Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 S&S Cold hearted?

For the first time ever, Mo spent last night outdoors with the temp falling to 35°F. She fired up nicely this morning but left to idle on her own, she died out and was a little hard to get started again. Normal or not? Seems she'd have been fine if I'd let her warm up more and maybe kept a little throttle going.

She was just stamping her foot because you'd left her out to shiver..

Living in Vermont, I found that the stock battery is woefully inadequate. That's one. The oil at those temps will act like glue and it will take some time to warm that up. That's two.

I would look into the battery and upgrade soonest. Leaving the car at idle will not charge the battery at all at those temps. When you do have to restart it it will not have a good time doing so.

My car lives outside during driving season. I have no garage. I am ashamed. I cover her always.

I start her up and let it idle for a minute then just go. I never break 4,000 rpm at first until about 10/15 minutes in. Take it easy at first while the oil warms up and the viscosity improves. When it's cold out this takes time as the very air is doing a terrific job in cooling the block down.

Battery was fine. Cranked easily and started quickly. Just didn't stay running very long and didn't wanna fire quickly when restarting ( though she turned over rapidly). Didn't seem to be a battery issue at all.

I find mine a little spluttery and hesitant at the low maneuvering revs you have to endure whilst setting off through our small village. Settles down very quickly though once you can get above 2500 rpm. Haven't had to use it in really cold weather yet though.

I can imagine the ECU not being at its best in extreme conditions and at idle revs.

BTW been using NGK Iridium plugs for the last few thousand miles. Difficult to say how much improvement on stock but suffice to say engine always starts perfectly hot or cold after a few turns of crank.

ETA: NGK DCPR7EIX plugs.

Only time I had trouble starting was at the front of the queue getting off the Sandander-Portsmouth ferry. Cranked fine but didn't want to start! Never happened before or since - go figure. MIght be other gremlins at work other than the obvious ones of battery capacity and oil viscosity (although those are the obvious one to check I agree).

Does the S&S TB have a high idle air bleed? These typically will bump the idle rpms up 200 to 300 rpms on cold start. My '09 Harley does this, but it's a throttle by wire setup. As I think about it, cars that were before TBW setups, still had the high idle bump via the air bleed port.

On my Willys with it's blown 392 hemi, I had two 700HP Holley carbs without chokes. I would turn on the fuel pump and just pump a few times, then it would fire up. If I kept it at around 2k rpms for a couple minutes, then it was good to go.

Anything like the M3W needs a bump in rpms at cold start. Even late model bikes with carbs, the choke/enrichment circuit would pop the butterfly open a bit during the startup.

I agree about the battery though. Even though it's not an issue now, it could be later on. In cold weather batteries start at a voltage point below when warm, so you're turning a cold motor and with lower than normal voltage.

I guess if you're in the need to keep your baby outside when cold and it does not have an idle air bleed, I think it would fairly easy to add a slight bump on the outside TB butterfly cable assembly with an auxiliary cable. Lots of old cars and tractors had a high idle separate cable that you could pull out to bump the idle. For tractors it might have been used to run a PTO at higher than idle rpms.

On my old '76 Harley with a choke, I have a setscrew under the throttle grip that I tighten up and it sets the grip at any rpms I lock it at.

Sorry for rambling again guys. I'll shut up for now...

Don't know how its achieved, but cold startup on my car with recommended no throttle has the idle revs hit 1300rpm briefly before settling on normal 1000rpm. The colder it is the longer the high idle but never more than a few seconds.

Hi Ken
the S&S engine does not like being started under harsh temperatures - that seems to be normal. I did quite a number of rides at winter temperatures and the engine always needed several starting attempts.
Best approach is switch ignition on, wait until to pump stops running, then try to start. If it doesn't fire up after a couple of revolutions switch ignition off and repeat the same procedure. Normally the engine will start after 3 or 4 attempts.
It will then need maybe 1 or 2 minutes until it supplies a good throttle response.
I think the mapping is not really optimized well for starting at freezing temperatures.

Kurt I switch on let fuel pump stop, switch off, repeat twice then start. This was recommended by the Morgan mechanic. Its never a good starter warm or cold day. With engine warm if you switch off at traffic lights you can get caught out with reluctant to start. An optimist on Amazon is offering a pair for £51.

Tim