In early June of 2013 I began the process of installing the engine and gearbox although it would be several weeks later in late July 2013 before I was ready to run it and perform the 20 minute cam break in.

The meter in the picture above is to verify that I had a good ground connection between the engine and the chassis. There are a lot of layers and a lot of paint at this point so it was a good item to test. I later added an additional ground strap between the tub and the gearbox/engine bolts.

With some weight on the front end I also used this opportunity to install the front shock absorbers and bump stops, a task that was a challenge to do without having the engine weight to allow the suspension to compress using the floor jack.

I continue to add the external engine components and radiator and get the engine ready to start. I bypassed the heater with a length of heater hose, fed the fuel pump using a hose shoved into a gas can. I rigged up enough electrics to allow the starter to spin and to provide power to the coil. Since the coolant temperature and oil pressure gauges both require tubing connections to the engine I made up a small instrument panel and clamped it to the engine.

On a day near the end of July 2013 I spread out a large blue tarp in case of major oil leaks, made sure a fire extinguisher and hose pipe were handy and stood a large fan in front of the radiator for additional cooling. I removed the spark plugs and cranked the engine until I saw oil pressure on the gauge. After refitting the spark plugs and priming the carbs using the lever on the fuel pump the engine started as soon as I pressed the button on the solenoid and I ran the engine at 2000 rpm for 20 mins.

I recorded that event in this video.

TR3A Engine First Startup from Stan Foster on Vimeo.

I found a couple of small leaks that I later had to fix but overall a very pleasing milestone in this project.