Engine fecked! Is it worth buying a second-hand one?

Biggest thing condemning Mk1 i30's is rust so should be plenty in scrappers. They are a straightforward yoke and those early diesels weren't too bad. I's say you'd find an engine handy enough.

That's every mechanics respose to a job they dont want to do. But in saying that it's very unlikely the engine is beyond repair too but obviously they also dont want to do that. Particularly if they are getting you to source the engine. Would you consider shopping around for someone else to do the work?

Depends on the mechanic, my mechanic swapped an engine in a Yaris for €100.

Cheque, he has his own garage and has all of the above.

I’d do the work unless it’s gonna cost a huge amount.

He’s near retirement age and has been a self employed mechanic all his life so your assumptions are way off. €1000 to change over an engine in an old Yaris? Come out the fog, I got the engine off the breaker for €100 and he had to remove it from the scrap car for that.

Dont feed the troll springs to mind.

Timing chain it was going for a while and everyone said it wasn’t worth changing because a new chain was 250 at the time, I managed to get a new chain for 150 and the day before I had the mechanic booked to change it I was at the shop and when I came out and turned the key it snapped and bent the valves.

You won't know the damage to the cylinders till you get the head off, valves/ piston's etc.

That's terrible unlucky.