ENGINE WEEKEND!!!! This week, I’ve ordered and had delivered the Block & Chain and Girder Clamp to help move the engine and gearbox around when they arrive – I am lucky enough to have I-Beams in the ceiling of my garage, which means I’ll be able to swing the thing around to my hearts content!! BONZA!
So up at 6 to go and collect the ‘Yeoot’ to put the engine in the back of and bring back to it’s new home… Arrived at the place, and by 8:30 was on the road to Hatfield to collect Steve, then onto Peterborough to collect the Engine and gearbox, and then onto Nottingham to visit rob and go Go-Karting, then Sunday morning back to Hatfield to drop Steve off, Guildford to drop the engine off, then drop the van off. About 400 miles in all.
Got to Steve’s about 9 and by 10 were back on the road to Peterborough. When we got close enough, I called Louis (the dude pulling the engine out of a T2), and he met us and took us to the U.S. ARMY BASE WHERE THE ENGINE WAS!!! I’ve never been on an army base in my life, but Christ this place was COOL! Then workshop he gets to use is unbelievable – it’s like a Screwfix Direct warehouse… Steve and I spent most of the time dribbling over the stuff Lou gets to play with – lifts, rolling chain hoists, air-compressors. It was awesome!
Anyhow, we spend the next couple of hours stripping the prop shaft and wiring loom from the T2, and loading the 13b engine, turbo and gearbox into the truck, and pootled up to Nottingham – designing the car as we go, getting more and more carried away…
Anyway, after the karting, drinking and general tomfoolery of Saturday night, we headed back down south on the M1, listening to R1 and mentally building the 1st gen… Dropped Steve back at Hatfield to go and play with the Chelsea players (they had their open bus celebrations for winning the champions league for the second year running), while I mooched back to Guildford to unload the new toy.
Once back, I rolled the 1st gen out of the garage and started clearing stuff with the help of Henning (nearby neighbour and rotary enthusiast), and slung up the chain & block to hoist the engine out. I hadn’t thought about an engine leveller, so we ended up using the strap to hoick the engine up, and rest it on the garage floor. Then just had to put everything back into the garage – and all the car crap fitted first time! That really is a bloody huge garage!
The next task is to sort out mounting the engine… This should be fairly simple. Of course, it won’t be but in theory, we sling the engine, roll the car under it, lower, and level, and then mark out where the engine mounts need to be. Get them fabricated, and the engine mounted, then measure and send off the prop shafts to be spliced, put together a rudimentary exhaust to offer SOME silence, wire up the ECU (currently stock, but if a cheap Microtech LT-8 were to crop up…), and see if we can start the beasty…