I don’t usually put details of changes I make to the car on here. I am always tinkering and changing bits and pieces on the car but this year I have made some bigger changes so I thought I would put down a few details here.

Bleazey Drivetrain Upgrade

One of the weaknesses of the Morgan 3-wheeler is the need for a cushioned drive between the motor and the gearbox. The big 2-litre V-twin produces such huge torque spikes that they have to be smoothed out so as not to destroy the gearbox. The car had the original cush-drive replaced my Morgan when they changed the design to what they call the Centa Drive unit. This was a big improvement in itself but one problem remained. The cushioning effect is provided by 4 rubber barrels. These are buried behind the engine and in the event of a failure (of which there have been quite a number reported) the only way to get to them to replace them is to completely remove the engine! Clearly, rubber insert failure on a big trip would bring it to an immediate end.

Phil Bleazey, a 3-wheeler owner, flute maker and Engineer has developed drivetrain upgrade kit that involves reversing the Centa drive, modifying it and cutting an access hole in the housing such that the rubber inserts can be replaced in about an hour with very simple tools. I decided that this was a modification I would like to do. I would rather spend a day or two removing my engine (with Phil’s help) and refitting it at a time of my choosing than having a major problem in some foreign country.

Another advantage of Phil’s system is that he is developing a reshaped insert. These have not been 100% successful yet but as I write this he should be receiving his latest high-temperature version which should have all of the resilience he is looking for.

I am not going into all of the details here as Phil has a lot of information on his own website http://www.bleazey.co.uk/M3WKIT.html . I think it is a very worthwhile upgrade and I enjoyed the process involved and learned a lot about the car.

 

Krazy Horse Engine Upgrade

You can never have too much power, right? I have known about the availability of some engine upgrades for some time and having spoken to a couple of owners on the Switzerland trip and had a ride in the Garage56 car at Curborough I decided to go for it. I went to Krazy Horse for this one because I have heard some good things for them and they can do a proper dyne tune. I already have the Garage56 high-flow exhausts which are fine so I have had new Cams, Roller Rockers, New Air filter a custom programmable ECU and a dyne tune.

The resulting dyno graph:

The graph doesn’t really tell you much but the car certainly drives differently. It has a lot more torque right across the range. Under steady driving it is more flexible and pulls much better from lower rpm. The car will tootle along more smoothly at lower revs and the engine just feels like it is not trying at all. It is effortless at normal driving. When you do put your foot down though it really flies. I’ll hardly ever use all the extra power and torque but if you want to overtake something the car picks up superbly now. I really do now think that I have enough power in this car.

The upgrade wasn’t cheap but the car is now much nicer to drive. I like the new air cleaner cover too.