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Meteor Engines on milweb


draganm

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new (refurbed) meteor V12's on Milweb today for a little under 10K pounds. Wow, that sounds like a helluva deal . A brand new Chrysler Hemi 7 litter V8 is $15K. , this is literally 80% cheaper liter for liter

 

One of those rare warehouse treasures I would think, if I was in the UK I would almost certainly grab one and then look for an AFV to put it in

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The advert on Milweb says that these Meteors were rebuilt by Scottish Aviation, which is based near Glasgow. It seems strange that they were sent to Warminster for testing, the test house is now derelict and only used for storing road salt.

l'll ask around at work (I work at DSG Warminster) and see if anyone remembers rebuilding them.

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The advert on Milweb says that these Meteors were rebuilt by Scottish Aviation, which is based near Glasgow. It seems strange that they were sent to Warminster for testing, the test house is now derelict and only used for storing road salt.

l'll ask around at work (I work at DSG Warminster) and see if anyone remembers rebuilding them.

 

John,

I take the seller's remark about Scottish Aviation with a pinch of salt, they may well have built some engines, but not that one as the rebuild plate (and load test sheet) both clearly say 27 District Workshop, which as you say was Warminster, in 1991. If a contractor had rebuilt an engine it would have their plate on, all down to traceability in those days. It would be down to the contractor to test as well.

There were some late rebuilt engines coming out which were kept back until the last BARV's were disposed of.

 

cheers Richard

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I missed out on a similar condition Meteor her in Denmark recently for 1500£ and they have been listed at a round 2500£ every now and then here.
wow, that's practically free. We've spent close to that on wrecking yard motors here for big V8's

 

the rebuild plate (and load test sheet) both clearly say 27 District Workshop, which as you say was Warminster, in 1991. If a contractor had rebuilt an engine it would have their plate on, all down to traceability in those days. It would be down to the contractor to test as well.

cheers Richard

you guys are such fastidious record keepers ,:-) sure is helpful though when old kit turns up
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John,

I take the seller's remark about Scottish Aviation with a pinch of salt, they may well have built some engines, but not that one as the rebuild plate (and load test sheet) both clearly say 27 District Workshop, which as you say was Warminster, in 1991. If a contractor had rebuilt an engine it would have their plate on, all down to traceability in those days. It would be down to the contractor to test as well.

There were some late rebuilt engines coming out which were kept back until the last BARV's were disposed of.

 

cheers Richard

 

Surprisingly, Chris Leete, who tested the engine in the advert, and Steve Poole who rebuilt it, still work for DSG Warminster. I had a good chat with Chis this afternoon and he told me that literally hundreds of Meteor engines and 4 Merlins were rebuilt at Warminster and believe it or not he still has the odd Meteor part in his toolbox. Chris told me about a Centurion that came back from Canada after an engine fire, the Meteor engine, being made of aluminium,had completely melted, all that was left was the crankshaft & camshafts, but the fuel tanks either side of the engine bay were still intact and had petrol in them.

I was told that Scottish Aviation had nothing to do with the rebuilds any parts required were sourced from Jersey Aviation.

He was a mine of very interesting information and I really enjoyed chatting with him, I'll see if I can catch up with Steve Poole tomorrow.

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Surprisingly, Chris Leete, who tested the engine in the advert, and Steve Poole who rebuilt it, still work for DSG Warminster. I had a good chat with Chis this afternoon and he told me that literally hundreds of Meteor engines and 4 Merlins were rebuilt at Warminster and believe it or not he still has the odd Meteor part in his toolbox. Chris told me about a Centurion that came back from Canada after an engine fire, the Meteor engine, being made of aluminium,had completely melted, all that was left was the crankshaft & camshafts, but the fuel tanks either side of the engine bay were still intact and had petrol in them.

I was told that Scottish Aviation had nothing to do with the rebuilds any parts required were sourced from Jersey Aviation.

He was a mine of very interesting information and I really enjoyed chatting with him, I'll see if I can catch up with Steve Poole tomorrow.

 

Hi John,

That makes more sense with parts coming from Jersey Aviation as they were main suppliers of Meteor and Merlin spares in later years. I now think about it, I saw a Meteor 4B engine crate recently with 27 DW stencilled on it.

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I see it's BAIV selling these, who I don't think are known for sensible pricing, though I may be wrong. They're talking them up a lot though!

 

Last one of these I saw come out through an MoD sale was at the miscellaneous auction at Dunkeswell in the late '90s. That was a crated 27DW engine recently rebuilt and was knocked down for around £550.

 

I came close to buying it out of interest but had no use for it and was impecunious at the time so didn't. I remember looking at the specific fuel consumption on the test sheet, which was pretty frightening!

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Any ideas on what the rebuild process involved?

 

Would it have been just a quick refresh before going into storage, or a strip back to as-new with with all of the mods applied?

 

Chris Leete told me that there were 2 classes of rebuilding, EBR which stands for Economic Base Repair, where the engine was checked without dismantling, and the ancillaries such as magnetos dynamos etc were replaced. The other class of rebuilding was BR which stands for Base Repair where the engine was totally stripped and everything checked and corrected if necessary before rebuilding and replacing all the ancillaries. I was also told that the magnetos on the Meteors do not like to be in storage, and it is likely that the magnetos on these engines that are for sale would need a thorough check over before trying to start the engine.

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Any ideas on what the rebuild process involved?

 

Would it have been just a quick refresh before going into storage, or a strip back to as-new with with all of the mods applied?

 

If you are talking about the Centurions it appeared to be complete strip downs. There were silages of used Morris Axillary Engines.

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