Week 39

The carbs did arrive, 9 days later (bl**dy ParcelFarce). And very good they look too, Dell'Orto DHLA45's with 38mm chokes, 170 air correctors, 150 mains, 7772.6 emulsions, 50/7850.1 idles. Or, in somewhat more understandableterms, a pretty good starting position for a 2l Pinto with some tuning.... Not much else happening this week, other stuff to do.

Spent the weekend helping Ian Martin pull the sick engine out of his Cat and drop it off at Patterson's for a rebuild. Was also present when Neil suddenly decided he wanted a Zetec (when presented with an 1800 mile one complete for 500 quid....). Then we went out and had beer.

Week 40

Got an RS2000 cast aluminium sump from a motorsport dealer in the back of Motoring News. It's complete, with the baffle plate, pickup and a set of bolts. If you ask me, it's heavier than the cut'n'shut Tiger tin affair.... just as well I bought it just to avoid a welded one, not to save weight...

Also cut the holes in the tub to fit the fuel filler on the rear end. A long time ago I chopped an inch or so off the inlet pipe on the tank to ensure the filler neck and tank inlet lined up well enough, and I had to take ¾" off the breather connection on the filler neck to get it onto the tub neatly. Six M6x25 countersunk bolts later and Bob's yer uncle....

Week 41

Not much time for car work. Finished off the fuel filler, connected up the filler pipe and the breather pipe between tank and filler neck, and finally secured it all. The biggest job I managed was definitely fitting the exhaust header pipes. This involves cutting a great big hole in the tub in the engine bay on the driver's side, in order to poke the pipes through, but without making the hole too large. Needless to say, it took absolutely ages to get reasonable, but it's not too bad in the end. Advice for other Six builders, ignore both the template in the old manual and the marks on the tub suggesting where to cut. They were up to 3 inches out on mine, and completely the wrong shape. Cut a big hole (I used a 64mm hole saw) roughly central to where it's going to go, then put each pipe through the hole in turn and file the hole out in the direction it needs to go to make the flange sit flat on the engine. In case you're wondering (as I did) the position of the individual pipes in the 4-1 collector are as shown on the diagram to the right, which is shown looking from the rear of the car towards the front. The cylinders are numbered 1 from the cambelt end of the engine, in case you wondered.

Week 42

Getting into the remaining wiring now. Spent a couple of evenings tying down all the wires in the tunnel, and making sure everything's well wrapped. The wiring in the engine bay's mostly sorted now. I've made a mini-loom for the coil, dizzy and amp module, which are now joined onto the main loom ready to be connected up. Just need to bolt down the coil and amp. The wiring takes an interesting route around the side of the engine bay under the carbs. There are separate paths for the main part of the loom including the starter wiring and connections to the front (e.g. fan and lights) and the wiring for the ignition system and pressure/temperature sensors. The main loom dips down by the starter and back up towards the front, where the ignition wiring runs along the top rail. It sounds messy, but it's actually really tidy (though I say so myself) and makes the best use of the available space. The loom's not too bad for wire lengths. The odd piece is a foot too long, but only found one bit too short so far (which is much more of a pain).

Also mounted the final fuel filter and regulator up front ready to be connected up to the carbs. Just need to borrow a pipe cutter to shorten the main fuel line then I'll hook the inlet up and get the carbs on.