GOOD GRIEF,
Years ago my scimitar se5 manual overdrive, engine was ok but didnt set the world alight,
had a mate who worked at Osselli,s in oxford, who would get the engine sorted at mates rates if i didnt mind waiting, no problem, holding down 3 jobs at the time, meant i was fairly flush,
while they had the engine i did all the suspension with spax and uprated bushes new trunnions etc,
engine pulled taken to them, told them to builld the strongest essex they could within reason,
so rebore new pistons, crank ground and nitrided, blueprinted, lightened and balanced, high flow oil pump,hot cam, steel timing gear, heads ported and flowed and biggest valves you could get in an essex head, topped off with a holley 390 rejetted to suit the engine,
even back then it cost me 3.5k :obut i thought it was the bee,s knees there wasnt a lot cold stay with it on any kind of road , I honestly thought it was the most powerful car you would ever build!
it made 213bhp on the rolling road, fuel consumption was around 12 to 15mpg and it would do just under 20 if was very gentle with it!!
after around 5k the big valves cracked across the seats so the heads had to be repaired, ( not enough meat between the valves owing to the size of them) this turned out to be a fairly regular occurence(twice in two years) and eventually i sold it to another enthusiat!
The point of the story is Lozz you have just built a cheaper more economical, probably faster scimitar!!
nice one mate!!