Staff Car Story - Triumph after Disaster: how a £30 engine saved my motor! By Steph Hoy

Classic car owners are supposed to be the more sensible people in the car community. We aren’t the ones doing burn outs, madcap speedy adventures and taking the risks some of the pluckier members of the car community seem to take.

However, I missed the memo, and I let nothing stop me using my Triumph 1300 FWD for whatever purpose, because life is just too short.

I knew the end was in sight for the tired old 1,296cc engine nestled under my bonnet. The oil pressure was lower than one might hope for, compression wasn’t what it would’ve been ‘back in the day’ and all in all, it just sounded a bit lackluster. In fact, it needed a jolly good full rebuild, which I was planning as a winter project before my boiler decided it too, needed an overhaul. In short, life isn’t always as neatly planned as you might hope, and the engine rebuild had to be pushed into spring.

Now back to that fateful day… I was cruising down the A1 towards our Cambridgeshire offices at around 60mph when I heard an ungodly bang and a complete loss of power. I limped the poor little Triumph onto the hard shoulder and cursed the car and thanked my lucky stars I wasn’t on a smart motorway.

In this situation you should always err on the side of caution because working on a car on the hard shoulder is a risk none of us should be taking, so I decided to get towed home to investigate the issue further. I knew from the giant puddle of oil it wasn’t going to be simple swap of points and condenser, this was a far bigger problem.

A sheepish call into work to explain the scenario got me a free pass to work from home for the foreseeable and I booked a day of annual leave (thanks boss!) to investigate the problem and decide what to do next.

I should probably mention at this point, I am a hoarder of parts and spares. I am a magpie when it comes to anything badged StanPart or BMC and I just so happened to have a spare engine in my friend’s garage. It had been a bit of a bargain months beforehand off the Triumph Dolomite Club Facebook group at £30 and was an unknown entity, but sadly for cash and time-poor me, the only feasible option to get back to work as quickly as possible.

Knowing the present engine was way past its best, I decided the ‘sensible’ thing to do would be to drop the unknown engine into the car and overhaul the original engine in spring once there was time and financial means to do so. It’s worth saying at this point I knew the engine wasn’t seized and I had been assured by the previous seller it had ‘run’ but was simply pulled from a rotten car. The engine had only cost £30, so it was worth it for the potential spare cylinder head if the block was knackered!

However, upon pulling the engine out with a semi-retired mechanic-by-trade friend, I discovered something terrible; a piston had catapulted through the block rendering the engine useless. I was absolutely gutted, in the best part of nearly two decades of driving classics I’d never done anything quite so catastrophic. This left us with one option: get that engine running!

With nearly half the day gone and temperatures dropping, my friend Kev and I hauled the unknown engine into the car and changed the oil and filter on the ‘new to me’ engine. We re-attached everything like the exhaust and all the other bits and pieces and then did a few other checks before cranking the old girl up to see what would happen.

And as if by magic, she fired up and sounded livelier and more colourful than she’d ever sounded in my ownership previously! The oil pressure light stayed unlit and there were no rumbles or rattles. Compression tests proved positive, and we proceeded to go on a test run.

We checked all levels once home and realised we’d won the battle of the bangers: a £30 engine had saved our skin (and my overdraft!) and I wouldn’t have to navigate public transport or take any more time off work.

There’s a moral to this story and I don’t know whether it’s around always being prepared, staying positive or ignoring those who tell us to clear our garages out; but I guess next time somebody urges you to get rid of those parts you’re saving for a rainy day you can firmly remind them you never know when you might need them!