You can see in the photo below the pairings - the Brown's and Whites are the Omex injector signal wires and the Red's are the 12v feeds.... I've paired them up with small insulation tape loop and used loom tape to create an initial start of a loom where the cables run through the bulkhead - I've also decided to run the loom on the inside of the car from N/S to O/S before coming into engine bay thereby saving any exposure to the heat that might be in the engine bay behind the exhausts.



Having positioned everything out comes the soldering iron and special crimping pliers for the pins.



Here are a couple up close - personally I preferred to use the soldering pen rather than the gun style. When actually soldering them I had a ft square board which I put on top of the engine which I could tape the wires to to hold them steady. Remember to put the boots on before you solder it all up.



Below you can see the first plug nearly assembled and the start of the loom tape to keep everything neat.



So going through all four injectors and looming it all up you get a nice finished job.



You can also see in this picture the Air temp wiring and the throttle position sensor wiring. The splice you can see there is the common sensor return cable that goes to both (grey).

All done... next time back in side for some trimming work....

Now it's getting technical

Update 45 - Sorting out the interior

Moving to the interior - we pulled out the old shackle covers to re-fit them - and guess what - they didn't fit. It's a Morgan, they all do that sir.

So out with the template paper to make up a template which fits. We have aluminium sheet to bend up some replacements.



And for a better shot of the cover made up....





So lets see how that fits in the car - did we make the template correctly, measuring and bending.... Well handily it fits like a glove...



Having made up a couple of those we could move on to the leather - 30 years of use and cleaning with "who knows what" has tarnished somewhat the white leather - this car was a product of the 80's after all.

It's just no longer in keeping with the rest of the car now everything has been sorted out so what to do... luckily we had managed to get hold of a leather trimming sewing machine from F H Douglas and a friend sourced for us a complete hide of white leather.

I did think about changing the colour to something else but the striking nature of the car just works - probably not the practical choice but it will be unique.

So out with the cutting table and the hide.



The Morgan leather trimming of this vintage is pretty simple stuff, the leather is not finished on most edges, only simple stitching is used and the leather is stuck simply onto the wood... having phoned around for costs and looked at what was involved - I'm sure we can do a good enough job to work for a race car - you never know - we might even do a half decent job... that would be a result.

So first job was to gently remove the original leather from the inner wheel-arch to use the originals as templates to cut out. It does not take long to get them out, stiff with age and the glue easily worked.

Having cut them out of the hide the few seams were sewed up using the Singer we had picked up - handily we checked the needle and it was a leather stitching needle, sourced the correct white thread - a quick youtube of how to adjust and service a Singer and we were away.

Mum took a staring role on this quality job.



Starting with the bottom later unfortunately one of the bigger bits.... fitting the inner wheelarch panel.



Now everybody wants to have a go...



With a few pieces under our belt confidence was increasing that this is something we can get a result on.



Next task was the shackle cover, cover - if you know what I mean.

We masked off the surrounding area and using trimming spray glue we stuck the leather on.



If you compare to the N/S the improvement is clear - like chalk and cheese (literally).



David had given us some of the body paint in a tub as he said it would be possible to paint it with a brush if we had the need to... I decided to get rid of the "close but not quite" paint on the sill - it also made the contrast pop.



Having made up a couple of extra pieces and put the pins and poppers in its looking really smart.



O/S done we're over to the now very tired looking N/S and back to the cutting table - you can see on this side the inside of the new rear quarter panel we made up.





Having cut out the templates and sewed up the edges as before - back to the wheelarch and the glue!!





Thats better its now looking as good as the O/S bright and shiny.





A pair of finished wheelarches



With a small adjustment of the carpet the rear deck and carpet was put back in giving a nice crisp finish.









Now the trim is all sorted the roll bar and harness bar along with the accessories can all be re-fitted.



Its all back together now and looking a million times better than it did before, a crisp white finish like new.

Update 46 - Changing the fuel system from low pressure to high pressure

We two things to sort out here. Handily when we ran the fuel lines originally, we made the decision to run both feed and return pipes with an eye to the future - well 7 years on the future is here. (I could not believe that either when I looked into it).

Job 1) at the back of the car, we can leave the lift pumps feeding the swirl pot as they are but the fuel delivery pump which sends fuel to the front of the car needs to be changed for a high pressure unit. Additionally we need a filter suitable for a high pressure system.

Job 2) at the font of the car we need to plumb in the fuel pressure regulator. Northampton Motorsport recommended the weber alpha unit due to its simplicity to adjust and overall durability. (they also do it in blue ) The feed and return pipes need to be made up and fitted as well.

So to the back of the car.

This is the old set-up, you can see the low pressure feed pump along with the blanked off return pipe waiting to be used.



We have a couple of Bosh high pressure fuel pumps so lets get the old Facet unit out and see what mounting options we have.The position below looks favourable. We'll keep the Facet unit as a spare for the lift pumps if they fail and also for Woodstock.





We also need to fit a high pressure fuel filter, we have a variety of units in stock - having looked at the VAG, Ford and Vauxhall units it looks like the most favourable is a Ford unit.

Down side - we need a bracket - so out with some aluminium bar to make one.



Dummied into place we get this, though we need to get the pipes made up to connect the swirl-pot and they are not open on a Sunday..





During the week we sorted out the pipes we needed and completed the install.



Now onto the front of the car, the feed line needs to be made up and the return needs to be connected to the weber alpha fuel pressure regulator.

The fuel pressure regulator is mounted to the bulkhead in the same place as the old low pressure fuel pressure regulator/filter combo unit.

I only have pictures of the completed job but you can see how it looks.. the other braided hose you can see is the cam breather pipe going to the Mocal oil catch tank.







This brings you right up to date with where the car is now... a couple of wiring jobs and we should be ready to take the car up to have it's ECU mapped and the engine run for the first time.

Woodstock still sits under covers without its wings on - we plan to get onto that as soon as the Blue and White car leaves the garage.

Handily the interior of Woodstock has less work to do as it has already been trimmed in Aluminium. The most complex job to do on Woodstock is wiring up the ECU and integrating the dash. The engine should run without any setting up, though it will go for a refresh run.

So close you must be able to smell the exhaust! Looking very smart - you should be rightly proud.

Jubilee Blue - Code K169
Finish Effect - Solid
Variant No. 1
Mixing 2k Leadfree direct gloss
Revision date 7/2/98 - 2/12/14

No idea if you need all that - but at least its better to have more info than less.

I suspect you may need to know the manufacturer - having just done a quick google to xref if this is the right info.

That's fantastic, thanks. Duly cut & pasted, printed out and put in the Morgan paperwork file for future reference!