Thankfully for Mrs. Whitehouse's descendants there is no record of the replacements of either the front screen (it cracked - a defect at the bonded rear mirror clip), or the rear screen (just a right fecking PITA) that required the use of a ladder, a ratchet strap, lots of lubrication and several 'periods of personal reflection'. By far the worst Porsche job so far. But the replacement front screen and the rear both went in eventually, and none of the chrome trim 'popped out' to add to my joy.
And so to the engine.....
As with my swb engine I decided I wanted to be sure it would run well, and be basically timed and tuned before I fitted it in the car, so after a couple of months playing the 'short, fat girl in the playground' with a local racing outfit that promised a dyno run closer and cheaper, but never got close to delivering because there were always better, prettier (and richer) girls to play with, I went back to a man I both know and trust from my swb, one Mr. N. Bainbridge.
Neil was as usual a gent to deal with, fitted me into his schedule, and one fine day in July I think it was I put the engine in the Discovery and went for a sunny day in the Oxfordshire countryside.
After a bit of rigging up, a coffee, and some preparation we went for main engine start ...
Well it started (eventually), and ran like a 80 a day man - farting and coughing and spluttering. I bit of timing adjustment helped, but still crap. Neil then starts to balance the carbs, and adjusts the front right mixture screw. Opens it a half turn, and ping, of it goes across the room. It had been holding on to the last few threads, but now these were gone. When I refitted them I just pushed in against the screw and turned to lock with a screwdriver, so I hadn't found there were only a couple of threads left at the bottom. Another on the other side was about as bad. Another reason the car had run poorly, but not found by me.
Butter! Good job I had bought a spare set of Zeniths back in 2014 from another DDK'er just in case, eh. So I set to work at Neil's stripping, cleaning and changing over the bodies. In the process I find that not one, but two, of the air correction screws have been bodged. Someone had ended up with the 'needle' end snapped off, or corroded into, the seat, but rather that address this, they had just refitted the rest of the screw. So you could screw the needle in and out, but actually the hole was blocked at all times. Great! so they were u/s as well. Neil then finds a couple of spares in his stash, and I try to get a couple of good ones out of this lot, but no joy. His had a similar mixture screw issue on the same side carb body, so we are snookered. Conference called, and I decide PMO's are the (expensive) answer.
Placed on order and I leave the engine with Neil till they come and I return from holiday .
Roll forward a few weeks, PMO's arrive, I go back, refit and away we go for round 2
They really are 'plug and play'. We were off and running smooth as you like straight away. Minimal tweaking of balance, mixture and timing and we are into a bit of run-in then some power runs.
End result from a stock 2.2T, with SSI's and PMO's - 150bhp @ 6250rpm, 140ft-lb @ 4800rpm, and a really lovely flat torque curve from 2500 rpm (it's at 130ft-lb @ 3000rpm).
One oil leak, quickly resolved (twonk engine builder didn't tighten one of the oil pipe unions)
Meanwhile back at the rebuild centre .....
