2012 Zafira 1.6 engine swap nightmare.

[moffspeed]

Posting this in an attempt to help some friends of ours through a Zafira nightmare..



So they bought a 2012 plate Zaf 1.6 petrol from a reputable local independent dealer approx. one yr ago. Nice car, one owner, 22K miles, HPI clear etc. Long story then - but in essence they repeatedly overfilled it with oil having been given some dodgy advice- ultimate outcome - 11 Litres of oil drained from a wrecked engine...



So our friends sourced a bare engine off ebay - to be fair a reputable salvage company and I tend to believe them when they tell me it came out of a rear ended Astra 1.6 on a 12 plate also, mileage 44 K.



£1200 later a local garage have swapped all the ancillaries off the old engine and added new timing belt/water pump/clutch kit. All good so far, engine ticks over beautifully but under any load the engine misfires like a bag of old nails and Vmax is 50mph. Garage checks timing - all is OK, ECU then sent off and checked - all OK. Arms-folded time from the garage "we've done the work and the car runs" - so money handed over (they didn't speak to me first...) and hobbled Zaf back on the driveway.



So car then goes to our local Vaux main dealer - £220 spent on diagnostics - timing again adjusted (?) but no fault codes appearing and car no better. Vaux agent then twigs replaced engine so non-standard car and we don't want to know thanks all the same....



Final chapter - I organise for my local Saab indie to take a look - very very honest and competent guys - 3 hours later - no answer. Again no fault codes, fuel pressure OK, no air leaks, exhaust back pressure OK, only possible clue = Cat getting unusually hot.



So that's the problem - only other issue = original engine number was 20K**** whilst donor engine is 20M**** so ? any other ? ECU compatibility issue. We now have a £6K car which has had £2K spent on it and is effectively a non runner. Could cut and run and sell "as is" on ebay for £2k max or fling a Cat at it and further diagnostics but without a guaranteed "cure".



I'll take a look at the legal side but any technical hints/suggestions ??

[moffspeed]

Think I might have answered my own question after a bit of Googl'ing, the 2012 Zafira is a "B" so still running the Z16 engine whilst the Astra crossed over to the A16 engine set up in 2011. So presumably engine is trying to exhaust through a totally different catalyst set up - hence overheating cat etc...??

Looks like A16 / Z16 engines otherwise very similar - so is my answer to source an A16 manifold /cat pipe set up or am I looking at different ECUs etc ??