Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms HotMog's transformation

A long overdue update!

I've really been wrestling with which direction to take on the car and the ultimate end specification that I wanted to achieve. I came to the conclusion that the current engine is over specced for my usage, so a big decision was taken to sell off the engine and bits and go down the route of a nice carburettor 3.9 motor.

The car is from 1981, so I like the idea of carbs, rather than sophisticated and complex throttle bodies and the engine spec chosen, along with the amazing suspension, gearbox and brakes, should make this a fantastic road car that I could still do some track days with.

Heres some images of the up to date progress:




It was actually very therapeutic removing loads of oil lines and electronics, knowing the car is being simplified. I've also got space back in the passenger footwell now as the dry sump oil tank has been removed.
And here's the engine that's going back in:

4 bbl Holley under the air cleaner?
Looks very clean

Are the holes in the front of the rear wings for cooling air ? Ducted to brakes or diff ?

Hi Graham, it's an Edelbrock four barrel carb, so much better than the highly flawed Holley and now very popular as they give good power and superb economy.

Correct Jon and well spotted! The ducting is for the rear disc brakes.... ;-)

Some good progress on Hotmog in the last few days. Firstly, new engine in and T5 gearbox etc mated up. The engine is now back in its original position, bolted to the FRONT of the chassis mounts.

The race engine was bolted to the REAR of the chassis mounts, presumably to gain a little by shifting weight rearwards. Strangely though, the bespoke exhaust fits better now, so maybe the rearward engine position was a recent modification.

However, now the engine is in, its obvious that the sump (now a wet sump rather than dry) is only 3" above the ground and as Andy pointed out, this is due to the chassis being lowered by raising the cross head bolting points.

That's the next job, reposition that and reset the geometry. Meanwhile, starter motor is back in and so are exhaust manifolds.

I'll start stripping the front end after I have taken loads of chassis and ride height measurements and then it's a case of getting the car on stands with the chassis absolutely level so that I can reset the crosshead.

Happy with recent progress though!

More progress.
Geometry recorded and front end stripped in order to reset the crosshead and return the chassis to its original ride height position. I can then adjust the ride heights to preferred levels using the adjustable spring platforms.

The engine sump has been taken to Simon at Sifab so he baffle it and at the same time shave a bit off to give me more ground clearance. It'll be "winged" so that the original oil capacity is retained.

Front springs are 250lb, so they will be changed when I build the suspension back up but front suspension arrangement is nicely done to include a one piece brake reaction bar/ and shock absorber top mount as well as a spring mount bearing kit.

Interestingly, the car is only running 1/2" rake.

Making good progress. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Great work. Well done

Thanks Chaps, glad it's of interest. I'm looking forward to putting bits back on, rather than just taking them off all the time!

Picked up the modified sump from Sifab Simon this week and just fitted it. I must say, his work is top notch!

The sump is baffled, has 4 trap doors and a windage tray fitted. It's reduced in height by 30mm so has the two side wings to compensate in order to keep the oil capacity the same. This is about as good as you can get in order to prevent oil starvation on trackdays without going the full monty with a dry sump set up.