From:
Bruce_W_REMOVE_582601_THIS_@yahoo.com
Mark & Mike,
Thanks for the lengthy and nice replys. Some of your comments
helped alot.. From what I have learned is the low milage CV's are
priced higher $9k- $10k range and higher (but may have corrosive and
alot of rebiuld on engine work needed from sitting ))and the half
decent 50k - 60k milage ones with good engine maintenence and a few
nicks and rust bubbles are around $3500 - $5000 . Projects with poor
paint but run with some rust I saw as cheap as $1600..
Looking into what I have to do with shipping and paint and engine
work, i would have $5k+ in a project one by the time I got done with
it.... Why do all that when I can get a half decent one for $5k with
good paint.(only thing is is this is such a small conmmunity that
most of those cars have been owned several times over and over)
One in particular that I have found is from a private owner--not in
the CVOA from what I can tell and I searched through all the postings
and messages and could not find anything on the car #ID or owners
name in any of the postings... which believes me to be a car that has
not exchanged hands alot and no one has had thier fingers in it
(which I like)......he bought the car with 8,000 miles on it from
original owner back in 77 and drove it to 1983 with now 15,900 miles
then he had it repainted , new stripes kit and parked it where it has
sat since.. Now the paint is all good on it from the pics after all
it was repainted in 83 prior to parking it , 15,900 miles on clock
and he did say that he pulled it out last year and got it running.
Said he had to replace the tank --was all rotted out and the fuel
punp and it fired over, let it run for 1/2 hour and pulled it back
in... The interior is mint.. I mean mint white interior.. carpet
everything looks real good.. I will ask for more pics of underneath
the car--- I want to see more of that but the car has been sitting in
cold garge up north all those years and he sent me pics of the
engine.. I am not sure what a 15,000 mile engine should look like but
I would like to upload some pics to the web tonight and I will repost
with a link and maybe someone can look at the pics and tell me what
they think.
The engine looks dirty, some rusty and the paint is curled and
peeling on the head...also I noticed fresh oil stained all around the
head (valve cover) this might of been when he fired it over last
year , the gaskets are probally gone... I would appreciate it if
someone cold look at this pic for me.. Would I be able to flush it
all out, change all seals and gaskets, hoses, belts,
ect....everything plastic or rubber without tearing the whole engine
apart and doing a rebiuld?? i dont want to have to do a rebuild..
What else might I have to do that I havent covered???
Ok i can get it for $4000 + he said he was willing to split the
shipping with me so really $3700 for the car + $600 shipping =
$4300. What do you think
Thanks for the time and answering these messages
Bruce
Fort Myers, Florida
--- In <a href="/group/cosworthvegas/post?protectID=219233066105193209050199029077192253163098100009128121188190230091025019053061151110147">cosworthvegas@yahoogroups.com</a>, "Mark A. Rock <<a href="/group/cosworthvegas/post?protectID=029166091163127190025067203043129208071">markrock@c...</a>>"
<<a href="/group/cosworthvegas/post?protectID=029166091163127190025067203043129208071">markrock@c...</a>> wrote:
> Bruce:
>
> Each of your questions could start a thread. Many of them have
been
> the subject of one or more threads in the past. While I know it
> would be time consuming, you would gain a great deal of insight and
> information just by searching on some good key words and reading
the
> posts.
>
> That said, I'll state my opinions:
>
> Buy the best car that you can afford, unless you are someone who
> gains pleasure from doing the restoration work. Since you are not
> a "gear head", stay away from anything that needs any work. Even
gear
> heads often find that they become disillusioned with the amount of
> work involved, and the cost (that won't be repaid with a
commensurate
> increase in value). Buy a car you'll be proud to and able to drive
> NOW. Don't buy a car that hasn't been driven regularly, or that
> doesn't have documentation of appropriate antifreeze and brake
fluid
> changes. While the size of the risk of damage there is a matter of
> some debate, why take a chance? If you read the posts, the main
> concern is erosion of the cylinder barrels at the head gasket
mating
> surface. Is this common? Apparently not all that common. Can it
> occur. Certainly. Is there any way to tell? Sure. Pull the head
> and do an inspection--quite a bit of work. Is anybody likely to do
> this? No. Can it be repaired? Yes. Does the fact that a car has
> been driven diminish the likelihood of this damage? Unclear. The
> issue is the frequency of coolant changes, not whether or not it
has
> been driven.
