Long Overdue Update

Hi all

Apologies for the delay in updating my site. This has mainly been down to not having a computer at the moment and also I’ve been in the garage almost every spare minute.

I’ve stripped and rebuilt the 400 engine, with no real great dramas. I’m hopeful that I have managed to recapture some of the horses I’d lost over the years with the refresh.

Nothing was out by a major amount, just little bits here and there, still is all back together now and my nice new ram air box arrived the other day so hope to fit that in the next week or so and then visit the dyno to see if my hard work has paid off.

With the 400 finished I started work on the Supertwin.

There were only a few bits to do and the last item on my list was to change the oil. Luckily for me I don’t do my list in order as when I drained the oil I noticed the colour was odd.

It didn’t look like water was getting in but checked the radiator in case, sure enough it was empty, and as I topped it up liquid poured out of the sump.

My immediate thought was that the head gasket had gone, so stripped both the heads off. It was only when I removed the heads that noticed the core plugs, which are used to fill holes used in the casting process, which meant the water jacket leaked straight into the engine.

I’ve since had the core plugs replaced and the other head pressure checked to make sure the other plugs are ok. Am still not sure how the plugs came to fall out, but just glad I found out now rather than nearer the first race.

Talking of which, my entry has been accepted for Cookstown and Tandragee, which is good news.

Entries arrived for The Classic TT, Manx Grand Prix and Southern 100 this week, all of which have been completed and sent off, so fingers crossed I get to race in all three.

Hope to be in touch soon.

Cheers

Stuart