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1,190 Posts
Last week i had a moment of madness and bid on a 156 2.0 jts on ebay and won. What had i bought you might ask..?
Well it was advertised as head gasket failure,with leather on a 52 plate and 1 previous owner with 71k and pshistory, mot and tax for 7 months and 2 brand new tyres and exhaust.
I paid £265 which being metallic black with the big spoiler could be a spares car for my other cars. Exhaust would fit on my 2.5 and wheels would fit both 2.5 and 2.4.
So my thinking was worth stripping the parts and weighing what was left in.
Anyway myself and Big Ginge drove down on saturday with trailer to pick up from Bristol,got there with the aid of Tom Tom and saw this battered jts.Dings and dents in most panels white marks over it,which later turned out to be glue, and scuffs and scratches everywhere.
Even the seats and trim were covered in the stuff,turns out he is a window fitter and used as a van for work.He had bought it in 2004 from a dealership.
Nice lad just wasn't into Alfa's.
Having spoke to him he said the Rac came out and done a compression test and told him head gasket failure,he said it would run for 20 seconds and die. so we loaded it on the trailer and drove back to oxfordshire.
1 hour later or so we arrived back at my place with my wife saying what the hell have you bought now!!
Offloaded it and lifted the bonnet to reveal and interesting sight,coolant level was fine and pink,oil was ok,so no mixing.
We started it and sure enough ran for 20 odd seconds and died, and would rev.
So we checked spark plugs, bit black but all worked, disconnected maf and tried again.
What we noticed was how hot the manifold got after 20 seconds.
We spotted a split airintake pipe after the maf,we both thoght ah! And Rich commented that would affect things a bit! So taped it up with Gaffer tape and tried again .
Started but ran for 20 secs and died.
Then Rich went round to back of car and noticed very little pressure on turn over which got me to thinking, manifold getting hot no exhaust fumes or pressure must be cats or blockage in boxes.
So as time was pressing we left it and yesterday undid the end of the manifold to the first section and ye hah it blew out lots of black stuff and ran.
Have now run it up to temperature and all seems to be well, fans kick in.
So it needs possible new cats and new box.
Will be getting these from the breakers as a new set is £1700 ,in fact have already located some for £100.
Now the problem is whether to work on her and resell or break her!!
Issues are heater fan not working ,nearside suspension knocking and interior like a builders van!!
So do i put life back into her and do her up as a project with pictures and costings.so far she owes me £265 and £30 fuel.
YOU DECIDE.:lol:
1700
Well it was advertised as head gasket failure,with leather on a 52 plate and 1 previous owner with 71k and pshistory, mot and tax for 7 months and 2 brand new tyres and exhaust.
I paid £265 which being metallic black with the big spoiler could be a spares car for my other cars. Exhaust would fit on my 2.5 and wheels would fit both 2.5 and 2.4.
So my thinking was worth stripping the parts and weighing what was left in.
Anyway myself and Big Ginge drove down on saturday with trailer to pick up from Bristol,got there with the aid of Tom Tom and saw this battered jts.Dings and dents in most panels white marks over it,which later turned out to be glue, and scuffs and scratches everywhere.
Even the seats and trim were covered in the stuff,turns out he is a window fitter and used as a van for work.He had bought it in 2004 from a dealership.
Nice lad just wasn't into Alfa's.
Having spoke to him he said the Rac came out and done a compression test and told him head gasket failure,he said it would run for 20 seconds and die. so we loaded it on the trailer and drove back to oxfordshire.
1 hour later or so we arrived back at my place with my wife saying what the hell have you bought now!!
Offloaded it and lifted the bonnet to reveal and interesting sight,coolant level was fine and pink,oil was ok,so no mixing.
We started it and sure enough ran for 20 odd seconds and died, and would rev.
So we checked spark plugs, bit black but all worked, disconnected maf and tried again.
What we noticed was how hot the manifold got after 20 seconds.
We spotted a split airintake pipe after the maf,we both thoght ah! And Rich commented that would affect things a bit! So taped it up with Gaffer tape and tried again .
Started but ran for 20 secs and died.
Then Rich went round to back of car and noticed very little pressure on turn over which got me to thinking, manifold getting hot no exhaust fumes or pressure must be cats or blockage in boxes.
So as time was pressing we left it and yesterday undid the end of the manifold to the first section and ye hah it blew out lots of black stuff and ran.
Have now run it up to temperature and all seems to be well, fans kick in.
So it needs possible new cats and new box.
Will be getting these from the breakers as a new set is £1700 ,in fact have already located some for £100.
Now the problem is whether to work on her and resell or break her!!
Issues are heater fan not working ,nearside suspension knocking and interior like a builders van!!
So do i put life back into her and do her up as a project with pictures and costings.so far she owes me £265 and £30 fuel.
YOU DECIDE.:lol:
1700
