Puller-me-jig in place. The metal plate is bolted to the bit that needs to come off. In the middle a long bolt (out of an M52 block!) and a nut. Theory is you do up the bolt in the middle and it pops off.

The metal is already bent from the first time it wont done up (it moved about 1/2 mm)

Carefully the middle bolt was done up until it started pulling off.

and here it is finally!

There were tiny amount of rust underneath which is what was causing it to stick.

Needs a good clean out and polish before test fitting on the M52 crank.

M20B25 piston fitted with M20B20 conrod and M52B28 crank! Moves well.

Piston / conrod / crank combo at top dead centre - looks good :)

Crank spacer taking shape on the lathe

One step left is to machine down the spacer to the correct size - about 18mm

Spacer machine down to size, about 17.90mm with in 0.1mm of the original.

Cam belt pulley test fit, this a very tight fit so it will need the "the tool" to get it back off again.

As the M52 crank nose it a bit longer than the M20 the washer in the front doesn't sit flush.

Washer in the lathe, need to take about 1.25mm off giving 0.1mm space between it and the crank nose.

Finished off and the edge smoothed off

Test fit of all parts on the M52 crank.

Comparison: M52B28 crank and the front and M20B25 at the back

Cleaned up all the pistons today, but manage to snap one of the piston rings in the proces - doh!

Andy, the chap who came up with the conversion severl years ago has recommended I use the standard head gasket with this conversion!

One more discovery after examining the head, its not quite straight - its warped ever so slightly towards the front where the thermostat sits. Check with a steel ruler, but to be 100% sure I used the lathe bed which confirmed it. Off to the machine shop with the head next week then!

Silver is so last month, so blue it is this time!

We used red hamerite on the exhaust plugs and those didn't discolour until we welded something on it - so it seams heat resistance enough!

The hammered blue looks great out in the light.

Oil pump disassembled and cleaned. It all looks fine nothing really worn so no need to replace it.

The parts slot right into place, covered in assembly oil. This stuff is thicker than normal oil and kinda sticks to everything. Should help keep everything lubricated on the fist run.

The filter element has a few hardended clumps inside it but nothing major!

Got the head back from the machine shop on Friday, they took 4 thou off to remove the warp: 

Starting a bit of valve lapping

2 down only 10 to go!

All the valves boxed up and ordered

Throttle body attaches here, its been ground a bit larger - more pictres to follow on that at some point

Valve springs - the larger one has shrunk 2mm over the inside ones and new springs.

All valve lapped in - a simple short sentance that will take you hours and hours, especially if you have pits on the valves like we did!

A nice mat grey colour is what your after!

The valves all have a nice mat dull finish on them as well.

Valve stem oil seals going on - a size 11 socket bit proves to be exactly the right size to push these in place.

One at a time the new schik valve springs go in, putting the colletes back on proved to be a very fiddly proceedure!

All springs now in place!

All cleaned up - the head needed a "4 thou" skim to take the warp out of it.

Camshaft inserted

New oil seal and o-ring for camshaft

Rocker shafts and rockers on their way back into the head - the head needs to be propped up so there is room for the valves to open as the last rocker needs the camshaft rotated to slide in. Also make sure the rocker shafts are at the right angle before rotating the camshaft otherwise its not easy to move the into the correct place.

Both rocker shafts in and the clips that hold the rockers in place. The spray bar as also been mounted.

A closer view of the assembled head

Everything now in place on the head, it just needs the rocker cover put in place to shield the inside from dust.

New parts! Conrod bolts, main bearing shells, big end shells, water pump, cam belt and piston rings.

2.8 crank installed in the block with new bearings, bolts are torqued up.

Crank spacer in place

Many hours later all the pistons are installed with new bearings, all moving parts have been given a coat of assembly grease - this is more sticky than normal oil so it should stay put until the normal enigne oil is circulated round the engine before first start.

Front cover plate in place with new oil seals installed.

Oil seal around the crank spacer.

Water pump installed along with the gear for the oil pump.

Bottom view of engine with all parts installed. New conrod bolts have been torque, then turned to the approated settings!

Blue sump! Just resting on the engine for photos.

Its not quite this bright in real life, the flash has given it a much strong blue colour!

Final clean up and degrease of the head.

Mmm shiny! Also double check that the cam pulley is turned to the timing mark on the head.

Belt tensioner now also installed

Head gasket placed on the block.

Head placed on block ready for the head bolts to go in.

Bolts placed, these were all tighten up as per the Bentley manual and in the correct order. Its a 3 step process.

Everything bolted up, the rear oil seal needs to go and the sump bolted on.

Final thing was to install the cam belt - turned the engine over severa times and it all sounds good. No interference between valves and pistons from the sounds of it!

