Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing heat shield for a crossflow?

Since I've had my 1600 crossflow 4/4 I've had three or four occasions where the car has been reluctant to start after an hour or so's journey and a short time being parked . Today it refused to start at all and I suspected the fuel pump. I called the AA who diagnosed a blown fuse which was preventing the pump working, not sure what caused it to blow. Anyway, on discussing the occasional hot start problem he told me that the crossflows often suffer with this and that a heat shield would be the answer. Any ideas what to look for, and where to go? He was an excellent AA chap, and as they used to say 'A very very nice man'!

Never had that problem with mine.

Mine can be "slow to start" as the mechanical fuel pump needs to get fuel to the carb (but not after one hour).

Only "real" heat is from the exhaust manifold that is on the other side from the pump etc.

Perhaps somebody else has some thoughts.

Yes your very nice man is correct. I was a young lad when x-flows came out and my best friend who was an apprentice Ford mechanic would regularly swap engine in Cotinas and later Escorts. If you think about it the engine in a Morgan is quite encased I compared to a Cortina, so problems when hot is not surprising.

If I recall correctly the engine block can get very hot especially if a tuned engine or if it is a hot day. The heat transfer to the carburettor can then cause the fuel to quickly evaporate in it and then it is hard to start through fuel starvation. I would look to replace the spacer between the carb and the inlet manifold with a modern material that has a high heat resistance. Have a look on Classic Ford race rally tuning sites I am sure they will be available. Also a reflective heat shield around the float bowl of the carb. between it and the block.

Another thing to check is the compression on the cylinders, they can be prone to valve seat burn and then the valves don't seat properly when hot. This can make hot start very hard. If compression is low on one it might be worth investigating. I would add that if you have a bad valve initially it usually shows up with an occasional mis-fire when running.

Hope this helps

Adrian- spot on. I had my Kent bored out and fast road cams added- and had real hot start problems until I had the carb shielded. Still wasn't perfect- but helped.

Great engine - drove it in a 4 str for a decade when the children were growing up- absolutely loved it.

Richard- mine too was a 76' in Indigo Blue - happy days.

I miss it - but time moves on and SWMBO wanted something a little more " modern" with a heater!!

I had a 1938 4/4 in which I changed the engine to a Ford E93A engine. It would not start when hot. I took the head off and one vavle was D shaped. Started straight away when cold.

Simon I had a similar issue, but it was the starter solenoid getting hot. It sounded a bit like a flat battery. I put a heat shield between the exhaust manifold and the starter

Mine doesn't sound like a flat battery-turns over really well. I did ask the Morgan garage to look into it but they didn't come up with any answers, probably not very used to older Morgans. I'm going to ask my Saab specialist to have a look as he's a top guy and has an Escort mexico himself so I think he's know a thing or two (and he's very cheap!)

I forgot about my spacer/gasket between my carb and inlet manifold...

What you want is a stainless sheet about 1.5mm thick between the carb and the engine, stainless is a good reflector. You Mexico man might be able to make one up, and source a spacer with good he resistance.

Spacers can be sourced from Burton Power.