Got a 1275 metro engine in the garage, got it from a so called friend (who isnt a friend any longer!!) all ready to fit into my Mini. However, the engine is completely seized and on closer inspection cylinder 1 is full of water and cylinder 4 has a layer of rust around the sides and mayonnaise on top of the piston.
Not sure whether it will be worth our while getting it checked out and possibly rebored and rebuilt or should we just forget it and scrap it? Don't know how many miles it has done which does not help. Anyone any ideas of what costs would be involved, how we approach this?
Thanks
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I have had some experience of rejuvenating old engines in the past.
"Seized" can mean anything from welded solid from gross overheating or lack of oil, to simply stuck from lack of use. It sounds as if yours has leaked coolant into the cylinders.
It may be basically undamaged, and just need cleaning and freeing up, with a new headgasket, or it may have a warped block/head and corroded pistons/bores/rings.
If you can get it free, I'd install it and give it a try.
Is the engine just tight, or completely solid? Try pouring some parafin or diesel into each cylinder and leaving overnight. Once you can get it to move, put in lots of thin oil and keep working it over. I suppose a proper job would involve taking out each piston, but I don't know what's involved.
If you can get it to run, of course you can then assess how good it is and whether it would be worth rebuilding.
That would be my approach. A purist might prefer simply to strip the whole thing down and take proper measurements with a view to rebuilding from scratch.
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Not a difficult engine to strip - a rebore, skimmed head, ground crank and oversize shells and it would be fit to fly -
only two issues;
do you feel like doing such a job ?
has it been done before which might restrict the leeway you have ?
You'd certainly get an engine you knew to be good for probably less than you'd get a scrappy.
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p.s. but to be worthwhile you'd really need to strip it yourself. He money you'd have to pay for bits and boring won't be that much, but a labour charge would be killing.
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Engine was all installed, tried to turn it over manually to check everything was OK before we attempted to start it, and then found it wouldnt budge.
Will have a try at pouring in some parafin as you suggested and see what happens.
Still got the old engine so might pop that one back in and take my time to strip this one right down and rebuild. At least I will then know what is in it.
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Short and simple this one.....
If you can do the work yourself, do it.
If not, get a recon unit.
Simple as that.
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groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
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You may find its only the head gasket gone.they as most engines didnt like overheating and was a common cause on that unit.as you mentioned slight rust in No4 and No1 full of water would think it may be worth trying.IIRC gasket kit around £20.00 may be less.Don`t know whether you tried turning the engine over backwards as this may free it ie pistons will try and travel down instead of up.but only enough to free.if it moves stop then remove the head.It may not work but may be worth a try.
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Was mech1
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Will give that a try - going to leave it until the weekend now because I will have a bit more time to concentrate on giving it a thorough check. If all else fails and I cannot get it to budge think I will strip it down as much as I can and get the block checked out to make sure it is sound.
If all is OK I can get them to rebore it and start buying any new parts I need to rebuild it. At least that way I will know exactly what is in it and the condition, I can then attempt to refit it in the car.
Thanks for your help everyone, will let you know how I get on (or not as the case may be!!).
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