Ha, yes, that head looks far too nice and shiny to put in my grubby motor!
Another frustratingly slow day today. No pics cos I left my camera at the garage.
Got all the ancilaries on like fan, alternator, fuel pipes, oil feed, dissy etc and gave it a test fire without the water plumbed in. First go was a bit disappointing with lots of pops bangs farts and smoke coming from the wrong places. Then I worked out I'd set the ignition timing all wrong. Second try and I got it running sort of ok but not idling properly. It sounded good when I gave it about 2500rpm but was either too rich or too lean. Plugs looked a bit wet so will try reseting the carb.
I'm not sure the oil is going round like it should. There was plenty going all over the place when it was backfiring but the tops of the rockers didn't seem to be squirting like I'd expect. Any clues on how to test this. When I was turning it over on the starter with the plugs out nothing much came out of feed to the head.
At one point there seemed to be smoke coming from the thermostat housing so hope the manic backfiring didn't damage the head gasket. Will fit rad and water tomorrow and see how it goes. Looks like the timing and carbs will need a fair bit of tinkering to get it running nicely....
Anyway I think I'm happy now....off for a well earned pint but I feel buggered. I'll probably nod off in the pub