Is this a good deal for a used motor?

[syclone98]

A guy here locally is selling a used GN motor for $1500 complete with everything (turbo, brackets, alternator etc.).

He said that it only has 50K miles and can prove it, but since it's currently not in the car I'm not sure how he'd be able to do that.

Even if he can't though, does this sound like a good deal or a total roll of the dice? What would the obvious things be to look for to determine whether it's still a healthy motor or not? I know that doing a compression test would be a start, but that won't really tell me the condition of the more important things like the turbo or any of the bearings.

Any tips or suggestions?

Thanks,
Christopher

 

[49-blues]

pull the oil pan and take a cap off the mains and one off the rods and check bearing wear. check for any particles in oil pan like metal shavings.

 

[turbofrank]

roll of dice.

 

[Grumpy]

roll of dice.

X2

 

[Gary Wells]

X2

X3, but on Vegas odds, and with the odds in favor of the house winning.

 

[syclone98]

I told the guy that I wanted to pull the pan as well as do a compression test but he said that it's currently sitting on a wooden pallet with the transmission still attached. He didn't say that I couldn't do the tests, but didn't seem too interested in trying to facilitate them.

I believe in a "do unto others" approach when it comes to stuff like this and if the tables were turned and I was the one selling the engine, I would be going out of my way to do whatever it took to let someone do whatever tests they wanted.

Looks like I might have to end up passing on this one.

Just out of curiosity though, would anybody hazard to guess what it would be worth even if it did end up needing to be rebuilt? Or are there too many unknowns involved to come up with even a ballpark guess?

 

[84BuickGNYorkPA]

It sounds like a good deal to me, see if he will include the tranny since it is still hooked up.

Chuck

 

[GSTOY]

Pull the plugs and take a look, and since you have the plugs pulled, do a compression test. For $1500 sounds like a deal to me as long as the compression looks good and plugs look ok. I think it's at least worthh a look.