Originally Posted by mcmiller
We ran the car for abit and it ran ok sounded a bit tappy but apparently all 1.1's sound that way.
That they do
Rust on the block won't really give anything away as to the state of the engine as the important bits are all on the inside. You could look for recently disturbed bolts and the quality of the gaskets, but it it's done 30,000 since it had a 'recon' I'm not sure you'd pick up on anything.
Recon is also a subjective word. It could be it just had new valve stems, cam, cam drive gear, rockers etc etc or it could be a full rebuild. Kents only cost £300 to £400 with labour to get a fully re-conned exchange unit.