390SE with possible blown head gasket - worth it?

[PokiGTA]

Hey gents,

I assume you've mostly seen the bellow add on PH classifieds:
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1750657.htm

Apparantly has a possible blown head gasket.

What is the cost of a head rebuild?

Is it worth it?

Cheers,

Tim

[JR]

The Contractor said:

Depends, it's an all alloy engine, so has the head gasket just leaked or has it been well and truly cooked!

True to a certain extent but remember that this is not one of the modern tin foil ally engines. RV8 heads rarely warp and the block less so.

The car looks like an excellent buy - chassis restoration as well. I don't think that it will be for sale for long.

[blade7]

Didn't the 390 have a vented bonnet ?.

[911motorsport]

Series 2 cars certainly did.

[JR]

TVR always built exceptions so any car could have a different bonnet. This is an early car and has an early style bonnet fitted. It may have had a different bonnet at some time, who knows. To my mind it wouldn't bother me as the rear spoiler, engine bay etc do suggest a 390.

[C O Jones]

My 390 (Oct 85) hasn't got the bonet louvres and never had them.

I believe that the louvres were developed on the 420 Racer (currently Jeff Statham's yellow car), I remember a factory tour in 1986 where we could see the teltale holes on the inner wing where the drill had gone through the bonnet and not stopped in time.

I think the holes have now been filled in.

Russ

[grahamw48]

I think the price is very good.

The engine is likely to be the cheapest part of the car to fix.

It's a series 1, and the owner posts on the Wedge forum.

What's going on with the bootlid though ?

[mark387mw]

Series 1 and a half. Series 2 body on a trailing arm chassis. Mine had a similar registration number as this 390 and was the crossover era.