[Peter D]

Darrell - thanks for the invite mate - Newcastle should be achievable (ie, vaguely within the "affordable towing distance") !! It will probably be in a month or so as I have finally been conned into a trip to Bali - put a few women together & you have trouble (specially if one of them is your wife) ! I hate air travel anyway, so just add the lovely Indonesians to the trip & you can see why I have already started on the Vallium !

Chris & Pete - if I make it to Darrell's place, I might as well press on north ! One of Peter R's sausage sizzles has been a goal for ages now, and sliding into semi-retirement (plus a decent engine) is running me out of excuses !

Bill - I am over dynos - the last few runs (for emissions testing) got me over that one - stress (me & the car), ceramic coating on the headers stuffed, etc. With "Autronic Steve" dialling things in on the road & in the garage, I reckon we'll get to 95% of max power & torque. Very similar engine builds over here have got up to 430hp on the engine dyno, so if I am getting 380+, I will be quite happy ! Good luck with things - if you are looking at a start-up by the end of summer, you must be getting close !

Chris - the problem that "brought forward" the rebuild was a crook roller lifter. The needle roller bearings in the lifter ended up in bits in the sump - hence the very loud "clicking noises" & a stuffed cam ! The more things came apart, the bigger the problems - cracked timing case, old crappy bearings (not new as I had previously been told), crappy oil seals on the valves, appalling intake port-matching, etc. A full & professional rebuild was the only option !

300kms on the new engine now & still grinning !!!!!!

Kind Regards,

Peter D.