Engine completed and reinstalled

Sunday morning arrived, and it was the day that Booger Mobile's freshly rebuilt engine was going to be reinstalled...  happy days!!

Damian received a call from Dave (who was putting the engine back together) to see if he had any spare bits, as the one on the existing engine was a bit sad looking... Luckily Damian had two for Dave to choose from!!

Damian headed to Dave's place to find the engine basically together, waiting for the new parts...

Check out the shiny bits underneath!!

Dave had helpfully banged the sump out into shape, to increase clearance for the oil pickup and generally make it better...  sadly in doing so, he created a pin-sized hole in the sump.  Out came the metal putty...

And a little dab here...

Dave used his gentle persuasion tool to remove the bits from the shaft (which is the part that was needed).

He then had a great job for Damian - cleaning the parts!!

The old rod came to visit the new one that was being cleaned...

The one on the bottom of the picture below tells the story... those double-grooves either side of the hole are NOT meant to be there... any wonder things with the old engine were a little sad!!

Dave came to inspect Damian's cleaning job...

Looks good... let's line up all the little parts ready for reassembly...

Meanwhile, Damian had the sump outside, which could only mean one thing...

Painting time!!

One part decided it didn't want to play any longer, and threw itself into pieces...  Thankfully there were plenty of spares to choose from!!

Time to adjust the hydraulic lifters...

Inside the hole where the spark plug goes, you can see the top of the shiny new piston!!

And upside down it goes, ready for the sump to be attached!!

Voila!!

Time for Damian and Dave to have a self portrait...

Dave removed the engine stand from the engine...

Then after the flywheel was attached, it was time to take it to Booger Mobile HQ...  Jason turned up just as this was happening...

At Booger Mobile HQ, it was time to shoe-horn the engine back into the engine bay...

The straps were adjusted many, many times...

And through the magic of the interwebs, the engine was in!!

Jason jacked up Booger Mobile to put it on jack stands... Damian was very concerned about this method of jacking and insisted that it be jacked up evenly from the front...

Which he did...

Jason had a turn lying under Booger Mobile tightening up various nuts and bolts...

Dave lets the car down off the jack stands...

The metal-bladed fan has made a reappearance - the fan that Damian custom made last year was alright, but with a freshly balanced engine, it was decided that not using it was the way to go!!

And the engine is reinstalled... 

Time to bolt up the extractors (a job which sucks at the best of times)...

Then fill up the oil...

A test of Booger Mobile's oil pressure (by cranking over the engine without starting it) revealed that the oil pressure is excellent - one less thing for concern...

After Jason and Dave left, Booger Mobile sat in the shed, waiting patiently for its carby to come back from the shops.  Hopefully this will happen on Monday, when the engine will have its initial run-in, and will then be driveable!!

Stay tuned, there's plenty more to come!!