With the engine now rebuilt and re-assembled, it was time to connect the wiring loom to it, turn the key and see if it fires into life. A couple of weeks ago I managed to get hold of a replacement starter motor and solenoid from the Runcorn SD1 Centre, funnily enough in Runcorn. Ian, the guy that runs the place, seems to be very knowledgeable about everything to do with the old SD1's and all the engines that ever got put into them. Speak to him if you ever get stuck.

Having got the starter back home, I thought I'd check that it works before I cleaned it up. So having studied the wiring diagram in the build manual I proceeded to connect the engine together. The other job that needed to be done was to finalise the water hoses for the coolant. John, my father in law, is making some polished chrome pipes that will brighten up the engine bay, but in the meantime some 1.25 inch plastic pipe has been used in place and it works a treat. The reason for the pipe is that the standard Rover hoses do not fit onto the radiator on the kit. The hoses need to be cut and the pipe used as an extension.

As I never had the original Rover hoses I simply visited a breakers yard and took a selection of preshaped hoses off some cars, cut them up as needed, and managed to complete the hoses with almost minimal fuss. A replacement set of jubilee clips all round, cleaned up hoses and it was all plugged together.

The last thing to do then before turning the key was to fill the oil up and top up the water coolant. I decided that I'd only use water first time round rather than anti-freeze as when the polished pipes arrive I need to drain the system again.

Just as well that it was just water as 1 minute after I had filled the radiator I could hear water dripping. Turns out there are drain plugs either side of the engine block that needed closing. Didn't see them there before. So they were refastened and the radiator refilled and then we were ready to try.

So it was last Monday that I turned the key for the first time, the engine turned over but would not start. It was at this point that I realised that I had forgotten to tighten up the fuel lines into the carbs. Consequently fuel seeped out all along the rocker covers and stripped the paint off. Need to get John to have them repainted. So I tightened them up and tried again and again but still no joy.It was late, so I called it a day.

I recharged the battery overnight for testing again on the Tuesday. I'd asked in the newsgroup what could have been wrong that stopped the thing from starting. Tuesday night I checked that the plugs were sparking OK and that fuel was getting to the carbs. Also checked that the plugs weren't getting wet and everything checked out OK.

The other thing that had been suggested was that the timing could be 180 degrees out (it's actually 360 degrees on a V8). I was certain that this was not the case as piston #1 was TDC when the timing on the crank indicated it should be. Anyway, I removed the distributor and turned the engine over 360 degrees, replaced the dizzy and tried again. This time I got even less from the engine. So removed the dizzy, turned the engine 360 degrees and replaced the dizzy.

Back to square one.

Tried the engine again for the last time on Tuesday night and something had changed because the engine sounded like it was even closer to starting this time. So I called it enough for one night, again it was getting late, and thought about what was happening. I could only put this down to the fact that the timing was out. Not having any special tools to set this (such as a strobe light) this was all down to guesswork.

I read my Haynes manual again on the Wednesday and studied the static timing pages over and over. Eventually the penny seemed to drop and looking at the inside of the dizzy there are some crude timing marks that can be used to set the timing. When I got home on Wednesday night I stripped the top of the dizzy apart to check that I could see these marks. Although slightly different from what was shown in the book, due to the fact that the dizzy I have is newer, the marks were there - at least what I thought were the marks.

So I slackened the clamping bracket positioned the engine 6 degrees BTDC and rotated the dizzy so that the timing marks were where they should be. Then tightened the clamping bracket and turned the key.

ROOOOAAAAAARRRRRR

The engine roared into life. Turns out that it was just the timing that was out. I had connected up the oil pressure gauge to check that things were OK but the gauge continued to read zero. So before much more can be done I need to check why the gauge reads zero. I spoke to Bob Findlow again to ask him what reading comes from his gauge and he told me that pretty much straight away he gets a good reading and it slows down when the oil gets hotter.

When I fitted the oil sender unit I was told by Pilgrim that it fits into the pump where the original Rover oil pressure warning light is connected (in conjuction witht the fuel cut off switch). I checked tonight to see if it would fit where the original Rover oil sender is fitted, but it doesn't, so I guess it must be fitted in the right place.

The only thing I can think of is that the oil pump is not primed correctly. What I may need to do is strip down the oil pump, pack it with vaseline, then try to prime it through the distributor mount.