Woops, dont like the sound of that Dave. That head you have designed and constructed is certainly rather special, but as you say reliability is what is needed now. As you know Angus has built this very exotic, well exotic for a Mini, engine incorporating the original Arden 8 port head that was on the car in 1972. He and Lyn Rogers have spent countless hours welding, fixing,machining, etc etc etc, and here we are dealing with old alloy, which is a problem in itself. The engine, like yours is now putting out DOUBLE it's original horse-power, and with a 13:1+ compression ratio, she is stressed to within an inch of it's life. These things take time and some testing, and I hope you can get a few hours on the track to sort things out. Meantime I might attend some gym classes to get myself fit and able to get behind the wheel!!!!! And Jim, no more cheeky wines for you.