Well, we're obviously getting better. It only took two people two days to reduce a finely crafted japanese machine to it's component parts this time, rather than three people three days last time. Possibly it would take one person one day, and with no people it would simply fall to pieces spontaneously

I managed to find a secondhand low-mileage engine via an online parts-search service, and after some humming and hawing Rob bought it and had it delivered to my house. Actually, he phoned and said it was coming in two to three days and that I would get an hour's notice by phone. What really happened, of course, is that the next day at 10AM there was a knock on the door and a large bloke with an even larger truck said "Where do you want it, mate?" This led to some frantic reshuffling of the workshop to find room for a pallet some four feet square and weighing about 600 pounds.

The description was of an imported japanese-spec engine before the first cam-belt change, which set an upper limit of about 60000 miles assuming the supplier was truthful and correct. After a certain amount of struggle involving a borrowed engine hoist and a packet of ginger-nut biscuits, we were able to get the thing onto the engine stand and start investigating it in detail.

There were a few cosmetic blemishes due to the way it had been delicately and carefully removed from the donor car with a hacksaw, but these proved to be of no real import. The first thing we noted is that both engine mounts were almost new, which immediately cheered Rob up as the one that died when we removed the original engine would have cost about £120 to replace.

The date code stamped on the block is more or less exactly what the other engine had, mid-1989, but I'd guess that the engine has been in storage for at least 13 of those 15 years. The thing turned out to be very low mileage indeed, if the condition of the innards is anything to go by. As a rough estimate, I'd say it's got no more than 20000 miles on it.

All the bearing surfaces are only just past the well-run-in stage, the valves after a quick wipe look like they just came out of a box on the shelf, the bores are immaculate, and the oil-ways and water channels in the head appear brand new. There is no sign at all of any blowthrough on the head or inlet and exhaust gaskets, and in fact all the gaskets simple lifted off the various surfaces like they'd been put on the week before.

Actually, dismantling this engine was a little surreal. The Haynes manuals, for instance, always say something like "Next, remove the nine bolts securing the whatsit to the gubbins, and remove the thingy", making it sound so easy a small dim child could do it. They always omit the stage of "Note the thingy will be immovably bonded by sheer neglect to the gubbins and will require a severe beating with a five-pound lump hammer before it comes off, which it will do in at least two pieces".

Not this time. Remove the crank pulley bolt (which admittedly did require an improvised 4-foot extension handle on the socket, that little sod was on TIGHT), and a gentle pull made the thing just slide off in the way they never do. The same story throughout, everything simply came to pieces with no real effort at all. The annoying thing is that we could probably have stuck the engine straight in the car and had a completely reliable setup as is

All that work by some industrious japanese robot, wasted!

Oh well. Rob wanted a steel gasket no matter what, so it had to be done. The interesting thing is that the head bolts were torqued up to the revised setting, which means that the engine has seen some work after leaving the factory, probably into the care of one lady owner who only took it out on sundays and had it regularly serviced.

The upshot of all this is that tomorrow I'm taking the various bits to the engineering company for a check, and collecting the other bits for a quick ride to the scrapyard. With a little luck the only things that will need to be done to the block and head is a polish to remove the old gasket material, since under that they seem to have virtually a mirror finish already. When it's reassembled the end result should be as solid as one is likely to get on an engine of that age.

We also stripped one of the turbos, and it seems in pretty good condition overall, so it can be cleaned and go back in the car. A reasonable weekends work, all in all.

Attached is a picture of Rob amongst the debris of the engine, looking pleased at the destruction he's wrought

pca