4 cylinder engine

F

FrazzleTC

Active Member
I'm just testing the water at the moment, but, it looks like my car may have blown yet another head gasket. :cry: Needless to say, I'm now considering the option of changing the engine, and then having a shot at rebuilding the existing engine in my own time. Now, I've checked with my new insurance company, and they seem quite happy for me to change to a slightly different variant of the 4 cylinder engine, so if anyone knows of a 2000TC, 2200SC, or, my ideal, a 2200TC, an idea of prices would be most helpful. It wouldn't be required instantly, but I'd like an idea as to prices and so forth. Whatever the engine, I quite fancy keeping my auto 'box.
I await your replies with anticipation.
Fraser
 
Hi Fraser

Sorry to hear about your car trouble. Can I ask what the symptoms were that make you suspect it's a blown head gasket? I know you mentioned on FB that the car had disgraced itself towards the end of your last road trip. I know how to check for this once suspected, but having never suffered a blown head gasket I wondered how that might manifest itself whilst driving the car.

Hope you manage to find a good replacement if that is the case.

Dave
 
Shortly before the trip, I noticed the car was beginning to use more water than I would consider normal, but as this was literally days before, I did a quick compression test, which showed nothing untoward and set off. I had to fill the car with water a couple of times a day throughout the trip, and ensured that it didn't overheat at any point. The other thing that I noticed, was that even when the car was fully warmed up, when sitting, there was always some white steam coming from the exhaust. The day before I headed for home, I checked my water level again, as usual, and noticed creamy deposits in the coolant system. Since getting home, I've done another compression test, and one cylinder is showing higher compression than the others.
However, the car became increasingly unreliable throughout the course of my trip, unfortunately. I lost my brake lights on the Saturday, which was something of a nuisance, but as I was travelling in a convoy with my friends, it wasn't seen to be a huge problem, but was far from ideal. The next day, one of my friends noticed that my reverse lights were only working periodically, and never both came on. At the time, I assumed this was a poor connection, and continued.
On the second last day, the car became very difficult to start, with the starter clicking, and getting nowhere.
Another problem which arose on the last day, was that at low speeds, the car would cut out when coming to a stop, without warning.
Finally, I tried to start the car, after stopping for a moment in Carlisle, and nothing. I think that the inhibitor switch had failed. After a bit of fiddling, the starter would turn, but the car wouldn't start. At which point, I decided that it was wise to get transported home, since my car had a tendency to cut out when at low town speeds, wouldn't start, and had no brake lights. I was rather disappointed, especially after having spent so much time trying to put everything right, and also since the car had behaved impeccably for a couple of months, until last week. :cry:
There is one other little problem, which is my fault really. One of the roads I had to come down was a 33% and even with engine braking, the brakes were still working pretty hard. It's just unfortunate that there was a ford at the bottom. As always, hot brakes and cold water don't mix, and I've slightly warped a disc, but at least it's an easy fix.
 
Hi Frazzle,
Sorry to hear of your woes.
I have an unwanted, unknown quantity 2000SC in the scrap car that I mentioned on the forum a month back. I intended to weigh it in with the remains once I've stripped the rest of the car, but can remove it if it's any use to you. I suspect it's only done a low mileage, but has been sitting for at least 20 years. So it could be an excellent basis for a strip down and rebuild, but would be too risky to attempt to use without doing so. Yours for the scrap value, about £40, if you're stuck. That's including the grotty looking anciliaries. It'd need transporting from North Wales, of course.
I won't be stripping the car for a couple of weeks so no rush to decide.

If you opt to go for a TC, remember that exhaust manifolds are very expensive.
 
Willy Eckerslyke said:
If you opt to go for a TC, remember that exhaust manifolds are very expensive.
Click to expand...

And that it won't be a direct swap, you'll need to fabricate a kickdown linkage as the TC was never available as an auto. Hermione149 will be your friend on this though, as he's been there, done that.
 
It's always far more frustrating when you get multiple faults, especially as you say when you've spent so much time putting things right. You've probably put the car to one side and kicked it a few times then left it for now, but if I can offer some thoughts on the electrical problems (probably the least of your worries :roll: ). Certainly on my car I've found that electrical problems tend to be poor earths somewhere or at least a poor/dirty/corroded connections. Since both brake lights are not working I would suspect the switch so check and clean the connections. Worth checking the supply and earth to the switch are present too. I'm not sure how the reverse lights on an auto are activated but if they seem to be operating sporadically ie sometimes one on sometimes both, sometimes none that would lead me to check the rear light clusters first. Could be corrosion preventing the bulbs making a clean contact and vibration of the car can do funny things to connections too.

FrazzleTC said:
One of the roads I had to come down was a 33%
Click to expand...
:shock: :shock:

I didn't think we had an 1 in 3 roads, steepest I've seen is 1 in 4. Was there a corresponding 33% uphill too? You're probably lucky the discs are only warped. That sort of, almost quenching effect of putting red hot discs through water might well have cracked them.

As always Fraser there's plenty of support and help here if you need it.

Dave
 
Sorry to hear you've developed problems - it's so infuriating when you cover 100s of miles in a car at a time, and then one day it just refuses to get as far as the shops!

RE you're warped disc. If you want them, I have a very good pair of front discs for a 2000. They were taken off redrover when I put NOS ones on during my marathon brake rebuild last winter. Nothing wrong with them, even wear and no scoring - just thought it was false logic not to fit NOS since I had them. Car had covered 45k at the time, but suspect a lot of this was motorway as the brakes/steering/suspension etc was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting!

Can send pics if you're interested - just PM me.

Hope you sort the engine situation soon. Michael
 
Oh dear!

Did you have the head skimmed last time? If you did then there has to be something else going on to cause the problem. Likely something to cause local hot spots in the cooling system. Have the sideplates been off to clear all the crud out from behind? Another approach is to chemically clean the head whist it is off (like stripping an old door - a total immersion job). That gets all the internals absolutely clear. Or perhaps a water pump with a loose impellor - looks OK from the outside but isn't doing anything internally?

I've read about a 2200TC going spare recently but I can't for the life of me remember where. I've done a few searches here without result and I've had a scan through EBay as well. I seem to remember it was someone offering a gearbox with a throw-away line about having the engine buried in the text.

Keep us all posted and we'll all be on the lookout. We need our regular fix of stunning photo's!

Chris
 
This only recently had the head gasket replaced*, and the sideplates done IIRC, so most of the common head problems (corrosion eating away at the waterways for one) would have been checked at the time I would have thought, and those heads have never been prone to warping in my experience, most of the ones I remember being skimmed were because they had had inserts fitted to cure the aforementioned corrosion.

* Do I remember it having a s/h head fitted?
 
If you can get hold of a cooling system pressure tester you could pump it up and see if and where it's losing pressure, and then with it set to about 4lbs see whether the pressure rises sharply as you run the engine. You could also get it sniffer tested to see if there is co in the coolant. I'd want to be certain before I got into changing the engine for something that's basically, in most cases, an unknown quantity.
 
hi you my be in luck im going to strip an interior out of a scrap 2200tc, im having a drive in car before i strip it, as i was thinking of buying the engine to and fit it in rosie , its only done around 66k, but im in no rush. so i will see how it is and let you know but i think its a manual im not sure waht the difference is it does have a gearbox with it
marcus
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top