Rear cover plated attached to block, sump bolted on and the flywheel on read to be bolted. The bolts need to be tightend up in a specific order and covered in loctite.

Clutch back on the fly wheel

Gear box slotted on "like a glove" [ace ventura]

After a lot of jiggling the engine is back in mated with the drive shaft and on all 4 mounts.

Just needs all the ancillaries bolted back on

Nice blue block, shame it has to be covered by the intake manifold!

Carbon wings next to original

Carbon weave! Pretty!

The new wing is not quite a wide as the original and follows a slightly tigher curve.

You can hardly see any difference between the two

The wing over a 225 wide tyre, the thread is covered. Some of the bubble sticks out but that's an MOT pass.

Side of a 225 / 45 / R17 tyre

On the 205 width tyre - fits perfectly!

Side view on a 205/60/R15 tyre.

To fit the windscreen you'll need some masking tape a pencil, rule and maybe a tape measure!

• Put some tape down and mark a centre line on the scuttle - I used the bonnet hinge and my guide which was previous painstakingly placed in the middle!
• Place the ali cover that goes under the screen on the scuttle measuring 130mm back from the scuttle edge (back edge inside car) on both sides. Also mark 60mm back.
• Mark 7mm out from the metal edge - this creates a slot shop that the windscreen sides can drop into. Got to be careful that the holes are parallel with the edges of the screen!
• Drill a series of holes inside the marked area, cut and file them out. Now you can drop the screen to test fit! That's about as far as we got this weekend!

Windscreen loosely slotted through the scuttle

Stainless plates do a good job of covering holes chopped into the scuttle.

With the screen pulled back the metal of the screen frame pretty much touches the scuttle

Screen should provide a decent amount of wind protection. Side screen may still need to be fitted!

The driver side - the bottom hole just bolts in with a spacer, not sure yet how the top bolts in yet as the brackets have a huge bend in them that don't seem to line up with anything.

The ali panel under the screen is not the right shape but once the rubber strip is added it almost fills the gaps - some filling work will be need to make it fit better.

All we need now are some wishbones!

Finally bit of construction. The original bracket that held the header tank was a bit floppy so Richard welded up a new one - nice and solid now!

Plan A to hold the mesh in place on the nose cone - fibre glassed a set of nuts to on to it, then bolt it on. Final status - Epic Fail. The nuts pulled out.

Plan B (Richard came up with this one) Tubes fibre glassed into the nose cone!

Fibreglassed in place

All tubes installed

Some paint to clean up the work

Complete

Mesh installed with ZIP ties

Close up of the final mounting

New bits of steel for mud guard holders

Spacing for the carbon wings - ended up using 1/4 of one of these as space.

Steel bent and fitted to the front of the carbon wing.

Original wing mounts chopped and mounted onto the car. The standard holes needed drilling out slightly so that brackets would fit.

Eyeing how much needs cutting off to fit the new steel.

After much fiddling, a bit of welding and grind and the wing is mounted

Fits is not bad but the carbon wings are not quite as wide as the originals so it gets very close to the tyre.

Just needs paint now and the other side making.

On the road again:

The breather that comes with the kit may not be ideal for injected engines, the tank pressurises during use to a very high level. As it is only a one way valve it only let air in as you use up fuel. The other issue we've been having is when there's a slosh of fuel it lets out a waft of petrol which really is not very pleasant.

Out solution was to get a mocal two way valve and a positive shut off so air can get in and out. Additional when there's a slosh it doesn't leak petrol all over the place.

Fitted the mocal valve today brimmed the tank and went for a long drive - no more petrol small wafting through the car when accelerating hard or going up a hill!

More info in the FAQ click here

Was out for a drive today again as it was still sunny, unfortunately the engine over heated after 30 miles - only for a very short period of time maybe 30 second before I noticed. Let it cool but it seized up - balls.

Been towed home (not too far luckily) so this weekend will be take the engine to bits again time!

Took the plugs out and it is possible to turn it over so I'm hoping it's not too bad. Ran fine for 250 miles!

At least it still has 4 wheels this time

Testing Round 1 (not much time):

I can hand crank it fairly easily now, it does seem to get a little notchy in places.

Also the starter can turn the engine over however I have to hand crank it a few time first.

I did noticed the oil pressure went really high after a few turns of the starter

Testing Round 2 (a bit more time):

Thermostat is fine, water pump seems to be pumping OK, but not pull it out yet (rad is in the way). Oil in the bottom was quite dark but not clumpy. Oil in the top was still quite light.

When you crank the engine on the starter a few seconds the oil pressure goes way way up - I stopped at 6 bar.

So me thinks there's a blockage somewhere. Not pulled the sump off yet, but that's the next step.