Engine rebuilds?

[thomasad]

Can anyone clear this up for me?! I have a late '96 Cerbera 4.2 which has done 24k, and as far as i can see through its history, its never had any major engine work. I've owned this car for about 10 months now and touch wood no problems yet. I have heard so many different stories about engine rebuilds on these cars. The early ones being a particular problem? I'm now very confused and partially concerned as to whether its likely mine is going to need major engine work in the near future?
TIA

[madasahatter]

I also have a '96 4.2, and it has not had any engine work either.

I have now done 37,000 miles, and things seem OK (besides the some potty Lambda sensors ) so I am not sure that it is all that enivitable.

I think the 80,000+ Cerbera that is knocking about in the UK is on its first engine rebuild as well, and IIRC that is an early 4.2.

Nothing to worry about.....

[GCerbera]

Well mine is a '96 P and has 42k on the original engine
(and cams I believe ) and I have no problems... :rushestotouchanypieceofwoodwithinreach:

If you're having no problems, just enjoy the experience!

Go create some weather...
Graham
TCR The Cerbera Register

www.TVR-Cerbera.com

[simonsparrow]

I think the varying experiences of people regarding engine reliability (or even the whole car for that matter)comes down to the hand built, low production run nature of these cars.

TVR have probably only made a few thousand AJP V8s and they are built by people rather than robots on a production line. This is going to increase the tolerance between a 'good un' and a 'bad un'.

When Ford (or whoever.....) build an engine or a car, they'll test it to death and then crank them out by the 10's thousands on automated production lines. Once they get the intial design right, there will be little variation in the finished product because of this.

TVRs need to be treated with mechanical sympathy compared to, say, a Ford Mondeo. If they're not, then they tend to degrade and fail at a quicker rate than a mass-produced car.

Basically your engine will keep going until it breaks This could happen in 10 miles or 100,000. The way you treat it will have a big effect, but if its going to go pop, then it will.

My car has 85K on the original engine (+cams) and is still frighteningly fast. Why? I couldn't say....it may have been assembled by pixies for all I know.

My guess it that it's been well used, but well looked after during that time.

As an owner, thats all you can do.

[ocean1]

Well yes its well known that the AJP engine needs rebuilding every few thousand miles. You best bet is to replace it with proper engine a Speed6!

Ocean1

[rocket]

I have a '98 4.2, but the dipstick is at the front of the engine, as it is for 4.5s. This suggests that it has had some engine work at some point in the past, and possibly has a 4.5 block. Does this sound plausible?

Cheers,

Neil

[ro_butler]

rocket said:

I have a '98 4.2, but the dipstick is at the front of the engine, as it is for 4.5s. This suggests that it has had some engine work at some point in the past, and possibly has a 4.5 block. Does this sound plausible? Cheers, Neil

Nope, not really.

All newer engines have the dipstick at the front which is probably where the '4.2 and 4.5 have same block' rumour came from. My '98 4.2 is the same as yours and that is how it rolled out of the factory.

Don't get me wrong, it is possible yours has had an entirely new engine since it was built but the dipstick thing on a '98 car is not conclusive. Would be on a '96 tho.....

[arcbeer]

Well mine is a '98 4.2 and the disp stick is at the back

[beemer]

ocean1 said:

Well yes its well known that the AJP engine needs rebuilding every few thousand miles. You best bet is to replace it with proper engine a Speed6! Ocean1

Well done Ocean1, that is quite possibly the most ridiculous quote I have yet seen on these boards!!
(unless the smiley indicates extreme irony)

cheers
Sean
(4.5 Cerb, 27,000 miles and goes like a rocket!!)

[GCerbera]

beemer said:

ocean1 said: Well yes its well known that the AJP engine needs rebuilding every few thousand miles. You best bet is to replace it with proper engine a Speed6! Ocean1 Well done Ocean1, that is quite possibly the most ridiculous quote I have yet seen on these boards!! (unless the smiley indicates extreme irony) cheers Sean (4.5 Cerb, 27,000 miles and goes like a rocket!!)

I think that was called 'payback' as Ocean1
and the Speed Six took some stick on these pages about
reliability.

Bottom line, the S6, 4.2 and 4.5 are all great cars but
can ALL be prone to engine problems before we kick off again.

Go create some weather...
Graham
TCR The Cerbera Register

www.TVR-Cerbera.com

[beemer]

GCerbera said:

beemer said: ocean1 said: Well yes its well known that the AJP engine needs rebuilding every few thousand miles. You best bet is to replace it with proper engine a Speed6! Ocean1 Well done Ocean1, that is quite possibly the most ridiculous quote I have yet seen on these boards!! (unless the smiley indicates extreme irony) cheers Sean (4.5 Cerb, 27,000 miles and goes like a rocket!!) I think that was called 'payback' as Ocean1 and the Speed Six took some stick on these pages about reliability. Bottom line, the S6, 4.2 and 4.5 are all great cars but can ALL be prone to engine problems before we kick off again.

Payback? Irony? whatever, my comment was light hearted (certainly don't want to ignite that debate again!)

Cheers
Sean

[tvrslag]

My 96 4.2 cerb had an engine rebuild very recently, and to confound the dipstick at the front groups further, It received a factory reconditioned block (year of block manufactuer unknown) but was mated back to the original sump and heads and the diptick is still at the back?
I was advised that there was a design change of block which, has more to do with the increase in size of the journals on the crank. My engine had the samller journal crank, but as both the block and crank needed replacing, and as the newer cranks are all the larger journal size, the block I received was definately a later block to mate with the new crank. Can't complain with the results. The Car goes like a rocket.
I suspect the very fixit as we go along nature of TVR development, means that alot of engines are to some degree going to be hybrids of late and early parts.

[thomasad]

how many miles had your cerbera done at the time of rebuild?
do you mind disclosing how much it cost?!

[ro_butler]

My point wasn't that all '98 cars have the dipstick at the front, more that if the engine does have the dipstick at the front does not necessarily mean it has been rebuilt.

As was mentioned there is probably no fixed date that the factory started fitting the newer engines.

Rob.

[davidd]

My car had some work when the previous owner removed the sump on a post! The dipstick is now at the front (it was at the back).

From what we can gather all TVR did was sort the sump out not change the block or anything.

It was about the 30 cerbera ever built and it is very, very quick.

D.