Spend too long at sea and you start to dream up all sorts of stuff.

Case in point - the starter motor shaft bush. Contrary to my musings, there is a bush in the housing and all my twaddle about a threaded pin was just that - wishful thinking (though it wasn't a bad idea).

I had a look at another crankcase and it appeared that the bush was flanged on the clutch side of the case making its removal a complete pain. I referred to the manual and apparently the early engines don't have the flange and the bush can be removed without taking the gearbox and bellhousing off. You may recall that I had to swap the block after discovering a 9" crack in the water jacket so I'm not sure if the new block is an early or late type.

As I and my fellow Magneteer left the Giant 7 bound for Schiphol and home, we thought we'd seen the last of it but as soon as we got to shore, the company wanted to keep us back for 24 hours, just in case we were needed to magnetise a short piece of cable that was being pulled up from sea storage by another ship, the Ndeavour. They sent me back to the Giant to get our gear off and onto a CTV ready to take us out at 5:30 the next morning. When you're in 'going home' mode, this is the last thing you want.

I managed to get a shot of the Giant's crane - truly massive - and later that night was pleased to hear that we were stood down and could go home.

The next morning, Counsel and I set off to The Great Collector's emporium where we were scheduled to remove the cylinder head from his Mk VI Bentley. We were pleasantly distracted in our work by the arrival of this rare and very pretty Vauxhall.

A 6-cylinder engine gave it a published top speed of 70mph in its day. But back to the Bentley's head.

These are notoriously difficult to get off - usually the alloy cylinder head has welded itself to the studs and can take weeks of soaking and persuasion before it moves only just enough to keep you interested.

We were lucky. To our great relief, once the manifolds and rocker gear were removed, this one came off in a little less than 10 minutes. The reason for its removal was a cooling problem and sure enough, a couple of the small waterways around the edges of the block and head were completely blocked and the rest were on the way to closing up. Whether their relief will cure the over-heating remains to be seen.

I've been thinking about that starter motor bush and have dreamt up a scheme. If my block is a late type and the bush is flanged, I could bore out the worn part, turn up a new one and pop it in the case with some bearing-lock - can't see anything wrong with that.