Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing 1993 Plus 8 lost power

Our Morgan plus 8 had a moment when it suddenly lost power as if it wasn't firing on all 4 cyclinders followed by a strong smell of egg? We pulled over and stopped the for 5 minutes and then started it up and all was fine allowing us to travel 15 miles back home. Any advice of what this might of been? Many Thanks, Robin

Without quite a bit more detail it is difficult to be more specific , we really need to know which year so we can check with fuelling and ignition systems are fitted.

In the interim you could check

1 The carbon canister on the bulkhead (if fitted) , is it overfull with liquid fuel rather than vapour.

2 All electrical connections from ECU (if fitted) through to the ignition and fuel systems.

3 Has the breather hole/vent in the fuel filler cap been blocked.

4 Has a lamda sensor (if fitted) become defunct/disconnected.

It would appear to be a 1993 by the thread title but we do need a lot more detail really.

Single exhaust or dual system would be useful to know.

Plus8 not firing on all 4 cylinders I take you meant all 8?

Was this its first run for a while?

Sounds like over fuelling by a confused ECU.

You might find some help here as it really depends on the year & ECU.
http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/plus8index.html

Yes , surely the fun of a plus 8 is the '8' cylinders ??

Thanks I missed that, but you are correct we are struggling a bit without more data.

I think that 1993 means Hotwire (fuelling by ECU, ignition by distributor) I also think it is on the cusp of being pre-cat, but it would be good to know.

I don't think this era had the carbon canister on the bulkhead?

I would still guess that overfilling might have caused an issue for the ecu, and it is not injecting to 4 of the cylinders. It doesn't sound like ignition (yet).

Also was the car refuelled recently , could it have been a duff batch of fuel with water in it (ethanol blends are susceptible to this) , or was the car fuel tank getting very low and it picked up some crud .

Sorry but we are really just guessing until we have more information.

If your car has the separate ignition module bolted to the side of the distributor this would be a likely candidate.
I had a similar fault a few years ago when it would cut out completely, I would switch the ignition off and it would then start again OK.

David Byrne
.

My understanding is that the injection isn’t sequential; the programming merely squirts fuel to the banks alternatively. A quick pull of the plugs would show if one bank was sooty whilst the other wasn’t. I don’t know if a single O2 lambda sensor controls it’s own bank or effects both. If you do have a mucky bank, try swapping the O2 sensors over.

I had the same problem with my 1994 +8. Hotwire injection system. Your problem is allmost certainly an intermittant or early fault with the throttle potentiometer. This flags up an error code 17 in the ECU. This can cause the injection system to go into 'limp home mode' which causes almost total loss of power and very rich fueling, fouled plugs and hence the smell. If you turn the battery cut off switch off, [the red switch behind the passenger seat] it wipes the ECU memory and erases the error code. The car will restart next time with a blank sheet as far as the ECU is concerned, and the car will run ok until the error recurrs. This would seem to be a common problem with an aging 'hotwire' system. Your/our problem is that the throttle potentiometer, part number ETC 8495 is no longer available! Obsolete, as the Range Rover Dealers will gleefully tell you. I do not think at the moment anyone is re-manufacturing it!