Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax N62 coolant pipe problem

Hands up if you have heard of it?
Hands up if your Morgan has suffered it?

Be warned - the Alpina let go a couple of weeks back and my mechanic recovered it back from his yard on Monday to the workshop. The Alpina H2 engine is a supercharged version of the N62B44 and at 125,000km the coolant pipe has let go.

This is a hugely expensive job to get fixed - so be warned, if you are seeing ANY coolant loss from the engine - get it in and replaced with the aftermarket kit.

Luckily the car has a warranty - otherwise I'd be looking at the thick end of 9k chf

I've read about it on US BMW forums.
But with a 3 year old car and 30,000 miles I think I'm safe...for now.

Fitting silicone hoses everywhere is the best prevention, but it still costs a lot and doesn't solve the O ring failure issue.

Point taken and having thorough inspection of coolant hoses while down at KH .

I found the web article...
This is the problem...

In the 8-cylinder engine a metal coolant pipe connects the water pump to the rear engine coolant passages. The pipe is sealed to the engine crankcase using rubber O-rings. These O-rings fail over time, causing a coolant leak in the valley of the engine. This coolant leak usually appears on the ground, at the rear of the engine in the transmission bell housing area. The pipe is tucked away under a valley pan that lives under the intake manifold.
There are a few repair options for when the pipe O-rings fail. You can use a BMW factory part, but this requires removing the front timing cover, including the timing chains and front end of the vehicle. This method can take a few days to complete.

A few aftermarket companies developed a way to repair the pipe without removing the timing cover housings. You cut the pipe out of the valley, then install an expanding pipe into the engine and secure the O-rings and pipe in place with pressure from the expanding pipe.

This Link takes you to the web page where the sorry and expensive solution is explained.

On an Aero it will be wings and cowl off, I guess.

Definitely something to keep an eye on.

Basically it is what Peter has said - the pipe seals have failed - and that means the front of the engine is coming off - expensive enough on a normal N62 but with the supercharger also needing to come off - then be mounted again correctly and the timing set properly this is far from a cheap repair.

Prices in the US are 8-9000usd - which could equate to 12-15k in Switzerland (higher labour rates) - and that is before any Alpina specific parts - and/or damage to the internals of the engine. On a car worth around 30k CHF it is getting dangerous close to it writing the car off!

It's not surprising my strong dislike of modern caers increases when one hears of such expense. How many kms has that car covered?

117k km - and will be 9 years old later this year.

Kind of glad I wasn't talked out of buying the expensive warranty

I'll bet you are!
Not even 65k miles...

BTW, the local farm shop has closed - looks like yet another massive housing development is on the cards. Best treasure your SS photos as a reminder.

You mean 75k miles - obviously