Engine question (car)

[syl]

What's involved in reconditioning an engine? How long does it take? What kind of prices are involved?

I may be in the unfavourable position of having to get a new engine for my car (it's currently stripped down at the dealer and awaiting a field engineer from Vauxhall - who will tell me if they will pay anything towards its repair). A new engine is going to run to thousands (the labour bill already is £350, just to find the fault). If it's going to be expensive and Vauxhall won't pay, I will probably be better off moving the car away from the dealer and getting the work done elsewhere.

Am I better getting a reconditioned unit to swap in or asking them to recondition my own engine and wait for it to be done?

The engine is a 2 litre turbo (petrol) Z20LET which fails a compression test on one cylinder because it is scored (don't know why). I know nothing about mechanics.
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Current bike: Kawasaki Z750S

[mad4it028]

good excuse to tune the engine mate if the barrels scored
rebore new rings and some head work =more power and probally still cheaper than a recon
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always looking to buy bikes crashed ,unfinished projects,none runners pm me
currently riding kawasaki z1000 only bike ive ever loved

[2Smoke]

[Phil_G]

1) establish how they know the block is scored and the compression loss isnt caused some other way. It is an incredably tricky thing to acheive.

2) search the net and get a good low mileage warranted z20let out a scrap car. It will be cheaper and easier than removing your engine for reconditioning (presuming the scoring can be machined out - which, if its severe, it may not be possible to do.)

3)Figure out what went wrong and how it managed to do itself in like this. You may find that something else in the motor has broken up and the debris from this has caused the damage. If thats the case, why has it broken? is it something caused by the equipment you are retaining (ecu fault, sensor fault etc etc) Failure to do this may lead to the same thing happening again.

IF you absolutely want a recon motor, then look in the yellow pages and have a call about.
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1997 Kawasaki ER 500 A1:- Once again, Its merely crap

[syl]

[Phil_G]

if its a 53 then why is it not covered under manufacturers warranty?

The z20 has also been around for a while so there should be a few around in specialist breakers yards.
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1997 Kawasaki ER 500 A1:- Once again, Its merely crap

[syl]

Typo - 2002/52.
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Current bike: Kawasaki Z750S

[Phil_G]

www.vpsc.co.uk


https://www.carquipuk.com/

https://www.dixonsvauxhallspares.co.uk/

just three of the many sites i expect would be able to help sourcing a s/h engine.

IF you go the Re-con route, IMO the investment required would only be justified if you were to be keeping the car.

Edit: Im not associated with those sites at all, I used to own a vauxhall at one time and heard of them in the club circles
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1997 Kawasaki ER 500 A1:- Once again, Its merely crap

[syl]

A second hand 2.0 16v turbo engine is listed on VPSC at £2000 (rediculously more than any of the other engines) - and I guess there would be a lot of labour to add on top. Looks like I'd better keep my fingers crossed on the man from Vauxhall.
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Current bike: Kawasaki Z750S

[Phil_G]

Ignore the list prices, email them directly, and also remember, you have the exiting turbocharger etc off your engine, so you wouldnt be needing any ancillaries etc so that will keep your costs down nicely.

I would expect you to have a good Z20 for around a grand ish. sniff out some owners forums as well - there may well be a bargain to be had that way
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1997 Kawasaki ER 500 A1:- Once again, Its merely crap

[0ddball]

Unless you can build the engine yourself the only option that makes sense is a good 2nd hand.

Get the car back from the dealer, source a low milage replacement and get an independant garage to fit it.

The Z20 isn't as popular as the ancient C20 so they are pretty cheap 2nd hand. I've seen complete low milage ones go for £6-700, with manifolds, loom and ecu. If you're lucky you might find a bare block and head for a couple of hundred. A new bare block alone is around £350 from Vauxhall. Try the vauxhall forums, also tuning places (V tuning, Courtenay sport ect) usually have a few spare low mileage engines laying about.

If it's out of warranty i doubt you'll get anything from vauxhall unless they offer something as a good will gesture.