1990 Ford Granada Ghia 2.0i DOHC
Just bought this. A big, big motor for 200 quid. (apologies about the photos... misty tonight.)
Saw this up for sale near a friends house at £300 and when the seller dropped the price i had to have it! Its a 2.0 pinto motor from the sierra but with a twin can head and fuel injection it makes a respectable 125bhp which shifts 1400kg of ford to sixty in the high 9's. Full leather, powered seats*, power steering, electric sunroof*, electric windows*, ABS, 16" alloy wheels and its stealth black. (* denotes stuff which doesn't work yet :-)
The body is ok with a couple of dents to remove to get it looking nice. I fancied a big car for a while and for the money this seemed like a good idea. Need to sort out the electric seats first - they wont move at the moment. (almost fixed).
Update: the car had a blown head gasket when i bought it. Doh! shows why you should never look at a car in sub zero conditions, the steam from the exhaust would have been a dead giveaway otherwise.
Not as big a problem as it might sound though, me and my dad have now removed the head, which is a pain of a job - timing chain must be kept tight and someone decided it would be good to put the head bolts under the cams - which means the cams have to be removed. I miss th BL A-Series! Number 4 was where the gasket had gone, mixing water and oil, letting exhaust into the water and dragging water in during intake - hence the tell tale steam.
The good news is that through a local garage contact I got the head checked, skimmed and a full gasket kit with the new stretch bolts for £75 :-). As of today, 08/01/2004 we are about to rebuild the motor and I will have transport again. Plenty of pictures available over in the gallery.
With the new head gasket fitted we are in business! Car taxed and insured now and I am mobile. The guy who wrote my saxo off has a lot to answer for in terms of misery and inconvenience, and I am looking forward to suing him :-). Any way, the seats are part fixed now. A damaged ciggy lighter on the sam e circuit was responsible for blowing the fuse constantly. Removing this got the passenger seat working, and the drivers seat is still not getting any power. Plugging it into a spare 12v battery has allowed me to move it to the right place, and its just a case of fixing the permament live to it to solve the problems. A note about the seats - fully powered leather seats, tilt, slide, height front and back and electric lumbar support. Worth the cost of the car just for the seats!
The next stage means some more electronic repairs and sorting out the paint work where the scratches are. A small spray gun has made it into the air tool collection and some black paint is in the pipeline....
For more info, wander on over to the Granada Enthusiasts Club Forums. Good community with plenty of knowledgeable people who will help you out (assuming you have a granada).