I've found an 2.0i Sierra that I was going to buy so I couuld upgrade my wheezy 1600. The only problem with the car seemed to be a marginally rough idle, the seller said it had stood for several moths, I suspected the tape around the throttle pot might have something to do with it, but anyway it drove fine and felt pokey. I got as far as checking numbers with the V5 and found the engine ones didn't match. I haven't bought it yet, how much of a problem is it? Will it cause problems when I come to telling the DVLA I've got a new engine (I've found on previous occasions getting sense from the DVLA is slightly harder than getting milk from a stone).

the rough idling is probably the idle valve. Almost all EFi's do it at some point, but scrappy idle valves are only about a fiver, and after 2 or 3 tries you should be able to get a good one. New ones are expensive though!

 

I'm not sure of the legalities of engine numbers, sorry.

 

BTW - Have you got room for an EFi? You'll either need to lower the inlet manifold, or fit a bonnet bulge to get it in, or convert it to carbs.

 

Ant

If you buy the car, register it in your name and change the engine number at the same time. All should then be fine.

 

My 2.00 EFi ideld like a lumpy thing with extra lumps befor it warmed up when it was in the doner, I havn't yet started it in the kit so I've got that problem to come.

Sticky idle valves are very common indeed. I've tried three from a scrappy now, and whilst some are better than others, none are perfect. If the only symptom is a car which stalls or hunts rather than idling then 99% of the time it's a sticking idle valve.

 

Soaking the one from my donor in component cleaner for 12 months worked wonders on it ... but it's still not perfect.

 

Ant

Sorry for the ignorance, but where is the idler valve??

 

Is it the one in the airflow sensor??

 

Mine seems to struggle for air and then over rev, but mostly when warm.

 

Neil

I bought my doner from my sons brother inlaw in Ireland. After scrapping the vehicle I found the engine did not match the number on the V5. I wrote to the technical department at Ford and they sent me an official letterheaded reply stating the age of the engine and its capacity. That's all you need to prove engine age at SVA/MOT.

Happy building

Fred

The idle valve is the small cylinder on the side of the inlet manifold, above the rocker cover. It's held on by two 10mm nuts, and has a wire in the front of it. It's totally seperate to the air flow meter - this being the huge box with a flap in it which goes between the air filter box and the pipe up to the front of the throttle body.

 

Ant

Phoned up Swansea today, and after being put in no fewer than 3 queues and played *bleep*e music finally go to talk to someone. She said the mismatched numbers weren't a problem, and basically the DVLA don't much care. There's no database of stolen engines, so there hardly sounds like any point in even having engine serial numbers!