Session 3 of 3, engine installation day. There it was at 9:00 am in all its glory, still on the engine stand, nicely painted and detailed, just waiting to be nestled into the car to begin putting power to the road. First business is to pick it off the stand and install the rear plate, rear seal, seal retainer plate, and those curious locktabs on the rear plate bolts. I hope someone remembered to bend up the tabs?


Time to bring the car in and warm it up a bit, after we get a few inches of snow off of the car cover. Half a dozen people make short work of pushing the car into the garage, and we all get to warm up again. Installing the clutch pressure plate caused a bit of a delay. It seems the machine shop had removed the three alignment pins when resurfacing the flywheel, and the pins were still missing. Bill Hedrick took a quick trip home to retrieve a Midget flywheel, but no one could get the pins out of that one. After a quick phone call, Kim Tonry was called upon to pull a couple of pins out of one of his MGA flywheels, while Barney Gaylord took a trip home to bring back two new pins and two more used ones pulled out of another MGA flywheel. That was enough with a few pieces to spare.

There was another shot delay when John Schroeder took a quick trip out to pick up some new bolts for the engine mounts. Seems like his plastic bag system of storing small parts for two months wasn't always working. But it did finally come together as the gang was stuffing the engine under the bonnet by early afternoon. Wade Keene got the honor of groveling around on the floor for half an hour (or more) lacing up the gearbox rear mount and crossmember, the propshaft, speedo cable, and wiring for the reverse light switch. We did save some pizza for him. Someone needs to remind John that he still needs to get a new exhaust pipe center hanger installed.


One more momentary delay to clean some rust out of threads on the cylinder head so the flare nut would tighten down on the temperature sensor. Things went better after the engine mounts were bolted down. Just a little fiddling with the throttle linkages on the HS4 carbs, easy installation of the radiator, oil cooler, generator and oil filter. Meanwhile Wade takes a well earned rest in the driver's seat while he installs the shift lever and boot and knob. Add fluids, check ignition timing one last time, open the garage door a little for ventilation, and fire this puppy up. Notice the grins all around during the 20 minute 2000-2500 rpm cam run in and engine warm up period. Then retorque the cylinder head, readjust the valve lash, fine tune the carbs, and it's time for the test run. Nice that the snow let up some, and yes, the grins were still there after the test drive(s). All is well with five weeks to spare for test and tune before the Missouri Undurance Rally. Yee-haa!.