Bearing up

Gawd, i wish I'd taken the early advice of a forum member who said on day 1 that my problem was big end bearings. At the time, that was the worst possible news for me and I was desperately hoping for a simpler solution. As it is, changing the bearings is far simpler than I'd expected....

I've sort of done all 4 now - this is what they looked like (cylinder 1 on the left, no. 4 on the right):

Weird how cylinder 1 is so bad and the others just have a slight mark down the centre (not sure if that is normal or the start of a problem?).

Anyway, taking them out and replacing took no more than 30 minutes going slowly. The only problem is one that has plagued me since day 1 of my build - bolts! Those cap bolts are stretch bolts which are one use only, so I've had to order new ones from Ford (the only place to get them) - going to take a few days to arrive so I can't rebuild the bottom end until then.

Once they arrive, i can re-do the timing. I'm going to take the cams out, take them to a garage and ask them to use their air wrench to loosen the sprockets. I should be able to do the timing properly then.

Annoyingly, I've had to cancel a weekend trip to France on the 22nd because i can't be sure I'll be done by then. I've got a handling day on Oct 5th which I'm desperate to get to...better be or I'm going to have to do a John Cleese on Zedster!