Scottish Elises

Brand new, never been on an engine VVC heads for £900 exchange, £1000 outright. Comes complete with valves and VVC units. Called them and have been told that everything is brand new and nothing is reconditioned.
This is the company:- B S Motors Ltd - Gear Boxes For Motor Vehciles in Birmingham B6 7EQ

Has anybody had dealings with them?

Im pretty sure that your old head would make more than 100 if you were to sell it, so be worth buying a new one outright if your going to buy.

Speak to Chris (Cheezus) on here.
He just got one and, as far as we can tell it's a winner.
He is also keeping the old head. Much more than £100 worth left over once you strip off the bits you want to keep.

Gav.

I bought one from them from eBay. Only problem I had was them sending the wrong head first time round, one phone call later and they sent a courier and I had the right head with in 24h.

The head has now done nearly 2000 miles now, including this years campaganza and didnt miss a beat. Just take your head off replace the gasket and bolt this head on.

Why would a place selling new heads want your old one on exchange???

mac wrote:Why would a place selling new heads want your old one on exchange???

I thought that too!

It definitely looked like a brand spanker. No sign of use on it anywhere and it was all packed up in a Rover box.

The cynic would say it's possible to chemically clean a head to the point it looked new and replace the worn bits and get a Rover box made up.

Speak to Power Train Projects and they will tell you it is still possible to build brand new 1.8k engines to any spec. the parts are still available but getting scarcer.

Any second hand head is a gamble without access to the right tools and people/skills to test it. Even then it isn't easy - ask Woody.

Without anything to the contrary the guy seems to be selling the genuine article. For all we know he may be melting down the old heads to make spoons or testing them properly and building them back up to sell as reconditioned. The cams and VVC mech on the returned head would cover the £100 that's knocked off even if the heads is scrap.

It sounds like these are as advertised. Nothing much wrong with the head I have. A bit tappety and a slight oil leak. I could spend lots of time and some money chasing the tappety noise. Chances are its noise from the Vvc mechanisms. They are £500 each for new. I could end up spending well over £1000 and be in the guts of the engine several times. £1000 buys the solution and saves a lot of time. Since I am keeping the car for the long term, I think I will save up and buy the new head.