Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Coolant Volume

Luddite, the heat exchanger is actually a small oil cooler using water cooling as opposed to the more traditional oil to air coolers.

I guess it would also help to get the oil up to temperature a bit quicker although how efficient it is as an oil cooler I don't know as the oil is being cooled by 90 (ish) degree water.

Here's a photo showing the heat exchanger sandwiched between the block and the oil filter with water hoses in and out.

Bob, thanks for the heads up on what seems more likely to be a pre heater for the oil, than a cooler...? Again using no more than logic, getting the oil up to temperature on an engine quickly would seem a possible priority. thus perhaps the heat exchanger may be used for that..?

My aftermarket oil cooler is mounted in front of the rad on my old +8 has no thermostat to assist the oil to warm up quicker than otherwise would be the case, especially in cold weather.

Bore scoring as reportedly plagued Porsches water-cooled flat six, was ever blamed on giving it the beans before the engine was up to operating temperature, which seems more than possible on a rarely used machine taken out for a quick Sunday blast..?

More than happy to read alternative thinking..

If you read the article I linked to, it is more than elegant. It is NOT plastic and it is LARGE. I am saddened it is not MMC stock. One thing there seems to be consensus on now. That is the fact that an expansion system increases the size of a coolant system while recovery systems do not. That being the case, a larger expansion tank is better than a small one, in the same way a higher capacity oil system runs costlessly cooler than a smaller one. Sheally showed me that..So I use the best of all Rover V8s sumps with the greatest clearance and the highest capacity. Cooling a big engine in a Morgan, that can meet ALL situations, merely requires attention to details. The needs of each car is different in this another areas as these are SPORTS cars individualized to the style and needs of each owner. One size DOES NOT fit all. Who here drives their Morgan in same manner their significant other does?


I don't agree. If your system was a expansion system that lovely tank you have would have a pressure cap on it rather than a sealing cap. Fords, to the current annoyance of its performance owners, is one of the few companies that still use recovery systems.


Considering the nonsense found on the internet, you must expect to be confused. Even dear George, who has a legendary understanding of vintage mechanics, is learning from this thread which I applaud. Shows he is still younger than he thinks. There is another codicil. Coolant systems are becoming more complex, more out of reach of owner understanding. Rad fans that run at 2-3 speeds controlled by computer..like that of Colin's car that Luddite experienced, IIRC. For example, there are systems now that combine elements of both expansion and recovery, having two tanks present that operate differently. I SHUN them. For a long distance mogger, it is imperative one's Morgan is reliable.

Here is an example. Among the handful of the most advanced brains left dealing LR/Rover V8s is J.E. Developments, and J.E. Developments, both founded by the UK's John Eales. Eales believes, with backup, that the plague of cracked blocks and slipped liners that ended the engine was not caused by the elimination of most of the casting between the cylinders with wider boring. After all, that boring had begun years before with the 3.9s. With GEMS, some young designers had decided to create a system that would heat up the engines faster. They blocked radiator flow from the engine until the non-circulating coolant in the engine reached running temperatures..and at that point the hyper cooled coolant from the rad was allow to enter in a rush. Do that a few hundred times and, if I were, a LR V8 cylinder liner, I would leave for Malaga too. This last is for Luddite. He will enjoy it as much as I.

gmg

Sorry gomog but as far as I can see, it is an expansion tank and that cap is a pressure cap not a simple sealing cap.

There is no other pressure relief cap in the system.

It is definitely a pressure relief cap. I can tell you from personal experience that it vents very well.

Yes I had the same on my Sigma engined 4/4 Sport and it's similar to this one. so that's a FORD vented pressure cap in order to avoid any confusion from a previous posters claims about FORD.

Correct, as in my previous reply, they deffo vent as I've had one fail in the open position

Don't be sorry. I enjoy learning and that includes being corrected. When I refuse to learn, I know the end is nigh.

But look up the part # on the cap and google current Ford cyclone forums and the definitions of what it is. That might clarify a bit.

But you might be right in the sense that Ford uses one of the newer type systems. Closed or a blend of expansion and recovery.
Let's not get into that gamut. We are having trouble merely with the traditional expansion versus recovery. I am interested in systems I can interact with.

gmg

P.S. I did come up with a helpful tweak for the Morgan Roadster AC systems.

Here one can see the difference in simple words.

https://blog.cantonracingproducts.com/blog/setting_up_your_cooling_system_expansion_vs_recovery

Heinz, I would award you ten out of ten for finding and posting that page of info on cooling. Being a simple chap, I do like things explained in simple words..

The page it`s self only gets nine out of ten... As it does not provide information on the different rad cap types, or the all important correct positioning within the systems of the different type of rad caps, which in the case of Morgans such as mine with possible interchangeability in terms of my two different types of caps, fitting both the rad and the expansion tank, and which if swapped round would cause issues..

The web page also introduced yet another type of remote tank in the form of a catch tank, which I suspect might only be a required fitment to vehicles intended to race on a track, whereby spillage on the track surface seems best avoided, perhaps more so if that spillage might be caused by a blown gasket that allows oil to mix with the water to be expelled from the cooling system, and might cause issues for other competitors...?

As it seems unlikely that Morgans might have been fitted with open type pressure caps, or recovery tanks (?) there seems to be little point in discussing them here, though in general I do have interest in acquiring a fuller understanding on the design and operation of such systems.

Radiator Caps Explained (coolcatcorp.com)

As for much later systems with plastic expansion tank caps as fitted to some vehicles, I suspect without a tube to safely carry off expelled coolant/steam...these caps may be constructed with thermal or pressure activated components within which prevent the cap from being removed while the system is under pressure, in that while the cap can be rotated the linkage between the cap`s top and it`s internal threads connecting it to the tank, are disengaged, only re-engaging once the pressure or temperature has dropped, allowing the cap to then be removed...?.