Engine reconditino

BX Tech talk
Post Reply
User avatar
Oscar
1K Away
Posts: 1091
Joined: Wed May 18, 2005 5:07 pm
Location: Driving a ZX

Engine reconditino

Post by Oscar »

Hi there

I bought a ZX with a reconditioned engine, prior to the current BX "Great," I thought, "reconditioned engine."

Actually, I haven't a clue what's involved in reconditioning an engine, what it means for the engine, what gets replaced, remachined, checked, thrown out etc.

Can anyone tell me what it involves? And is it worth doing for my BX if I come into some money? BX is a 1.7 TZD btw, and we are not planning on replacing it soon. Or ever, on current projections.
(Red BX 1.7TZD ("Well, it is a style icon" - Tom Sheppard)) "Was", Tom, "was"
jeremy
Over 2k
Posts: 2112
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2005 2:58 am
Location: Hampshire UK

Post by jeremy »

What is meant by the term 'reconditioning' probably depends on who does the work!

I would expect it to mean a complete strip of the engine, thr measurement of all wearing surfaces and their replacement or return to excellent conditioning - ie crank grinding, new bearings, rebore - new pistons and so on.

There's no real point in doing it unless your existing engine is showing signs of wear. and then how much you do will depend on what's gone wrong (its common to buy a reconditioned 'short' engine - which broadly is the crank, block and pistons. Obviously if you have valve trouble this won't make any difference.

TZD turbos don't seem any more prone to problems than N/A - and will cover enormous mileages before they give up. However if the engine is tired (bore wear etc) you might think its worth doing and enjoying the excellent engine resulting.

jeremy
User avatar
cavmad
Keeper of the site Goat
Posts: 7857
Joined: Fri May 20, 2005 9:13 am
x 1
Contact:

Post by cavmad »

Ain`t that the truth Jeremy! Some (less scupulous) people`s idea of `reconditioning` is to get an old engine from a scrappy, change a few seals and gaskets (and the rings if you`re lucky) and do an exchange with your old one.
You`ll probably get some kind of warranty with it but they`ll be laughing anyway: if nothing goes wrong you`ve been sold a cheap engine which hasn`t cost them much to do and even if it did fail under warranty they`d either find an excuse to get out of doing anything about it or just go to the scrappy and get you another one.
That`s not to say all `re-con` engines are crap but honestly if you look how cheap some of them are they must be as above.
A `proper` re-con should surely have new cam, pistons, rings, rebore, complete gaskets/seals, crank regrind etc etc etc.
Most decent and honest engine reconditioners would do most/all of that at least I would have thought.
Sorry to sound negative but I`ve seen so many con artists out there masquerading as experts it`s untrue. Also fair to say there`s every chance you have a perfectly proper re-con unit that will last for years.
Vauxhall apologist.
Post Reply