Hello all - 2 years on and still battling problem. Must have spent hundreds of hours and definitely thousands of pounds trying to sort. Am a little desperate now. As a reminder, it’s a 5mb 2.3 petrol from early ninety. Starting is slow (cranks over a fair amount before starting) and has a horrendous grinding which appears to be kickback (I.e. the engine momentarily turning the wrong direction before violently correcting) - I assume caused by preignition. Once running, it’s the sweetest 2.25 you’ve ever heard. Timing is TDC (am confident this isn’t an over advance kickback) - checked 100s if times with strobe. battery is new, Weber carb is new, distributor is new powerspark electronic, uprated new coil, new leads, new sparks And new starter. I’ve had the electronic ignition module replaced to no avail. I don’t think it’s distributor because it runs so well once going and module has been replaced. I don’t think it’s starter or ring gear as turnover perfectly with ignition disconnected. Where I am at now is either (1) voltage fluctuations at cranking when battery under cranking load causing the coils field to discharge a early spark - I’ve seen on a multimeter this drop to 10.4 but that should be enough for the Dizzy to work as normal. Powerspark thinks it only needs 6v. The evidence to support that theory is that the few times it hasn’t done this was when the battery was used for the first ever time and after plugged into a trickle charger. But it’s not happened enough to be conclusive. The wiring and alternator is the only part of the system not new so that could also point to a voltage drop issue. (2) second possibility is air leak or lean condition - this supports the slow to start observations and might fit with it being fine once all running. I understand (largely from reading airplane engine forums) that a lean fuel mixture is notoriously unstable and can pre-ignite especially with new low octane fuel. If you can help me I’d be really grateful. It’s such a lovely car but every time I go to start it, it must be doing terrible damage to the internals of the engine. Thank you. Tom (desperate).