I've had it coming for at least 2 years. I had it checked out back then at a garage and they noted that the head gasket was leaking oil. It's always lost a bit of coolant and oil but it's now just started to get bad, just last night in fact when I noticed the coolant was near enough gone and the engine had a tappety sound coming from it. I was doing deliveries from 5 till 12 so had no time to really ease the situation Eventually the engine cut out altogether just after I finished and wouldn't start again for a while but I got it back home and topped up the oil (Castrol GTX). The cooling system has been behaving very erratically for a while also - sometimes the coolant disappears other times it's at the correct level other times its bubbling away inside the expansion tank. All I could really do was top it up to keep it going. I changed the oil last May but didn't actually start driving it till February there and it burnt through (or leaked) all that oil!

Like I said its been a known issue for 2 years so it has lasted pretty well I think, it's still drive able at the moment and I'm going to keep it going till it blows up lol

Then I'm going to stick the 1.4 Stilo engine in its place I will be able to do this over a weekend with the help of my mate who has a small workshop nearby. I also plan a few extra upgrades during this time - this was all in the plan So my stilo is due to meet its end in some respect but its not all over yet...

Mark

Love the plan, hope it's as easy as you feel it will be, but before then ask an insurance company to quote you for a modified Stilo... tell them everything. You might think again, a car of 1400cc as built & standard will be cheaper to insure than a modified version. Then when you come to sell it the engine type & number wont match the registration documents...

Why not just spend the money on overhauling the existing engine?

MarkThompson4 said:

Then I'm going to stick the 1.4 Stilo engine in its place I will be able to do this over a weekend with the help of my mate who has a small workshop nearby. I also plan a few extra upgrades during this time - this was all in the plan So my stilo is due to meet its end in some respect but its not all over yet...

Mark

Click to expand...

Great stuff! You might as well while its out on the floor, it's so much easier to add the goodies on when its out . I'm sort of in the same situation as you only mine still runs ok lol but it won't old out for long

Hopefully it will last till June but I think I'm being optimistic with that

It is an easy swap to do - just need the Stilo 1.4 engine mount and it will drop right in, my 1.2's engine loom will work with the 1.4 as well, just need a proper map to run the engine properly. Remap and my decat 4-2-1 manifold I'm hoping for between 110-120bhp.

I'll eventually get a gas flowed head and starjet cams fitted to the 1.4 to further up the HP but before that I'm going to fit coilovers and fully brace the Stilo

Will be interesting to see what my insurance think don't know if Direct Line take on modified cars with confidence