The car has now completed its first show season, including a trip to Paington and Ford Fair as well as several local shows, with the V8 fitted. To say  that I have been pleased with the result would be an understatement. Not  only  does the car now sound fantastic but once you are cruising on a long journey it is quiet and relaxed. Loud exhausts are fine for short distances but over any  distance they can give you a thumping headache. That said you only have to touch the accelerator to get that wonderful V8 growl.

I have had a few teething problems,  listed below, but in general the car has been very  reliable.

The first problem I had was that I could not disengage the clutch. This turned out to be the release bearing being too short. I therefore had to remove the gearbox and replace it with a slightly longer bearing carrier.

I then discovered that the electric fans would run even at speed and so I replaced the solid grill with the original item. This solved the problem but meant that I had to reposition the fan relays behind a headlight as they failed after the rather damp trip  to Paington. The grill has now been replaced by a Mark II grill.

The biggest problem that I found was that the K&N air filters caused the mixture to go weak as the throttle was opened causing poor acceleration. This meant that I had to either change the needles or find a different carb. A find on ebay was the solution.. I am currently fitting a Holley 390 carb and offenhauser 360 inlet manifold finished off with a 14” x 2” air filter. It also means that the strut brace I bought at Ford fair will now fit.

Fitted the new carb and manifold today. Engine started straight away and sounds better that ever. Looks better too. A few more details to sort out and then we can find out the effect on the cars performance.