So far I have found 3 engines:

G reg 1000cl: havent tested engine because gearbox is missing (73000 miles) £60 oil good colour

K reg Uno 1.0ie: I cannot see a hole for pushrod to fuel pump£60 (unknown mileage) oil good colour

E reg uno 45 FIRE: Cant tell if it runs because fuel tank missing £60 (63000)
oil good colour

Also called up another scrap yard who said had two good engines but £100 each

Which sounds good, I know its hard to tell from this, i'm just paranoid about buying and fitting a dud engine.

Thanks

Will

wilharper2000 said:

So far I have found 3 engines:
K reg Uno 1.0ie: I cannot see a hole for pushrod to fuel pump£60 (unknown mileage) oil good colour

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this ones an injection (SPI) engine... you'd need to swap the heads and the cams ...

Tony M said:

this ones an injection (SPI) engine... you'd need to swap the heads and the cams ...

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No you won't, but you will have to fit an electric fuel pump.

I'd go for the E reg Uno engine or the G reg Panda engine. Both have low miles, and unless they've been seriously abused there is likely to be little wrong with them other than the odd ageing gasket.

Also, I don't know if any Panda owners have noticed that early FIRE engines seem to suffer far less from headgaskets going? I've had two 1986 999cc FIRE engines, my first one went to 105K without any problems and my current just hit 94K tonight. Neither have/ had any problems with headgaskets, yet later FIRE's in the Cinqs and Puntos seem to eat gaskets for a living

Do any of the engines come with a guarantee?

I'd also check the state of the coolant as well as the engine oil. If the coolant is yucky then it could well be about to blow its water pump/ head gasket.

If the Uno engine has good coolant and oil, I'd go for that as it is the lowest mileage and the cheapest

1986Uno45S said:

I'd also check the state of the coolant as well as the engine oil. If the coolant is yucky then it could well be about to blow its water pump/ head gasket.

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yup, 100% concur with this... the only problems the engine has is the head gasket is prone to corrosion and failure. This is a symptom of lazy maintenance rather than a design fault.

If you can get a low mileage well maintained one, it's a bit of a no brainer

I'll check the Uno soon, its got a car on top of it so could not get a look at the oil or coolant. THe panda has been sitting for a while with the bonnet off it and also the airfilter, there is quite a lot of condensation in it, may water have got into the engine?
The coolant and oil in the Panda look very good, especially the coolant which is a clear blue colour.
I'm looking at two other engines today, each £100 which is quite steep but they may be in very good condition.

wilharper2000 said:

I'll check the Uno soon, its got a car on top of it so could not get a look at the oil or coolant. THe panda has been sitting for a while with the bonnet off it and also the airfilter, there is quite a lot of condensation in it, may water have got into the engine?

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walk away... that carb acts like a funnel if nothing is covering it. if the airbox itself is gone it's guaranteed to be full of rain water. If anyone knows different say so

As above leave it alone, you will just waste yer time and money better to hear one running than not the won't pay you for fitting it and taking it out again all they are after is yer money

i've got a decent spare engine in Bodmin
I've Pm'd Will

wilharper2000 said:

I'll check the Uno soon, its got a car on top of it so could not get a look at the oil or coolant. THe panda has been sitting for a while with the bonnet off it and also the airfilter, there is quite a lot of condensation in it, may water have got into the engine?
The coolant and oil in the Panda look very good, especially the coolant which is a clear blue colour.
I'm looking at two other engines today, each £100 which is quite steep but they may be in very good condition.

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Keep an eye on Ebay as they sometimes come up there. I bought a complete 999cc FIRE engine with 5 speed gearbox and ALL ancillaries for £10 last year, I kid you not. Had to drive 75 miles to collect it, but it was a bargain. I have no idea if the engine runs or not, but was told it only had 78K miles on it. I actually only wanted the gearbox, so the engine and ancillaries were a bonus!

£100 for an old 999cc FIRE sounds expensive to me, unless that includes fitting and a guarantee.

Oh, and don't forget that you can also fit an 1108/ 1242cc Cinq or Punto engine as well, and some of those are available cheaply

I was looking for 1108 engines but I know that affects the insurance, which I cannot really afford to go up.
Do the MOT people look at the engine number when they do the test because surely if I buy an engine that used to have a cat attached to it, it will not pass the MOT.

Will

wilharper2000 said:

I was looking for 1108 engines but I know that affects the insurance, which I cannot really afford to go up.
Do the MOT people look at the engine number when they do the test because surely if I buy an engine that used to have a cat attached to it, it will not pass the MOT.

Will

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Grind off the engine capacity marks on the engine, give it a nice coat of engine enamel and who's to know if it is 999, 1108 or 1242?

If you fit an engine that was fitted to a cat equipped car into a car older than January 1993 (ish) it does NOT need to have a cat fitted. A cat is only required to be fitted to cars registered after a certain date, so if yours is earlier you'll be fine

To put it in perspective, you could fit the Toyota Prius engine/ drivetrain to a mk2 Ford Cortina and it would NOT be subjected to any emission tests other than a visible smoke test. It's the date that the car was first registered that dictates the testing requirements, not the age of the engine.

ah, okay, thanks for clearing that up. Should be getting a good engine this weekend, 62k.

1986Uno45S said:

Grind off the engine capacity marks on the engine, give it a nice coat of engine enamel and who's to know if it is 999, 1108 or 1242?

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That would be obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception then If the sh*t hits the fan and your vehicle gets examined you could also be in the brown sticky stuff so if changing up would mention it. 1.1 panda's were also grp1 ins so won't be much of a difference.

Any excuse to void your insurance policy - will be most accepted by the insurance companies . . . .

Will - it's an injection Engine - there is no hole for the fuel pump (neither is there a fuel pump!) . . .

Alan.D said:

That would be obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception then If the sh*t hits the fan and your vehicle gets examined you could also be in the brown sticky stuff so if changing up would mention it. 1.1 panda's were also grp1 ins so won't be much of a difference.

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That is true, but if it looks like a standard FIRE engine I doubt if any insurance company is going to look much further. Unless of course the Panda crashed at 120mph and they suspect that something is not quite standard in the engine department

But you are right, it is risky. Also worth bearing in mind that fitting an 1108cc engine to a 999cc car might actually class the car as 'modified', so the insurance will be higher than for a standard 1108cc equipped Panda. Daft, but that's how insurance companies tend to work :bang:

Anyway, it was just a suggestion...

I was seriousely considering a 1108cc, but I thought I might as well keep the car original, and I don't really want to give the gearbox a larger load. I'm prob gonna try and get that Uno engine running, and fit it a week or two before christmas.
Besides replacing the clutch, what are the other things I can do while the engine is out, as well as the gearbox. I'm going to drain the gear oil, then put it back in after because its only done 1000 miles. I'm prob going to replace only one of the inner boots becuase one was done about 3000 miles ago.

Thanks

WIll

ALso, is it possible to drill a hole for the fuel pump push rod, or is that just asking for trouble?

wilharper2000 said:

ALso, is it possible to drill a hole for the fuel pump push rod, or is that just asking for trouble?

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you'd need the two bolts for the pump also but it's not impossible... just a pain in the bum

I would put on a new cambelt while the engine is out, its a lot easier when out of the car