It's alive!

["Brian Shorey" <bshorey@domain.elided>]

Got Mortimer the Berlina fired up today.

Had to install a Spica pump, the one that had been on the car is somewhere
in Oregon.  Talked to the guy who built the car, he told me that I should
rebuild the motor because they found gas in the sump.  Well, I always
thought that indicated a problem with the Spica pump, and therefore there's
a chance that the motor is ok.

So, today the esteemed Andy Kress stopped by to help put things together.
Andy went with me to retrieve the car, so he certainly deserved the honors
of slaving around under the hood in hopes that we could get it running.

We selected a random Spica pump from the loft, known to be ok, and from a
'74 Spider.  Earlier this morning I had gone through the Spica notes, and
found a reference from Joe Benson regarding adjustment of the barometric
rack to provide more output on high performance motors.  The guy that
originally built the car told me that they were never happy with the high
end, felt like the next addition would have been an Ingram pump (I'll do
that too, but probably when I tear everything apart to freshen up the
motor).  For now, I'm hoping this Benson mod will do.

Anyhow, we ended up pulling the radiator to make turning the motor easier,
got the pump and belt installed, then selected a random TA (tested by
placing in front of the kerosene space heater to see it anything protruded)
and installed that.  Took a while to get everything bolted back together,
but eventually it seemed like the time was right to give it a try.

Turns out we missed one wire to the starter, once we got that connected and
figured out the push button ignition switch, it surprised us by firing up!

The motor sounds pretty good, real beefy.  Sperry stage 5 I'm told.

At this point the list of things to do is getting quite small.  I still need
to bleed the brakes, probably repack wheel bearings, put the front grill
back together, and get some decent tires.  I also snapped off one of the
studs for the TA, and one of the cam cover studs is stripped out of the cam
holder.  Right now though it's looking real good for Lime Rock in late
April.

bs

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