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Once again this is the first update to the site in quite some time, there has been some progress on the car but as usual this has been nowhere near as much as I would ideally like, the front and rear luggage compartments have been painted, as has the interior but unfortunately the cold weather setting in and other commitments has meant a stop on any further progress as far as paint is concerned.

Progress on the engine has been slow too, mostly because there have been a few design changes, the original 103mm cast iron barrels have been junked in favour of a set of 'Nickies', these are aluminium barrels with a nickasil plating. I wont repeat all of the sales garb here but take a look at LN Engineering's site (the link is on the links page). Basically the engine should run a lot cooler and they are about a 1/4 of the weight too, which is a definite advantage due to the extra weight of the engine and box.

New pistons have been made with a larger than normal dished top, this is to get the compression ratio correct and to improve the 'squish' in the combustion chamber. (in most applications the pistons wouldn't have a dished top, perhaps just some clearance cuts for the valves, this would be the case for normally aspirated engines running a high compression ratio where a smaller combustion chamber and lower deck height would be necessary to get the required ratio).

With the Nickies ARP head bolts have had to be used, but these have caused a small problem with the case. One of the threads on the bolts wasn't correctly cut, this has caused the case to split around the mounting. My experience in the past is that most people are less than scrupulous and would have conveniently 'forgotten' about this. Whilst in most cases this wouldn't be a problem as such engines would rarely be used in full anger and are built more for kudos than actual strip / circuit action, this engine will see some serious action and so needs to be 100%. Throughout the build I've been very happy in my choice of builder as time and time again he has proven his worth with his knowledge and attention to detail, I'm pretty sure its been a headache at times but fortunately he has stuck with it.

Some of the other things that have caused problems are things such as the cam bolts, there have been clearance problems between the cam bolts and the oil pump, this is mostly due to the design of the oil pump itself, and even clearancing the pump hasn't solved the problem, this has meant the bolts have had the be machined down and I have to turn some thinner washers down to get the clearance required without compromising the strength of the assembly. the ARP head studs themselves protrude inside of the case when the shoulder is set to the correct height to allow the cylinders to fit, perhaps not a problem with a stock crank but with the stroked crank I'm using this causes clearance problems so these will have to be ground down.

Hopefully the engine will be finished soon, then I can get on with making the engine bar and engine mounts and trial fitting everything and sorting the gear linkage out, then I need to decide the next step, perhaps the exhaust system and drive-shafts.

There's a few more pictures on the pictures page of the engine components awaiting assembly.