Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) The War On Plastic Continues

From this...



To this....



And

From this....



To this....



And finally with a few adjustmets, here's the money shot!



For transparancy, these images are AI, but they give you a pretty good general idea of what I'm planning

How clever! Maybe start a business?

I think the gold plating is a bit excessive...oh, maybe not, it's a Mog

I worked in a radiator factory in the 1980's. We made expansion tanks in brass, painted black.
In-house press shop making the two halves that were soldered together. Filler neck and any pipe fittings and fluid level tag added to suit. British Leyland plus many other companies supplied. My Plus8 had one. I re-sprayed it satin black
Factory still going.

Each to their own, but plastic or not, I much prefer to instantly see what levels are like and what crud might be building up in the tanks.

The filter looks neat tucked under the louvers

Like the idea of the washer bottle. A few years ago on the approach to the euro tunnel, fortunately at the end of the holiday so on my way back, there was an appalling smell coming from somewhere close to me. Obviously not from my car and the smell disappeared once I had cleared passport control so continued on but on getting back home and checking the car over I spotted the washer bottle was nowhere to be seen. It had fallen off and melted on the exhaust manifold !
Another thing I now check regularly.

The expantion tank is old school brass, just polished.

Checking the coolant level when cold is easy, and the cold level is easily calculated. The general rule of thumb for the proper capacity of expansion is 12% of total coolant volume for draw down, and 6% of the total volume for thermal expansion.

You only need to calculate this once, after that you 100% know your set cold level, your hot level and free space is therefore known too, even without seeing it.

The plastic must go!

That's great news that it still exists, so much of our manufacturing is outsourced offshore

Dave, the brass will look nicely retro when it’s tarnished...

But it might be worth just keeping an eye on the voltage between the coolant in the tank and ground for a while now that you have introduced the brass into the system. Anything approaching 0.3V could be a red flag.

I take your point Rog, I wouldn't want to make a battery!

TBH the plan was to mount the brass tank on rubber cotton reel bobbins so it never directly touches Monty's chassis. My thought being if the brass tank is completely insulated from the chassis, the ground path is removed and the galvanic corrosion issue would be eliminated.

However, thinking about it, even with perfect chassis isolation the coolant flowing through Monty's system would itself act as a liquid wire (electrolyte). Over time, high temperatures, fluid velocity, and chemical breakdown could potentially cause tiny amounts of noble ions to leach from the brass tank into the coolant.

The answer would be to switch to a waterless coolant like Evans, because waterless coolants do not conduct electricity or support ion transport, the result being the galvanic action would drop to zero.

The brass tank would look great and it was cheap too, but Evans coolant isn't cheap and I prefer my Prestone coolant mix. As it stands, and in the unlikely event I had a catastrophic coolant hose failure, replenishing the lost coolant would be easy as I could just fill with water. With Evans, if you're not carrying a spare supply of the stuff you're kinda screwed, and carrying a spare 5l jug of Evans waterless coolant is not a very practical option in a Morgan.

Oh well, I think I'll sell the lovely brass tank to my local classic Mercedes restorer for one of his minted SL Pagoda customers, as it does look like for complete peace of mind the only truly safe way to replace the plastic tank is to go with aluminum. Here's the best option I can find and at £168.00 delivered it's reasonably priced, paying the £300 - £400 being ask by others seems excessively expensive for a tank.

https://www.sico-developments.co.uk...ight-alloy-water-header-tank-replacement



As this tank is specifically designed for a Mk1 Focus the brackets should all line up on Monty, my existing hoses will fit without modification too, and finally it looks like it may even fit neatly between Monty's wiper motor and the heater box for a really clean look

I only paid £17.00 for the screen wash tank, so that's £185 for the two tanks which I think is tolerable for what's essentially just a vanity project. Saying that, the under-bonnet plastic does really bug me, so it was always going to be eliminated at any cost

Thanks for the warning Rog

I have felt the same as you since my first Morgan. I totally abhor plastic on mine anywhere on the car.

In this area, I use Mulfab expansion tanks (below). They used to come in two sizes. They are made for our cars and canted to matched the slope of the Morgan bulkhead. Very convenient. However, I like your exterior indicator of the level of coolant. I see that they can be bought separately.

