Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Roadster S1 Sump....SiFab replacement

Initially I was going to bump my original Sump investigations thread, but it became untidy after the Photobucket debacle. Anyway it's here and I reposted the photos.

http://www.talkmorgan.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/43365/7

Today I found some garage time and decided to replace my original sump (with only one grounding over 14 years) with a modified sump from Sifab.

Here it is looking very shiny. I did an oil test just to be certain there were no porous sections and it was fine.





While I was underneath I examined the gearbox mounting (more about this soon) and checked the gearstick linkage. Note the white nylon ball, which was quite dry, so I applied some squirty grease. Note also the slight spatter of grease from the front U/J. This arrangement is the Getrag gearbox, Series 1 Roadster only.



Removing the sump is straightforward. I had previously removed the bolts and lubricated the threads, so they all came out easily. Care is needed on the back pair, which are recessed and close to the hole in the bellhousing at 6 o'clock. You don't want a bolt getting inside the bellhousing! There was some evidence of dark fragments contaminating the oil, but not so bad.



On the front corners only, silicon sealer had been used, and had squeezed out of the seam, hanging over into the sump, which isn't great. this was presumably applied because the front timing cover meets the engine block at this point. I decided not to apply sealant here, but a smear of grease all the way round on the replacement sump.If it leaks I'll drop it and try something else. There were traces of sealant on the engine block mating face which came off easily with a Stanley knife. I decided to re-use the rubber seal. I expected it to be a simple round neoprene section but it's a lot more sophisticated than that!



Here is the business end. Note the hole in the bellhousing plate. This is very exposed to the elements and I fitted a cover plate early on in my Roadster ownership. If you go through a ford in a 3.0 Roadster you will get water coming into the bellhousing, which is not good.





What's this bit of wire sticking down? I wondered...................



My bellhousing cover plate. I kept all the bolts in order, cleaned and applied Coppaslip before refitting, and tightened slowly and evenly. The bolt holes in the sump have a nylon type insert, which allows slight movement. Before final tightening, I nipped up the one bolt which pulls the sump towards the bellhousing plate. This is at the bottom, offside.



This is how it looks now behind my deflector plate, which caused such consternation when I first fitted it!



This is not the end of this project. I have already spaced the engine mountings a few mm, and my plan is to increase this, and to also add a spacer to the gearbox mounting, which I now have a plan for.

At the end I'll note the before and after clearance. So far it's been an easy job, but you never know!

Great work Mr DW, well done

Thanks Dave. Good to see just how easy it is for you to grease the UJs

Access is really good on the S1. Better than the Plus 4 by miles.

Good work Dave I've got a drawing of the tightening sequence somewhere if you ever need to drop the sump again

Thanks,Jon. Hopefully it will stay on and in one piece!

On our Northumberland trip one of the Roadsters hit a large boulder which was flung towards the sump and punctured it making a large pool of oil on the car park as we pulled up. A sump protector made of steel would have helped, shortening the sump is good but Aluminium by nature is quite soft.

I am sooooo glad Rover used a good steel sump on the V8 ! I was unable to avoid a (luckily round) large stone/rock that fell off a trailer in front. BIG bang. A slight dent but no leaks. It missed the drain plug. No oil pressure loss as the oil take-p inside not affected. Yippee for a pressed steel steel sump not a less ductile cast aluminium.

So, the next step.......I already spaced the engine mountings by around 6mm, but I want a bit more. and it seems sensible to lift the gearbox mounting, but not by quite so much so that the drive train lifts in a slight arc. I looked previously at my gearbox mount, and initially thought that the only option was to remove the two bolts which hold the mounting to the crossmember and insert a spacer there.

However there's a brass nut screwed into the gearbox case, and a centre bolt up through the mounting which fixes the gearbox to the upper part of the mounting. I made a 3.5mm aluminium C spacer, assuming it would just need to wrap around the bolt, but when I jacked the gearbox up to get access, it turns out that this brass fitting is mushroom shaped. This meant I needed a wider C spacer, which was also shaped to fit around the brass component.

As original:


Here with my spacer:


I lift the engine mounts from below (after removing the nut & washer), by loose fitting a long M10 nut, and adding an M10 bolt...................


So I whipped out the spacers, added 4mm, cut and trimmed, and put them back.




Before I lower the Roadster to the floor, so I can take a new clearance measurement, I will be doing a brake fluid change so you'll have to wait a bit longer to find out what the new clearance is.

As a taster, before I started, it was 830mm at the lowest point of the original sump. By comparison, the lowest point on my Plus 4 is the skid plate under the gearbox crossmember, and this is1001mm.

When lifting the engine & gearbox it's very important to examine all the potential touch points. 8 or 9mm isn't much at all, and yet I had to realign the nearside brake pipe at the inner wing, because the bottom hose was touching after raiising the initial 6mm. The water pump on the S1 Roadster is hard up against the vertical part of the bulkhead as standard, and after raising, is quite close to the upper part of the bulkhead, but with about 5mm clearance. The exhaust manifolds have ample clearance through the inner wing valances, and the top of the engine clears the bonnet hinge by about 5mm. So it all seems good.

Dave
My S1 with a Mulfab sump the first thing to touch was the gearbox chassis cross member