Digging in.........

Well, today, Roger and I did a bit of exactly that.

We got properly stuck into the spare engine.

But first, we had a quick troll over to Mildenhall for to relieve fellow Alvis Owner Club member David Little of his engine hoist.

We are going to need this to get the rebuilt spare out of Roger's garage and into a car to take it to Cottenham.

(I am NOT, under any circumstances, whatsoever, even if sponsored for charity fundraising, going to even attempt to push the bloody thing there, okay?)

The hoist will be needed to lift the engine out of the car and into Jane's workshop. It will be needed again to drop the rebuilt engine and the gearbox into the Alvis.

But all this is still very much in the planning stage.

Firstly, we cleaned up as much as we could of the bits we'd taken off.

(If you want to make a killing on the stock market, buy shares in the manufacturers of 'Gunk' engine de-greaser and the firm who make Tesco Value kitchen roll.........)

Then we dismantled the timing chain tensioner and removed the timing chain, tensioner wheel, oil pump, and crankshaft.

We haven't got the cam off yet. It looks forked. Moisture has been sitting between the cam followers and the cam lobes during the engine's fifty odd years under a bench, and it has eaten through the case-hardening.

It's a shame, but there you go.

We are now in hot pursuit of the fabled bag of unicorn manure that is otherwise known as a brand new TA14 cam.

We know they're out there.......

:-)