VXOC Astra-J/GTC

Afternoon guys. Car broke down on me last week and pushed loads of steam out exhaust. Knew straight away that the head has gone. Was hoping for just a new gasket repairs but was prepared to source a refurbed head if it was cracked. However, its worse. A lot worse. There has been a hole burned through the head between cylinders and on top of that the piston is partially melted and the barrel is scored with molten head metal. The engine is a 1.7cdti 125bhp. The car is worth too much to just scrap it so it looks like i'm needing a new engine. What kind of price would a replacement one cost? Ballpark figure. And also what type of cost is involved in getting it fitted, again a ballpark figure is all i'm looking at. Will any parts need to be programmed into the ECU or anything like that?
Thanks in advance for any answers

The costs depends if your going brand new or used engine.

As with the cost of fitting everywhere is different I would recommend you ring round some good local garages and see what they would charge to do an engine swap.

You may need re-learn some parts, but I'd be guessing your sticking with the same engine?

being a diesel the mechainical fuel pump will need programming to the ECU, because it's part of the immobiliser system

Just going with same engine, saw a couple around the £900 mark and have been quoted £700 to swap over as a cash job. Thought that was a bit high for the swap tbh. Will look around a bit more. 
All the parts from the old engine will be put on to the new one. Not being savvy about this stuff will the original pump not just go straight onto the replacement engine?

You can swap all parts from old to new.

One thing I would recommend is doing a full service on the replacement engine timing kit water pump etc.

it's not a simple bolt on job, it's part of the engine cam timing. But it can be swapped and it will take a few hours labour to do.

Yeah plan on getting a full service done on the replacement engine. Not taking the risk of something happening once its all back together.

Here's the pics of the damage done 

Do you think a wee drop of Araldite might effect a temp repair 

Poor engine........

no not araldite - it doesn't set hard enough, you need to use a two pack chemical metal    

(25:th-Jan-2019, 20:34:28)niteram Wrote: [ -> ]no not araldite - it doesn't set hard enough, you need to use a two pack chemical metal    

Like the alloy wheel repair stuff that stuff sets rock hard.

Failing that there is cement that set under water within 10 minutes lol.

classic blown head gasket failure and continued running afterwards

It can be repaired, new piston(s), weld head, skim head, skim block

(26:th-Jan-2019, 09:59:24)vocky Wrote: [ -> ]classic blown head gasket failure and continued running afterwards

It can be repaired, new piston(s), weld head, skim head, skim block

New engine would be cheaper and quicker by sounds of it lol.

Finally tracked down a garage that will do the swap over. £450 inch vat if i provide all the parts like timing belt kit, oil etc
Now to source and engine. Apart from eBay are there any particular places that i could also search? Also would a Mocca engine with the same code i.e. A17DTR fit my Astra?

(31:st-Jan-2019, 13:27:04)Breengin Wrote: [ -> ]Finally tracked down a garage that will do the swap over. £450 inch vat if i provide all the parts like timing belt kit, oil etc
Now to source and engine. Apart from eBay are there any particular places that i could also search? Also would a Mocca engine with the same code i.e. A17DTR fit my Astra?

You may want to try Parts gateway. It a type of car parts search engine that finds from companies selling whatever your looking for. Your able to send message to the companies .

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

(31:st-Jan-2019, 13:29:48)everson38 Wrote: [ -> ]

(31:st-Jan-2019, 13:27:04)Breengin Wrote: [ -> ]Finally tracked down a garage that will do the swap over. £450 inch vat if i provide all the parts like timing belt kit, oil etc
Now to source and engine. Apart from eBay are there any particular places that i could also search? Also would a Mocca engine with the same code i.e. A17DTR fit my Astra?

You may want to try Parts gateway. It a type of car parts search engine that finds from companies selling whatever your looking for. Your able to send message to the companies .

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

That's a good call, had a look at what's on sale. Thank for that everson38

I have retrieved the engine code from my car, see pic. My question is does it have to be an exact match i.e. A17DTR must be replaced with a A17DTR. There was a guy selling one saying it was a A17DTR but when i checked the reg of the car he said it came from it was returning a 108bhp engine while my astra was a 125bhp. He had good feedback so dont think he was trying to bump anyone.
 I have seen all sorts of different codes floating about TDE DTJ DTS etc. I have no idea what these all mean, is it year of manufacture or something? I have even seen A17DTR claiming to be from a Mokka. I have the cash to purchase one but want to make sure it is the proper engine i buy.

P.S. Whats the numbers after A17DTR is that like a serial number for the engine?

Try Trent's also https://www.trents.co.uk/

all A17DTR engines will be the same, they might have different power due to the ECU map.

The numbers after the code is the engine number

Thats me got the car back from the garage. 

Engine: £900

Shipping: £60
Fitting: £460 (Cash)
Timing Belt: £110
Oil: £45 
Coolant: £20
Oil Filter: Chucked in by auto shop as a freebie

Total: £1595

Low mileage engine from scrappy (Are here any other types ) seems to run far better than the original engine, especially down at low revs, which leads me to think that the original one had some kind of inherent fault for  good while before it spilled its guts. Could the head have had a crack in it that led to the hole and the HG blowing rather than the HG blowing and ultimately putting a hole in the head?
She never did like the low revs from the day i got her tbh, i put it down to a heavy car with only a 1.7 engine.

Glad it's all sorted & your back on the road.