Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax Starting up after lay up

Hmmm - I wonder why you got the Click of Death Rob? Odd. Maybe the earth strap got a bit corroded?

I'll do some more investigating today, Neil.
I was relieved to get it started without too much fiddling, so took it for a run to get everything warmed up - it was a lovely afternoon - and it was getting dark when I got home!
I'll do some cleaning around the battery and starter and see what I find.
(I used to get the dreaded 'K click' on my last Caterham until I applied a fix. It was a bit easier to bumpstart the Caterham singlehanded!)

if very cold I do know people that have placed a blower heater at front of engine to warm her a little, but overall with modern oils and injection unless battery is weak not much to do just never rev or gun from cold

I try to never leave my plus 8 longer than three weeks on trickle charge before starting and warming up, then hopefully giving her a run.

I had excessive cam lobe wear on my Plus Eight 5 years back. It was a high lift cam (Crane 234) and so an increased wear risk over a standard cam, particularly as I keep the car off the road during winter months. When I had a new engine built by John Eales, he suggested that the wear was due to oil drain-down after winter lay-ups that was probably the issue; a cause that I had suspected.

Since installing the new engine, after winter lay-ups, I remove the spark plugs and rocker covers and run copious oil along the rockers and valve gear. The oil will drain into the engine valley and hopefully run down the lifters on to the cam lobes.

A quick spin up on the starter after the rocker covers have been reinstalled to pressurise the oil system then replace the sparkplugs and hey presto - some reassurance that one has done something to minimise the wear.

It started ok...

Splendid!!