No saving this one!

[MikkiJayne]

Its coffee table time

Those who know the fleet may remember the black FE which I bought from Paignton for its red interior. At the time, the owner said he could see a conrod through one of the spark plug holes so I knew the engine was toast when I bought it. Unfortunately, he was sold it by a shady car dealer in Oxfordshire as 'needs a new starter' He put a new starter on it but it still wouldn't turn over. Read on for why...

Pulled the cam covers and had a look at the tensioners. A bit of a tramline on top, but not terrible





Underneath, not so good!



This is all that was left of the tensioner pad in the head!



Pulled the inlet manifold next. I know these can contain little surprises, and as expected it had a bit of a rattle. Two inlet valves! They're not supposed to be in there



Cylinder 1. Oh dear. Thats one of the inlet valves.



Cylinder 2. Aaand thats the other one



Cylinder 3



Cylinder 4



Off with its head!



#1 has a hole in it



#2 has, um, gone



#2 rod is bent at the end, but amazingly still attached to the crank and still moves smoothly!



The head did not fare well The other head is also damaged due to bits of exploding piston going through the inlet manifold and in to the cylinders on bank 2



#2 con rod. Amazing it didn't break since the 40v rods are supposedly the wek point in the engine.





#1 piston has a hole in the middle



#2 piston is in small bits in the sump!



These are the two largest chunks, plus the remarkably unscathed gudgeon pin. You can see a 15mm piece of valve stem at the bottom of the pic - thats all I can find of them. No idea where the rest went.



Pin circlips and some bits of piston ring





Another tiny bit of the cam tensioner pad




There's almost nothing salvageable on this one - the cams, a few sensors, and the valves from bank 2. The inlet manifold flaps still move, but its full of metal shards so would need completely stripping and cleaning which isn't really worth it. I'm hoping at least one piston and rod is still usable which will go in to my Avus FE's original engine which is recoverable.

A friend is going to make a coffee table from the block and four of the pistons, and I'm going to make a desk lamp from the crank I'll post up pics once they're done.