i'm sourcing a temp motor for my Z and found one in a local yard in a injected 280. the car shows 210k on the clock and the motor is quite dirty, covered in dirt/oil, but it is all sealed, the oil cap was still on, and there was oil in the head when i removed the cap, and oil in the pan when i checked....i'll be replacing all the gaskets on it, but without really just buying it and trying it out, is there any tips to maybe spotting a decent motor in the yard? i was thinking maybing yanking the valve cover and checking it out...i'm sure someone has done this before, any suggestions?

steve

one suggestion is to make sure you can turn the engine over with no prob. se if it has any coolant. if it is too good to be true it probably is. that is all i got.good luck.

Take a battery and a compression tester(assuming the engine still has a starter). If all of the cyls show close measurements on compression, that would be a good indicator of engine condition-verify the oil is not thick.

Will

buy a running car on the cheap. do your swap and later sell the car.

you'll be removing the engine in your space not the yard, you will pick up parts from the donor car and reduce the chance of a bad motor. when you are done you will have some thing to sell and in every move it will lbe easier to drive a car than to man handle an engine. that alone is worth the initial higher cost. end the end it will be easier, less risky and less expensive. i found a running 240 in the paper for $250.00 and later bought a benz sedan for $250.00. then benz had $300.00 worth of tires on it and i would trust it cross counrty if need be. youd be amazed what you might find in the paper... good luck

cdavid

buy a running car on the cheap. do your swap and later sell the car.

you'll be removing the engine in your space not the yard, you will pick up parts from the donor car and reduce the chance of a bad motor. when you are done you will have some thing to sell and in every move it will lbe easier to drive a car than to man handle an engine. that alone is worth the initial higher cost. end the end it will be easier, less risky and less expensive. i found a running 240 in the paper for $250.00 and later bought a benz sedan for $250.00. then benz had $300.00 worth of tires on it and i would trust it cross counrty if need be. youd be amazed what you might find in the paper... good luck

cdavid

that would normally be my first thought, but the problem is that i'm out of space. i've got the Z next to my 510 in the garage, my dialy driver Q45 in the driveway, and those are just my cars, my roommate has his own S14. my solution? just buy a parts car, but for the above mentioned reasons, it's a little tough.

another thing i was thinking is, what would be the approximate cost of a full rebuild? rings, bearings, decking/pressure checking the head, i've never priced things for the L series, and i'm trying to see which one is more economical, because you really never can tell with a 'yard engine...

i was trying to avoid having downtime really, getting a substitute engine to throw in there, drive around for a while, while i built or rebuilt another engine to the way i wanted it, but i think that might take me a little longer than i suspect...start to finish, first time rebuilding an L series, what am i looking at as far as time goes, i've done other motors, but as i go, i learn new tricks to these motors....