Hamish, What's happening? Regards, Michael.

Some progress, finally got a correct master cylinder pushrod, so both master cylinders finally installed and bled, clutch seems to work. Did the timing chain, actually only wanted to do the seal, but the whole kit was cheap and the chain was a bit worn as was the tensioner. Although I know that the repro chains and tensioners aren't the highest quality. While tightening the pulley nut up, I can say that the clutch can hold about 95nm, after which it slips, but that's okay as the engine only develops 53. New distributor installed, fuel system completed, 2 litres of Tesco's finest in the tank and it runs... Although, new exhaust is rather loud and I can't get the downpipe gasket to seal.  Disconcertingly, there seems to be a strange metallic rattle and occasionally it will backfire through the carburettor. I've tried fiddling with the timing but that only seems to make it worse. Might switch back to the old distributor and see if the symptoms go away. Good news is that fuel pump definitely pumps fuel, engine starts and idles better than it ever has before... Radiator is now refitted, all that is left are the new hoses and tyres, then I can drive it - assuming I can solve aforementioned rattle and backfire. The rattle seems to come from manifold area, doesn't seem to be timing chain or valve train according to my stethoscope (screwdriver)... Ideas?  

It’s Schroedingers bowl, it’s broken even though it looks whole….

Thanks Nick, I'm fairly pleased with the result. Three coats from a rattle can, colour is not quite as dark or deep as the rest of the car but doesn't look too bad. Which is a massive relief after the hours it's taken! Now just need to get the windscreen and door back on, parcel shelf, yadda yadda. Busy couple of evenings required to be ready to leave Wednesday night for Combe on Thurs.

I heard it on a podcast the other week and had to look it up! Not part of my normal vocabulary until now

Ahh...  Magic wand time  Or a Tardis

Oh….. oh dear…..

Alternative meaning? Something dodgy . Or simple accent/pronunciation dispute?

JC is alive   Long time, no hear! Hope all is good in your world? Returning to the original problem; many changes have been made without much impact. Suggests the underlying issue has not been touched yet - so flow obstruction within the block/ head themselves seem like a possibility. I’m still not clear whether this is “runs scary hot while creeping in traffic” and cools down on the open road, or whether it heats up when going at speed or whether it just runs hot all the time?  Please clarify! As regards pump speed, these pumps can only be described as crude, with very basic impeller design. This means their efficient speed range might not be all that wide. However, so long as it runs fast enough at idle to give adequate flow (see overheats when creeping in traffic), realistically you are probably not going to be over speeding it enough to cause cavitation and flow-loss in normal road use, not for long enough periods to matter anyway.  This can certainly be an issue on the race track where high rpms and loads are maintained and some racers do run larger pump pulleys to help this.     ISTR a discussion on this years ago started by @GT6Steve, one of the rpm kings,  which also explored the possibility of using a more sophisticated (looking) impeller from a tractor in the quest to improve usable rev range. Not sure that went anywhere in the end. Edit: Found it. Some pics missing  Possibly not entirely relevant but a great read anyway!