Fancy a Brew

I got up this morning nice and early and sorted out the tools I needed to put the engine back together. I cleaned the head and block faces again to make sure there was no dust or dog hair on them and dropped the gasket and head onto the studs. Things were looking up and going to plan. The washers and nuts were put on and done up finger tight. Then I painted the head with the same paint I did the block in. After this was dry I fitted the heater valve and thermostat.
The work stopped when my wife screamed out the window, "MICHAEL HELP ME" . I downed tools and rushed in doors to find my wife in tears hitching her nighty up. Normally a hitched up nighty would be a good thing, except this time it turned out that the cat had bit her foot while she sat on the sofa drinking a fresh cup of tea (still have not found out why I was not offered one?) and the tea was promptly tipped into her lap scalding her rather badly. After washing my hands (well she would not like dirty fingerprints all over her nighty) I calmed her down and laid some cold flannels over the scaled areas. I'm sure the doctors and nurses among you will tell me this is the wrong thing to do but it seemed to work. She now has some very sore areas on her inner thigh and nether region. For some reason she wont let me put any photos of that on the blog?

Keep it clean.

So back to work and the exhaust manifold was next. This was the one from my friends engine that had the broken studs. As luck (good planning?) would have it I had already drilled out and re tapped the holes in the manifold. However, I had forgotten to sort out some new studs for it. Bugger! After more rummaging in the garage (it must have been my luck day) I found two studs, one was a but shady being both bent and the threads were a little damaged. But after wizzing a nut up and down it a few times the thread re formed and a couple of wacks with a hammer soon straightened it out. Maybe this is why the studs on the manifolds always seem to break?
New gasket applied and the manifolds were on. Next the heat shield and the carbs. They don't look quite so clean now as when I first refitted them but they should still be fine internally.

Got carried away. I forgot to mention the other frustating delay I had. I went to torque down the head but could not find my Torque wrench. I emptied out most of my garage, no luck. Emptied out my shed, no luck. Used the wifes car to drive round to my lock up in the next town and see if it is in there, no luck. Got back home and promptly found it inthe cupboard under the stairs. It's good being organised.
So as it stands the head is on and torqued down and the carbs are on but not tightened up.
I now need to secure the carbs connect the fuel lines and breathers. Put some fuel in the tank (I drained it down when I was low on fuel for my other car whaich has now been sold). Before I do that I realy need to take out the fuel sender as it is sticking as the gauge shows 1/2 a tank even with it empty. The gauge is fine, it shows empty when the wires are disconnected and full when they are connected so it has to be the sender. I may well leave this and must just remember to not rely on the gauge.
So tommorrow I should have it running and then be able to book it in for it's MOT. Lets hope it's OK and passes as I hope to use the car next weekend to travel to a car show come camping weekend. Fingers crossed.