Tuesday 16th July- The Red Shed returns.

I was calling past Mowatts on Tuesday morning, so I popped in to see how things were going with the Red Shed. I had called in the Thursday previous to see how it was doing only to find they hadn't even started it, but was told ' It's the next car in'.

I wasn't best pleased at this so as you can imagine, I was even less pleased when I found that five days later it still hadn't even been started on and was again 'the next car in'. After demonstrating my unhappiness and offering to help with their 'excessive workload' by removing my car from their premises altogether and paying somebody else to do it, they assured me that it would be finished later that day without fail. I accepted this, but reassured them that if it wasn't, then I would be returning the following morning with a trailer to collect the car and would be taking it somewhere else.

Later that afternoon I received a phone call to say it was ready, (funny that!) so I headed over there to collect it. They gave me a run down of things that I should look at. Apparently, the petrol tank has quite a lot of crap in it, so an inline fuel filter has been fitted to monitor that, but it could need a new tank if it doesn't clear. They said that the carbs were ok, but I could do with some heat shields on them. (Especially in this weather!) The coil also doesn't put out the voltage  it should all the time, so that needs replacing. And......(I'm saving the worst until last here...) the rear core plug in the back of the cylinder head is leaking. Major Bummer! That means the head has to come off again!

I'm kicking myself over this as I did consider replacing it before I refitted the head, but took the attitude of 'if it aint broke, don't try to fix it. That'll teach me. Obviously the acid dip had disturbed it somewhat.

Anyway, the bad news aside, the good news is that the car now not only runs, but performs beautifully. The power band seems massively increased now with the PI cam and she pulls like a train. It's not only the initial pull away, but she will still pull well from down low third and fourth gears. You can also feel the revs get to a certain point and then feel the cam kick in. It's a brilliant modification that I would recommend to anyone with a Mk1 with a standard 2000 engine.

I stopped off at Gavin's house on the way back and let him have a test drive in it and he was seriously impressed. He thinks it's quicker and pulls better than his 2.5 Mk2 saloon.

Another bonus is that you can use the PI cam in the HRCR regulations as it was a 'period modification' used at the time on the works rally Triumph Mk1 saloons.

To be fair to Mowatt's they do carry out a fantastic job and every car I've given them has come back from there like a different car. They certainly know how to get a car performing I'll give them that.

So, a new head gasket has been ordered and this weekends work will be to remove the cylinder head and sort out what I should have done while it was off. Lesson learnt!