Erika the Blue Sapphire was comming of the road for a bit of work, I decided to find another sapphire to fill in the time she was off the road, and to eventualy provide useful spare pannels.
A trip to the car auctions was in order again!
Only a few sierras were there but on caught my eye, it looked solid, straight and genrealy clean. It had a Sapphire Cosworth rear spoiler. A 1989 1.8LX Sierra Sapphire.
It came into the ring and sounded sweet, it had MOT for quite a few months too!
Bidding was not firece, I ended up spending £200 which was not bad for the day.
As I drove out of the auction house I was quite chuffed, it was driving fine. Then I hit 2.5K RPM and a rattle was evident.. 🙁 Bumma!
It was a 1.8CVH which we had cut our teeth on with my brother in law Ian’s 1st car. It’s not an engine I particularly like…
So I had a top end rattle…
1st Port of call was a new set of cam followers £80. Still had a rattle.
2nd Port of call was a head gasket £30
3rd Port of call was a cracked exhaust manifold £10
4th Port of call was the valve springs £20 + head gasket £30
OOPS… Snapped a head bolt..
£30 for another head gasket.
Now I was just about to get married and the thought of taking the wifes MK1 golf on honeymoon was not enthralling me….
5th port of call was going to be a CAM Shaft £95 which sat on the shelf…
Whilst on honeymoon the brother in laws sierra drasticaly failed it’s mot..
6th port of call was to swap Bro’s engine into my car… YAHE!!! Rattle gone.
The car soliderd on, doing reasonable service until I got bored and decided it was time to move from povertyline motoring to something that cost a few quid more…
This car got PXed to get my brother in law his BMW E30 325i Sport, a real WEAPON!
Never ever seen this car again!