Hi folks - occasional lurker here but first post.

My 95 P38 4.0 developed a problem yesterday. The problem is that the bits of the engine that live in the block exploded out of the oil pan.

There weren't really any warning signs - I thought it sounded a bit rough at idle a couple of minutes before it failed, but that's it. After about a minute on the highway at 50mph there was a bang, I lost power and a load of smoke came out of both ends. After pulling over and seeing oil spewed out the side of the engine I knew it was done for.

I'm not sure what the underlying cause was. It was driving well but had started leaking quite a bit of oil recently and I had been topping it up. I don't think that the oil was low when it broke down as there's still a fair amount left in the sump (see photo - that's after a lot of oil came out the side of the block...).

The car drives ok but is pretty beaten up (broken plastic, permanent SRS fault, etc) and it doesn't make sense to throw money at it. Still... P38s are getting rarer and I'm attached to it. Is it realistic to try an engine swap at home?

Otherwise I guess I can scrap it and find another one in nice condition. That's the rational thing to do, right?

Yes, do the rational thing :)

It depends on how much you can get an engine for. An engine swap isn't difficult if you have, or can beg borrow or hire, an engine crane.

Is thta an alloy sump on a GEMS engine, or bits of the block blown out ?? If you have the space & tools, it's not that hard to either get the engine out, or just drop the sump & inspect before deciding.

There's usually plenty of decent engines out there from scrappers. You probably only need the bottom half.

500 quid for an engine from someone reasonably reputable like CN4x4SS in Wales, and a mate with an engine crane. They're not actually that horrible to get out, and you can fix a lot of other annoying little problems while you're at it.

Thanks all. Yep, bits of the block were blown out! Only had 140k on it. I decided to scrap it in the end as it's not in great condition and probably should have been parted out long ago.

Looking for a replacement... I found a late model for sale but the drivers lock is buggered. I'm guessing the only way to fix it would be to take the lock barrel apart (somehow) and fit new parts from a working barrel. Or something like that. Obviously you could put another barrel in there from a donor car but then you're stuck with two sets of keys.

Or get a replacement lock barrel and swap the wafers over so it matches the key.

Do you think that's easy enough for an amateur to do? I can fix things but I'm not exactly a locksmith.

This guy has a video on repairing the glove box lock barrel, so if it's the same process I can probably follow along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqKLCil8Kvg