The engine fitting is about to happen.

I ran a wire from the Rally Design oil temp sensor I fitted in the turbo oil feed hole to the water temp sensor plug tonight. Went out for a drive. No temp display bars showing.

Kept driving. After 10 minutes the first bar lit up. Bingo! After another 10 minutes the second bar lit up. Wahey! It didn't go any higher than that. My plan to have a selector switch for oil or water temperature is looking good.

I was sitting in traffic when steam started coming from under the bonnet. Turned out that the water header tank lid was loose.

When I started the car later, the water level warning light came on. The head tank was near empty. Luckily I was near a garage, so I filled it up. Good job I kept the check control system.

I was under the car when I noticed some oil on the bell housing cover plate. Closer inspection showed that the sump was leaking! I found that the bolts were a bit loose, so I did them all up reasonably tight. Then I degreased and jet washed all the bits that I'd cleaned last week. We'll see.

One thing that has been spoiling the otherwise smoothness of the new engine has been the way that the downpipe has reverted to hitting the lower strut brace when accelerating. To try and solve this I loosened the driver's side engine mound and jacked the engine up from underneath and then did the mount bolts back up.

Finally, I cleaned and re oiled the K&N air filter. I also bolted the air flow meter down properly.

Despite being a hassle, TBH, if this is the only thing wrong from the bottom end transplant then I'm pretty happy.

The ceramic screen heater needs to be wired in properly. I've had smoke off the fuse a few times now. The problem is that it draws too much current. Not enough to blow the fuse, but enough to melt things. I'm going to fit an inline fuse just for the heater.

The clutch is now bedded in and bites quickly. I stalled the car at the lights because of this.

I called into a Tesco's garage and took a look. Oil was everywhere - it seemed to be leaking out near the oil pump and was coating all of the driveshaft and the driver's wheel. The brake disc was coated too. So I  bought a can of cheapo Tesco oil and whacked some that in.

I decided to go straight home. I was near Gloucester when the light came on again so I put some more oil in.

I jet washed all the oil off. Then I tightened the sump gasket. Then I loosened the sump gasket, pushed the rubber in properly, then I tightened the sump gasket.

Then I went out for a quick 10minute drive. Which was fun.

Back home I could smell the oil. I could see where it was coming from, though I wanted to deny it at first. Yes, it was the oil pump crank seal. Oil was pissing out of there and centrifuging all over the place.

So I set to taking it all apart. The oil seal had worn a deep groove into the thrust washer. The seal had come with the pump and I had assumed it to be the correct item. Maybe it wasn't. As a temporary fix I used a seal out of my left over box of bits from the rebuild. I put the washer in backwards so the groove was at the back. This was a temporary solution.

Spent the evening fitting the new oil seal. Tightened the sump up a bit more whilst I was at it. Looks like the cam shaft oil seal might be dripping a bit too.

I'm looking into heated front windscreens too. I've found a company that will make a batch of ten for £125 each.

After that I decided to do something fun: fit the Alloy rack mounts. I started out by thinking I could just swap the brackets over. The passenger side mount was easy enough. After being interrupted by a Barclays bank sales call I then cut the rubber bung down in size since it was part of the original mount. The Stanley knife slipped and I ended up taking a chunk out of my thumb. After rinsing it and wrapping some kitchen roll around I decided to get on with the job. I put another glove on and just left the thumb leaking inside it. A bit grim but I had business to attend to. Fitting the driver's side mount was difficult. I ended up removing more and more bits until in the end I pulled out the whole rack. After pushing the mount on in the vice I refitted the rack. I discovered that the steering column was rubbing on its shroud. I had noticed some rubbing noises coming from the column in the previous weeks.

Well, on the road the steering was really heavy. Looks like I need to sort out the column then.

The roll cage is still not bolted in.

However, I've been having a great time driving the car. The engine is nicely loosened up now and really entertaining on twisty roads. In fact, Tuesday morning was such a good drive that I reckoned all the hassle and effort were totally justified. One of those drives where you really key into things and enjoy the action, with the car feeling very keen. I didn't use any ear plugs either and the noise the engine makes is better than ever. It's not as harsh, but it doesn't half make some sweet sounds! Yeah, I'm happy.

I have lost a bit of oil since sorting the cam seal problem. I did take a look down the inlet system the other night and a bit of oil is being blown out the breather system. I expect the compression to be better than it was, but it has been getting some serious high rpm usage. 4K is where the engine really gets on it.

Not spending money is one of my priorities at the moment and will continue to be like that until March-April when I shall be debt free.

Back at base I soon had it in bits. I hit a slight snag here - the non-adjustable column had a different lock housing compared to the adjustable item. I couldn't work out how to get the barrel out of the scrap yard item, so I resorted to drilling it. I ended up knackering the whole thing before working out that you need to push a pin down a release hole. Then I snapped the brake light switch and lost the spring from it when removing the original column. I was feeling a bit indecisive by now. Should I fit the non-adjustable column but without the steering lock, or should I refit the original column? In the end I vowed to carry on with fitting the new column. Things started coming back together when I found the brake light switch spring. I worked out what the noise had been: the lug to make the indicator auto click off  had been in the wrong place and had been rubbing on a screw in the housing. Hence the heavy steering and noise.

After more fruiting around sorting the immobiliser socket, straightening up the wheel, using cable ties to hold the ignition barrel in place and re soldering the horn button I had it all back together. On the road it felt loads better. Lighter. When you call a quickrack light, that means it was heavy before! It felt so much better that I went for a 30 mile test drive.

Rear driver's side drum is still making noises. To be inspected. Apart from that the car is going really well. It's a hoot to drive.

I've been spending a lot of time working on a new acceleration calculator.

I decided to seal in the Lexan sunroof. I ended up with sealer on the plastic. I tried to clean this off with some solvent. Big mistake. The surface ended up all milky. Oh dear. Looks like I need another £45 piece of Lexan then.

On to January 2004