Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms HotMog's transformation

Two months have passed, so time for an update. It's actually been a frustrating period, with most of the time taken to research issues so that I can resolve them the best way. However, after all the planning, I have made some progress. I got the Crosshead back from Terry at GEE, who's done a brilliant job of tweaking it back into shape. The top tube on one side was slightly out of line and being fussy, I wanted it corrected.

Terry also supplied me with new Hard Chrome king pins. Here's the crosshead back in place with 6 degree castor, correctly set both sides and perfectly symmetrical. Took ages!


Next up was refitting the suspension etc after checking and re greasing the bearings etc


Unfortunately, as I refitted the callipers, I noticed that one of the bolts had lots of ally on it. Yep, stripped thread on one bolt and this car had raced at Spa!
Decided not to pay £85 to someone to have a Helicoil fitted and instead bought a genuine Helicoil kit myself and did the job with an engineer buddy of mine. Easy and perfect result:


Callipers are now back on and so are brake lines. Radiator fitted and also new water pump as I wasn't too happy with the bearings on the existing one.

The car is back on its wheels and the results of the various jobs needed to return the car to a more normal ride height has meant that I now have 5" ground clearance under the sump. About an inch of that was from the mods that Sifab did. So all in all, I'm really happy about that.

Next job is to modify the brake reaction bars each side as these now need shortening and adjusting due to the chassis and crosshead being returned to standard ride height. I have cut them to length and will get them tack welded before trial fitting and fettling and will then get them fully welded.

So far, nothing has been too complicated but it has been very time consuming as I want a perfect car at the end of the project and won't cut any corners in the process.

Very interesting project but I'm glad I'm not paying for it as it looks very time consuming and expensive !

Interesting update, keep 'em coming

Looking good, thanks for the update.

Much progress made recently, hurrah!

A lot of planning and quite a bit of internet shopping to acquire little bits and pieces that are needed to finish some small jobs. Oil cooler is now properly positioned and fully plumbed in, which wasn’t that difficult but took ages to make the brackets and route the pipework the best way.

Expansion tank now fitted and nearly plumbed in and also the fuel regulator and a new pump. Remember, I have gone from an EFI set up, back to carbs, so pump and regulator needed changing.



Ride height now set and I’m pleased to say that with the modified sump I now have 125mm, which I’m really pleased with, especially as my engine is slightly lower in the chassis than standard.

Coolant hoses are now also fitted, which entailed making up some nice joiners to route the lower hose over part of the crosshead. It’s a neat job though!





And finally, having measured up for the new propshaft, it’s currently at AutoProp Services in East Grinstead being modified because I have gone from the race spec Getrag dog box to a Cosworth Tremec T5 box.

Next job is one that I’ve been avoiding – fitting the handbrake lever. This will require some thinking, as none is currently fitted and where it should go on the chassis rail, I can’t get the standard support bracket to fit under the gearbox tail housing.

Interesting update, BTW that steering linkage looks very close to the exhaust manifold

Out of interest, what are your views on wrapping headers ?

Hi Jon, the steering linkage is close at the moment but I will lower the engine slightly to get a bit more clearance. I have ample ground clearance so this isn't an issue.

Wrapping headers is a good way of preventing the cockpit and engine bay from getting too much heat but that heat has got to go somewhere!. Most morgans don't rev very high, so the manifolds aren't ever going to get super hot, like they might do in a Caterham or similar. I'm not intending to wrap mine unless I feel the need to protect the front wings a bit from the heat.

Interesting thread Culminator thanks for sharing. I noted that you typed that you had fitted a pressure regulator now that you have converted from fuel injection to carbs (?) is that as the result of retaining the original higher output fuel pump as may be required by F.I...?

One other thing that caught my eye was that your fan stat (?) is top tank mounted in the rad, and certainly an improvement over my standard rubber grommet sealed and bottom tank mounted fan otter switch, though I wonder if it might ever be possible that the water level in the rad could drop while running to a situation where the fan cut out as the coolant had lost contact with the sensor...? Of course I could be typing rubbish, as I have done more than once before... no problemo if you are too busy to respond.

Thanks Luddite, I'm never too busy to respond and just pleased that my project interests some people.

The car had a fuel pressure regulator fitted but that was for very high pressure FI as you say and you can indeed use a regulator to step the pressure down enough but it isn't the best solution really. . Now that I've gone back to a carb set up, I've changed the Bosch injection pump for a new low pressure Facet one. That's all that would be required if I was running on standard SU;s but because I've fitted a Webber 500 carb, ideally it needs constant pressure of no more than 5 psi, so a decent regulator, specifically for a carburettered V8 was required.

Hopefully, the top of the rad will never run dry as I have a separate expansion tank on the bulkhead, one of Simon's creations. The way that I've plumbed it in also means that it auto bleeds the system. Well, that's the theory.....

Ideally the fan switch should always be at the top of the radiator as that then senses the water at it's hottest point. You are correct though, if somehow it does run dry, the fan won't come on.

Culminator, many thanks for your rapid reply to my questions. I am sure those involved in the re design of HotMog have more knowledge than I..