Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Changing Classes and Engine along with it!!!!

Quote cerealsurfer - ***Could be.. though you wouldn't expect necessarily to have to do this when using a well known manufacturer. Accidents happen and we're moving forward looking for the positives. You can imagine it also gives us an opportunity to look for more power in the next build ****

True Champion

Update 14 - Interim Engine Installation

So Troy from Northampton Motorsport has managed to get hold of a new Blacktop Zetec and a set of cams from Piper. The RWD packaging items have been stripped off the old engine and the call was made it's ready to drop into the car.

When dad and I took the damaged engine out we packaged up all the anciliaries and boxed them up. So having sorted out how to get back out racing for MIRA we decided to take everything up to NHM and put the engine in there borrowing a lift slot for the morning. We have then left the car there to be set-up and collect it in the week or on the way to MIRA on Saturday. It was great to experience another workshop and the different types of vehicles coming and going.. lots of 7 type cars!



You can just see another TM members Westfield FW400 having it's refresh in the background. It was just in the process of getting it's alignment sorted.

With the Zetec set-up we have found it easiest to put the engine in from underneath rather than from ontop.. therefore special tool No.1 (bottle crate on rolling platform) is required.



It's a tidy package and it's now just waiting to get set-up and run-in on the rolling road.



This package is interesting to us as it's a bog standard Zetec with the only modification being a set of piper cams and ARP rod bolts. In terms of the overall Morgan Engine packages, we are thinking this will give an option of testing and setting up an interim type package.

We are now curious to see what it puts out!?

You and I suspect lots of others!

I will await the report from MIRA...

Update 15 - Set-up and Race

Set-up
Having dropped the engine in to the car, we left it with NorthHamptonMotorsport to get set-up. We agreed if we get a chance we would pick it up late last week or worst case very early in the morning Saturday morning on the way to MIRA!!

Anyhow, Friday rolled around and we were contacted that it was ready to collect and so Missprint and Oldtimers went to collect it. (boy we were relieved that it was ready!!).

This time around the Stock Black-top Zetec with only ARP rod bolts (though RPM max is kept to 7500rpm) and Piper cams. 184bhp we thought was pretty good.



So back to the workshop and some pre-race checks, the dash system has been working great - this has been the best upgrade we ever purchased!!

Race

MIRA does not allow camera so no pics I'm afraid. It was an exceptionally hot day, we were keen to see how the engine would perform in the heat, we were keen to see if the water and oil temps could be be kept safe without an oil cooler. We're not keen to fit an additional oil cooler but if pushed we can go to an Oil/Water oil cooler placed within the engine bay rather than an air/oil cooler - as we have seen MANY damaged in racing.

Well the 30 Degree heat meant the paddock tent had to be put up from late morning. Everyone, even with sunscreen was just getting cooked. The heat though combined with the Dunlop handeling super grip surface means great grip. Downside is that those with Khumo softs were in real danger of turning into toffee... the Westfields with slicks only had 5 runs in them, having stated the tyres were just trashed. Luckily for them, the day only fitted 5 runs in anyhow. Looks like the soft end of the 1A tyres were going to be the way to go. Our Yokohama Advan AD08's have been a great choice. We've put our scrubbed Toyo T1R's onto, now powder coated blue spare minilites as wets.

Our car hung together great, a quick adjustment of the clutch after the first run we were all set to give it some beans. Not too bad for a car we only picked up the day before. We were also close to our handicap, so there was some potential.

Later runs proved we could shave off time, close runners were John Stephens and Chris Bailey so no room to let off....

Missprint and I kept plugging away shaving off time as we went.... the result was just what we were looking for. I managed to eclipse the class record securing the victory with Anne only a second or so behind... securing 4th place behind Chris and John. Not too shabby at all.

That was with a pretty stock Engine, just think of the possibilities with the higher power full race unit... well we'll be back onto that probably by Goodwood later in the season. The pistons are currently getting custom made to our spec.

Getting back to the fancy dash and telemetary system, we have been using it now for 4 years. I've overlayed the 2009, 2011 and 2012 and you can see the difference. The biggest change you can see is that at the end of the back sweeping curve going into the switch back in the centre of the track I'm going from 87mhp in 2009 to 104mph now... that's only 100m before a sharp right-hander where we pull 1.2-1.3 latteral g through the corner!


Each year, the speeds going up, corner speeds pretty much the same and very consistant between years. These were the fastest runs of each year, but it's very handy to use the info to get the consistancy from the start. It would be great to compare to other drivers at some point.



Results

So at MIRA the provisional results for Missprint and I are as follows. Missprint - 4th with 7 points and Myself 1st with 11 points having set a new lap record.

So points so far on the board

Cerealsurfer
TyCroes National - 1st - New lap record - 10+1 points
MIRA - 1st - New lap record - 10+1 points

Missprint
TyCroes National - 4th - 4points
MIRA - 4th - 7 points

Next race Aintree in a few weeks....

Great write and results from you both. Well done.

Congratulations !!!!

Excellent, thanks for sharing those graphs too. Impressive output from a little modified powerplant.

The ever quicker times are outstanding - now almost drooling waiting to see the race engine in action!

Update 16 - Aintree

So on Saturday we were off to another new race venue... the reduction in races this year has left us travelling a little further afield than we are usually used to.



So on Friday we headed off to Aintree with the little car in tow. We are still running the interim engine and it was going to be a tough meeting as the entry field with 14 Morgans running with a couple of drivers with the home track advantage. One interesting competitor who was going to be there is Tim Harison with his 4/4 Special the 2.3 Duratec Cosworth lightweight. Whilst he is competing in Class 10 with the Roadster lightweights with nearly 300bhp on tap running somewhere around 750kg.. it's a serious piece of tasty kit.

Anyhow... luckily the day started dry and sunny...all be it with a blustry wind. We were later to find out how much the wind was to affect the times, causing noticable reductions in VMax on the back straight.

Unfortunately in practice there was an off in the Morgan camp, luckily the driver was fine but the car needed to be collected by the recovery crew to get it back to the paddock.

As the day progressed, it went from sunny and dry to absolutely torrential rain... we watched from the paddock tent as the single seaters and little Austin drivers got absolutely soaked.... the race meet was paused whilst the worst of the rain passed over.

We chipped away at our times along with the rest of the field heading towards the target.... as the weather cell swirled above the wind swung round, denting the runners VMax by 3-5mph on the back straigt through the speed trap before the finish line.

We are continually impressed with the engine dynamic and our only wish was to have the extra 1500 rpm to play with of the full race unit. The depression in the track at the back end of Bechars Bend being just at max rpm of 3rd when you really want to be able to snatch 4th.

In the closing run of the day, the wind and broken sun had dried the track with all runners chopping significant time off their previous runs... Missprint and I managed to get under the target time.. with another runner splitting us on his final run.

So in the final standings - Missprint came third with an extra point for getting under target and I came 1st with another 11 points in the bag.





Since the weenkend I've been in touch with Northampton Motorsport and the Cylinderhead has been machined and the we are only waiting for the valves to arrive from Supertech in the US for the engine build to commence.

We're hoping to get the full race engine in before Goodwood, but depending on exact timing of holidays and component delivery it may have to wait until Curborough.

For now the car is packed away as we are off to Assen in my sisters +4 .....

Congratulations on both of your results. Enjoying this topic.

Excellent! Well done both of you

I've seen the photo of our man's off - didn't realise it happened in practice. Guess that's another rebuild down at Semley...

Will see you at Curborough (my usual role), if not before.

Cheers,