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New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 10:43 pm
by oldchieft
Greetings

I have been a visitor of this site for a while, and have now joined.

I was a chief engineer on supply ships, but now I have retired I have time to get my fire damaged Morgan back on the road.

The tenuous connection to Lotus is I was part way towards a self build Twink when it went on fire.

I was running a steel lined Ford 711 block bored to take 83.5 pistons and a steel 84mm crank.
(you have to love a long stroke crank if you like loads of pulling power)

It came to 1841cc and is topped with a semi-chambered head and DCOE40 carbs.

I find 270 duration cams are nice for road cruising and I fitted a Piper 270/2.

The next stage is to build a twin cam head and other parts to finish the job.

I hope you can tolerate my squatting on your site and I could maybe add some engineering help to the discussions.

Best regards

Jon the Chief

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 1:31 am
by billwill
Welcome.

I hope you find what you want here, but do try to explain each question in full detail so that members will know they are not advising on typical configurations.

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 9:14 am
by pharriso
Welcome Jon!

We can always do with an extra viewpoint.

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 10:42 am
by jono
Greetings Jon,

It's a broad church here :wink:

I hope the fire didn't reach your chassis :shock:

Jon

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 10:51 am
by GrUmPyBoDgEr
Another welcome from me as well.

Your Morgan should be a great car with that twin-cam in it & your experiences with it will be of interest to a whole bunch of us on here.

By the way, does ash burn as well as polyester glass fibre? :wink:

Cheers
John

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:15 am
by pharriso
GrUmPyBoDgEr wrote:By the way, does ash burn as well as polyester glass fibre? :wink:

Cheers
John


I nearly fell out of my chair.... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 12:48 pm
by jono
Oaken logs, if dry and old
Keep away the winters cold
Poplar gives a bitter smoke
Fills your eyes and makes you choke
Elmwood burns like churchyard mould
Even the very flames burn cold
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread
So it is in Ireland said
Applewood will scent the room
Pears wood smells like a flower in bloom
But Ashwood wet and Ashwood dry
A King may warm his slippers by.

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 1:22 pm
by pharriso
jono wrote:But Ashwood wet and Ashwood dry
A King may warm his garage by.

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 4:16 pm
by 65sunbeam
Welcome Jon!
I own an Elan as well as an early Morgan that is totally apart. I have a spare twin cam and had thought about replacing the TR3 engine in the Morgan with it. I will stay tuned to your threads to gather more info. Please post photos when you can or PM me. Thank-you, Eric

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 6:04 pm
by TeeJay
Welcome Jon.
Interested to hear more details, hopefully with photos of your fire damaged Morgan.

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 7:31 pm
by oldchieft
Well I have liked this site for a while, but the warm welcome and interest in my project is overwhelming.

Hi Jono, I was lucky with the fire, I had spent all day fitting batteries getting the engine running and was driving it back to the garage, a plug fell out of the front carb and the distributor did what it supposed to do, it ignited the petrol.

Just that I now had an external combustion engine, the light effect of orange flames seen through the louvers of a Morgan bonnet is quite pretty. My good luck was I was just next to a wash hose with the tap turned on.

The main wiring loom and oil hoses got melted before I put it out, but there was only smoke damage to the paint.

Hi TeeJay, I can't find any useful pics of the damage, but will start an album of the new engine when I have something to show I will post.

Hi 65sunbeam, Fitting a Twin cam in an early +4 could be interesting but mating it to the Moss gear box might be a challenge.

And any site that posts with poems has more then little bit of class, I think this could be fun.

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

Jon the Chief

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 9:19 pm
by GrUmPyBoDgEr
Yep, some intellectual buggers on here, poetry an' all :shock:

Cheers
John

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 9:49 pm
by elansprint71
Two of the Morgan things you will not find on an Elan parts list: damp-proof course and Bayonet tacks. However, both of these have sometimes been added by DPOs.
You will also need to visit your emergency dentist less frequently with an Elan, as fillings will not rattle loose quite so often. :wink:

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 7:38 am
by jono
Jon,

What you describe is the very reason I converted my Plus 2 to wasted spark ignition as I never liked the idea of the dizzy sitting right below leaky old Dellorto/Weber carbs. The coil pack now sits well away from all fuel sources and I'm much the happier for it.

There are other benefits to like instant starting and, when mapped, smoother and better running. Oh and no points to 'play' with :!:

A Morgan with a TC sounds like a really sweet combination :D

Jon

Re: New member without a Lotus, owns a Morgan

PostPosted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 8:18 am
by jimj
Personally, I`d no more put a Lotus engine in a Morgan than a Zetec or Duratec in an Elan. I just don`t get why you`d want to change the character of a characterful car.
Jim