A few weeks ago I finally got the car started. It was a very exciting and rewarding moment. I had a friend swing by and help me reinstall the distributor and get it timed correctly. Initially we were having difficulty getting it to start. We could hear the starter turning over but it just wasn’t catching. Eventually, after much googling and searching of the E-9 Coupe forum, discovered that our problem was that the distributor was timed 180 degrees off. Once we fixed this, it fired right up.
Link to youtube video showing its very fist start:
Initially, it puffed vast amounts of Marvel Mystery oil out the back-end, shrouding what seemed like my entire block in white smoke. However, after a few minutes the smoke went away and all the was left was a beautiful purring engine. We let it run for a short little while then took to the job of timing it properly. This task tends to make one a little nervous as you must get your face uncomfortably close to the fan blade to actually see the marking on the front end of the cylinder block. Nonetheless, it was timed properly and has been running wonderfully ever since.
Link to youtube video showing the timing process after the engine had heated up to normal operating temperature:
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