>
> I consider the Cosworth a "low maintenance" vehicle. My motto has
> long been, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I'm changing my
view,
> but I am not where Duke and Al and others are by any means. These
> are very robust cars. But they are more than 25 years old. You
will
> find that they perform better, present fewer problems, if they are
> driven regularly, even if it is only in good weather. That pretty
> much holds true for all cars. Another reason to avoid the super
low
> mileage car.
>
> The original injectors are not a pain. Just change your filter
> regularly and don't run watery gas through them. The Webers don't
> make any significant difference, IMHO. Conventional wisdom is that
> they provide a bit more low end torque and a bit less top end, but
I
> dare anybody to document that. Nobody has done back to back dyno
> runs on the same engine and varying only the induction system. And
> Hutton's graphs depicting greater HP and torque compared apples and
> oranges. He compared EFI on an engine with a stock head and Webers
> on a head with COE valves. The result, not mentioned in his ads,
was
> an increase in compression on the Weber engine (because the COE
> valves don't have pockets in the tops of the valves), guaranteeing
> greater torque and horsepower.
>
> I personally put 153,000 on an EFI Cosworth with nary an injector
> problem. Webers have a reputation of needing to be tuned
regularly.
> The EFI never needs tuned. Other than replacing a CTS and a TPS, I
> never touched my EFI in 153,000 miles. But now one must begin to
be
> concerned about corrosion in the various connectors--not a large
> problem, nor difficult to solve, but somewhat more of an issue with
> the increasing age of the vehicles, yet one that can be addressed
in
> half an hour. Would this drive me to Webers? Not on your life.
>
> As for color, it is a matter of personal preference. Not many
> Cosworths of Color were built, but that does not seem to have yet
> translated into any significant difference in value. Will it some
> day? I have no doubt.
>
> Would I buy a car that hasn't been started since 1983? Sure.
Would
> I pay a lot for it? Never! I have just taken gas tanks off three
> cars that sat for 10 years or more. One sat indoors. All three
are
> almost beyond repair. I have cut the top half off one, have
> sandblasted the inside of the top half and scraped the bottom half
in
> preparation for sandblasting, and have bought a quart of Bill
> Hirsch's Gas Tank Sealer to seal it after I have welded it back
> together. Is that the kind of job you want to get involved in? I
> don't know about the inside of the engine--haven't looked yet.
Don't
> know about the insides of the calipers. Haven't looked there
> either. As Duke says, CAVEAT EMPTOR! I'd buy the car because I
can
> fix it, and because I enjoy the fixing part as much or more than
the
> driving part. But if you are not into that sort of thing, beware.
>
> Britt has a Cosworth on eBay right now. Based upon what I know of
> that car from posts on this forum and from talking with Britt, it
> appears to be an excellent value! Not a perfect car, but has had
> engine work done so you know it is in good shape and likely to stay
> that way. Clean. Peppy. Based upon what I know, I wouldn't
> hesitate to drive it back to Florida. It would be a blast.
>
> As for the appearance of some engines, I acknowledge that this
raises
> red flags for me.
>
> Finally as to when is a Cosworth no longer a Cosworth, that too is
a
> matter of opinion. Decide for yourself based upon the debate in
the
> long threads addressing this issue.
>
> Mark
[This is message #10441 by user Bruce_W on Yahoo! Group Cosworth Vegas:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cosworthvegas ]