[cliffords]

Now I have done a whopping 75 miles, the car seems great and surprisingly good for something I built. The ride and steering etc are very good considering I set it up with spirit levels and bits of string.

What I have got is a series of questions that I suspect will grow over time. What I thought I would do is put them all on one post and keep this post for my questions. If it drives you mad it is easy to ignore whilst they are all in one place. Last week I was a builder pre SVA, then I become a new owner with questions, I guess at some point I will be a seasoned owner with all the answers. So here goes round one.

Cooling. It is the AK set up Rover radiator, AK header tank etc, 16'' pacett fan.
If I run with the thermostat in (179 degrees/81 ish C) I gets to about 90 degrees quite fast and is fine whilst cruising but at tick over it starts to get very warm 100+, fan going like stink and oil pressure at tick over lowish , so I guess it is hot. Run down dual carriage way and back to 90 degrees. With the stat out it takes a while to warm up, runs at 80-85 on the dual carriageway and gets to 90-95 at tick over. Any views on different stat, or restictor plate or thoughts really.

Oil temp and pressure. 75 at start up cold. 45+ warm on dual carriage way at 2000 revs and 70mph when engine is hot. At tick over (800rpm) when hot about 20-25. I am of course not sure about the gauges accuracy. Question is straight forward I guess, is this why some fit oil coolers ? As a guess I think the oil is quite hot.

PCV valve. Had a moment of horror when I decided a rocker must have come loose as there was so much clattering noise in the rocker cover. Unplugged PCV valve all goes quiet.
It is the real steel PCV valve. Rattles like mad, If I take it out and shake it about, it does the same. Do they all or is this one faulty.

Running on. It does run on a bit when hot, got lots of tips on this yesterday and may adjust timing today . Plugs are a good colour , almost like the healthy picture in a Haynes manual. Have had some improvement with reducing tick over. The rolling road that set the carb, emissions etc ( by the way they were not tested at my SVA, he did not do the test ) said I needed to run for around 1000 miles before he can set it up, but it was ok with the settings he had put in on timing and mixture. Obviously want the engine to make the first 1000 miles , should I consider any other checks or changes here?

That's it for now, as ever many thanks

David