Its all a rush now

When I made an appointment to have the exhausts and manifolds made up for the car in late November I thought I had plenty of time to complete the jobs required before delivering the car to Macclesfield next week. Just shows how wrong you can be and how some jobs take forever........

So I started Friday morning with the heads apart and waiting for tappet shims,

after a few unsuccessful attempts to get shims I built the heads up, and removed the gaffer tape and polythene that had been protecting the engine. So right hand head on first and timing gear. Note the genuine Payen head gaskets, and (in the left hand side bank facing you) the use of head studs in the lower bolt holes to hold the gasket in place and guide the head on - after the heads in place fit the bolts and remove the studs to their correct location.

Other head in place - I had trouble with the rear most stud fouling the brake servo, in the end I had to put the stud into the head and then fit the head and tighten the stud up

All timed up, each cam has been set 2 degrees advanced to allow for chain stretch, although I don't expect the IWIS (Mercedes chains from LD Parts) to stretch much. Neither head is torqued down at present.

That was Fridays work - 6 hours worth.

Saturday morning, freezing outside so a chance to use my thermal overalls.

Firstly using silicon sealant I glued the cam cover gaskets to the cam covers - makes removal and replacement easy

These were then fitted - starting to look like a complete engine now

So time to fit the timing chain cover, this is why the heads have not been torqued down yet, ideally it lets you lift the heads a little to fit the cover between the sump and the head, I usually lift the heads 2mm or so with some small folded pieces of metal between the block and the gasket near the timing chains

If you look carefully you can see that I have used cap head screws in the 2 front bolts in the head to the timing cover - Triumph originally used bolts with smaller heads than normal to fit, and you cannot get these anymore - the cap heads come from LD Parts again.

Now you can torque down the left hand head only - you do the righthand one AFTER fitting the inlet manifold - mine is absent having a corroded fitting machined out, but it doesn't need the inlet manifold to have the exhausts done.

Next job was to get the power steering pump and alternator on

Followed by the front pulley and the 2 drive belts

I am having some difficulties with the pipes from the power steering pump to the rack - they don't fit at all - this is due to the servo block on the rack being rotated out of its normal position - some thoughts are needed about this.

Tomorrow its radiators and pipe work, and headlining and refit the front screen so the car will then be ready for the manifolds. Its been important to get all the engine ancillaries on, so the exhaust people know what they have to work round

9 hours work today, so the total is now 850 hours