Finally had a fruitful day

started off with porting the standard runners to match the manifold and replaced the crap rubber joiners for some nice bits of silicone.




then hen went back to wiring. I got a fair amount tidied up and almost ready to try and start her up.
I thought it best I turn the engine over by hand and double check timing and what not. But it wouldn’t budge....
I whipped out the plugs and poked a bore scope down each of the cylinders.
No valves touching or any sings of anything untoward.
Then it dawned on me....
the clutch alignment tool I made up wasn’t 100% tight although it enabled me to fit the gearbox it must of still been slightly offset.

So I blead the clutch and noticed another issue. It only goes 3/4 of the way to the floor. At a guess the calibra friction plate must be a good 2-3mm thicker than the st170’s and it’s causing it to limit the travel of the pressure plate.
I have a few ideas how to get round it. I might either machine down the pressure plate surface or space the gear box off the engine by about 3mm.

anyway with the clutch blead and it releasing a bit I was able to freely turn the engine.

So with the battery connected back up I ran through some checks on me442.
The crank and cam sensors are now reading properly and giving full sync.
I did some research on earthing and it turns out if the engine earths aren’t good and clean when turning the engine over it can create a large magnetic field around the engine bay. Something you can’t shield against, which is why the cam and crank sensors were picking up so much interference.

With them reading properly I turned the fuel pump back on and tried firing it up......

Still no luck, it just turned over and over with a few pops and bangs

i knoticed that the intake manifold was getting hot??
Bit strange, it would mean the timing is out or the plug leads are mixed up (not likely as they are clearly numbered)
which can only mean I’ve mixed up the wires to the coil pack. So I swapped them over in me442’s software AND........





Finaly she fires
Thats as far as I got, but it’s such a relief to hear some life out of the old girl.