Reconditioned engine for 1.8 Golf Diver?

The message from WipeOut contains these words:

A proper one, or one from Twickenham Trading Estate?

Is there a difference?? If its reconditioned and has a 12 month warranty it should be fine.. Shouldn't it?

Depends if the warranty involves replacing said engine or kneecapping the buyer......

IMHO, you're better off getting a used lump from a scrappy.

The 'TTW' quoted price will be *very* different from the final one you pay. And their quality of 'recon' is not what you might expect - ie, a unit as good as new.

Find out what a main dealer charges for the unit without installation charges. That will be a guideline for the price of a decent as new engine.

You might then check the price of a secondhand one out of an accident damaged car. Most engines last longer than the car these days.

Or ring one of this lot

've always found Lyndale to be very good (e.g. when asked how much for a 1.5 Nissan Cherry short block they said "how'd you break that? Just go & buy one from the scrapyard, they're almost indestructible so they're almost free)

The message from WipeOut contains these words:

Not from that bunch of shysters, no.

1000 pounds will get you a VEGE engine from gsf or direct to and from you. these are well reconditioned (I have heard)

check out vegeuk.com or phone a gsf branch

mrcheerful

What's up with the original engine?

From what I have been told the head gasket is gone.. The place looking at it wants nearly £700 to skim the head and put in a new gasket..

So we said to them what would it cost for a recon engine and they came back with a price of £2000..

This morning I contacted a VW used parts place and they can supply a full engine for £90.. Obviously there is not guarantee that the engine is in good shape but the problem is that the car is only worth about £500 so to spend thousands seems like a waste of money..

I think I will ask the garage what they will charge to swap out the engine with the £90 one and then we see from there..

Probably £200-300 for fitting, depending on the area, and therefore how much the garage's labour rates are. You may not be able to hear the engine running, but as long as they give you a basic guarantee (for a week or so) that as long as it runs without major fault (like major knocking from the bottom end or something) you'll be fine. Get a new cambelt/tensioner(s) put on it while it's out of the car as well, and fresh oil, and you shouldn't go too far wrong.

What was wrong with the old engine, out of interest?

Try a different garage...

Try several different garages...

'Ang on, the head gasket has gone and you're pricing up a full engine, why ?!?

The car has done nearly 140k miles and when we got it (6 months ago) it had no thermostat.. From the little I know about engines what I do know is that running cold like that would most likely have caused excess wear.. I have no idea how long it was run like that..

I figured since the costs were over £500 just to sort out the head gasket that it may be a better plan to just replace the whole engine with recon unit..

That was before I was told it was £2k for a recon unit..

I have now found two places that will recon the engine for just under £1k but thats still more than my brother has to spend in it and he needs to get to uni and back in the car..

So the option of getting another engine for £90 and then spending £300 to fit it seems to be a good plan.. I know its a gamble but when you don't have the cash you have to take the risk..

If they want more than £300 to fit it I will just have a crack at fitting it myself..

It lost power on the motorway the other day and was pumping out black smoke.. Thats the description I got from my brother..

The garage says its a blown head gasket and maybe more but they can't tell without taking off the head.. they said there was a good chance that with the high milage (140K) that the bores would be shot as well..

Also when we got the car it had no thermostat so I would imagine that would have caused excess wear as well..

Quite high mileage, but for a car of that age/value, I'd probably just replace the head gasket and see what happens. Maybe see how much skimming the head would cost at a local engineering firm.

The message from WipeOut contains these words:

That's not a high mileage!

It's not unheard of for some of the so-called reconditioned engines, to simply be s/h engines cleaned up and given a coat of paint. Others might have been rebored, with a reground crank etc, but other ancilliary parts like camshafts, cam followers, valve springs etc are simply reused if they look fairly OK. There are a lot of corners that can be cut when 'reconning' an engine. Mike.

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Or, more likely, a jetwash and perhaps a spray over with paint.

You could try replacing the headgasket first.

I am going to get the car back from the garage tomorrow and try and get the head off Friday morning to see what it looks like under there..

If the bores don't look too bad then I will try and replace the head gasket and see after that..

Going to have to pop down to Halfords and get a Haynes manual so I know what torque I need on the various bolts etc.. and the correct procedure..

If nothing else it should be interesting.. :)

I just hope none of the bolts are rusted solid and snap when they are removed or worse end up with rounded heads that I can't get out..

Probably going to be back into this newsgroup for more help over the weekend.. :)