Originally Posted by dan5710
You can get quite a decent cheap one for about £3k. For some reason white ones are quite common and go quite cheap.
Look for rust in the rear arches, they all have it, its just how bad.
Again you probably know about looking for smoke. Black is ok its just fuel, blue is bad. It will mean the turbo, stem seals or rings Etc. White is bad, this will be water getting in.
A good cossie engine will need a rebuild around the 120k mark (latest). Its good to get one which has just had a rebuild or lower mileage. Also the engines do sound a little tappy on start up.
Watch out for crunching when you change gears especially 2nd - 3rd. The syncro mesh is quite a common problem, quite expensive.
look out for any creases, incase its had a bump.
Look out for a big weld going through the middle of the car. cut and shuts are out there. I would always recomend a HPI check.
(full lock and 2 smokin tyres!)
so basically any normal sierra fault + the syncros and cut n shuts
glad i know about the tappy startup sound now - otherwise that would have put me off - especially on a high perfomance (read expensive) engine
any other serious concerns? i always get a HPI done on any car i want to buy - they cost me next to nothing