The TR4 engine expressly acquired for the rally was stripped down and inspected. Unfortunately when Pete Burgess examined the cylinder head it proved to be cracked. Disaster! Good TR4 heads being like gold dust Pete suggested Peter Cox at Moss might take pity on us. Which he duly did. After a false start and much scouring of Moss warehouses throughout the UK a “virgin pre-owned” head was found, and passed to Chris Conoley for fettling (having had  a practice run on the previous one!)

The following advice was received from an oil industry fuels expert whom the Driver contacted regarding the feasibility of simulating the effect of low octane petrol on the Mog's rally engine.  Needless to say, the advice is not warranted in any sense.  Any decision to attempt any of these simulations is entirely at your own risk: if your engine explodes, destroys your car, badly singes your antique tea-cosy collection and causes your pet hamster to take a nasty turn, do not come running to us.  You have been warned.

"I would not drop the compression ratio below 8.0:1 as the performance of the engine will be very degraded. From recollection Land Rover typically set compression ratio's around 8.0:1 for this kind of use. Of course if you run into pinking problems you can always retard the ignition timing. It is also important to ensure that you maintain a squish zone around the top of the piston when you lower the compression otherwise light load engine operation will be poor due to the lack of turbulence in the combustion chamber. I would set the distributor up such that it is easy to adjust the timing. Not sure if you are running electronic ignition but it might be worth investing in a system that allows easy timing adjustments on the move if you run into knock.

The following is an edited version of the second of two mails that The Driver received from Adrian van der Kroft on the subject of Morgan Rally preparation.  The advice is reproduced here with his kind permission.

The following is an edited version of the first of two mails that The Driver received from Adrian van der Kroft on the subject of Morgan Rally preparation.  The advice is reproduced here with his kind permission. A post discussing which of Adrian's suggestions we plan to adopt will, hopefully, follow next week.