Based on experience of friends, press reports, and urban tales I personaly would assume that all engine, clutch or gearbox replacement centres/garages/specialists are crooks. ALL.
Then I would try and find reasons for not assuming that, visit the place, ask for recomendations, search the web, check with trading standards for past complaints etc etc, and then choose the one that comes out as less likely to be a crook.
Just a personal point of view
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As some of you will know, I used to work in 'the trade' some years ago and we used to fit 'reconditioned' engines. Basically if you get a cheap 'recon' engine then it will be a heap of junk. Very often these are bought just to make the car saleable after a major blow-up.
Watch out for some of the big 'replacment engine' centres - basically a 'replacement engine' could be from any source (often they are bought from write-offs). Check out the small print - a 'proper' supplier will specify *exactly* which components are checked & replaced. A lot of the dodgy places will change their name every year etc., to stop a bad reputation hurting business too much.
My suggestion is to have your existing engine rebuilt by a local member of the FER (Federation of Engine Remanufacturers).
For Japanese cars there are outfits that buy-in complete used units from Japan. These can be pretty good actually, but often the ancilliaries fitted to the Jap version are different to the UK version and so it can take a couple of hours of labour to swap all the bits over.
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I nearly had some trouble a few years ago with one of these "recon" (the emphasis being on the "con") engine places. I just wanted the engine on its own, nothing to give back to them, as I was going to a conversion on my car. This wasn't their normal practice, as they usually changed the engine themselves and kept the old engine for themselves. So they seemed unusually uneasy about me wanting this engine, I later found out why!
When I finally got hold of the engine (several weeks late), and got someone to inspect it, they found it was totally knackered, and missing many vital parts to you expect to find. I did managed to return it and get a full refund after many phone calls and some threat of legal action (they were not happy or polite about this!).
It appears they liked to fit the engines themselves so the quality of their engines will be hidden away once fitted. That's if the even bothered to replace the engine in the first place.
A few years later this place appeared on the Rogue Traders TV programme which amused me, though I bet they just changed their names and carried on.
Aprilia does make a good point about rebuilding your existing engine. This is often a better option, as often it mind just need a crank regrind and new bearings or something like that.
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The Ford V6 I bought from a company in somewhere in the uk advertised in Exchange & Mart was junk. It had obviously been removed from a scrap car and just cleaned with Gunk. 'Reconditioned'? Hah! The oil pump was seized. OK, they replaced it but I'd had to fit it, them remove it and fit the second one, which was also clearly not rebuilt or reconned in any way. I traded the car very soon after that and got less for it than I'd paid for the replacement engine!
When I went to what turned out to be a scrap yard to remonstrate and ask for some money back I was offered a good kicking from 4 large, oily blokes if I didn't eff off. I effed off.
I wrote to Trading Standards but absolutely nothing happened. Maybe the TS Officer visited and met the same 4 large, oily blokes and did the effing off thing too.
I still feel stupid for falling for the ad, even after 13 years. A definite learning experience.
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An alternative is to pluck up some courage and do as I did about 15 years ago when finances didn't permit anything else:
Buy a Haynes manual, buy all the bits and pieces (block and rods on exchange basis), pursuade a mate to lend you his garage with tool kit and block & tackle, and then take what turned out to be a hugely satisfying week's holiday from work!
There is nothing like the anxiety of turning the key for the first time giving way to Y E A H as the newly painted, pristine, block warms through for the first time (ah, the aroma!), in turn giving way to thousands of miles of reliable running in the years to follow knowing that YOU installed every last glitch grommit.
As well as thoroughly enjoying the meticulous work in an avenue new to me, I saved over a grand compared to buying a new replacement, and five hundred notes compared to buying a recon engine of unknown quality.
No, I'm not an auto mechanic, although I did study mechanical engineering at College.
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Thank you all for your remarks and advice.
This morning i have taken the bull by the horns and decided to re build the engine my self, i have removed all the ancillary components and tomorrow start on removing the timing belt and then to the seriouse stuff , fingers crossed, i have never done this befor so am glued to the haynes manual whilst working.
cheers folks
martin
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Good man!
Hope it all works out as satisfyingly well for you as it did for me. You will have a few 'moments' along the way where something doesn't make sense, but stay cool, "measure twice and cut once", ask for help when needed, and you'll get there. Good luck.
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so am glued to the Haynes manual whilst working.
Good luck with the rebuild. From experience, don't take *everything* in the Haynes as gospel. Sometimes when they say turn "x" component clockwise, what they actually mean is to turn it anticlockwise. Like all publications, expect the occasional typo.
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Having rebuilt an engine for a 1300cc Talbot Horizon some 15 years ago for the then girlfriend (yes she's still talking to me and is now SWMBO), I found that the Haynes manual, although good, was not quite all the info I needed.
Although I was studying engineering at Leicester Poly at the time, borrowing a bit of experience from my lodger, a fellow student who's brother ran a reconditioning outfit in Doncaster, proved to be invaluable.
In addition I would advise you to cost up the replacement components before embarking on the work. Many of the good reconditioners out there manage to buy components at knock down prices. Often in the building game, large contractors seem to be able to get concrete blocks for 15p to 20p each, whereas I would have to pay around 45p. This is due to may factors such as handling, contracting etc.
If you are still thinking about the recon or SH route, then a day or two chatting to the garages with better reputations would be my choice.
Breakers and recon merchants have taken one hell of a battering in this thread, but there are more good ones out there than bad. For example, there are a handful of breakers in my area that are regularly used by the trade because they supply quality kit and stand by them. That is not to say that the others are bad. There are a few I wouldn't touch with a bargepole but I have only gleened this info after speaking to people in the trade.
Finally, whatever route you take, good luck. It seems we may be seeing you regularly in the Technical Matters forum :)
Hugo
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Cheers lads
I have got the inlet manifold off and am having trouble getting the exhaust manifold off at the moment , looking at the spark plugs and condition of what i have taken off so far i am more convinced it is bunt out valves rather than knackered pots or pistons. well back to work cheers any way.
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