Mate's engine died, ?DIY replace/rebuild?

miniyazz

miniyazz

miniyazz

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Long story short, his engine died on the M6. Car is a 1.8L petrol Avensis 53 plate, only around 75,000miles. Maybe contributed to by general thrashing/low oil.

Anyway, options are to attempt a rebuild if nothing too major needs doing, or engine swap alternatively. To be completed with much enthusiasm and little experience :p (he has most of the equipment likely to be needed already).

So, anyone got any tips? :D
 
Well, you will have to take the engine apart to assess all the damage first.

...or you could just buy a complete 2nd hand running engine and swap it out.
 
Virdi said:
Well, you will have to take the engine apart to assess all the damage first.

...or you could just buy a complete 2nd hand running engine and swap it out.
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p1RATE said:
Whats actually wrong with it? the engine seized from being low on oil?
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Yeah need to find out what's going on inside. Not directly seized from being low on oil but it's been a bit neglected (been sounding rough for weeks/months and hadn't had oil level checked) and a few hours before it died the oil level was noticed to be well below minimum - and topped up then. Coincidence?

danza said:
Would this car take a 1.8 VVTL-i? :D
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Lol, probably. However it'll probably be a sufficient challenge to fit the engine that's meant to be in there ;)

Malt_Vinegar said:
Get a cheapo replacement engine? Then perhaps look at rebuilding the old one. Then you can take your time to rebuild it..
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Yeah this may be the way forward.
 
It'll have suffered oval bore and lunched itself. Not sure it's worth doing anything with the car - a proper re-sleeved rebuild will be circa £900 and it can't be worth much more (if even) than that.

Then again the only used engine that you'd be comfortable putting in the car is a rebuilt one, again that won't be cheap.

Might be best scrapping it imo
 
It's rarely worth rebuilding a damaged engine if good s/h ones are easily available. The cost to properly rebuild an engine including parts, gaskets and machining can be surprisingly high.
 
rodenal said:
It'll have suffered oval bore and lunched itself. Not sure it's worth doing anything with the car - a proper re-sleeved rebuild will be circa £900 and it can't be worth much more (if even) than that.

Then again the only used engine that you'd be comfortable putting in the car is a rebuilt one, again that won't be cheap.

Might be best scrapping it imo
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Dogbreath said:
It's rarely worth rebuilding a damaged engine if good s/h ones are easily available. The cost to properly rebuild an engine including parts, gaskets and machining can be surprisingly high.
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Yeah I think rebuilding the engine may be an exercise in cost and futility. Although it looks like it's probably not too complex to fit a VVTL-i engine, it's probably not worth it for him for hassle/insurance premiums etc unfortunately. So if a s/h one can be sourced fairly cheaply it'll be a replace job, otherwise probably a scrappy job. Shame as the rest of it's pretty good :/
 
Have you actually found out the exact problem? These cars can have issues with the timing chain, which need to be lubed up with plenty of oil, could be something as simple as a new chain and fitting, although that can be pricy itself.
 
Replace, simple enough to DIY an engine swap, nothing scientific involved at all and little that can go wrong.

This is a personal thing but I would never trust a rebuilt engine. I've seen dozens of rebuilt engines fail prematurely, they just don't have the same longevity as a factory built one.
 
I have a friend, strangely enough an engine builder, who subcribes to similar logic but with regards to performance only.

Still can't figure out what technicians in a factory can achieve that someone in a workshop can't, but alas it's one of those arguments.

If the engine is rebuilt to spec, time and attention is taken, OE parts, a clean environment and the correct tools and procedures there is nothing untoward in an engine rebuild. It's going to be really hard to measure longevity in relation to a rebuild and a factory engine, when faced with a factory engine needing rebuilt! I mean, where do you start and stop with that one?

The dozens of rebuilds you have seen fail died because of the quality of the rebuild, run in or maintenance, not the effect of rebuilding itself.
 
Biohazard said:
The dozens of rebuilds you have seen fail died because of the quality of the rebuild, run in or maintenance, not the effect of rebuilding itself.
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Absolutely, and plenty that were built by highly reputable engine builders at the time and turned out to be butchers a few years after when all the engines start dying. That's kind of my point, there is almost no way to guarantee the long term reliability of a rebuilt motor in the way that you can with an original one.
 
Clarkey said:
Absolutely, and plenty that were built by highly reputable engine builders at the time and turned out to be butchers a few years after when all the engines start dying. That's kind of my point, there is almost no way to guarantee the long term reliability of a rebuilt motor in the way that you can with an original one.
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There is if you do it yourself. I would struggle to trust most other people, even reputable businesses, but even then I do know of people who do it properly. I also know an intermediary 3rd party engine builder that would be more described as chucking them together for warrant returns, and failure rates don't sink the business.
 
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