Right, yesterday i set about a couple of different jobs, first off was rad fan as that turned up so did a quick placement cut and joined on a plug I had around and fitted it



put in a second actuator bracket to stop the flex,
Nice and sturdy for the time being but the actuator needs a better solution than that in the future.
next thing on the list was the fuel filler neck, still needed to be fitted. I had 15l of v power there ready to go in but the problem is I don’t and never have had any keys for this car. And the filler cap (and the boot) are locked.
so before fitting that neck I had to do something about the cap. I looked at lock picking and decided to have a bash. Took an hour or so of research and fucking about but I got it unlocked.
That then got fitted up. Fuel in the tank, no leaks, fuel pump primes and putting fuel up to the carb.
and my gauge works,


so that was all pretty good, left it thinking should be sound to start up tomorrow, today has come and first thing that bit me was the starter, it had locked up.
took this Opportunity to take it off as it had been making a hell of a noise anyway, discovered there were no dowels in it at all so I went and found some in another gear box and fitted a different starter that seemed to have some more oomph about it. Left the battery charging while this was being done.
refitted and worked first time, sounds better too.
so I thought I would go for the start and see if there was life. Now there was a bit,
The fuel was there, the spark was there, charged battery and good starter was cranking well. It was popping and banging a bit and making noises like it was thinking about it, but to no avail.
I had the phone set up to video a couple of times aswell, very anticlimactic.
so trying choke on off, took the top boost hose off to try and just get it to fire and do something, give me something to start with. But getting nowt more than puffs and pops.
I’d forgot to plug the lambda hole, plugged it
I tried swapping the tdc wires around as I thought with the cam and it being on stock pulley like
@Brigsy has said in the past it may well be miles out. But that didn’t make any notable difference so I swapped back and pulled the plugs to check spark. sparking seemed okay.
I thought while the plugs were out I would do a quick compression test, cylinders 4-1 one being fly end:



Bawz
I whipped the rocker cover off and gave the head bolts and 8th of a turn, this improved no1 but not no4 where my real issue is. I thought on the back of that it did seem like a head gasket issue could be likely. So there was only one thing to do


so, annoyingly, after much deliberation I think my head is flat. And I think my block is flat. and my gasket looked pretty well sealed when I looked at it and all other surfaces for any evidence of a leak.
what brand of head gasket would you guys recommend.? out of curiosity.
everything looks as it did when I put it together. Admittedly I never had the head apart at all.
but all the valves are shut fully on the head and free moving.
I’m not really sure where to go next. the car hasn’t even ran to blow the gasket and no evidence of such. I must have missed something, a crack or something possibly, who knows..
I decided to come in and have tea instead of looking at it any longer. Good thing we have nothing but time at the moment eh. Haha
cheers,