my mate found a scrap vectra last weekend for me to use the head off it for a project, went and had a quick look and arranged to go today and strip the car for the bits i wanted.

was told that the timing chain had snapped so after abit of haggling before hand due to poss bent valves etc, got the complete head for £50 which i thought was a bargain til today. considering the complete head turned in to the head, along with the inlet & exhaust manifold, TB, coil pack, downpipe with CAT and somehow got away with it.

took all the cr@p out the way and cracked the rocker off and thought " ok, the engine hasn't been srviced too much " due to the build up of cr@p in the breather pipe,etc. got the head off and turned it over to see this....

but soon realised the problem with engine as 2nd & 3rd were sat like this and the 1st & 4th fell to the bottom as soon as we touched them.

so i reackon its a bit of a bargain really!

also not sure whats with this cat as a OE pre-cat looks like this (i know its buggered, but thats why i have it as i've not seen one as bad as this) but the one i got today looks different and new? surly someone hasn't put a replcement pre-cat on?

OE one....

this new one....