Starting to get to grips with the teething challenges whilst getting the milage up, 121 in total now.  I discovered that a really good car show is on my doorstep, well not literally but as good as.  The Capel Manor car show is about 4 miles from me and it was fantastic.  On the way my wife and I were trying to guess the number of cars that would be there and I optimistically went for 30.  I'm a donut, there were hundreds.  It was close enough for me to get there without incident and on entry we were asked to go to the front of house area which turned out to be the exclusive area.  We had a lovely time.

So, full of confidence now we set off for the classic car night at the Ace Cafe which is 13 miles round the North Circular Road just after rush hour in the late summer heat.  With the benefit of hindsight I was an idiot.  The car got way to hot in traffic and then the throttle linkage went soft and the pedal slid to the floor and stayed there.  I was double lucky that the section of the road had a small turn off about 200 metres from where we were and we managed to cox the car on tick-over alone to get there.  I had the sense to take a few tools and managed to tighten it up and got going.

By the time we got there I was exhausted with the stress of worrying about the car and desperate for a chilled drink.  Only we discovered that the damn place had to shut at 7 because of the damn virus.  We were the only people in the car park.

We let the engine cool off and then started back home only to get stuck in heaven traffic and within a few miles we pulled off the North Circular and the throttle went again.  This time it was a different junction and I needed the help of my lovely wife who happened to be wearing a brand new dress.  I don't know what I did to deserve this lady.

I decided that I should make a proper effort to sort out the timing and fuelling in an effort to sort out the over heating.  To do this I needed to find TDC and mark the pulley and the casing as neither have them as standard.  The original engine was supplied with timing set by a mechanic without a timing gun, amazing.  Anyway to do that I needed to get the alternator off so that I could get the spanner onto the nut on the end f the crank. When I removed the bolts that held the alternator brackets on I noticed a little dampness which seemed odd.  A while later I removed the radiator cap to see how much water was in the rad still only for the engine to turn into a fountain.

I discovered that I should have had studs in the block that are sealed rather than bolts, phew.

Having found TDC and painted it and the small arrow on the casing I refitted it and it seems to be okay. I then found that my old timing light couldn't see the marks that I had put on the engine which was very frustrating.  I even used some of my wife's metal flake nail polish but couldn't see.  I spent a few days doing some research and bit the bullet and bought an Accuspark kit including a fancy timing light and the Gunston colourtune for sorting out the fuelling.  This morning I sorted the timing in about 20 minutes and the fuelling in about an hour and when I test drove the car it felt better than I could have hoped for.

I have lots of things to do still.  The tick-over isn't right and I think it is something to do with the choke linkages.  The overdrive still doesn't work although I know it isn't the relays as I have had them out and tested.  I also need to install the cavity wax in the chassis but for some reason I just don't want to do it.  I haven't tightened up the throttle linkages.  Despite changing the oil seal I am still getting oil thrown out of the rev cable so that needs more work. I really should check every nut and bolt on the car but again I can't be bothered.  And so it goes on.  It is getting closer to being usable and I love it.

It's been a few weeks since I got the car on the road and it is fair to say that it has been an eventful journey.

I decided to do some routine checks on the car after two drives totalling 20 miles when I discovered that the oil was completely emulsified.  It looked like a coffee frappe.  I was devastated.  I had replaced the gasket a year back when I first got it running as I had an issue with water coming up one of the studs and bubbling out of the nut and washer so I knew it wasn't the cylinder head gasket.  I contacted John who offered to lend me his tools to test pressure and compression which showed what I suspected all along, the head was knackered.  I took the head off, using an engine hoist as it is so damn heavy, and discovered this lot.

One doesn't need to see that much water in the cylinders to know something is seriously wrong.

I have spent a lot of money, well in teacher terms that is, over the past month getting the car to the final stage and I didn't have any left to spend.  My wife suggested we cash in our rainy day fund and get the job done properly and that meant it had to be an aluminium head from Denis Welch Motorsport.  I spent a few days contemplating selling the motorbike and then relented and ordered it.  A few days later I had been to the factory and collected it.  

It is a very impressive thing and I enjoyed installing it with the slight exception being that I thought I had over tightened two of the heavy duty studs.  Oh, and despite all the evidence I was still worried that I had got it wrong and the head was ok and it was in fact something else.

I got it running and then took it for series of short drives all of which went without the oil getting emulsified or the engine overheating.  I am mighty relieved but not yet completely relaxed about it.

I found out that the front wheels were a little loose which I thought caused the steering to be a little wayward.