After 2 long years of anticipation she runs. Not only that she runs WELL.
Yesterday I nipped over to the sparkies and saw that the wiring was 99% done, and they said we could give her a try the next day.
Did not sleep a wink the whole night.
Anyway got up at 7am, grabbed a jerry can, some copper slip, moly assembly paste and headed out.
Having grabbed some 93 Octane, arrived at the sparkies and proceeded to check off the pre-start check list.
Water - needed topping up as the header tank was empty
Oil - plenty in the sump (too much, as it turned out)
Wiring - ECU connected to battery and ignition, all terminals solid, spark plugs seated correctly. Inertia switch set OK.
Petrol - 3/4 full
I removed the cam cover and proceeded to cover every bearing surface with copper slip and moly paste. This was to protect the cams for the first few seconds before the oil made it up to the head.
I refastened the cover and did one final lookover - Oops. She was in 1st gear.
The sparkie turned on the ignition and let it stay there for a minute to prime the pipes - you could hear the water and fuel pumps whirring.
Then he swung it, and it churned for about 20 seconds and he let go, tried again, and this time the engine half caught. Third time she started and away she went.
Oil pressure was in the green and responding to revs, alternator charging.
We ran her at varying revs for 5 minutes, we could see two things happening, there was a lot of smoke coming off the exhaust header wrap which I expected, and there was water leaking from the water rail header filler, which I didn't. My worst fear was the nifty weld we had put there to clear the exhaust header was leaking but not so, it was the gasket between the filler cap header and the rail.
water temp was coming up nicely.
Then disaster, one sparkie shouts Stop! Stop! Stop! we shut her down and oil is pouring onto the floor from the intake side of the engine. Pete the sparkie says he saw oil gushing out of the TOP of makeshift oil dipstick tube that I had fitted long ago. I am a bit worried how could that happen? The oil is very greyish and my worst fear is there water in the oil. We check - thank heavens it is clean oil.
I dash off home to get the proper Raceline tube and dipstick, Pete goes about replacing the water rail gasket.
We remove the make shift tube and oil pours out into a pan we placed there and it is immediately apparent I have overfilled the engine with oil, so we drain a litre and then fit the new Raceline dipstick and tube. Oil has gone up in the tube and at some point crank case pressure forced it up and out. Sorta like a burp.
Pete removes the cam cover and behold all the cams are glistening with engine oil so no worries there the head is good and lubed. No sign of scoring on any of the cam lobes.
We restart the engine and this time we get her up to speed quickly, the gear shift light lights up at 6800rpm and the rev limiter cuts in at 7200rpm. The radiator fan comes in at 90 and drops off at 80. Everything is looking good.
I try the gears - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th they all work no clutch needed as she is up on stands. Could not find reverse, but I really did not try very hard
We shut her down as she is good and hot. What a great day!!
Some observations:
Idle is lumpy but stable.
She spins up with NO hesitation from idle. Response is instant.
She sounds good under revs, very healthy. NO unhealthy knocking noises.
No pinking or pre-detonation - 11:1 pistons and 93 Octane - Good!
There's a nice crackle on the overrun too, not too much.
The motor is remarkably vibration free.
