My XFlow injection has reached a key stage! The plan to have finished the dining room redecoration and to ease off the paying work is in complete tatters, but the road tax ran out at the end of March so the car is off the road. I've started stripping the car, and I'll just have to take the rough with the smooth as far as the rest goes.

The plan is to strip and inspect the engine, as there's no point in trying to upgrade a worn or sick engine. I've taken the engine out enough times for it to be routine, but I was handicapped somewhat by the fact that my engine crane is playing up and wont lift to its full extent. Fortunately after removing the radiator I could raise the engine up enough to extract it. I'd previously split the plate between the engine and gearbox, which also makes the process a bit easier.

With the engine out, I discovered only one significant problem. The battery seemed to have lost a bit of acid at some point, which had attacked the chassis tube that the battery tray rests on. I'll look at it more closely later.

I've got an engine stand, but I'm rather disappointed with the design of the arms that attach to the engine. They only just clear the crank flange with strategically placed packing washers, and you definitely need to remove the clutch cover and flywheel. I may try and make an improved attachment fixture in future. Once attached to the stand, some of the grime was washed off with carburettor cleaner tostop it getting inside the engine.

Although it's a dry sump engine, I still needed to get the oil out. The sump drainplug is well and truely stuck, and most of my efforts were just damaging the hex flats. I guess what I really need is an 11/16th 6 sided socket (not 12 point). What I did in the mean time was drain the oil out of the scavenge pickup pipe by rotating the engine. I only spilled a bit on the floor!

First impressions are that the pistons need a good de-coke after the problems I had with the Weber cold start circuits last year. The bores look excellent, with the hone pattern still showing. I'll pop the pistons out soon to get a really good look at the bores and the rings.