Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Marvelous Motors

Back to earth -- 55 years ago : Weslake crossflow and slide throttle set up on the works racer, 1969.

Would not be surprised to read that spanner Juggler had a hand in that Mini...as I think Colin was part of the competition dept many moons ago..

Quite a lot of mods under there, even the dynamo has been moved behind the head

Could be RJB 327F which has a lot of race history

From Mini to GIANT engineering



300 Tons CrankShaft:This is the crankshaft for a Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C engine, the largest reciprocating engine in the world, used in large container ships. It's a 1810-litre engine that generates 108,920 horsepower at 102 RPM, and it idles at 22 RPM... almost 3 seconds per rotation. This crankshaft weighs 300 tons.

Proper engineering! .... you'll not pop that down to your local engineers for a re-grind! 🙂

K

Ps ... all we need is a bit of a glitch and in 200 year's time that'll be fodder for the "it could only be made by aliens" mob 🙂

Ah yes, the crankshaft takes me back to my youth. Our Sulzer RD76 (760mm bore) engines required a hammer test after every transatlantic crossing, so while it was still hot we shut of the lube pumps, opened the crankcase doors and climbed inside to hit every nut and bolt with a hammer. If it rang all was good. If it thudded attention was required.
Not a pleasant job, but necessary to keep the engine in fine fettle.

If you have read of my thinking (flawed or otherwise) on a Morgan suitable for enjoyment on UK "B" and lesser roads, you may have picked up that to some degree I was up to the point of actually spending my hard earned cash on a Morgan, that Mr Chapman`s sports car deign was perhaps that which had influenced my formative sports car thinking However having been attracted to the idea of Morgan ownership having followed an open top vintage Bentley as it roared down the road on the North side of Loch Tay, visibly and obviously requiring a large amount of driver input to maintain approximate direction as it`s each of wheels would on occasion be airborne, and which caused me to think " I want some of that." (-:

Having owned an ex-race 60`s Elan, a Europa and 70`s Elite all with used and abused issues, and now having been impressed with the idea of vintage motoring but ideally not in a machine with an engine that would be stressed in any way in modern traffic situations... I thought Morgan might be the way to go, typed a resume of my past mechanical mayhem on the then MMC DG and Lorne of GoMoG was amongst the first of many to reply suggesting that the +8 would be the logical machine for me... I spent approximately 5 years while saving for a Morgan procrastinating on which Morgan, and as I suggested in an earlier reply a 4/4 with a Twink had links to my Lotus past, however in terms of the sight and sound of that big ol Bentley, I had spent time watching vids of the exploits of even larger aero engined behemoths which were indeed wonderful and NOISY fire breathing machines, thus to emulate any aspect of that it seemed Lorne`s suggestion was THE one to go with....(-:

My +8 has indeed fitted wonderfully well into fulfilling all that I might have hoped for by way of a Bentley substitute, as it`s wheels too seem to spend some time in the air when enjoying the back roads hereabouts which does indeed seem to require more driver input than any sports car of a similar era of manufacture (mid 80`s) let alone any modern machine and I never really had any real desire to make it handle, brake better or be more comfortable, I preferred to learn to drive it as it required to be driven, which is a world away from my digitally controlled C4S or Tesla... it`s a MORGAN... (-:

Trying desperately to get back on thread...(-: While wandering around the pits at the le Mans Classic in 2018 (?) I tripped over what for me was perhaps the ultimate ..err...part Bentley in terms of it`s styling and engine configuration.... Of course I grabbed a few pics and hope to post one of it`s wonderful engine below...Note the lack of air filters, which if you watch Jay`s vid totally spoil the look of his engine, but then North Americans like a bit of chrome and I guess there is more dust around in California than here in the wet West of Scotland... (-:



It is a Lagonda thus not all Bentley and no doubt younger folk may automatically associate the name Lagonda with Aston Martin...?

As ever Jay Leno does a great job of sharing his vast experience and collection of cars, much as he did with his Morgan three wheelers, he has done with his Lagonda vids, I hope to link the Lagonda vid below, and which coincidentally in both the vids Jay mentioned his thinking on pilot/driver INVOLVEMENT with the machines which he so much enjoys and which seems to match that which initially attracted me to large engined vintage machinery while riding my then BMW R850R and following that wonderful Bentley down the side of Loch Tay circa 27 years ago.... Jay seems to think his Lagonda is valued much less in the market than his Blower Bentley... Perhaps similarly my old +8 is without doubt worth much less than the Bentley that initially fired up my interest in Morgans ownership all those years ago.... Market values and returns can be very important indeed, but the returns in terms of investment in the enjoyment of machinery over many years, perhaps creating memories in the process is likely to be best measured on a very different scale...?

Are they downdraught SU2s?? .... never come across those before ... we certainly do Live and Learn.

Lovely car ... just need to find one in a barn now!! 🙂

K

Way back in time, I helped empty a bankrupt former BL, then Vauxhall dealership in Barnsley.. At the back of the stores were piles of ancient stuff, including boxes of the most incredible looking SU carbs I had ever seen, including downdaughts.
I also remember loads of cylinder heater matrices which used to sit in a case in the footwell of certain cars. There were boxes of strip speedos, 7" headlamps, hundreds of ignition keys, brake shoes & pads, it went on and on. The old stuff filled two large transit vans and the best stuff went to the autojumble at York. What didn't sell, and most was snapped up by the dealers there, went to landfill.

K on the assumption you are referring to the Lagonda`s carbs, my first thought on seeing them was how to top up the dashpots... Perhaps not too clear on my pic, is that there is a spring cap oil filler cup on the neck of the dashpot assembly... I suspect that the brass cap may have been unscrewed and the piston retracted just beyond the oil filler, to then enable the bore to be topped up.... but just guessing... (-: Unfortunately my +8 has Strombergs which have served well, but I much preferred the likely reliability of SU`s given the rubber diaphragm was ever thought by me to be a weak point in the passage of time....

DaveW, some years back I cleared out my garage and rather than mess about trying to find homes for the variety of "stuff" I had gathered over the years, I just gave it all to a friend who seems to enjoy the eBay game.

The parts included a Morgan/TR engine with the Morgan engine numbers, spare heads carbs along with dashboard instruments from and switches from TR`s and many other cars. A couple sets of SU`s with hex brass nuts on the dashpot pistons, and various old car radios, even a set of ALL-FIN alloy brake drums.... Other than time wasters he did not shift any of it, and it went to scrap...

I suspect many of us baby boomers have sheds full of "valuable" kit that we imagine would cost a fortune to buy, even if available, which is gathering dust in sheds all over the country and if lucky might end up at Mathewsons or suffer much the same fate as so many others in a scrap pile somewhere...?

I admit to still having some old "just in case kit" I will never likely ever use..... I guess it is just a motormindedman kinda thing..(-: