This afternoon the wife dragged me off to Tesco to buy some very cheap (£4) jeans, as she said I am not going to start getting oil etc over good clobber. Forward thinker my wife. Anyway whilst there I saw in the newsagents section an adspaper. I skimmed it looking for a source for a donor, saw some possibilities so bought it. When we got home without jeans but with a Dyno-tape labeller and a laminator (all for the build) I quickly spotted something that made me do a double take:
MGZR 160 engine and gearbox. 5.1K £650 ono. Telephone******
So I’m immediately on the phone and yes it’s still available, yes mileage is correct as the motor was from a 04 plate MGZR 160 that his mate had written off and was selling off in bits.
He himself had a 02 plate MGZR160 and had bought it as a spare in case he ever blew his engine up. The guy sounded young enough for that kind of logic to apply. I asked his address and he was happy to go and visit there and then (6:00pm).
So programmed the Sat-nav and I'm off to somewhere in deepest Nott's.
Anyway 45 miles and 35 minutes latter I’m at his house, which is located not necessarily in the best of neighbourhoods. The last words I said to my wife was “don't worry I will check out engine number etc and ask lot's of questions”.
So I go in and through to the back yard where the engine is lying on the open ground covered by a tarpaulin. Torch out and what can I say it looked like it had just come off Power Trains production line. It’s mint. Complete with everything all ancillaries.
The guy said that he bought it for £650 from his mate and now that he hasn't got a garage or anywhere to store it he was just lucking to recoup his money and get rid of it.
Any doubts I might have had about the engine in terms of condition before I saw it were unfounded. Oil was clean not emulsified on the dipstick and totally clean and new.
Then it happened. I rolled it back to look at the engine number stamping on the block and I know where it’s located as I checked on the wife’s R25 before I left home.
I was looking to see if the numbers looked right and not stamped with a junior metal stamping kit. Problem was there were no numbers. There was nothing but a blank space where the original serial number had been ground and polished away.
The lad said that his 'mate' had done an insurance 'job' and that he had wiped the number prior to selling it him. He was then going to stamp his own MGZR160's engine numbers on it if he ever did the swap.
I quickly explained that this is not what I wanted and left. Damn.
One minute I’m high because that I thought my 5exi would have a nearly new 1.8 VVC engine and the next minute my hopes are totally dashed.
I wonder whose car the engine really did originally belong too.
The search continues. Any one got a knackered but legit VVC engine they want to sell as scrap?
Mike N.
Mike goes shopping!
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