Merak SS project anyone?....£5K start.......no reserve

Parisien

Parisien

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NickP said:
An engine rebuild on this car would never cost £10k. Maybe half that depending on the parts requires, but assuming the head and the lump were ok then maybe £5/£6k, considering its already stripped down its easy to spot what needs to be replaced, what is missing and if anything is broken (although its difficult to determine if anything is cracked without specialist equipment). An old engine like that is pretty simple to rebuild in relative terms to say a modern Maserati. You'd probably spend more on getting a decent respray and getting the interior back up to scratch.

If I didn't have my 3200 I'd be very interested in this, wonder if he'd do a swap?
Click to expand...

If I recall on TG, they bought that cheap Merak and either the engine rebuild was £5k then.....5/6 years ago....or indeed £10K.........so its certainly more than £5K now....and more likely £10K!


P
 
conaero

conaero

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They bought it for £9k and it came with a £10k receipt for engine rebuild, or the other way round.
 
conaero

conaero

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Eurospares have a complete rebuilt engine for £8k, its a 2.7 but you get the idea.

I recon with your engine, £5k will sufice for the rebuild.
 
NickP

NickP

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Depends where you get it rebuilt.... What parts are needed and so on. I had my TVR Speed 6 rebuilt with new pistons, head skimmed, new channels milled for coolant to resolve an issue in the design and that cost £6k about 7 years ago at a TVR specialist. However, with this engine I think you'd only be looking at parts as its so basic that so long as you have the torque settings and a bit of knowledge anyone could put it back together. It wouldn't make sense financially to get a Maserati specialist to rebuild it and charge you £100 + VAT to do so per hour.
 
NickP

NickP

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Conaero said:
Eurospares have a complete rebuilt engine for £8k, its a 2.7 but you get the idea.

I recon with your engine, £5k will sufice for the rebuild.
Click to expand...

Maybe they would do an exchange? Although always best to try and keep the numbers matching...
 
D

dem maser

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buy the house!!!!!!!

will get thrown off here now..................


buy the merak.....life is for living
 
NickP

NickP

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I'm sure I could do both but the Mrs will argue I wont have time to do up a car while painting and decorating a house.... putting in a new kitchen and so on... Maybe I should get a new build?
 
Khamsin433

Khamsin433

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Would be a great project if there is no rot, one of the biggest being under the fuel tanks in the rear. Some sort of foam used there that soaks up water and corrodes the structure and tanks.
Front (boot) needs checking under the trim around wheel arches, classic rot area that condems the car due to cost of prefessional repairs. Though from pics it looks good

Engines: 2.7 is from a SM and will have Maserati script on cam covers. Merak used 3.0 that didn't have Maserati script on cam cover. As for expertise Andrew Brodie is the man to contact in the country.

This being a mid production car will definately have LHM braking system, headlight lifters etc, so budget on reconditioning costs for dired out components, though maybe not as bad as my Khamsin. Agree with the comments, you need to save costs and do a lot of the work yourself, but really need to retain the original engine if possible. Meraks are at the low end of the values game and to make it easy to move on down the line needs to retain be as original as possible. McGraths have broken a few Meraks over the past couple of years (was one at Stanford hall in as found condition) which may be a source of critical missing engine parts.

Does deserve saving.....
 
cobratwin

cobratwin

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it will share a few SM parts so maybe some saving there. personally id Love to get my hands on her engine and bring it back to life.
 
Emtee

Emtee

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Bal, the engine re-build doesn't look too scary, but it'd be the Citroen hydraulics wouldn't it? If yes and it's been stood for years it'd be that that would worry me.

Hope all is well by the way?
 
cobratwin

cobratwin

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brakes, clutch, headlight pods. iirc and as a 1977 one this would have the interior and dash of the Maserati Bora..
 
Khamsin433

Khamsin433

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I'd agree it should have the Bora dash so would be better inside.

Hydraulics should not scare anyone away. You just have to be methodical and almost all items can be overhauled. After that it's no different to bleeding other systems. There will be some items shared with the SM engine, but the experts would have to advvise which. Did they say why teh engine was taken apart in the first place ?
 
conaero

conaero

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Ok, I finally got a call back from the owner

He is a trader, and the car is very good. The reason the engine is in bits is due to is swallowing a valve and it being embedded in the piston so you need a new head, valves and end shells, piston and possibly crank damage.

He has had offers of over £9k but he is letting the auction run.

Too much money so its a no go as the new owner is going to pay too much to get here back on the road.
 
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