Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Dash PCB-ectomy

My thoughts exactly, simplicity was the big attraction for me.

It does seem the PCB is the only Morgan designed element that ditracts from the back to basics approach, and surprise surprise its the only consisantly unreliable component on these modern traditional chassis Morgans

Agreed and a big risk for long term ownership

Isn't this increased reliance on modern electronics part of the evolutionary process for cars though. Bemoaning a generation of Morgan cars produced in the early 2000's through until ten years ago seems an attempt at closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Models produced since have inevitably even greater reliance on ever more complex electronics whilst also generally offering greater reliability from same.

Rog's re-engineering is without doubt a superb solution which at the time may not have been financially viable or even accessible to MMC, although doubtless they regret the mistakes made with the under engineered poorly protected PCB, a steep learning curve for them at the time I imagine. At best it would only have staved off the inevitable adoption of greater reliance on electronics later, as has been proven.

Very true Richard & I hope our 3.7l Roadsters fair better than the S1 Roadster I had in this regards. Indeed under the dash it does seemless Mickey Mouse.

Easy answer. Insufficient profit and too reliable. Metal toggles never fail.

Gentlemen, may I join your duet? You are singing my song. There is so much fun to be had with a simple car, as performant as you choose and tweaked to your preferences and the roads you love, all while being able to diagnose and fix it roadside with a flat head screw driver and a 10 quid multimeter. An authentic British Golden Age of Automobiling experience.

BTW, even if they had more wisely chosen their PCB, how would that have benefited a Morgan owner's life any more than it does with other manufacturers that use them? PCBs are merely another of many manufacturing shortcuts that have backfired in the last two decades for Morgan. They would have had far fewer warranty claims and regain their fiercely loyal oddball market if they had continued to made simple vehicles for hobbyists. Has the newer format in design and parts-sourcing worked for them any more than it has for their buyers?😭

gmg

Nothing wrong with PCBs, as long as they're built properly!

Like the one inside my excellent EMU Black Morgan Plus 4 'Plug N Play' ECU built by ECU Master in Poland.








Sadly, whoever built the dash switch module for Morgan made some serious mistakes in its design and construction, it also seems likely some of the components chosen to go on the board were under specified, I very much doubt the Morgan PCBs were built in a modern facility like this.



What I’m saying is, much like TVR did with the later dash designs found from the Tuscan model on, Morgan went beyond their capabilities, they would have been far better off accepting their limitations and keeping the switching old school.

That EMU Black does look nice Dave. It’s an impressive bit of kit all round and the ultimate solution for any obsessive Morgan owning petrol head with an ECU. I’d love to have one but I know that I would just spend way too much of my life playing in the garage.

However, a Morgan with a Ford Visteon ECU’s is not so bad. A billion Mondeo’s on our roads is a testament to this well-engineered module, designed for longevity. It certainly lasted the life of those Mondeo’s but how long will it keep our Morgan’s running? Used for all the 4 cylinder cars with the Duratec engine and a 6 cylinder version for the early Roadster.

Even 20 years ago when this ECU was introduced it was using regular surface mount tech. If you need proof of its reliability just search the Ford forums. The only occasional issue worth mentioning was the susceptibility of the coil drivers to fail should one persist driving a car with a faulty coil pack. But even then, as luck would have it, a fried 5503GM driver was about the only component on the entire board that could be easily be replaced and they’re still just about obtainable today.

Coil drivers on the back of the ECU board


And the really good news is now that the donars have finished with them there is an abundance of second hand units around for next to nothing. So for an old dinosaur like me who just doesn’t think any car should have any electronics there is a fallback position, future proofing. I have to confess to having a small pile of these, the cheapest I’ve paid for one was the 4 quid starting bid...

The Visteon is indeed a fantastic ECU Rog, and built to Ford's exacting standards!

It was also made in the hundreds of thousands, any product made in those numbers tends to force baked in quality and durability, that's why a humble Honda Civic is infinitely better built and more reliable than a modern McLaren. The McLaren is 10 x the cost but it's built in such small numbers there's no way they can achieve Honda levels of production quality and durability, and this despite the Civic being a much cheaper car.

I’d speculate the same low volume scenario has a lot to do with why the Morgan dash switch module PCB is a bit shyte (technical term), in the world of electronics manufacture I'm certain the job would have been viewed by the serious players as such a low production run they would have seen it as being a completely impractical and un-attractive proposition. For these reasons Morgan would have been forced to outsource production to a small company, who I suspect neither had the design skills or production facility to build a board to the standards any large car manufacturer would insist upon.

TVR approached the same problem differently, they tried to make all their low volume electronics in-house, but this was an absolutely disastrous idea as they clearly couldn't recruit the right caliber of electronics engineer and the investment in production was probably no more than allocation of a separate bench for dash module builds and a soldering iron. If you think the Morgan PCB is a pain in the arsh, try getting the digital dash in your TVR T350 or MK2 Tuscan repaired..... and for sure at some point you will definitely need to get it repaired!!!

Back to the ECU subject raised by Rog, I did try really hard to retain my Visteon ECU, it's a quality thing and also came free with my Morgan so there was no cheaper ECU. However, as I increased the power output of my Duratec beyond 170hp, which seems to be the self correction limit of the Visteon, I was forced to find another solution. Very few people have the ability and software to alter the calibration within Visteon and you simply can't take a 145hp internal combustion engine to over 200hp without having the ability to make significant changes to the fueling and ignition timing as a minimum.

Of course this is exactly why aftermarket stand alone ECUs exist, what can put people off going down this path is cost and the idea there's some kind of magical knowledge needed to map an engine. But this is simply not true, if you have a basic understanding of the working principles of an internal combustion engine and like me come from a background of carburetor and distributor tuning, you honestly don't need the services of a so-called professional tuner. I've been playing with aftermarket ECUs for years now and with great success, select a quality engine management system with good support like the EMU Black I chose from ECU Master and quite simply you will never look back.

As soon as you take control over your own calibration work the sense of empowerment is huge, as are the savings, I’d also argue there's nothing more rewarding than building your own calibration and enjoying the immediate results. The plug and play Morgan Plus 4 EMU Black ECU takes things a step further by making installation comically simple, as the name suggests you literally just plug the thing into the Ford/Visteon ECU connector and you're good to go. I have now developed a series of Duratec Morgan Plus 4 calibrations to cover various levels of engine tune, while these calibrations are intellectual property that carry value I'm sure if a genuine Morgan enthusiast approached me for support I'd be happy to share.

Sure, the Morgan Plus 4 plug and play EMU Black is an initial investment of £1,200, but that's actually super cheap for an aftermarket stand alone ECU you can fit yourself in just 20 minutes. Most people typically pay around £3,000 for a quality stand alone ECU installation, they then go on to pay a further £600 minimum to get the car professionally mapped. A total spend of £4,000 to get the thing right is a realistic figure, so just £1,200 for a turn key solution is amazing value for money, especially given the EMU Black really is one of the best stand alone ECUs on the market today.

Dave, I have a plan for the Visteon when the time come. Not as much fun as yours but I think I have a couple of routes for tweaking the cal

Go for it Rog