what would you pay for a "bad engine"

[pacn91]

I Scored an eprom ecu over the weekend for an awesome price. This is a local junkyard btw. While I was there I noticed that the car has a turbo motor. Someone was playing with this car and the engine was too clean to be old.

As i stand there and inspect im noticing little mods that are starting arouse my curiosity. tubular header, boost controller, hacked 1g maf, aluminum radiator, stainless braided oil feed line, looks like 14b turbo just glancing, no timing cover, balance shafts deleted, wiring from aftermarket guages was there, after market-ish exhaust, and when i pulled the ecu i noticed some wire splicing at the harness. I put a ratchet on the crank and turn the engine. It seems to spin easily and dont hear clunking or anything.

Anyway, I inquire about the engine and the price tag. They, tell me that its bad but cant tell me how. So I finally get a price out of them...$450. What? 450 for a bad motor? That seems a little high and pretty sure that they wouldnt do a compression test.....I obviously dont like the price but i cant help but to feel curious as to what else has been done to this engine.

Would anyone else consider this 450 dollar risk

 

[Dsmkauai]

Go ask if u can do a compression test if possible. Pull the valve cover and what it looks like and if stock cams or not. Its sounds like its a 6bolt block so that's a plus. If the after market parts are better than eBay I would offer maybe $250-300 and go from there!

 

[northernawd]

pull the valve cover and see if the rockers are still on and not knocked off. One crucial sign of jumped timing

 

[Miasma]

I bought my 4g64 long block for $100 bucks. Got it local from a guy who thought it spun a bearing. After ripping into, I discovered it was completely fine.

Good luck though, hope you can make a good deal on it.