Tuscan or T350c

[M50GRF]

HI All
I've been looking for a Tuscan to replace my Griff, but I know of a T350c with 40k miles but NO engine rebuild for £15k. Should I gamble on this or stick to trying to find a Tuscan.
Do all speed 6 engines need rebuilding, at 40k miles I thought this would of had one by now?
What are the tell tale signs?
Any help
Mike

[Smooth Smith]

15k seems a good price for a T350 if it's a sorted one.

Later cars are thought to have had the known issues resolved, however there are T350's out there that have needed rebuilds. Equally, there are many that are fine & there are a number of Tuscans on original engines with over 60k on the clock & still running.

In answer to your question, no not every S6 engine needs a rebuild & there seems to less & less problems. There are however no guarantees & a lot depends on how it has been treated in the past. The warm up procedure is important & if this has not been followed, it will lead to early engine expiry.

I originally wanted a Tuscan with a rebuild but in the end went for one without but had an inspection done.

I would recommend an inspection. The good specialists out there should be able to tell you whether it's a good one or not.

[M50GRF]

Thanks for reply.
The car seems ok its just the unknown of the engine I guess its a gamble worth taking
What is the correct warm up procedure? dont let it idle from cold and drive straight away keeping below 2500rpm

[Flintstone]

M50GRF said:

Thanks for reply.
The car seems ok its just the unknown of the engine I guess its a gamble worth taking
What is the correct warm up procedure? dont let it idle from cold and drive straight away keeping below 2500rpm

That's the procedure most use. As for a rebuild I followed the golden rule and bought one with a rebuild (almost everyone who tells you not to bother has one for sale) but soon afterward discovered golden rule #2. Make sure that after the rebuild the owner kept checking the oil. Mine didn't and I needed another rebuild but that gave me an excuse to have the 4.3.

[nawarne]

I bought my '04 Tuscan Mk1 in December '09 with about 28K miles on the clock and a good service history.
When I purchased it the clutch had been replaced at ca: 24K miles. I'm now up to 39K and it still pulls like a train. I did 4 European trips this year, twice to Le Mans, once to Spa and a trip to Ireland. I've had 2 services done - so these plus a new cooling pressure cap and a wiper linkage, are the only expenses so far. I will have to replace the rear tyres fairly soon.

I think the main thing is to buy a car who's history you know, or go to a respected dealer. I used James Agger, and can't fault him.

If you like the opportunity for roof off driving, then the Tusc is the obvious choice.
Nick

[franky dB]

I brought a 2003 T350c back in the summer for 16k with 40k on the clock with no rebuild. Has cost me around 2k since in repairs, but the problems seem to be getting less frequent. I would guess a 15k t350 would need a little bit of work, but as long as you budget for the worse case scenario then the risk may pay off.

I took the risk and so far its going well. Mine recently clocked 166mph at Vmax200, and 360bhp at Surrey Rolling Road. Big figures for any T350, let alone a standard 3.6 with 43k on the clock with no rebuild.

[M50GRF]

Thanks for all the reply's

The T350C was sold from under me today whilst on the way to it
Guess it was'nt ment to be
Thanks anyway

[pete]

M50GRF said:

Do all speed 6 engines need rebuilding, at 40k miles I thought this would of had one by now?
What are the tell tale signs?

No, not all, but a lot of them do - unfortunately not all for the same reasons. The 3.6 engines seem to be better statistically, but then you have to remember that the 3.6s were generally post 2002-2003, so didn't suffer from the poor quality finger followers that plagued many of the 2000 and 2001 cars.

My 2003 3.6 needed a rebuild at 41k (ish), after I'd owned it for 5 years and driven it 22k miles. It wasn't catastrophic, I could have carried on driving it for another 10k or more, but was showing a couple of tell tale signs:

• Running out of exhaust valve adjustment on a couple of the cylinders. Due to valve seat erosion (or valve stretch as it's often called), which would have forced a top end rebuild eventually.
• Losing compression on two cylinders, again due to valve wear, but also wear on the cylinder liners which manifested itself as a lot of piston slap when cold.

All of that was sorted by a full rebuild (as a 4.3 in my case), but it did cost me over £9k when all the ancillaries were taken into account.

As I said, I could have got away with not doing the work, but the car would have been losing performance, and it would have been tricky to sell as a thorough inspection would have revealed the problems.

