Starting the engine.

After all of this, it was time to crank the engine.  The whole week was leading up to this and it was a BIG moment for me, getting in behind the steering wheel, placing my hand on the steering wheel and grabbing the key in the ignition.  I knew this was coming and felt a little nervous, excited and a whole lot of other emotions all at once.  I started an audio recording that I shared above this paragraph, so if you have headphones or ear buds, please put them on/in and crank up the volume.  The “lingo” is mostly an Afrikaans mix with English words but it has a happy ending with the engine doing most of the talking towards the end.  (Sorry, no subtitles available unfortunately, LOL)  I turned the key, waking up the 351-cubic inches (5.8-litre), V8-cylinder, Cleveland engine for the first time in roughly 24 years.  She was reluctant at first, but after adjusting a couple of things on the carburettor (a single section that I skillfully removed from the recording) she fired up from her “slumber”.  I cannot begin to describe the cocktail of emotions that filled my body and had to fight back the tears at times, just listening and soaking up the moment.  She was running and the “horses” sounded remarkably well taking into account the time that lapsed and all the other things that could have gone wrong.  My dad made some more adjustments on the carburettor, and we will need to tweak a thing or too later.  The automatic choke needed some adjustment as well, but we only have a limited time to do that, starting the engine cold and waiting for her to warm up.  (Yes, this engine is most certainly a “her” and I have an idea for her name too, but will share that later.)  We tested some other things as well, like trying the gears to hear if the gearbox is scratchy (which it wasn’t) and then the brakes…  Oh dear, the brake pedal is very “spongy”, something is most certainly wrong and even after bleeding them again, they are not much better.  My dad did a lot of work on the brakes in the past month and he also had parts reconditioned, but somewhere or something is (to use a technical term) “funky”.  This is potentially a BIG problem, but one we will need to look at tomorrow.  We almost burned through the entire 10-litre jerrycan of fuel and the day was drawing to a close.