One of my long dreamed of projects is recovering a 1972 Lotus Europa from a seized engine. Years ago, my father bought this car, and several years after that, the engine seized due to unknown reasons. After trying in vain to get the seized piston moving again, the car was covered with a tarp, and has only seen the light of day a few times since. As with any surface in a cluttered garage, the top of the car became a storage shelf.

Flash forward a few years, and I feel the need to fix this car. So, I did a little research a found a place that is willing to sell me a crate engine that will simply drop in where the old one used to be. I can't remember where it was, but it was somewhere out in California, and they wanted an arm and a leg for it.

Flash forward a few years later than that, and a buddy of mine points out a website of engine swaps with newer, more common engines. It turns out that the common Zetec engine, present in the Ford Focus, Escort ZX2, and a few other cars, fits the engine bay, with a few modifications of course.

I started checking out Ebay and craigslist for any of these cars that had the right engine, that may have been in a rear end collision. That way, I was hoping to pick up the engine for a steal, and throw out the rest of the junked out car.

After several weeks of looking, a couple of false alarms, and a couple of no-call-backs, I found a ZX2 that had been in a front end collision. The engine survived, as did several of the other bits and pieces. The donor car also has several good bits that I should be able to sell off for a little bit of profit. Now the hard part starts.

It's only a few degrees above zero today, but I plan on getting some of the parts on the car off of the trailer and down in the basement. I also have a guy at work that is interested in buying a few parts. Hopefully he can find enough on the car to make it worthwhile. I'm going to need some capital for this project anyway, for all the custom bits and pieces that need to be made to get the project on the road.