Day 28 - Engine first start

So now all of the engine components have been reinstalled and connected up, its time to hook up a new battery and reinstall the fuel tank and try and fire up the engine. Not forgetting to first fill it up with Engine oil and coolant. 

Here's a video of the whole first start process...

It didn't really go as I had initially hoped but the end result was good. My thoughts on the engine being too tight were correct as initially I had killed the battery just by trying to turn the engine over 3 / 4 times. That was a brand new battery too so I know the engine was way too tight at this point.

After connecting it to the car battery and jump starting it, it took a good number of attempts to get it to fire up, but even though it fired up it didn't want to stay running until a number of attempts later.

I had a couple of theories as to why it took so long to start:

 - The engine was too tight and it took a while for the bearings to loosen themselves up and for the engine oil to start creating a film between the main bearings. The moly grease I used may have also contributed to the tightness of the engine.

- When I first removed the carburettor, I had only drained 1 carb of the fuel and I left 3 of the carbs full of fuel. This may have caused the engine to initially start running on just 3 cylinders until the engine had turned enough times for the 4th carb to refill with fuel - although I may be wrong on this one.

The good news is it eventually started and ran! My attention was immediately drawn to the exhaust leak that was evident from the nasty tapping sound. Thankfully this was nothing serious and was due to the blanking plates I had made up to block off the pair valve holes on the exhaust side - they weren't creating a perfect seal so I used some exhaust putty to properly seal these up.

I also discovered after fixing the exhaust leak I also had an oil leak! It appears initially to be coming from the oil sump! Not good but thankfully not coming from where I had sealed the 2 crankcase halves together - that would have been bad - at least the sump can come off without having to remove the engine. More diagnostics tomorrow...