Higher mileage Cerbera's - to be avoided or not?

[willdew]

I'm educating myself on potential TVR ownership and wondered if you guys could help.

I've fancied a Cerbera for years and have about £14k or so to spend. This seems to get me the higher milage cars, which I know isn't particularly a problem with the rover v8, but I didn't know if/how the TVR v8 stood up to 50k + miles being put on them. Plese can anyone advise?

[luckyone]

I've seen one with over 100K & no major rebuilds, I think there are a few others out there as well....

[Mr Freefall]

willdew said:

I'm educating myself on potential TVR ownership and wondered if you guys could help. I've fancied a Cerbera for years and have about £14k or so to spend. This seems to get me the higher milage cars, which I know isn't particularly a problem with the rover v8, but I didn't know if/how the TVR v8 stood up to 50k + miles being put on them. Plese can anyone advise?

TVR Power advise and Engine refresh after 50k for AJP. Not to say that the engine wont last longer than this though.

Mr F

[Tam Lin]

Mr Freefall said:

[quote=willdew]TVR Power advise and Engine refresh after 50k for AJP. Not to say that the engine wont last longer than this though. Mr F

Presumably bodyshops advise a respray every two years, too.

Would rather seem to depend on use, initial build tolerances, maintenance, and a host of other factors, all of which will vary vastly depending on individual cars and owners.

[shell]

TVR Power advise and Engine refresh after 50k for AJP. Not to say that the engine wont last longer than this though.

Mr F[/quote]

Also, it depends if the engine has been rebuilt along its 50k+ life line. I would presume that most rebuilt engines will be in better condition than from new as allot of effort goes into rebuilds, not to mention cash.

[byff]

Mr Freefall said:

TVR Power advise and Engine refresh after 50k for AJP. Not to say that the engine wont last longer than this though.

What a load of old bollox. 65,000 miles and still going strong.











Touch wood

[willdew]

Thanks guys.

So cars with a rebuild in the previous 10k - 20k miles could be a good buy, irrespective of the fact they may have covered 60k - 70k plus. I precume if they're at this sort of mileage, but there's no indication of ever having a rebuild then it's something I should be cautions of and bear in mind I might need to budget for it.

[Toady1]

byff said:

Mr Freefall said: TVR Power advise and Engine refresh after 50k for AJP. Not to say that the engine wont last longer than this though. What a load of old bollox. 65,000 miles and still going strong. I aggree, sounds like an easy way to scare owners into having their perfectly good engine rebuilt! If its been allowed to warm up and cool down nicely, and serviced regularly, then there is no reason why it should need a rebuild after 50k! there is a guy on here who has done well over 100k on his original ajp8! Touch wood

[david smith]

just clicked over 59K ... who knows with anything in life ...

If you assume you are going to have to do a rebuild at some stage
and take that as the excuse to do all the niggles at the same time
then it wont come as a surprise.

I paid £16k for mine almost 2 years ago ... offords had a few similar ones at
40k miles for £20-21k so my theory was hopefully I would get 20k miles use then a nice
upgrade rebuild for around £5k and I wouldnt be any worse off!

who knows I may get her over 100k with no work ... wouldnt that be nice ...

Just get one and enjoy it!

DAS

[spartacus]

Talk to Simon Sparrow, > 100k miles in a 97 4.2!

[RUSSELLM]

What's defined as A rebuild ?

I've just had my head gaskets replaced, heads skimmed, new timing chain, oil pump rebuilt etc at a cost of £2500.

Is that classed as a rebuild or not ?

[trooperiziz]

RUSSELLM said:

What's defined as A rebuild ? I've just had my head gaskets replaced, heads skimmed, new timing chain, oil pump rebuilt etc at a cost of £2500. Is that classed as a rebuild or not ?

For me, a rebuild has to include new piston rings at the very least.

[Toady1]

i think that wouldnt really class as a rebuild russel, a rebuild usually means full strip down with the crank checked and all re-balanced with new bearings, maybe pistons,rings all gaskets, head rebuild with re-cut valves/seats etc.

[jesfirth]

67000 and it only died to my stupdiity-lack of oil

[purpleheadedcerb]

59000 miles. Good solid oil pressure, good power, little bit thirsty on oil. My race engine builer (not TVR) recommends a full rebuild each season. Not suprsing really as this is how he makes money. I'll have it rebuilt when something seems to be amiss thanks.

There are so many factors that mean that one persons 30000 miles is harder on the engine than someone who has done double that. Take everything on what you see and look at the service history. Someone on here bought one that I was considering that had 36000 miles on the clock. After two weeks he had serious problems. Major oil pressure drop. Don't think I've seem him post since. Glad I got the one with 20k miles more on the clock now!

Scott

[gazzab]

I think 50K is a good indication of the miles you might expect from an AJP before a rebuild. Not far off the Rover V8 target.
If you get more then great. The engines when stripped start to look tired as the miles clock up.

[byff]

We're all dooomed I tells ya! DOOMED!

[JR]

gazzab said:

Not far off the Rover V8 target.

Which target would that be?

[simonsparrow]

Interesting that quote from TVR Power - they didn't mention that to me when I spoke to them. They do replace timing chains on engines they rebuild that over 40k miles as a precaution, perhaps thats what they meant?

I guess the simple fact is that there is no accepted milage for AJP life. As a race engine type design, there are too few of them that have done really high mileage to know. Also this type of engine will be much more vunerable to 'bad' driving habits, such as revving from cold etc.

If it was in a race car, it would get a regular rebuild/refresh to keep it running at peak perfomance. I've no doubt that my engine (115k miles) is not producing as much power as it used to, but the car is fast enough and seems to run ok, so for now I'll stick with the 'if it aint broke, don't fix it' approach.

Also a road car (or at least mine) spends the majority of its time spinning at sub-4000 rpm speeds, which has got to be less stress on it.

Hopefully mine will just start burning a lot of oil or something when it decides to give up the ghost.

[gazzab]

JR said:

gazzab said: Not far off the Rover V8 target. Which target would that be?

'target' in the loosest sense of the word. I have been told that the Rover V8s in TVRs are generally tired at 60K and rebuilds then become more common place.