Since buying a 2013 M3W last April, I’ve learned a lot about these little monsters, with most of the useful information coming right here from TalkMorgan. And although I realize now that no two Morgan’s are ever identical, hopefully there is value to somebody out there by sharing my journey, trials and tribulations.
First a bit more about the car itself. Ex-factory she came black-on-black, with the RAF roundels, and shark nose decals, the bright pack, a trickle charger, and a mohair tonneau. And that was about it. The original owner who ordered the car new had done only 780 miles, and in the 3 years under his ownership, the car had just an engine oil change and that was about it.
With a November 2013 build date, she came with none of the “upgrades” - chassis brace, centa Drive, Urban Cooling Pack, steering comfort pack were all missing. The car was sold on Bring-a-Trailer, and the absence of all of the above must have scared most bidders away, allowing me to pick up the car for a reasonable price, at least state-side.
This is the way she looked as originally advertised:
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http://mog3w.simplesite.com/438338332?i=144605227[/img]
The shark nose and Union Jack decals were fun for about 3 days, but looked cheap in my eyes (the material, that is) - so they were soon gone. A Brookland steering wheel was installed, as well as an Aero Racing Stage 1 air filter and free flow exhaust.
Many hours were spend considering AR vs G56, and in the end I chose for AR, in part due to the G56 unit being out of stock at the time of ordering, but probably more so due to my (in hindsight, misguided) desire to keep the car “factory original”. The AR exhaust was coated in flat black, and modified to allow the heat shields to be mounted on top, exactly as the original exhaust (allowing to switch back to the original exhaust if I would ever choose to do so, something that is - again in hindsight - highly unlikely). The heat shields were flat black coated as well. Purely for esthetical reasons, the headers were wrapped all the way down (even though there are varying opinions about this on TM).
So this is what she looks like right now:
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http://mog3w.simplesite.com/438338332?i=144605018[/img]
Which is where the real work began.....but what all was needed to bring her up to standard? After a lot of studying, I settled on the following initial list:
1) bolt-in chassis brace
2) centa drive
3) comfort steering pack
4) Urban Cooling Pack
5) S&S pulley fix, and timing belt cover cooling
6) sprocket
7) Union Jack enamel badges
8) a new pedal box (leaking cylinders), new clutch (since we have to pull it out anyway, why not)
Parts were ordered from Morgan, and after a bit of a wait.....came in and were ready to be installed. Unfortunately I have more ideas than technical skills, and realized soon that I needed help. Which brought me to MSA Classics (MSAClassics.com) in Georgia. Mitch, who runs MSA Classics, is well known in the vintage racing circuit, and came highly recommended by Morgan afficionados in the South. Mitch knows his way around Morgans, and so the journey started in earnest. Mitch has been nothing short of amazing to work with - absolutely a magician with spanners, and honest to the core. Good people!
And while most of these upgrades are standard fare for most of the folks on TM, there are a few mods that might be of real interest to the community:
Realizing the weight of the original Morgan steel sprocket, a switch was quickly made to a SuperMax version. A no-brainer really.
Nor did I like the cheapo feel of the Urban cooling pack. So we took the idea, and are now playing around with an aluminum version. This is he first mock-up; the finale version will be downsized, and coated in (you guessed it) flat black. Work-in-progress...to be continued.
http://mog3w.simplesite.com/438338332?i=144604963Same issue with the comfort steering kit......understand that it works, but it is just such an un-elegant solution. I thought about the empire kit for a while, but landed on a simpler idea: lower the car as Malvern originally intended. So which path: Spax, Supplex, or Ohlins?
And after reading everything on TM, I reached out to Peter and Dan at SSL. They have taken over the supply of Supplex - which was always my preferred choice, except for the rebound spring in the rear shocks. SSL proposed modified rears, removing the rebound spring. Problem solved, shocks on order. Waiting for delivery. And hopefully once they come in, it will be possible to clear the exhaust header sufficiently to get to the optimal ride-height. I’m not totally sure yet, we’ll see - said the Zen Master.
But by far, my most precious resource throughout this journey, has been PhiI and his blog:
http://www.bleazey.co.uk/M3W.html Around the time that I got the new centa drive parts from Morgan, stories started to surface on TM of disintegrating rubber inserts. Seeing the parts for the first time, I was not very impressed by the insert engineering design either - and even less so by the lack of a bearing to support the front end of the centa unit inner rotor. Really? Several e-mails with Phil later, an order was placed for a full kit, including new inserts, a bearing for the inner rotor and shaft, as well as mounting brackets for the bevel box. My car does not have the NVH “kit” (thankfully) - so all I will be using is the top mount to distribute the load throughout the chassis. Phil’s kit came in last week, and Mitch has been working hard to put everything back together. The fit was absolutely perfect, and Phil was super helpful to answer any questions we had during the install.
http://mog3w.simplesite.com/438338332?i=144604915http://mog3w.simplesite.com/438338332?i=144604938http://mog3w.simplesite.com/438338332?i=144604937http://mog3w.simplesite.com/438338332?i=144604957During the process, the bevel box was pulled from the car and disassembled - revealing the black sludge resulting from Morgan’s additive. It took hours on the cleaner to get it all off, but luckily the gears are clean. Interesting to see that a Quaife used a conical bearing - would love to hear the idea behind that from any of the experts out there. Refilled with Red Line, it looks like disaster averted. With 1600 miles on the counter, barely..
With Phil’s part installed,and the engine back in, no time yet for a thorough shake-down, but initial results seem impressive. The “bag of marbles” sound is gone (as expected), but more importantly, it’s now possible to smoothly take-off purely on clutch control without additional accelerator input. Previously, about 1800 rpms were needed to get the car going without stalling. Surprisingly the engine runs smoother as well, with less vibrations; not quite sure why that is as nothing was changed to the engine besides an oil change. Will post more details on the driving experience soonest, as I assume there might be quite of bit of interest for this out there.
And finally, a Stage 2 G56 kit has arrived for installation. S&S refused to sell an open ECU, which I needed to activate the cooling fan. I could have send the ECU off to Morgan-spares here in the US, but having come this far, we decided to go all the way - and unlock the true potential of this beauty. This will done in the next few weeks, Sls it tight.
So a lot more to come, but hopefully this is something of interest to the community, and worth sharing.
To be continued.....
(ps: as this is my first real post, apologies if the picture links don’t come out as expected. Learner’ plates.)
