Big Liz (the MK1) Lives again - hooray!

[welshrussell]

Well after a year doing the rebuild I finally had the engine running again yesterday

She sounds sweet and very tight

As some of you know this has not been an easy rebuild for me because of where the van is parked (on a farm) and a lack of facilities, knowledge and tools, etc.

Thank goodness for a Haynes Manual and some helpful Forum Members

The engine had a lot of work done on her, having the heads skimmed, new valves and seats, new fuel pump, new water pump, new battery, engine bay respray and lots and lots of cleaning with WD40

I concentrated on the basics to get her up and running and now that is done I can have a look at cleaning her up again and sorting out little jobs, like wire replacement/tidying and any other final adjustments.

I would like to finish her off pretty soon and get an MOT for her, so I don't have to wait for the Spring, then I can just jump in and go camping.

It's raining pretty heavy in Scotland right now, so now I won't get to the van until Thursday, when I will try for the first time to move her from the spot she has sat on for a year.

I did leave the handbrake off, and hope the shoes haven't welded themselves to the drums too badly

Here's some pics, sorry for the quality - I must get a new camera - this one is 5 years old from Argos and is totally crap

Like I said, I still have a lot of tidying up and cleaning to do - I still have stickers on cables and bits (that helped a lot for the rebuild!) telling me what was what.

Will post more when weather allows

[transitandy]

very well done m8y

[baconsdozen]

Great news Russell,you deserved a good result after all your efforts.

[ake]

Well done Russell

[welshrussell]

Cheers Guys

Gutted I won't be able to make the October Scottish Meet but until tomorrow I don't know if her wheels will go round

Also I'm expecting the MOT fail sheet to have bushes, suspension fails, which will involve some proper creative thinking to fix in a field - but hey ho - I've got this far so everything else should be a piece of p*ss

Will try to take some better photos tomorrow afternoon

[greek]

Well done Russel if I remember rightly you were about to give up on it when it first went tits up.

[welshrussell]

Well done Russel if I remember rightly you were about to give up on it when it first went tits up.

Put this way - I didn't have many straws left until the last one

But now when I listen to her purr - all that seems to be magically forgotton

Finally some engine pics in focus







Will to do some tidying up and checking over of everything this weekend and all being well take her for an MOT next week.

Will let you know the outcome