Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 X-Wedge Sump Plug Thread Stripped

LightSpeed was told by S&S that the wet sumping was a reed valve issue. Details in this post.

Mine has done it from new.

I remember seeing that and thinking it was a bit strange then. The reed valve only has a pipe from the top of the oil tank with an air/oil mix, as it is part of the breather system. It doesn't hold back any head of oil from the tank when the engine isn't running. The oil pump always has a feed to it from the bottom of the oil tank, this has a gravity head of pressure when it's not running. Any small leak through the pump clearances will eventually drain back through to the oil pump pickup scavenge area, which is the sump. There are no NRV's or shut off valves to prevent this happening, they would just cause more problems. That is just me looking at the diagrams of the oil system, I could be wrong?

No, you're not wrong. A simple inspection of the reed valve tells you that it will have no impact on oil drainback from the tank with the engine off as it's not even in the oil circuit.

not to hijack a thread, but I am now finding smoking (mostly from the right at start up. Then it goes away.

Worth a new thread?

Further to the good info from Bunny about using a M14 replacement sump plug if the threads strip. I was told about a possibly better solution recently by another M3W owner, as used on the vintage Morgan 3 Wheelers that suffer with the same problem. Use a M14 adaptor with a M10 mag plug fitted, that way you are not disturbing the "delicate" alloy case threads when the plug is removed. Plenty of adaptors and mag plugs on eBay. If your engine tends to let the oil drain into the sump easily, then sump plug removal can be frequent. The only downside is that this set up will protrude more than a plug on its own and be a bit more vulnerable. It's a chance to do some useful wire locking as well 😊.

It’s also a standard and necessary improvement on a 70s Norton Commando.

What do the plugs look like?

SPARK plugs.

Another top tip from the Lincolnshire posse.