Rushed home last night - to try & get the last few bits & pieces plugged back in etc in my engine bay with the view to having my engine ready to start tonight!!!

Anyway my suspense was killing me that much that I had to have a go at starting it yesterday - went to turn it over and....well......to say I was gutted was an understatement!!!!! It turned over that fast that I thought at first I'd forgotten to put the spark plugs in!!! I had the stomach wrenching feeling that I had no compression!!!!

So today I've been on a bit of a downer mulling over in my head what it could be - worst case scenerio I'd need to strip everything down - perhaps the rings werent right for the steel liners- perhaps the uprated French headgasket hadnt sealed blah blah - roughly £4500 spent so far & its not working!!!

So anyway - got home tonight armed with a fully charged battery & fresh head & started to fiddle - got my compression tester on the go & yes I had ZERO compression!!! I checked the timing numerous times - all seemed spot on THEN it hit me - HARD.... fuck me I've got a different cam havent I (high lift etc) & I aint set the clearances - set the engine to TDC and blow me...the tappets where tight as a nuns chuff!!! Slackened No1 cylinder tappets off & actually watched the valve rise by about 2mm!!! Roughly set them on cyl 1 - tested compression.....roughly 8BAR!!!! Whoooo whoooo we are in business!!!! Roughly set the rest for the time being - connected coil & injectors back up - tied a piece of cable to the throttle body lever - turned her over - few turns & a few tugs later.....OH MY GOD SHE RUNS!!!!

I just wanted to throw a party outside on my drive..... - its a rough as a dog at idle - havent properly set fuel pressure, idle speed/mixture etc yet.....but I DONT CARE......SHE RUNS!!! - She smoked like a bitch for the first minute or so - due the amount of oil we used to fit the pistons/rings but now shes clear as anything!!!

I just wanna shag everyone at this moment in time! LOL!

Anyway......onto tomorrow evening - I've got to rig up a fan loom, get it idling correctly & run it up to temperature oh & sort my only leak on the whole engine....the bottom rad hose!!!