Paul, I suspect the Poles won't be interested in it as they buy them to strip for spares. If it was a Peugeot or Citroen diesel they would bite your hand off, but a P38? I somehow doubt it.
With the effort and expense you went to to get it onto French plates, it seems a shame to give up on it now. I appreciate that you don't have the facilities to swap and engine at the side of the road but there's enough of us over here that would be able to find a decent block and build up a good engine from bits of yours. I'd happily come over with a trailer and collect it from you and I'm sure Chris would be up for lending a hand too.
My mate in the south who I buy the cars from the US with, has just acquired a P38. It's a '98, 4.6 HSE, RHD on UK plates with the typically French crack on every corner of the bumper. I was horrified when he told me he'd got it (he swapped it for a RHD, UK registered, 51 plate, Peugeot 406 Coupe diesel that I picked up over here for him for £1200 about 3 years ago) as his comprehension of electrics is negligible. Automotive electrics overtook him somewhere around 1975 so the thought of him trying to deal with the quirks on a P38 horrified me. However, he's listened to advice, rather than trying to fix it himself, he's ordered a new door latch from Marty to stop the locks dancing and the BeCM thinking the drivers door is open all the time (which also means the EAS doesn't work), he's fiddled with a passenger electric seat that kept blowing fuses and is quite enjoying it. He admitted that he can understand how someone could get completely overwhelmed with multiple faults but if you take one thing at a time and tick them off as you do them, there's far more satisfaction to be had than anything he's every owned before.
He'll be leaving it on UK plates though as he's checked and found it'll cost 1350 Euros just to transfer the registration, not to mention having to change lights and anything else they may want him to do. I assume you had to pay that, twice the cost of a decent secondhand engine.........
Peterborough, Cambs
- '93 Range Rover Classic 4.2 LSE, sold
- '97 Range Rover 4.0SE, in Oxford Blue with a sort of grey/blue leather interior sold as two is plenty.....
- '96 4.6HSE Ascot - now sold
- '98 4.0SE in Rioja Red
'98 Ex-Greater Manchester Police motorway patrol car, Range Rover P38 4.0, in Chawton white - the everyday car
All running perfectly on LPG
- Proud to be a member of the YCHJCYA2PDTHFH club.