Today, it was flipping cold in the garage, however not withstanding the shivers Duncan and I did manage to get a load of “little stuff” done, all of which is on the critical path to refitting the engine.
We finished fitting the new engine bay floor, fixed this time with Dzus fasteners, so 10 clicks and off she comes. It should make life easier for oil changes and mechanical access.
I also finished a few jobs on the engine, refitting the exhaust headers, cleaned the block and capped off the Air breather valves on the top of the block.
I also took the clutch apart and checked the thickness of the steels and frictions. Many of them were a full .4mm above the service limit and all were well within tolerance. So I didn’t bother changing them. I had been concerned about the life left in it.. but it seems fine.
The only thing then left to do on the engine is fit the oil pressure gauge and warning switch sensor. This is fitted into the main oil gallery on the block, and then brought out o a T Piece at the rear of the engine away from the exhaust headers.
We also spent a good couple of hours completely stripping the rear suspension down to change the bushes. These are usually good for a season or two but we had detected a bit of play in them at the Birkett, so decided to change them all. They are only simply little top hat units so it doesn’t take long. but you do have to have all the suspension off to do it.
So the engines ready to go back in, and the drive train is ready to be re assembled/
Ideally I’d like the mechanical stuff done by the new year so that we can concentrate on sorting out bodywork before our unofficial RGB test day at Snetterton on February 14th.