If you like everything else about the T350 you've seen (colour, spec, etc), get a decent inspection, and take a chance Worst case it could cost you £6-7k at some point for a rebuild with a warranty, but you'll have the car you wanted with a bomb-proof engine, for more or less what it would have cost to buy a rebuilt car.

Or, pay the premium for a car with a rebuild and a warranty and have the peace of mind upfront; you pays your money and takes your choice, as they say.

Pete

[Smooth Smith]

M50GRF said:

What is the correct warm up procedure? dont let it idle from cold and drive straight away keeping below 2500rpm

Pretty much. You really need to keep it below 2,000 rpm until oil temp is around 40 deg. Gradually build up revs until 65 deg before giving it the full beans. I however tend to keep it below 2,000 until it's upto 60 deg.

A pity you missed out on the T350 but I'm sure there'll be others.

[Trainspotter]

I thought I was doing the wise thing when I bought my Tuscan S. It had a full engine rebuild about 17k miles and I bought it at 32k miles. It was obvious the car had been very well looked after from a mechanical perspective and it came with a large history folder and receipts totalling in excess of GBP 20k.

Once I removed the CATs some 3-4k miles after buying the car I noticed a small amount of steam from one of the exhausts on a hot start, which later turned out to be a cracked cylinder head. To cut a long story short I ended up paying for a full engine rebuild (inc new cylinder head) at around GBP 7k!

When looking through the history in greater detail it showed it was on it's 2nd alloy rad and there had been an engine cooling issue post 1st rebuild. I imagine this was a contributing factor to the engine's demise.

The fly in the ointment for me was the engine let go when in France on the 1st day of my driving holiday. It took over two months for me to get the car back with the new engine! I then had about two months to run it in and get some fun out of it before I moved to Sydney!

I sold the car to my Dad in the end... the lucky, lucky b*stard!

If I was to buy again I would pay less for a car without a rebuild and have a Power 4.3l fitted.

[rev-erend]

If you have owned a Griff then you have had a good introduction to TVR
and their cost of ownership but know this - owning a speed 6 car is more
expensive and it is an absolute lottery whether you get an engine that is a
time bomb. There are no guarantees that any of the following will mean you will
not need a rebuild during your ownership :

Full service history
Lady Owner
Always warmed up
Just had a rebuild
Later models (implied better than early cars)
etc..

I'm sure they are useful but there are no guarantees ... I'm listened to owners
who have done 10's of thousands of miles and never had a rebuild and others who have
had 3 rebuilds in 3 years..

I had a T350 for 12K and a year and it was a great car but more problematic than a Griff ..
lots of little issues and that engine takes for ever to warm up .. I like the idea of the
plug in heat pad for the oil catch tank ..

Best advice is to buy eyes wide open .. with a small contingency fund if the worse happens
and get one of those AA £50 break down policies - they pay £500 towards a mechanical breakage.

Very handy as the clutchs cost £1000 and only seem to last 12k miles.

Edited by rev-erend on Friday 7th January 09:36

[pete]

rev-erend said:

I'm listened to owners who have done 10's of thousands of miles and never had a rebuild and others who have had 3 rebuilds in 3 years..

Indeed - if you want peace of mind from a car with a rebuilt engine, I'd always advocate buying one with a warranty in place on the rebuild. TVR Power offer 5 year, unlimited mileage warranties on their 4.3 rebuilds for example, so there are cars out there for sale which should be a lot more predictable in terms of ownership costs (like mine, shameless plug! )

Pete

[jimroyale]

T350C, the dash in the T350 is built into the the shell and provides better stiffness. Alao, shorter overhang at front and rear which means it's more nimble, turns in better and is less tail happy. Although I'm sure that you will be sticking to 70 mph, the T350 and the Tuscan are both unstable at 150mph. Hence the Tuscan S spoiler and the Sagaris Gurney. I'd buy a Tuscan; simply becuase I think that the T350 is foul to look at unless you are easily pleased. It's got simple surfaces yet, you could say that about a football pitch.

[M50GRF]

I've been looking for two months, I was only looking for a Tuscan but as this T350 came up for £15k I was tempted.
I've also been tempted by a Tamora but not sure of the rear end.
A 4.3 speed 6 would be nice but over my budget(£16ish)
I'm not to fussed on which colour.
Ideally a Tuscan S with close ratio gearbox, How may of these were made?
I would buy a car which needs a rebuild if it were cheap enough!