Any pointers/summaries?

[t40ora]

It looks like I'll be needing a rebuild pretty soon; valve clearances closing due to valves stretching. I've mentioned this in passing before, and it was indicated that it was a known problem.

Now, there are a number of options for rebuild it would seem, and all offer greater reliability - which is what I would expect. I'm not going to be looking at the top end with very significant power increase because (a) I'm not capable of dealing with more power and (b) I'm a budget TVR owner rather than one of the fortunate and lucky wealthy ones; I bought mine new as I thought that the 3 year warranty was beneficial in terms of not having to throw money at the car. More fool me, eh :-)

Anyway, I'm sadly not one of those people that can assimilate lots of different information and sort it out and make theoretical statements/conclusions. I've tried but it just doesn't work for me (for all those of you that are into psychometric tests, learning styles and the like I'm sure you know what I mean!).

So are there any summaries/links etc that I can print off and look at now that can help me decide what and who with regards to the rebuild? What I'm after is some sort of indication of the problems experienced by SP6 engines and the generally accepted causes, along with what is/can be done to rectify? I.e. if my valves are stretching is it because of inferior materials in the valve stems so they need to be addressed, or is there some other underlying problem that could cause it and be addressed in a different manner?

If I'm asking too much of you very clever and knowledgeable people (a little bit of buttering up there!) tell me to bu66er off. But I hope you won't as I'd like to know that when I spend £5k - £6k that I can ill afford I'll be happy with my choice - or at least have made that choice rather than just take a default route.

Cheers.

Edited by t40ora on Friday 11th May 09:33

Edited by t40ora on Friday 11th May 09:35

[leerdam23]

Just talk to Dom at TVR power.

[t40ora]

leerdam23 said:

Just talk to Dom at TVR power.

Is he happy to have that conversation knowing that I might opt for another supplier? I don't want to set false expectations; I might spend £5.5k with him, but then again I might not.

Some lucky bugger WILL be the recipient of my hard earned though!

[andyoleary]

Lee,

Looks like you have set yourself a budget which is half the battle I reckon! I would recommend talking to Power, Craft, Austec and, depending on how soon you want to start the build, Racing Green (which might be nearest to you, right?). I am sure they would all talk you through your options for your budget and then you can decide on which to go for from there.

Good luck,

Andy

[t40ora]

andyoleary said:

Lee,

Looks like you have set yourself a budget which is half the battle I reckon! I would recommend talking to Power, Craft, Austec and, depending on how soon you want to start the build, Racing Green (which might be nearest to you, right?). I am sure they would all talk you through your options for your budget and then you can decide on which to go for from there.

Good luck,

Andy

Hi Andy,
Yeah I've spoken to RG already. As a non-mechanical person I want to get as much info as possible to understand the issues and have half a chance of comparing options intelligently.

So I guess your suggestion is good; talk to the lot of them and go for what suits me best. I'm going to be OK for a few months before needing the rebuild so plenty of time to have conversations.

[rfisher]

From your porofile you have an 06 car.

What mileage have you done?

What symptoms does the engine have?

[t40ora]

rfisher said:

From your porofile you have an 06 car.

What mileage have you done?

What symptoms does the engine have?

I've done just over 20k miles. Never intended it to be my daily driver, but just got addicted to it.

Symptoms were/are gradual onset of rough running and loss of power. It started at about 15k miles. No problems until then, and only slight adjustments needed at the 12k service. But at 15k I took it in as it wasn't running right.

That's when RG discovered the problem with the valve clearances, i.e. that on 3 cyclinders they had closed up, 1 worse than the other 2. They adjusted them and, because of the warranty situation, suggested we keep an eye on them rather than do anything more extensive in the way of investigation. So I don't know if it's valve stretch or seating problems. But to be honest, those two items are at the limit of my engineering know how.

Back in for the 18k service and there was a noticable loss of power but nowhere near as bad as before. Once again, the same 3 valve clearances had started to close up.

So there is a problem there somewhere. Because there is still an outside chance that something concrete will be sorted with the warranty RG have suggested keeping the revs low and monitoring the situation. They reckon that based on the last two incidents I have up to about 24k before there is nothing left to adjust! They were hoping that by then, some money might have appeared for warranty work. Oink-oink, flap-flap.....

Somewhere in the next 3.5k miles I'll have to bite the bullet and get the engine done.

[leerdam23]

t40ora said:

leerdam23 said:

Just talk to Dom at TVR power.

Is he happy to have that conversation knowing that I might opt for another supplier? I don't want to set false expectations; I might spend £5.5k with him, but then again I might not.

Some lucky bugger WILL be the recipient of my hard earned though!

I don't see why not.

[whitey]

Bad Luck. Did you buy it off RG? What's their view on helping you out?

Not good news for people with recent TVR factory spec engine builds.(like me, ho-hum).

[t40ora]

whitey said:

Bad Luck. Did you buy it off RG? What's their view on helping you out?

Not good news for people with recent TVR factory spec engine builds.(like me, ho-hum).

RG won't do anything until they have confirmation that someone will pay them. Doesn't help me at all, but I can't say that I blame them.

Within the constraints of money they are being as helpful as possible though.

[whitey]

They sold you a new car and 13 months later the engine is damaged (although still running) and you basically require a re-build.

Personally I would want them to be making a major contribution to fixing it.

Did they make any statements to you regarding the engine, and past problems etc when you bought it?

Anyway, good luck.

Regards
Whitey

[t40ora]

whitey said:

They sold you a new car and 13 months later the engine is damaged (although still running) and you basically require a re-build.

Personally I would want them to be making a major contribution to fixing it.

Did they make any statements to you regarding the engine, and past problems etc when you bought it?

Anyway, good luck.

Regards
Whitey

I don't profess to understand the legalities of it fully, and I know that there have been other threads covering this and unless I've missed something there are two schools of thought. The first is that all liability will rest with the manufacturer as it was their warranty. The second that the dealer is responsible as they sold the product. But there seems to have been nothing conclusive.

I'd gladly extract the money from the dealer if I could, but I don't know from what position of power I could do this; I do not seem to have the law clearly on my side. If I tried to sue them, it would cost me I don't how much and unless someone out there knows better there is no certainty that I would win any case - so would be worse off.

I'd pay for legal advice if I thought that I'd get a clear answer one way or the other, but I'll just get ifs and maybes.

As for the advice I was given, I was told that earlier engines were almost certain to need a rebuild at about 20k - 30 miles but that (a) most issues had now been resolved, and (b) the warranty would cover me fully. Hah!