2nd hand engine gamble

Drew1209 · 18 Oct 2016

I've been to look at a 996 local to me with no engine, it's a long story but the car has sat locked away for bit and the owner is no longer here.

Anyway I started looking at engines for sale at Douglas valley breakers, anyone know much about them and what sort of checks these engine get if any before they are sold on

infrasilver · 18 Oct 2016

It all depends but most places will give you a three month warranty for an unknown engine, which is worth next to nothing. DV are usually very expensive in comparison.

There may be other bits missing and it could cost you a lot of money and time getting it right but if the car is cheap enough (really cheap) it might be worth it.

Marky911 · 19 Oct 2016

A used engine is always a risk but some sellers are better than others. I'd be trying the likes of Jasmine Porschalink or Porschapart, etc.

As for DVB, I'll just leave this old thread here about the repaired 993RS with the bog roll on the seat for the photos. :grin:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=48&t=974781

Delanor · 19 Oct 2016

You would need to sort out a value for a rolling shell, is it complete just missing the engine? then an engine from a breakers could be fault free from an accident write off or it could have serious issues that would be expensive to sort if you have to pay someone to sort it - not so bad if you are adept in the spanner dep`t! but cost can rapidly rise if major surgery is required.

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Del.

wasz · 19 Oct 2016

I bought a second hand engine when I bought my car!

In fact all of us did unless we bought the cars new.

I wouldn't buy a used engine I hadn't seen and heard running well with my own eyes. In your situation I'd be monitoring the salvage auctions for a car with front end damage, will cost much less than your douglas valley engine.

Oh and I wouldn't even contemplate it if I was paying someone to do the work.

Delanor · 19 Oct 2016

wasz said:
I bought a second hand engine when I bought my car!

In fact all of us did unless we bought the cars new.

I did buy my car second hand but it was after I checked the service history, checked the MOT history for mileage previous failures etc, fired it up from cold, then had a lengthy test drive.

Most car engines are not that expensive from a breakers and you can usually repair any faults quite economically in my experience with a purchase price of 3-4-5 thousand £`s for a Porsche engine its a big gamble.

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Del.

rabbitstew · 19 Oct 2016

Couple of approaches to this one which ive used when ive done up motorbikes in the past.

Once I bought an entire smashed up motorbike just to get the bits I wanted off it. This is quite handy as you may find you need more parts than just an engine when you get into it, and if you have an entire spare car you can just rob it of bits. Then any bits left over you can sell off which will go a long way to cover the cost of the donor car. The chances are also that the engine is good as it was clearly working when the driver crashed the car.

I have also bought just an engine in the past off ebay, and thats always a bit of a risk as you never know what its going to be like until you get it fitted and try it out. In my case, it turned out the engine had about 1/5th the miles of my old one, plus actually felt like it had more power. I sold the old engine for about 30% of what the new good engine cost as spares, which helped towards the costs.

cheshire911 · 19 Oct 2016

If you buy a scrap car or scrap engine at the right price, you could consider giving it and the rolling chassis to Hartech to strip and rebuild it for you making whatever changes they recommend.

Or you can ask Grant at Hartech to put you on the list of people wanting a sorted car from them either directly or a customer wanting to off-load a sorted car on their maintenance plan.

I wouldn't agree with the statement that
in fact we all did (buy a second hand engine) unless we bought the cars from new

infrasilver · 19 Oct 2016

Delanor said:
then an engine from a breakers could be fault free from an accident write off or it could have serious issues that would be expensive to sort if you have to pay someone to sort it - not so bad if you are adept in the spanner dep`t! but cost can rapidly rise if major surgery is required.

There is another risk with a written off car for it's engine, some people have been known to find out they have a terminal engine problem and decided to put the car into a ditch and take the excess and hiked premiums for a few years than pay the thousands required for the rebuild, not a nice surprise when you pay £5K for a used engine. You may not even get the engine in the car before the short warranty period is over.

Les · 19 Oct 2016

I brought a second hand engine and had it Boroscoped IMS and RMS replaced and the rest checked before fitting. TBH, it's been a gem.

When my last engine went belly up I was contemplating getting it re-built but the companies involved would only warrantee the new parts and the work they had done - so although the new pistons and liners you have paid 10K for are guaranteed, your out of luck if a tooth breaks off the timing gear, goes through your oil pump and eats your engine (happened on my 2.2) or the valve seat breaks and eats your engine (happened to my 3.6) or the oil pipes explode, drain the engine of oil and seize it (Happened to my turbo), I could go on......

There will always be a gamble with any used engine even if it's a re-built one.
The only way to have piece of mind is to win the lotto and buy a new car.

mzmini · 19 Oct 2016

Thanks for the heads up Les do you have the numbers by chance :dont know:
:thumb: MZ

Locosaki · 19 Oct 2016

There's a couple of motors just been listed on ebay, one with new head gaskets etc.

Harv · 20 Oct 2016

It's not so much of a gamble if you can find a car that's being broken and the engine runs, though at anything around or near 100k the engine will be tired. You can have it boroscoped etc and the same is true for a unit off the shelf, just make sure you get it fitted to the donor car pronto if you want to have anything usable out of the suppliers warrantee (assuming they give one).

As you need the whole unit and all ancillaries (presumably) there's only two choices really, either throw it in and hope for the best (like all of us that bought a used car) or have the donor engine stripped and gone through and rebuilt now.

Factor this in the price of donor car, which would probably net the current owner more if broken up for bits (sadly).

Drew1209 · 20 Oct 2016

Well thanks for the input chaps, I've bought the car I ended up giving 1k for it so I now have 2 996's and neither go.

I came across an engine on e bay from lodge sports racing, here's the item number 122190505242, it sounds okay with 90k mileage

infrasilver · 20 Oct 2016

Good price for the car, also check its not nicked.

As for the engine, is there a reason they rebuilt the top end, unusual to only rebuild with no additional parts, what were they looking for, Its £400 in gaskets and head bolts just to do that? Ask lots of questions.

And you know where to come for help.

2nd hand engine gamble

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