Jen Crosby's Racing Blog

Friday January 26, 2007

The van saga...continued

After hearing from the garage that it was almost certainly the big end bearings gone, which to fix would at best require a crank regrind, and at worst both that and a rebore of the barrel(s), I was faced with a number of options of what to do.

                    1. Get Andy Shore's (the garage where the van ended up) to strip down the engine and fix the problems.

                    2. Get Andy Shore's to acquire a Fiat reconditioned engine, and fit it.

                    3. Buy a new van, and scrap/sell what was left of the old one.

                    4. Find a second hand engine, get Andy Shore's to fit it.

                    5. Find a reconditioned engine (not from Fiat) and get it fitted.

  I've spent a *lot* of time boring my friends to death weighing up the pros and cons of all of these options, and there really were good and bad things about each.  Getting the engine stripped and fixed at Andy's wasn't going to be very economical - the amount of labour required, and extra work where things would need to be sent off for fixing (i.e. regrinding the crank etc) really added up.  The Fiat reconditioned engine was going to cost me nearly £3000 - way more than I wanted to pay, and probably more than the van is worth, but at least it would have a worthwhile warranty, and the work would be carried out by Andy, who I trust.  Buying a new van - well, I had to consider this from a financial point of view, but it really wasn't something I wanted to do.  We've done a lot of work in the back to make in secure and comfortable for the racing - the tie downs, the insulation, the bed, the electrics, and re-doing that in a different van would be very time consuming indeed.  With races in the cold months coming up, the last thing I need is a van with no insulation and a bed on the floor.  So if at all possible, I wanted to keep the van itself and somehow sort the engine. 

 I initially decided that finding a second hand engine for a reasonable price would be the way to go, but after having real trouble finding out exactly which engine I needed, I then had trouble finding an engine at all.  I found only one, after some fairly extensive searching.  It had 93000 miles on the clock though, and it just seemed too risky to put such a high mileage engine in when mine had had the big end go at only 75000.  So that left finding somewhere to get a reconditioned engine, that wouldn't cost what Fiat were charging.  What I actually have ended up with, is finding someone who will recondition *my* engine, for a reasonable price , with a 12 month warranty.

So today, in fact only an hour ago, my van got collected from Andy's on the back of a lorry, and is being taken to an engine re-conditioners in the West Midlands where it will be rebuilt and fully sorted, as well as getting the exhaust replaced, which needed doing, and being MOT'd.  I just hope it all works out ok.  I should have the van back in about a week or so.

It' s been a really stressful time over the last couple of weeks, worrying about what to do, and also having no transport.  Not to mention being skint.  I owe massive thanks to all my friends who've really helped out, and put up with me being a miserable cow too.  Thanks also to Andy Shore, for really helping me out with everything, and giving me loads of advice, even though I didn't end up using his garage to do the work in the end.  I will however be using them for work in the future, just like I have for a while now, and I do of course highly recommend him to others.

( Jan 26 2007, 02:28:05 PM GMT+00:00 )

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