|
Nearly!
We check everything again and get ready to test the new starter. Power on. Press button. The engine turns, backfires, spits back. A subtle turn of the dizzy and try again. The engine backfires violently and a jet of flame shoots from the carbs and burns the hairs off my left arm. I leap around swearing whilst Linda tries not to wet herself laughing. The engine is heavily modded and has a drastic valve overlap. The inlet valves still being well open whilst the piston is on its compression stroke. This shouldn’t be a problem but is now causing raw fuel to be pumped out of the carb mouths. Maybe I’ve just timed the cam a bit too wildly though!
I drop the cam belt and retime the cam to nearer 106 degrees. Reset the ignition timing and try again. It starts. We cheer and I check my watch to try and ensure a minimum 15 minutes run at 2500 rpm ish in order to bed-in the new cam. We get to about 10 minutes and notice coolant is starting to bubble from the head gasket in a couple of places. Switch off.
The rocker cover is duly removed and the head tightened properly. Confident that the engine now runs and just needs running-in and tuning I decide to fit a set of Weber 48 DCO/SP’s which were, “...working when they were taken off the motor a few weeks ago.” Power on, button press, engine turns but refuses to fire. Check the plugs for a spark (after all, it can’t be the carbs, coz they were working when, etc...). All is fine except for the carbs, which just aren’t releasing any fuel—except for the gallon or so that is now pouring from the mouth of the trumpets…
Off with the carbs for a quick rebuild. A month later we refit the original 45s.