Spitfire Ramblings

With the points opened out again the Spitfire has gained that lost power again, however it has started pinking and over-running again, it certainly seems the distributor and timing might need checking and perhaps the springs inside replacing.

Good 'ol fleabay has turned up a few good items for me recently with a original box of Payen manifold gaskets for the GT6. In the box were nine quality gaskets, bought for the cost of two mediocre quality ones.
Delivered in the post today, via eBay, was a second-hand 4-1 exhaust manifold for the Spitfire. It’s a pretty nasty thing really as the bends in the pipes have been crush bent and the collectors are poorly made. Despite this, it should be an improvement on the very difficult to seal original manifold and is £60 cheaper than new.
So the first job of the weekend will be to thoroughly check the new manifold for and cracks, flat off the jointing faces and then give it a quick coat of high temperature paint. After that I shall have a go at fitting it, it's best done sooner than later as the current exhaust is blowing by.

I now have a set of high and low pressure pipes to run between the metering unit in the engine bay and the fuel pump in the boot. The pipes have come from a Triumph 2500 PI estate so should be plenty long enough. In the last week I have also managed to get a length of high pressure fuel hose to cut to length and then fit to the ends to make up the pipes between the metering unit.