The Spark and the Flame

By two o'clock in the afternoon, the reassembly had turned into a battle of inches.

Taking the engine apart had felt like orderly demolition; putting it back together exposed every lazy shortcut Bench Three had taken during the morning.

First, they couldn't find the copper-clad cylinder head gasket. After five minutes of frantic searching under the stands, George found it sitting flat beneath their empty parts tray, coated in gray graphite dust.

Then Andrew fitted the water pump bracket backward, blocking the oil feed union by half an inch. They had to pull two studs, rotate the bracket, and re-torque the nuts.

Then Samuel tried to thread the carburetor intake pipe into place before the fuel filter line was set, wedging the brass nut so tight between the cylinders that Benjamin had to spend ten minutes working it loose with a thin tappet wrench.