Drove my car to work (6 miles), normal driving, probably didn't go over 3.5k revs. Great puff of steam and the coolant system emptied in my works@ car park. Got transported to my usual Scooby service centre. They suspect head gasket failure and want to charge me the earth to rebuild the engine.
I put feelers out and a company called Midland engineering (Warwick) have
contacted me, with what I believe to be a reasonable price.


Has anyone used them for an engine rebuild?


Could only find 2 reviews on Trustpilot, 1 good, 1 bad.


Could anyone recommend an engine re-builder in the North West ?


Thanks all.

 

If you are travelling to Warwick then give TDR a try.
http://tdracing.co.uk/

 

Thanks for that, have sent an enquiry, couldn't get them on the phone.

 

Thanks for that, have sent them an enquiry, couldn't get hold of them by phonr.

 

define cost the earth, i would expect a 3k+ bill

 

5.5K to take it apart and rebuild + cost of parts

 

As above mate get onto TDR. Mark is a really nice guy.

 

As above you won't go wrong with TDR.

 

Well, i thought so to until... 1 year and 14k miles later my forged 2.5 rebuild head gaskets failed again, epically. I decided to rebuild myself and found:


- Underrated head studs had been fitted (rcm 350hp instead of anything capable of 420 which was the advised limit of the build)


- wrong model year rcm head gaskets fitted for my car (easily observably wrong)


- incorrect lubricant used on 1 head stud, incidentally the one where it was most knackered and leaking


I'm not necessarily considering these as deliberate, just a bit sloppy. I did some digging and rcm changed their product line up around the time which could have lead to the wrong parts being ordered. Gaskets shape is a little slack mind you. Not ideal when shelling out 4k for an engine 'good' for 420hp, apparently (I wasn't running it anyway near that at any point!)

Generally they get good feedback, but based on this experience I won't be using them again, and now going to do all work myself from now on!

 

Did you discuss with them what you had found ?

 

As your location is showing North Wales, give Andy Williams at WMS racing a shout. He's in Halkyn, just off the ***. Top guy, and quality work. Built my old 2.1. Didn't miss a beat in 40000 miles, then I sold the car. I've seen a few on here that have his engines too.

 

5.5k for labour alone?

 

I gave them a chance to reply before the rebuild started but radio silence. I wrote a report detailing everything I found but haven't gone back to them yet. I'm going to seek advice from an engine expert I know from work and get him to ratify my report to give it some weight.