Diesel v Automatic

[Peter-C]

I've been looking for a suitable donor for a couple of months now, without success. Any Sierra will do as I intend to fit either a 1.8 or 2.0 zetec.

Today I've been offered a choice of 2 diesel estates or a petrol auto saloon.

With the auto they've offered to throw in a manual gearbox.

Any ideas as to which choice ?

[AshG]

which ever one is cheeper. if they are all the same price then get the petrol.

[les g]

whoa not so fast POWLER !!!!!!
check out the diffs on the diesel estates first
the BEC crowd are paying upwards of £250 for an ultra low ratio diesel estate diff !!!!!!!!
you might be able to get the cost of your donerback and more if it has the right diff in it do a search on here and locostbuilders for the info on diff ratios and the letters/numbers on the tag you might jyst have struck gold
cheers les g

[MikeB]

I concur, those BECs will spend a lot of the right diff!

[hellbent345]

indeed they will! you are looking for a letter of M or A ideally, M being 3.14, and A 3.36, if they have one of those in them pm me

[Peter-C]

I've finally been to look at the 3 sierras. The 2 diesels have U code diffs (3.62), so sadly thats 2 trails dead ! The auto is a 2.0 L pinto and the gearbox to be thrown in has a tag with 909T BA and FOG 2H 31F on it. I can't find any reference to this anywhere. Theres no gearstick so I can't quickly identify it. Can anyone help ?

[les g]

hi there
quite easy to identify the boxes
type 9 has a cast iron bellhousing which is bolted on behind the clutch arm also the gear lever goes in the end of the selector turret and is held in with three bolts the mt75 is an all aluminium job with lots of strengthening ribs etc and the gear lever goes into a frame that is mounted to the gearbox on little rubber bushes
hope that helps
les g
if your still in doubt perhaps you could look at the burton power website they show all the gearboxes on their