So the car is back up and running! MOT'd and taxed last week with only a couple of advisory.
Replacement engine block was £750 from a donor car with apparently 60k on the clock.. no proof tho unfortunately.
Probably spent another £150 on odd bits including
- EGR gasket that i lost DOH,
- 2 replacement injectors that broke on the way out / didnt come out :-( grr
- Injector seals
- Gearbox oil
- engine oil
- Sensor that snapped when hoisting the engine back in DOH!
I'm not counting buying any tools (engine stand) as I'll be re-using that on my RX7 at some stage :-D
Last remaining issue on the engine front is a tappet noise that comes while engine is loaded up but stops after 3krpm on full throttle. Car sounds perfect at idle or while reving at stand still.
I suspect this is either compression leak around one of the injectors or possibly a exhaust blow near the manifold. But there's no obvious exhaust smell so im thinking it's time to check the injectors again.
Have done two long drives in her and the fuel economy is now AWESOME! Gone from getting 35-40 mpg to 50-60 mpg and im putting this down to having cleaned out the EGR pipework of LOADS of soot and also the inlet manifole and inlet runners of gunk