Spent a couple of hours working on the old motor again this weekend, and in doing so made surprisingly good progress. My aim at the moment is to strip the old shell as quckly as possible so that I can free up some working space - I effectively have two cars in the carport at the moment and not that much space around them. If I can remove one shell then I'll have a lot more elbow room and be less likely to lose things...

So, this weekend's work. I started by expecting to spend only an hour or so since it was well after lunch on Sunday when I got going, so only really expected to remove some trim and tidy. Then I got to thinking; just how much work was involved in removing the engine? Normally this would involve a hoist, lots of grunting, some swearing [and perhaps fractured toes], but in the absence of a hoist I decided to drop the engine out through the bottom and lift the body. The body is, believe it or not, easier and lighter to lift than the engine and gearbox combined. So ten nuts and bolts later I had the engine stood on the jack. Then it started to drop [you may recall that the jack is slightly more like blancmange than a jack], so I found some blocks and the front subframe, engine and gearbox are now sitting approximately eight inches off the floor with the body on some stands just above. Hurrah!

More in a couple of weeks, as this coming weekend sees the birthday of one of the small people in my house.