Morgan 4/4 TC - one of the rare ones....
Posted: December 25th, 2012, 1:43 pm
Hi everyone,
I`ve been planning to post an introduction to my Fiat TC engined Morgan for the best part of a year, and finally, finally, I`ve got round to doing it! The car is a 1984 Morgan 4/4 TC 4 seater with a 1585cc twin cam (132D 000), one of just over 90 factory built 4/4 TC`s produced between 1981 and 1985. A lot of these cars apparently were LHD for European markets and so is a rare car in the UK...or anywhere else for that matter! I believe the Fiat engined Morgans were viewed with some suspicion by Morgan fans at the time - perhaps many of them not realising the quality of the engines & gearboxes but knowing a lot about Fiat/Lancia rust problems. Maybe they also thought a foreign engined Morgan was not British enough....blithely ignoring the fact that the first Morgan built in 1909 was powered by ......Peugeot. My car has covered just 34,000 miles, many Morgans are sparingly used, mine does about 4,000 miles a year as a surprisingly practical second car, but one previous owner only did 1-200 miles a year between MOT`s. Thankfully, the last owner a Parisian, added 9,000 french miles in just under 18 months. However, I fear that this mixed pattern of use and the car`s age has stated to catch up with oil seals and gaskets. Currently, the Marelli alternator has developed a nasty whining howl after water ingress following a `deep puddle' incident last week. The rear crank oil seal is also leaking, but I have sorted the externally leaking head gasket - the head came off last spring - the photos tell the story - sorry for the less than perfect working conditions Guy. GC supplied various parts including head bolts, but no funds were available for any improvements at this time. The car is largely original, but a rebuild will be needed before too long. the paint is faded and some rot may have started in the ash wood body frame. It`s done well, especially considering the poor standard of build of early 1980`s Morgans - painting was done over entire cars leading to wing bead paint cracking & flaking, and the ash frame was untreated. Needless to say, modern Morgans are assembled with much more care as a tour around the factory reveals. When rebuild time comes, a GC fast road engine would be ideal, along with some modern Morgan upgrades to suspension and brakes. In the meantime, I`ll keep reading the posts on this excellent forum to keep me up to date with engine options, but a seasoned spanner wielder I am, a serious engine builder I`m not, so some topics go over my head somewhat, but you should never stop learning or at least trying to.
Hope this has been of interest - any comments or queries welcome of course. The Fiat engined Morgans always intrigued me, and I`m delighted to own one.
Happy Christmas
GAR
I`ve been planning to post an introduction to my Fiat TC engined Morgan for the best part of a year, and finally, finally, I`ve got round to doing it! The car is a 1984 Morgan 4/4 TC 4 seater with a 1585cc twin cam (132D 000), one of just over 90 factory built 4/4 TC`s produced between 1981 and 1985. A lot of these cars apparently were LHD for European markets and so is a rare car in the UK...or anywhere else for that matter! I believe the Fiat engined Morgans were viewed with some suspicion by Morgan fans at the time - perhaps many of them not realising the quality of the engines & gearboxes but knowing a lot about Fiat/Lancia rust problems. Maybe they also thought a foreign engined Morgan was not British enough....blithely ignoring the fact that the first Morgan built in 1909 was powered by ......Peugeot. My car has covered just 34,000 miles, many Morgans are sparingly used, mine does about 4,000 miles a year as a surprisingly practical second car, but one previous owner only did 1-200 miles a year between MOT`s. Thankfully, the last owner a Parisian, added 9,000 french miles in just under 18 months. However, I fear that this mixed pattern of use and the car`s age has stated to catch up with oil seals and gaskets. Currently, the Marelli alternator has developed a nasty whining howl after water ingress following a `deep puddle' incident last week. The rear crank oil seal is also leaking, but I have sorted the externally leaking head gasket - the head came off last spring - the photos tell the story - sorry for the less than perfect working conditions Guy. GC supplied various parts including head bolts, but no funds were available for any improvements at this time. The car is largely original, but a rebuild will be needed before too long. the paint is faded and some rot may have started in the ash wood body frame. It`s done well, especially considering the poor standard of build of early 1980`s Morgans - painting was done over entire cars leading to wing bead paint cracking & flaking, and the ash frame was untreated. Needless to say, modern Morgans are assembled with much more care as a tour around the factory reveals. When rebuild time comes, a GC fast road engine would be ideal, along with some modern Morgan upgrades to suspension and brakes. In the meantime, I`ll keep reading the posts on this excellent forum to keep me up to date with engine options, but a seasoned spanner wielder I am, a serious engine builder I`m not, so some topics go over my head somewhat, but you should never stop learning or at least trying to.
Hope this has been of interest - any comments or queries welcome of course. The Fiat engined Morgans always intrigued me, and I`m delighted to own one.
Happy Christmas
GAR