Running in

Put some miles on the car this weekend – being careful with it so far, but so far so good.  The engine seems at least as torquey at low revs as it was and I reckon that the cam is just beginning to do its stuff at the point that I am changing up at the moment.  I really can’t wait to give it some stick and open her up.  Still must wait!

I drove up to near Warwick on Saturday night to meet up with some of the FriesianRacing herd and went out for a lovely meal at a local hostelry.  Whilst there, Andrew dug out some sensible advice on the net from our friend Badger here.  Worth a look if you are dong the same.  Badger has lots of experience in rebuilding V8s and has a sensible approach to running in!

Next steps are to sort out the rear diff which is showing some damage, buy some more shocks and source some tyres.  Then its off to the bodyshop for a tidy up followed by its new livery and the unveiling of our new sponsors for 2007!

You’ll hear it here first!

First road miles

Last weekend we put MuddyMoo back on the road for the first time since last year.  Following on from the previous weekends rather traumatic first start of the engine and cam bedding in process (see video below) the first trip down the road was equally nerve wracking.  The old girl felt alright, but with everything newly bolted back in and the engine needing to be run in, we pottered the three miles to the MOT station in Crawley, Oxon.

The MOT itself was reasonably painless, but in the rush to get everything back together in the minutes before our appointment I managed to leave the fuel cap on the roof of the car as I drove it away.  It wasn’t until I drove it into the MOT station (having just fixed the indicators, that had given up on the trip!) that I noticed.  A quick phone call to Nigel fixed that and this year she sailed straight through.

This weekend I hope to start putting some miles in, between concentrating on writing job interview submissions, which is of course what I ought to be doing!

So far so good – I don’t yet know how much better the engine is, but at the moment I’m content with knowing that it is running smoothly.  I can’t wait to open her though! 

We’ve fired her up!

Last weekend saw the newly rebuilt engine fired up for the first time.   There’s some video of the bedding in process of the cam on YouTube.