Replacement Engine In and Back on the Road - Pics

[lazaros1]

Just thought I'd share some pics of my car after it's back on the road from fitting a replacement engine. I managed to do it myself over the summer while off uni and am happy I managed to pull it off and the engine is really good (thanks Ki ). Also thanks to Paul Woods for his guide to removing the engine and advice which was a massive help.

Actually spent £500 fixing the headgasket on the old engine around xmas time and after that was done then found a piston ring was damaged on cyl. 4 and was burning loadsa oil, this eventually went completely and engine was shagged so decided to do a replacement myself than give a mechanic more money.

From my experience I'd say your far better off replacing the engine if you can if something like a headgasket goes, it's not really that difficult I had very little mechanic experience.

Here's the car, the pictures aren't great took them on my phone, was only a basic clean didn't polish/wax or anything and it still came up alrite. Really needs a good polish and wax actually! Mods include:

15" Rota Alloys w/ Toyo's
Clear indicators/side repeaters
KYB shocks + PI Springs
Powertec Induction Kit
Projector Headlights
It had a full respray in Rosso Corsa (Ferrari Red, not trying to make it like a ferrari just fancied a slightly different colour for the respray) last summer aswell

[superbad]

Looks great! I'm not usually a fan of black wheels/red car but that seems to work.

[crazybrightman]

that looks proper ship hot! they look so good smoothed off, no silly black lines or rubbing strips, no mud flaps, clean looking wheels and lowered its about as good as you can get without spoiling the car, well done and go enjoy it.

[chrismanchr]

very nice colour mate ,looks great

did you do the respray yourself and what prep had to be done?

did you get a full strip down and respray?

[Pete]

Nice .

I was aiming for something similar with a red/black theme on my mk1a, I think it looks great. Did you notice any change in handling with the new alloys - I think the rota's are pretty light aren't they?

[lazaros1]

Thanks for the comments.

very nice colour mate ,looks great

did you do the respray yourself and what prep had to be done?

did you get a full strip down and respray?

Wasn't a full strip down but the car was very clean and solid when I got it and still is. The underneath is clean as. The respray was done by my cousins friend/colleague who is a proper sprayer, he did a very good job, he only charged me £450 including the paint and everything. So I can't complain at all. The only issues was some bubbling between the t-bar and windscreen which was sorted and there was a small hole in the front wing which was repaired. I've even taken it back a couple of times where the front splitter has scraped or been scratched and he's good as gold. The paint seems to have held up really good aswell but it could do with a proper clean, polish & wax.

The wheels are really light, they're only 4.8kg each I think, one of the lighter Rota wheels, can't really tell whether handling's better but the car does handle really well in general. I quite like the handling with the standard wheels cos the sidewalls are more flexible and it's easier to predict the back end going whereas it can sometimes snap out a bit with the lower profile 15s and hard suspension. The ride's a bit smoother aswell with more tyrewall, can't imagin how bad it must be on low profile 17s with uprated suspension, is hard enough now.