Christophe and I drove to pick up the new engine, skirting around Bordeaux and continuing another 50 kilometers passed it. We didn’t locate the guy’s place right away but thankfully he answered his phone so we met him at a local school before heading to his place. The motor looked good, but what do I know? Christophe checked it over and thought it would do, but it hadn’t been used in a couple of years and there was no easy way for us to be certain that it would run so we were taking a bit of a gamble. The bearded forty something guy with slicked back hair and a bit of a pot belly claimed that it came from a vehicle whose owner didn’t have the right papers for it so essentially it had been confiscated by the police. This sounded promising as I’d be a bit leery of an engine coming from a car that had been totalled. We loaded the engine into Christophe’s utility trailer, secured it, paid the 500 Euros and were off.
Arriving back with the new engine:
Disconnecting the gearbox:
We didn’t get back to the house until after 2pm and after eating my leftover spaghetti Bolognese for a hearty lunch, we set to work on phase two of Betty’s operation. Not too long into the affair, Christophe found out that the fifth and reverse gear of the new motor’s gearbox did not work. We were going to have to use the one from the busted engine...no biggie, but some more work to do. We worked until 8pm and then enjoyed a lovely pizza dinner prepared by Virginie. I have to say, these people are incredible!
Virginie's lovely pizza dinner:
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