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Looks like too much timing on the Calais plugs burning all the way to the earth strap weld

Plugs are hard to photograph with phones. This should show the heat line a bit better.

Yeah that looks better lol

It certainly feels happy enough with no hint of knock retard on boost except when traction control kicks in...

Not bad considering it's not cooled or cam'd and running a 3.2" pulley. I do only rev it 5000rpm with those old valve spri ngs.

A little progress today, we got the spa pool close to it's final position using a couple of lengths of electrical conduit and a length of 90mm drain pipe to manoeuvre it onto the paving. Next job is to get a couple of my boys gym mates to lift the pool over the wiring coming up through the paving.

nice

just waiting on my sparky mate to come and wire up the pool so it's time to start focusing on business in the garage.

First order of business was to clean up 5+ years of crap which we got done over the last few day, finally a bit of room to work.

So first job on the list was to strip and clean my alternator which was simple enough but now it's time to prep the alloy body and get rid of that alloy tarnish. Unfortunately I can't remember what the trick was to clean up cast alloy and get it looking like new? I know it was mentioned somewhere in a thread on here but I can't find it.

Last week my new water pump and race spec balancer arrived, I'll probably pull off the timing cover for cleaning and painting and whilst it's off I'll fit a new double row timing chain, block off the chain oiler and redirect the oil bleed hole on the cam retainer bolt onto the oil pump drive bush.

Took the old girl for a ride up to Whangarei yesterday. Drove well except for the trans. Really not sure what is going on there and whether it's a converter issue or trans slip? 3rd gear is really poor with moderate to high throttle settings. I have added more line pressure this morning to see if that makes a difference but not sure If I'll be able to test it properly around here. On the way home I took SH16, what a excellent bit of road when dry, barely a straight bit of road, lots of sharp corners and lots of hills, got stuck behind a couple of slow vehicles but just blew straight past when space allowed, 2nd gear accelerates like a rocket

Shoulder surgery is in just over 2 weeks. Best case 3 weeks off work, worst case 12 weeks and lots of rehab, somehow I know it's not going to be a best case scenario deal but here's hoping. Really hoping once all is said and done I'll have a properly working shoulder again and can get stuck into a lot jobs that need doing.

Added line pressure and 2nd gear acceleration is great but 3rd gear, low rpm and moderate load feels like trans slip

Calais just passed 22900km this week and with shoulder surgery on Monday I thought I'd get that item ticked off the list. Decided to change oils, I've been running Fuchs 15w-40 semi synthetic for years and I'm sure it works well but the it's getting on in age so I thought I'd try something different this time. Decided to go with Penrite 15w-40 premium mineral full zinc diesel oil. Engine is purring like a kitten again, it'll be interesting to see if the full zinc makes any difference.

I think I'll also move up the 3rd gear shift points so it doesn't load up as much under low rpm and save that 3rd clutch pack from to much high load low rpm abuse.