Two posts in one week!

Well, we've been back in the garage. The engine has mostly gone back together and made it into the car. Marc's work must have been cut out making the engine and box fit into the car - some of the clearances are a bit fag-paper like!

The engine needed the new head fitting, the new clutch put together, and all bolting to the gearbox. This was the first clutch we'd done, but with the Haynes manual and the clutch alignment tool, it didn't take too long.

The easiest bit of the day was getting the engine and box into the car and mounted, though I have got a nice bruise on my forearm to show for it! One of the engine mounts only needed a minor adjustment - one of the boltholes in the steel plate that the mounts sit on was too close to the chassis tube to get a nut on the other side of it, so it needed adjusting slightly. The nuts are just plain for now, as I have a feeling the engine might be out again at some point when we realise we've missed something out!!

Next we checked the exhaust fitting - this was fairly easy to figure out with 4 branches coming off the head and through a 4-into-1 collector. Nice and easy, except for me getting one of the branches stuck in the collector :) I reckon the easiest way to fit them all is into the collector first in any case, as then you've got some wiggle room...

After trying the exhaust, we decided to give the carbs a go. We'd bought a nice set of twin webers, linked, set up for a standard 2 litre pinto and on a manifold, last winter before we'd even decided on a car. So, we offered them up to the manifold, and...... clunk. As you can see from the photo above, the inlet side is quite close to the chassis rails - too close. Marc didn't have the webers with the engine, so didn't know quite how big they were - and they're pretty big. There's about 5-6mm clashing on the bottom of the carb (and that would make it an "interference fit"), so there was a bit of head-scratching.

We decided that we didn't want to lift the engine. Though it's not an all-out racer, it is going to be used for the odd trackday, so I didn't want to lift the centre of gravity. Claire didn't want anything poking out of the top of the bonnet. So, we started looking at bike carbs and a megajolt system. Then, we decided to go the whole hog, and decided on bike throttle bodies and a megasquirt system. We decided this on Monday evening. It's now Thursday, the bike injection system (GSXR1000) has already arrived, the V3 megasquirt is a couple of days away, and the trigger wheel and Ford EDIS components will be here tomorrow. The new injection pump should be here by Monday... And I've got a massive manual about fuel injection and ignition to read.... :)

This weekend, I'm getting a polo rad to fit, so we can work out the plumbing runs required. I wanted to do this pretty much as soon as the engine was in, as we've decided to use red Samco hoses in the engine bay, to match the car colour, and they're a 3 - 4 week special order. I'm also going to try and get the cambelt on and the engine timed up properly, and the driveshafts cleaned and fitted with new boots. If time allows I may also figure out where the bearing carriers fit, as I found them in a box last weekend, and they could do with a clean.... :)

The final picture shows how close it is to the front - we may have to find somewhere else for that brake pipe termination...... details, details. Finally, I've changed the settings on the blog to allow public comments. Please feel free to give me feedback on how we're getting on....