Fingers (and toes) crossed.

[Dikappa]

Good news! and interesting reading!

[davidwheeler]

Congratulations! Might performance improve during running in?

Probably won't make that much difference as the engine is not tight having been run in before.    The low gearing meant she would accelerate up a 1 in 7 hill in top gear but I'm prepared to put up with a little less of that in exchange for a higher cruising speed.

[davidwheeler]

Things are never straightforward with a Lambda.  Alas, woil!    Testing revealed a leak in the front left cylinder so I took off the head and there was a pinhole or two between the edge of the front of the liner and the block.   There had been a lot of corrosion here.  The groove is where I had been picking at it to try to find the hole.   The problem was compounded by an error in the gasket of which more anon.

[davidwheeler]

I took the engine back to Nick and he has built up the iron liner with copper/nickel (it is not possible to spray iron) and sealed all the holes.  I  went down yesterday to pick it up.    Nick also showed me his lab where he is finding out what can be done with cold metal spraying.  He even has a computer controlled nozzle implying he can do metal printing.   I did not have a camera alas.   He is working on all sorts of things including parts for a satellite.
On the way home, went into Dobson's gasket in Keighly with block and head and talked to David (who makes the gaskets) and their CAD guy and I think we have now got the head gasket properly sorted - see Technical thread for details.