eu-fucking-rika!

Christine breathes fire at last

Well dear reader, the reason she runs badly isn't due to: 

timing,  the cam, an ignition fault, a bad earth, petrol vent, bad plug, carb blockage, coil, plug leads, et al. 

Its due to the pratt who didn't adjust the pushrods properly.

'With the tappet at it's lowest position, adjust the pushod to the point where it has no "up/down" play...but you can still spin it between two fingers. It's OK if you have a slight amount of drag when spinning...but you have to be able to spin it.'

Does "no up/down play" include that of the compressing spring? or should that spring compression not be taken into consideration?

That spring should be compressed so that the solid adapter is fully seated in the tappet. Then as the engine warms up and the cylinders grow allowing valve lash the spring is supposed to take up the lash resulting in a quieter engine.

I didn't compress the spring so the rods were running loose and not opening the valves. 

The revelation came to me yesterday and I realized it just had to be the pushrod adjustment. 

So dudes, feel free to take the fucking piss...

Ps.

As soon as it seemed she was firing properly, I gunned her down the road. She's got long legs with that 25T trans sprocket and we barely needed 4th gear on the back roads - an absolute pleasure.