Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Fumes

On a serious note I collected my Plus 4 SS from Phil at Allon White on Friday but only took it home on a long run of 60 miles today . It was left in a hotel car park in the mean time. I went home with the top down today but I noticed a distinct exhaust fume smell in the cockpit and my wife also noticed it when I took her for her first trip since we bought it.
I must admit that it did leave me feeling a little nauseous too. I am very concerned re carbon monoxide. Has anyone come across this problem,it was certainly not the case with my previous Duratec Plus 4?

I don't think there is a recorded death by carbon monoxide with a Morgan with its hood down, so don't worry about it .Sleep easy. And you will wake in the morning. I HOPE. Sorry bad humour.

I also owned a P4SS and got the same "fume-experience" like you did.

Some thoughts, only assumptions:

a) The fume issue was also the case with your Duratec Plus 4, but her fume-composition was less noticable. The smell of the P4SS engine could be a little more noticable for reasons I don´t know. Could be caused by the metal cat perhaps.

b) I learned when driving the P4SS, that the fume-experience is somehow weather dependent, the fumes are mostly noticable on warmer days with high humidity and almost without any wind.

c) Did your Plus4 duratec had a spare tyre? I guess, that big cut out for the spare tyre sucks most of the fumes back before reaching the cabin.

What I did against it, when driving with side screens mounted it is helpful to open the side screens to avoid too much negative pressure inside the cabin.

You can't actually smell carbon monoxide!

Open cabin with the rear airflow tumbling about will drag in fumes and other smells from the road, probably not as much as you'll get from sitting behind another vehicle with its exhaust aiming at your car.

Are your exhausts new and free flowing? Probably the newness burning off.

Thank you Heinz for your comments and I think you are correct on all points esp. The spare tyre not being on this car. The exhaust system is 3. 5 yrs old so no change there.
I have sent Phil at Allon an email so this will hopefully eliminate any possible faults

I think it is a common problem with the SS. Riding in Redmorgans car, my eyes were watering and we were both coughing. The cure was to run without side screens!

I heard somewhere that there was a tweak to reduce the problem...change of plugs I think.

Or, change the exhaust to a side exit pipe?

I too had a plus 4 ss and had the same problem, my suspicions were the engine breathing system as it had an oil catch tank which must breath somewhere and not re circulated back to to intake.

I was looking at Morgans at a Hill Climb site near me and noticed an early +8 with a perspex air dam fitted along the back of the cockpit, where the hood would be. It was about 2" high above the bodywork. It ran the full width of the cockpit.
The car also had exhaust pipes that extended a good 2" beyond the back of the bodywork.

The owner told me that these changes stopped exhaust fumes getting back into the cockpit. On pre-cat cars this is a common issue, he said.

On the subject of carbon monoxide, if the car has a cat there isn't any in the exhaust. Even on a pre-cat car the exhaust has to be collected inside an enclosed space to reach a level enough to be toxic. It is odourless so you cannot smell it, which is why faulty gas fires and boilers can be so dangerous in an enclosed space.

It does help to open the sidescreens (if fitted) some 2-3 cms to reduce air suction behind the windscreen (as this suction draws the fumes into the cockpit).

Fumes should be almost not naticable without side screens fitted - my experiences with several cars yet.

And: yes, spare wheel-less cars seem to suffer more from that ugly smells (which cause bad headaches...) due to different flow behaviour / turbulences over the rear panel.

Hope that helps?!