Getting it back together

A different view of the engine bay.

You have to be "in the know" but the engine bay is starting to look a bit more serious now.

Braided fuel hoses, a proper Sprint airbox (all shiny), the later coolant system with a metal header tank (painted and shiny) as well as a new uprated alternator.

What can't be seen is the new headgasket which I have re-torqued again today and run the engine fully up to temp for 15 minutes.

I still have a pair of plain throttle discs for the carbs which I'll fit along with some Vizard tuning, there's electronic ignition to go on and some exhaust wrap to give some heat protection to the starter motor.

Once that's done tho I hope to be able leave the engine alone and get on with rally prep - roll cage, harnesses and fire extinguisher system.

Comp Licence - it's been a long time

It's been a very long time now since I had a competition licence but I have one again now!

This is the lowest cost one possible but I wanted to get it so that I have my own copy of the "Blue Book" which also now comes with a CD ROM. This gives all the latest rules and regs which I need as I move into final prep of the BRP for rallying.

In 2009 I will need a higher comp licence termed "National B" so that I can enter my first stage rallies for 20 years.

A glorious sound

Yes, BRP is running again.

Thanks Bryce and Steve - between us we have managed to persuade BRP to fire up again at last.

New leads, new dizzy cap, pulling out the dizzy and re-aligning it finally sorted it. The timing hasn't even been checked yet!

I have run her up to just above the first reading on the temp gauge tho and now I'll be re-torquing the head, probably next weekend. After that it's filling with coolant and hoping the over heating problems are fixed.

No pics in this post - the engine bay looks just the same!

Good on ya Corgi

I have related how BRP is now famous as a Corgi model and also how I knew nothing about it!

Well, after contacting them they apologised for this happening without my knowledge and have sent me some models FOC - well done Corgi, I am well pleased.

I will now give one of these models to all of my friends who have driven BRP over the years.

Weekend round up

Last Friday night we had the Club Triumph Pendle and Pennine "Not the Xmas meal". In addition the award for "Member of the Year" was made to Paul Darbyshire. It was a great night out with 18 people attending.

Here's a video of the presentation.




Then on Saturday I did a bit of tinkering with BRP - stub stacks fitted to the carbs. They look great but with some further mods to the carbs should result in a little more power.

Start as you mean to go on

I am back at work tomorrow of course so I have done a bit more spannering today.

I have fitted the new uptrated alternator I bought back in November - here it is next to the old one which is now tagged as "OK" and has been saved as a spare.

Installed it looks fine and fits no problem at all. The seocnd pic shows the front of the engine - metal header tank as fitted yesterday, new alternator, electric fan on the uprated radiator and in the background the airhorns also
required as part of the regs for rallying.

On order I now have a full set of new plug leads and electronic ignition. Once they are fitted and set up I shgould be able to start the engine, warm it up and re-torque the cylinder head after it has cooled back down.

After all that I hope to have a reliable cool engine.

If that can be achieved the rest of the year can be spent on buying and fitting a roll cage, harnesses, final fitting of the comp seats and the required fire extinguisher system.

When that's in place it will be a question of getting the OK from the MSA and obtaining a stage rally log book along with Historic vehicle Identity Forms.