Arrived in brum at about 3pm and then chilled out till about 6 when we head into town for a couple of beers. Will had £30 to spend until sunday INCLUDING buying fuel home on the sunday to Portsmouth :lol: The next morning will had £22 remaining.
The following morning we set off for Scotland at 5am. Stopped for fuel at the 250 mile point... it was now 7.30am. Continued on up and to be honest it didnt really reel like it took that long from brum. Trip total was 445miles but we only had 330 remaining when we set off on thursday which is the same as london to Cornwall.
Got about 70 miles from Dunfermline (our destination) and decided to take the road names 'scenic' which would take us over the forth and round Edinburgh. took an age but was well worth it for the roads.
we eventually arrived and had the engine out within 45 minutes.
The new engine had been bought by Dougie and was the first he has even purchased outside of a running car (see where this is going
... It had recently had a new head gasket, chains, tensioner and the like. We put in a new crank seal, oil filter, and then painted her up all black and shiney while Dougie painted the manifold body colour black.
meanwhile the bay was completely stripped of all the underseal/seam sealer poop and taken back to bare metal before the big holes were welded up and smoothed. Daz came over and got stuck in doing a fair bit of the filler, grinder, sanding work.
Filler work complete the bay was painted and we called it a day. This was end of play friday. Saturdays task, get the engine in and running. Things started well, we routed the wiring through the drivers chassis leg and also behind the dash to come out under the abs all nice and hidden. The power steering was given a similar treatment. Water system went in without a hitch, the new rad more than up to the job of keeping things cool and a nice slimline out of site on the front. Then, at about 6pm it was time to turn the key. What a sound. It cranked over and over and all we got was a horrible metal clanking.
After a stiff cup of tea we took off the inlet and rocker cover...
what we found was some laughable cam timing. Were still not sure how it happened as normally the chain will jump both cams but wither way it wasnt good. Taking out the cams let all but three of the tappets pop up. We had three bent exhaust valves.
Off with its head. We didnt have the tool to get the valves out then so had to wait till sunday morning to pop them out. Time for some Magners and a takeaway.
Head rebuilt and refitted we put the car back together. A snazzy inlet kept everything in the center of the bay and the chassis legs clear of clutter.
A quick test drive and a few double checks and we were all done. An hour and a half later me and Will were on our way home, Will safe in the knowledge that he could get home after Dougie had given him a jerry can with 20 Liters of fuel in it!
We were overwhelmed by just how hospitable and generous everyone was to us. We felt so welcome. Nothing was too muck trouble. Many laughs had and some good friendships formed.
The car drives great. Fuel wise, we used £5 more on the way home than we did on the way up averaging 33.8mpg at an 80mph cruise.