I am looking for a non-plastic windscreen fluid reservoir. I too want one with an exterior level indicator. These are more complex a search than the expansion tanks as an incorporated pump is needed. And placement should avid them melting with exhaust pipe heat.NT I shall be patient until you get there.

Lorne

I fear that it’s already a battery Dave.

Unlike the Ford donor cars that use the Duratec engines, I think our trads have a little extra 'electrochemical activity' occurring in the cooling system.

I’ve always had a thing about those large factory fitted stainless coolant tubes that runs across the top of the engine and also at the front. Why didn’t they use ali tubes... and it would have been cheaper too? Introducing stainless steel with an ali engine/rad is not great for longevity, the materials aren’t close on the nobility index, the ali bits are going to get eaten sooner. And any corrosion inhibitors in the coolant will have to work harder and probably degrade sooner too. We do see reports on here of aftermarket ali rads that have leaked after they have been installed for a few years.

Regarding the coolant, other than changing say once a year I’m not sure what else you can do to mitigate, even waterless can absorb water over time. I’m way too lazy to change the coolant that often so my latest harebrained plan is to incorporate a sacrificial zinc anode into the radiator plug at the next coolant change.

I do like the Focus tank, a good investment. I guess you could always add a dip stick to the cap to check the level. The plastic ones look so tatty after a year or so and you can’t clean them.

Oh oh, someone mentioned the big 'E' waterless coolant, cue the massive debate...

Agreed oh Wise One

Thanks again for the warning mate

I quite like the OE plastic containers on our cars

Reasonably robust, cheap to replace but most of all you need only a glance to see content level which may save your day. I guess its a horses for courses thing.

Having said that, given the opportunity, I was quick to change the plastic T piece on heater circuit plumbing. Oh and the plastic rad when it started to weep

As the expansion rate of coolant is well understood, the free space required to accomodate the expanded coolant is therefore very easily calculated. Moreover, once the ideal cold level is understood and set, it only takes a quick nosey in the tank to establish all is well. If you think about it, it's really no different to the regular checks we all make on the level of oil in our sump, a sump is no more transparent than my aluminium expansion tank, and sump also doesn't have a sight glass.

Any catastrophic loss of coolant would be acompanied by a very distinctive smell, and you'd be pulling over pretty sharpish if you caught a whiff of that. In my experience, Monty has never once called for a drop of additional coolant, in the five years I've had him his coolant level has always remained extremely consistant, which TBH is no different to every other car I've ever owned with a sealed system.

I'm not suggesting I won't check the coolant level, but failing any telltale smells, I'm confident a quck peak under the cap once a month would be more than sufficient. I check Monty's sump level on the dip stick more regularly than that, so popping the cap off my aluminium expantion tank and having a quick look inside should hardly be considered an inconvenience.

The way I see it, it's just another occational pre-flight check that brings man closer to his analogue machine. In an increasingly digital world, I view these types of checks as all part of the theraputic pleasures associated with owning a classic car

They melt. The windscreen reservoir one the MMC sent me in 2003 did so and I had to switch back to the earlier and smaller pre-1988 reservoir which I must keep at least semi-full or it suffers the same fate. I have been meaning to get around to it for the last 24 years and this thread will push me.. As for the coolant overflow tank, Rover used safer metal, painted black. Luddite must have one on his Morgan. However, they are small and canted. The Mulberry thingie (above) keeps the fluid level.


I want to avoid that. The coolant tanks are often filled with hyper-heated coolant!. Your last picture in your earlier past shows an exterior level indicator which would be great (see below). I could fit one anywhere I choose to my existing expansion tank. I would then get a matching reservoir for windscreen fluid.

Lorne

For the avoidance of any doubt.

Here's my new screen wash tank, it's only job is to hold cold Prestone screen wash fluid, and feed it to my new remote screen wash pump. The tank sees no heat or pressure, and nor should it!



And this is my new header/expansion tank, which is specifically designed to hold hot coolant that on Monty is carefully managed in a 79c - 95c window. Operating pressure is 7psi - 10psi, with the relief cap venting/releasing a pressure spike between 14psi - 16psi.



I trust that's clear