8 Port Number 2

The engine was repaired with new pistons and the gearbox was also rebuilt. On top of this a new Minispares Alloy 8 Port Head was fitted, this has the advantage of improved cooling due to slight changes in the casting and allows the use of unleaded fuel. In the pics below you can see some of the differences between the two heads. The bottom one is the new Minispares version.

8 Port Heads 1 8 Port Heads 2 8 Port Heads 3

This head went well for quite some time, it was fueled by quadruple Amal carbs supplied by Minispares complete with the proper linkage assembly. These are basically motorbike carbs. The only problem was that like the IDA previously they had no choke mechanism and needed to be 'primed' each morning before they would run. This meant turning on the fuel pump, opening the straps on the bonnet, priming each carb by pressing on a small piston in the side of each, then refastening the bonnet, then starting the engine! If it didn't catch (and there was a bit of a 'knack' to it) then you had to do it all again! Seeing as how he was leaving for work at 5.30am each morning Chris soon thought it was too much hassle.

Injection.

Chris came to the conclusion that fuel injection was the way to go. We'd seen articles about fuel injected 8 Ports before, some had used 'home brew' systems using bike throttle bodies, and some people had developed kits for sale. One day I was on the phone with Andy Major (AMT) and he said he'd mapped an 8 Port before and though he could come up with a kit for substantially less money than the others were asking. And he did!

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