Evening all,

Unfortunately the head gasket on my 2002 4.4l vogue has gave up the ghost and therfore I'm looking for a reconditioned engine.

Now i have done a search in the forum but the majority of post are dated I have also searched on google and found a few people offering this service, I would like to ensure that any recon enginge is in fact reconditioned and not just painted to look new.

So my question is has any one here had a recon engine fitted and if so were was it done? How long ago? And what was the overal cost?

I would appreciate any feedback you guys have.

Thanks

Smiggy

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just get the heads recon'd and fit new gaskets? Yesterday I couldn't spell Engineer... Today I are one!
Inventor of the 'Guide-o-Matic automatic wheel alignment tool'
Former long term L322 owner, Up/Down graded to a Classic Tractor!

Are you positive its the head gasket? Never heard of a bad head gasket on a M62 before... L322 Vogue 2003

From what I understand about the m62 engine, you can't rebore it, as it has a coated liner and there are no oversize Pistons. You can change the bearings, but again not oversize. ( you replace crank with a new one) the heads are available secondhand. But again, the cam shaft bearings are not available oversize. The old days of picking up parts from a reconditioners, and assembling a 'new engine' are not catered for on this model. So, you should basically investigate, removing the heads, inspecting the bores for scoring, and either the bore score means find another secondhand engine, complete, or if the head is out of true, or cracked, finding another, and reassembling. You could be very lucky and just need new head gaskets. Especially if the engine still runs. £50 each I think.
You are talking big money, a secondhand engine used to be north of £1500, you should be trying to use a dismantler, that gives a garuantee, albeit, maybe 3 months. Whereas some will not garuantee anything.
Have you had the compression tested on all cylinders? With plugs out it will take an hour, and you might only need one side done.

Have you got white oil? Mayonnaise looking ?
I've heard of good repairs by changing gaskets, and rinsing through of sludge, and a few oil changes to get the engine clean. (With cheap oil etc.)
To reassemble the engine, you need a set of locking tools to line up the timing chains. These used to cost £400 but can now be found at about £150.

The engine is very similar to the bmw e39 m62 engine, but it's not the same. -but it can be adapted. There are plenty of mis-told stories on this subject.

What was the story of how the engine got to this state?