want some advice? don't buy an essex engined car! ready for the story? well....
over the course of this year I have fitted 2 new head gaskets and some core plugs about early june. august bank holiday I replaced some more core plugs, after it eats another rear cylinder head core plug. last week I see something shining in the torch light under the car. guess what? another rear core plug
I resigned myself to stripping the engine over the holiday break, to get the block put in a caustic tank to remove the rust and rubbish that I'm presuming is rotting the plugs out. a good idea occurs to me, to replace the shells and rings at the same time. so I lowered the sump (you can't get it out without removing the engine) and took a big end shell out, to check its size before ordering, little scored but OK. took a main shell out and all the white metal has dissappeared! the engine should have been rumbling like a bastidge!
now I'm capri-ising a transit ambulance engine using parts donated by bruisercapri just to make a reasonable engine to tide me over for a while. you see I've got the tax, MOT and insurance due in january
I can't afford a rebuild and the other stuff, so the hot one has to wait. thing is, the stuff is reasonably pricey, just for stock stuff. rings are £80 a set, mains are £80 and so are the big ends and so it goes on. this is more like genuine bmw prices FFS.
anyway, I took the hot engine out today and took the sump off so I can swap the pickup pipe over, and look what was inside-
fuggin bathroom sealer ! the sump has some other assorted rubbish in it too. little wonder it had run the main bearing shells out. bloody bodgers who had it before me, I could swing for 'em! hopefully I'll have the stocker in and running before I go back to work. here's some more pics-
the hot essex swinging on my homemade engine crane
and on my roller, because I'm certainly not going to try and lift the bleeding boat anchor! lol. took 20mins last week to lash that up, cost about £1 in total, that was for the steel. sporting transit 50 quart sump to keep the crud out.
and this is the reason I'm doing all this in the first place, pin hole at 9 o'clock. to replace this, you either take the engine out (quick way) or take the head off.
I'm sitting here pretty despondent now, anyone got any matches? if I didn't love the car I think I'd weigh it in. tempted to swap in another engine next year, something with torque, power and a decent mpg figure, maybe a bmw m50 or some else bullet proof and cheap, any suggestions? it wants to be flexible (flatish torque band) ideally I'd like stick it on my existing auto box, for minimal fuss. first person to suggest a cossie or rover v8 gets slapped with a haddock!
go-on suggest me something, what would you want to see in a capri 
no promises that I'll do it tho......
over the course of this year I have fitted 2 new head gaskets and some core plugs about early june. august bank holiday I replaced some more core plugs, after it eats another rear cylinder head core plug. last week I see something shining in the torch light under the car. guess what? another rear core plug
I resigned myself to stripping the engine over the holiday break, to get the block put in a caustic tank to remove the rust and rubbish that I'm presuming is rotting the plugs out. a good idea occurs to me, to replace the shells and rings at the same time. so I lowered the sump (you can't get it out without removing the engine) and took a big end shell out, to check its size before ordering, little scored but OK. took a main shell out and all the white metal has dissappeared! the engine should have been rumbling like a bastidge!
now I'm capri-ising a transit ambulance engine using parts donated by bruisercapri just to make a reasonable engine to tide me over for a while. you see I've got the tax, MOT and insurance due in january
I can't afford a rebuild and the other stuff, so the hot one has to wait. thing is, the stuff is reasonably pricey, just for stock stuff. rings are £80 a set, mains are £80 and so are the big ends and so it goes on. this is more like genuine bmw prices FFS.anyway, I took the hot engine out today and took the sump off so I can swap the pickup pipe over, and look what was inside-
fuggin bathroom sealer
! the sump has some other assorted rubbish in it too. little wonder it had run the main bearing shells out. bloody bodgers who had it before me, I could swing for 'em! hopefully I'll have the stocker in and running before I go back to work. here's some more pics-the hot essex swinging on my homemade engine crane
and on my roller, because I'm certainly not going to try and lift the bleeding boat anchor! lol. took 20mins last week to lash that up, cost about £1 in total, that was for the steel. sporting transit 50 quart sump to keep the crud out.
and this is the reason I'm doing all this in the first place, pin hole at 9 o'clock. to replace this, you either take the engine out (quick way) or take the head off.
I'm sitting here pretty despondent now, anyone got any matches? if I didn't love the car I think I'd weigh it in. tempted to swap in another engine next year, something with torque, power and a decent mpg figure, maybe a bmw m50 or some else bullet proof and cheap, any suggestions? it wants to be flexible (flatish torque band) ideally I'd like stick it on my existing auto box, for minimal fuss. first person to suggest a cossie or rover v8 gets slapped with a haddock!
go-on suggest me something, what would you want to see in a capri 
no promises that I'll do it tho......
I get so attached to my cars, I can't bear to sell them. also the satin paint and dings would drastically drop the price I'd get. 
