My friend Dave Harvey came down this weekend to assist in the first firing up of the Triumph's new engine. Gavin was free as well, so he came round to help and also witness the big occasion.
After a few small jobs of adjusting the tappets and fitting an oil pressure gauge, and the distributor, we were ready for firing. I had also borrowed some long hoses from another mate on Friday night with the hope of creating some kind of exhaust fume extractor so that we didn't all get gassed to death in the garage. Because the engine has a new camshaft it would have to be run at 2000 revs for ten minutes to harden the metal, so we needed to create a fume free environment. Unfortunately, the hose wasn't up to the job and after five minutes had melted and had fallen off the exhaust! Luckily my carbon monoxide alarm alerted us to this before things got too smokey.
So, we had to abort the mission and remove both Cortina's out of the driveway so we could get the Triumph out of the garage and into the open air.
With this done, we started again and after adjusting the timing, the engine started and was running well. The oil pressure was excellent and apart from the radiator belching loads of water out due to an air lock, all was fine.
During the testing we discovered that the electric fan had packed up, so reluctantly, the radiator had to be removed again in readiness to order and fit a new one. Whilst I had some help, we then refitted the bonnet and called it a day.
The new engine seems good and strong so I'm looking forward to getting some mileage on it. Let's hope the weather allows me to do so.
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