Friday 6th April- Gertie has a new heart.

With not having to work through the Easter break I had made plans to remove the standard 2 litre engine from Gertie and fit the newly rebuilt 2500 engine. My 'Round Britain' co-pilot 'Davemate' offered to help and this being something I would struggle to do alone, I took him up on his offer.

Dave arrived around 8am and we got straight into it and by about 10.40 Gertie's engine and gearbox was extracted. As previously advised, the front cross member was unbolted and the car 'bounced' on its springs to provide more space between the cross member and bulkhead. With this done, the engine and gearbox came out together.

This engine was to go back into the yellow car which will then be sold once up and running, ( I want to cut down to two cars eventually.) but for now the priority was to get the new one fitted in place. This didn't seem to want to go at first and was reluctant to even line up, but after a bit of cursing, swearing, jigery pokery and some more swearing she finally slotted in place. We then bolted the front cross member back down so that Gertie was sitting as she should.

Seeing as it was still early afternoon, we devoured some cheese sarnies and cold Pepsi max and then decided to get Gertie's old engine fitted into the yellow car. This was even easier than trying to fit the other engine and went in without even having to unbolt the cross member! Eh? How's that then? I had been told without unbolting the cross member, the sump wont drop down over the power steering rack. But it did. Result!

With both engine and gearboxes in, we still had time to get the strobe light out and have a play with the timing on Dave's Herald. (And also did my estate while we were at it). Dave even let me have a drive of his Herald and has what I thought was a really cool option. He has his overdrive switch fitted on the steering wheel. It's brilliant and helps make it a great car to drive.

Dave then helped me refit both bonnets to the cars and we then called it a day as we were now into the early evening. The next few days will be spent finishing Gertie off and fitting such luxuries as an oil cooler and oil pressure gauge.