Some progress has been made, and big thanks to Garry and Owen for their help
Well, bright and early on Monday we gathered at the lock-up, boy was it cold
1st task, get the engine/gearbox into the subframe. it was surprisingly light to lift between 3 of us. And with a bit of jiggling and it was on all 4 mounts
Next up, swap over to the hybrid driveshafts. Hubs back of, and soon had the outer CV joints swapped over and back in the hubs. then the shafts where mated to the gearbox and all was going well. It was then the 1st of my mistakes was discovered. When trying to refit the hubs, the bottom balljoints wouldn't go through the bottom arms properly. Turns out the the bottom arms are handed, and i had them in the wrong sides :oops: . Driveshafts back out and they where soon swapped over and the hubs bolted back up
Next up was wiring in the starter motor. With a bit of routing and drilling out a connector to go over the starter it was all connected up and we could turn the engine over
Then out with the old pedal box so that we could fit the modified clutch pedal to work with the Vauxhall clutch cable. That was a pain getting that out , but it was soon converted. With the old clutch master cylinder gone and base plate removed, we could grind off the bulkhead steady mount (clashed with the inlet manifold).
The exhaust manifold could then be trial fitted (once the old gear linkage was removed).
we then played with the front end as it was getting dark and cold(er). It needed some metal removing around the driverside headlamp to clear the thermostat outlet, and it there was good scope to make enough clearance to get the rad infront of the manifold and pretty centrally.
It was then time to call it a day.
we regrouped at the lock-up at a slightly more sociable hour (but still no warmer
) where i had some bad news. Something had been bugging me over the night and then i realised what it was. One of the top arms needed to come out as one of the end washers had dropped out of the subframe when i first fitted it and i had forgotten all about it :oops: Luckily Owen didn't think that the engine would need to come all the way out and by the end of the morning, we where back where we started the day.
Next up was giving the gearlinkage some more room. Which sadly meant cutting into my allspeed bulkhead box. The engine in Pootle is sat about 1 1/2" lower than in an allspeed frame. So out with the grinder and jobs a good'n. With the gearlinkage and the allspeed mount bolted up, i could put a couple of tack welds to hold it in place and Owen could then set up the gears. So i now have 5 (+ reverse) selectable gears
Then it was time to get the pedal box back in. after a fair bit of discomfort and struggling, that was in so a hole was cut into the bulkhead and the cable fed through and connected up. So i now have a working clutch as well!
The throttle pedal was next to come out to allow the cables hole in the bulkhead to be enlarged to take the vauxhal cable.
The final job of the day was to remove some metal from the front end, so back out with the grinder. with the headlamp panel trimmed and the grill area cut back, the front was refitted. Loads of room for the thermostat housing/ rad hose and the rad can sit well forward as well.
Then it was time for some pictures (forgot the camera on Monday)
Some progress made on Firday, mounted the original mini starter solinoid up in the weber box (using it as a junction box now) and rerouted the wires, then measured up my new front brake lines and what fuel hoses i needed. ended up
spending £200 at merlins getting it all sorted out
Bit more progress yesterday
First of fitted up the new brake lines and mounted the T piece up in the weber box. Will need to add an additional copper washer on the banjo that connects onto the pressure limiter thingy (and it is still a little lose when the union is fully tightened) and a couple of gromits needed, but all in all it worked pretty well.
Then decided to drop the inlet manifold on to start to see how it will all fit together. What a pain that was to get on. Had to re-shape both the brake lines that come out of the master cylinder. but its on now (for the minute anyway)
Then refitted the exhaust manifold to check clearance with the rad. It didn't
but part of a rad hose taken from stock (prob ex MGF) did the job and with a couple of trims, the rad is sitting nice at the stat end
Needs a tiny bit more clearance on the front end, but that is easily sorted
Then it was time to make a start on the fuel system. Worked out early on that i had ordered 1 part the wrong size, but started what i could. Made 1 small error when i decided to add the T into the low pressure pump inlet side (with out all of the outlets on the swirlpot being connected) and puddle of petrol was my prize :oops: , but we are getting their
and a pic of the gear linkage all mounted and connected
), but the hunger for fuel meant i could only do local trackdays, and i could do with a car that to use every day that will be mid 40s MPG (my Cooper Si only manages mid 30's and i do 60 miles a day, so it adds up) and it will mean that my Cooper Si can be kept nice in the garage and come out for nice days, shows and weekends 
