£7000 to swap a MGB engine with a ZETEC?

[regw]

Folks - am I dreaming or is this really what it costs? I've had 2 quotes now to swap out my asmatic MGB engine (though I already have Mondeo T9 gearbox) for me to create a cool retro ride.
Any ideas on how to bring it closer to my budget of £2000?

On eBay I can find plenty of parts for a couple of hundred £ (e.g. an engine for £300) and some guys have solved for the connections (e.g. www.mtechautomotive.co.uk/guides/index.php/Zetec_to_Type-9_Gearbox_Fitting_Guide)

[ettorebugatti]

It is the little parts that add up and there is a bit of time needed to put it in.

Mazda Mx-5 does make more sense, because you only faces the costs to put it in the MG not like the zetecwhere you also need to add costs to get it from a FWD setup to RWD setup (sump, clutch, auxillaries).

[omega]

for 7k i would expect map ignition throttlebodies etc
2k should do it with a bit left over

[jrevillug]

£2k will buy the parts - probably not the labour.

The garage's confidence may not be helped by your description of the Type 9 as being a Mondeo 'box...

[ejenner]

Certainly if you are getting a garage to do the work then for an engine swap £2000 would just about cover the labour I would have thought!

Thing is, conversions like this are for very skilled home mechanics or professional mechanics. Ordinary fitter types wouldn't touch anything like this. You must have real skills to properly execute a decent engine conversion.

[ChasR]

Good labour is hard to come by cheap these days IME. Engine conversions are not drop in items either, with a Zetec conversion not being as easy in a 'B as it is in an Escort for example. I reckon that price was given to turn you away in all honesty.

Have you approached any classic Ford specialists? They should be able to help out .

[bortaf]

Apr 30, 2013 20:28:20 GMT jrevillug said:

£2k will buy the parts - probably not the labour.

The garage's confidence may not be helped by your description of the Type 9 as being a Mondeo 'box...

Allways a worry, there's nothing worse than a customer with a little knowledge, they doubt everything you say cos they think they know what they are on about, I prefer a customer with zero or a lot of knowledge, way easyer to deal with

I recon 4G would cover it (parts and lab) BUT that's from a back street garage with little overheads, add 2 grand for a large garage with lots of staff and high overheads.
The main problem is time, a lot of these conversion parts simply don't fit and take time to fettle, and time costs money, an hour for you fettlin a bracket is free at a big garage it's £40 and a small garage would spend late nights getting the parts to fit simply cos there a large wad at the end of it (on jobs like this I refuse to count the hours cos it allways ends up on paper as me getting under a tenna an hour for weeks of 14 hour days)

With a budget of 2G you are going to have to do alot/most/all yourself i'm affraid.

[ChasR]

I was going to say that after helping a garage out on an occasion or two, restos don't seem to be the huge money spinners people would think to be with reference to what Bortaf was saying. They do work from an advertisement POV mind you.

[Deleted]

There will be a lot of special parts they will need to buy to make the zetec work in RWD format such as thermostat housing and sump ecu, exhaust mainfold, etc soon mounts up, and they will buy brand new engine which is easily 2k for a good one, second had is cheaper but you will risk buying a worn engine. MX5 would reduce costs if you can get a good one or budget for rebuilding engine.

[damien4884]

Trouble is you need to understand how much work goes into making them fit, first you have to convert the engine to RWD (unless you can find a full RWD package from a kitcar or similar) then pull the old engine and related bits out, hope the new engine and box fits without too much chopping (where does the shifter sit etc?), then its going to need custom mounts, custom wiring (speedo- will it work, gauges what needs to be sorted?), custom prop, custom exhaust work, custom cooling system, custom fuel supply, how will you make the clutch operate?. That just off the top of my head, there will be other issues to overcome

Anything that is custom is going to be fairly expensive, regardless of who does it.

[Battles]

As a hard working indie (not cars, sadly), it's nice to see the appreciation here that a job requires labour and not just parts. Most of the jobs that I price tend to end up with the proposed customer saying "but I can get the bits on eBay for a third of your quote".
Nice also to see the appreciation that withing any discipline or technology area, in this case the motor trade, there are specialists who will do a job better than others.

Good luck with the conversion, sounds like a good way to get the best out of your MG

[polo6n1600i]

Why use a zetec anyway? i'm sure there are better engine out there already setup for RWD??

[Nathan]

I'm currently doing the MX5 to MGB engine thing.

Current costs - £400 for the MX5

However the real costs are lower as I sold off lots of the MGB Engine parts and most of the MX5.
Its going to be the Labour costs, also they will need parts machining like the Prop etc and Fab mounts etc.

As much as people say its easy, its NOT which is why I can see why the prices for work like this so high.

[killerbee]

That quote sounds about right for a garage to do it. Whilst you can do an mx5 conversion for less at home, if your budget is limited to 2k just improve what's already in there, you can do a big valve head, cam + weber for far less.

If you put in an mx5 don't go for a 1.6 as its hardly worth it over a good B-series.

[sonus]

I'm putting a Zetec into my MGB and it ain't cheap.

RetroFOrd will have most parts you need except for sump, prop, gearbox mount, exhaust manifold.

Gearbox mount and prop can be bought from hi gear engineering as part of their type9 into mgb kit.

Since your car is RHD you might have it easier with the exhaust manifold not fouling the steering coloum as in my LHD. You could possibly use a 1.8 cast manifold to adapt.

The most complete kit from RetroFord is £1500, an you could ask to reduce it by taking out the escort specific sump.

Do a search on here and have a read about my project at turbosport and you'll get a feel for what's involved.

www.turbosport.co.uk/showthread.php?t=127484&highlight=sonus+mgb

[popuptoaster]

Parts and labour to build my 24v Cossie Cortina would have been around 4k bearing in mind I spent a year scavenging parts at cheap prices and didn't have to buy anything in a huge hurry because the car was taking up a needed space.

The 24v is based on a block that had been fitted in the Cortina already so there were no body mods to do AND the engine was already set up for RWD, I can see 7k not being that unreasonable from a garage owners perspective, he's probably looking at what he could earn in the time he'll be faffing about with yours.