First engine in the gemini

It sounds a bit weird, but yes - the first engine is in the gemini. As I I’ve mentioned before, I bought a second engine for the gemini on the cheap, and that’s the first one going in so I can set up the EFI and all the other things I’m putting onto the good engine. This means that when it doesn’t start first go, and everything’s slightly out of whack, it doesn’t cause problems on the engine and do horrible things to it.

So I drove up to Madhatter’s house at Mount Tamborine today, nearly boiling the pimpmobile’s engine, but that was fine. Not long later, it was down the mountain again, with Madhatter sitting beside me and the giant yellow engine crane of doom in the back. Up to the workshop, engine crane out, various gubbins out and time to lift up the engine and drop it in. Ok, so the first time we tried, the boom wasn’t far enough out, and MH had picked up the engine backwards (yes, I should have noticed too, but he’s the professional, so it’s his fault!) but after fixing those problems, it was a case of lift, move over the bay, then drop it onto the mounts, basically straight on and done in one go.

There was much rejoicing, having the engine in is a big step on the way to getting it running. I slid the injection manifold onto the intake side of the engine to see how it goes, and by how much the intake runner studs are. They are WAY too short, so it’ll be off to the bolt company on monday to try and get some that’ll suit. I’m definitely going to have to paint the plenum a different colour, the red that’s on it now is super-ugly.

Tomorrow, I’ll be off to supa-cheap to try and find some cabling to start doing the loom with - it’ll probably go through an evolution or two, but I’ll at least be able to plan what I have to wire up, and where things will go. I’ll probably also put the 2″ exhaust on the car, since I’ve been meaning to do it for ages, and start working out where the fuel lines and so forth go. If I get over-zealous, I might even put one of the flywheels on the engine, and try to get the gearbox under the car - something I should have done BEFORE the engine went in, but meh. That’s pretty usual for me, and there’s plenty of room to jack the car up anyway.



#Gemini