I was in Cambridge passing near to the garage last Friday so I popped in to see the progress. The reconditioned engine is back, sat menacingly next to the car, the cavernous engine bay eagerly awaiting the new arrival.

We are waiting for new camshaft covers, I've plumped for the slightly more expensive machined aluminium ones over pressed steel for aesthetic reasons.

The rad has been sent away to be flushed and pressure tested, last done more than 10 years ago.

The guys at Ely are currently looking for alternative exhaust manifolds, the old cast iron ones have always given me problems at the join between the manifold and the exhaust, even the tiniest leak making the car sound like a tractor.

Latest finish is likely end of September.

Update

My apologies but I've been a bit scarce on the old blog recently, I'll post a detailed update shortly..but the highlight is I finally got fed up with oil burning and blow back causing oil to leak from the filler cap onto the exhaust (fortunately on the passenger side only). So the engine is out and away being rebuilt. The good news is the engine is the original one for the car, the bad news is there are a couple of cracks in the block. More news next week.


In the meantime..... if you are at a loose end, my sister has a very interesting blog about life in Japan: http://louozinjapan.blogspot.com.au/

latest: the cracks in the block are repairable, when I return from my holiday in New Zealand the car will be ready to collect. I am also getting the garage to look into new exhaust manifolds so I can finally get rid of the perpetual small leaks that take the edge off the V8 burble .... after a summer without the car I am looking forward to getting her back.