I seem to of done something stupid yet again

[SiC]

That's a shame. Are parts platform shared and a good seller on these?

[panhard65]

I will pull the head and see what it is like in there but it doesn't look good, its been off the road since 1987 which he kept quiet by hiding the registration.

[paulplom]

The seller sounds like a cunt and knew exactly what he was doing.
Like you say, breaking it will hopefully get your money back.

[panhard65]

Yeah now I have the reg I can see he has only had it a year and probably bought it the same as me thinking he could do a quick flip on it then found out it was fucked.

[NigelBickle]

Lit the head. Small chance of a pleasant suprise. He didn’t bother, did he? Might be a simple storage seizure..

[DodgeRover]

I wonder if that lot would vacuum out to give you a better idea looking through an endoscope or similar.
Being off the road since 87 should hopefully mean it is virtually rot free?

[panhard65]

It looks like it is all on one side either the manifold had a leak or more likely there was a head gasket failure on that side which is what took the car off the road in the first place. Then sitting for nearly 35 years with water in the bore / manifold has not been kind. I think the other side will be ok, but it really wants a new home or I need to find a rotten one to rob the engine from.
The crud is pretty solid I have been digging it out with a screwdriver and managed to get down to the valves before I gave up. It has a bit of rot but all easy to repair it's just when you add in the damaged parts etc it gets real expensive

[LynehamHerc]

Is this from the era when Lancia still had a bit of independence and did their own thing at times?

[brandersnatch]

Ah that’s a shame. Pretty low trick by the seller. Hope you’ll be able to get your money back breaking it.

[Six-cylinder]

Because the bodies rotted so badly on these there are now more engines than cars and you should be able to find a replacement engine.

When my Gamma engine broke 3 years ago I was offered a replacement engine, but choose to rebuild mine as it was top end only.

The Lancia Gamma Consortium have lots of parts but you need to join to access them. They took the engine out of a rotten Gamma last year in my field.