how can i know if my engine has ever been rebuilt i just bought a 86 n/a from this guy who bought it from this other guy that didnt give him any info on whether it has been rebuilt or not it currently has 150k miles on it. it star right away and does not have any air bubbles in the coolant and it look lyk it has good compression

 

Unless there is some identifying mark left by the builder, there's not really going to be any way to tell from the outside.

 

The what difference would it make if it'd been rebuilt or not?

 

look for something out of the ordinary, painted irons/housing, rtv, jsut the way its put back together. you cant replicate that last one.

 

^^ You can replicate the last motor, just dont clean jack and use black rtv.

But on another note, to the op what area in Illinois are you from around? Just wondering if your local or not.

 

If you have no documents, assume it hasn't been rebuilt. Get a compression test done to see how healthy the motor is. Usually high mileage on an N/A motor is nothing to worry about if its been properly maintained.

 

Rebuilds are overrated anyways.

 

i live in wheeling 60090

 

That's not to far. If you need any help with it let me know. I'm around North Aurora area.

 

Like stated above the first thing you should have done would indeed be a compression test. The apex seals will give you an overall general health of your engine. If your compression is low and the engine has low miles, a rebuild could be possible. But if you bought an engine with 200000+ you better expect some problems. At that point there is a high possibility that many of your internals are wore to the point of being scrap. Another thing you could check would be your oil. Do a change on it and look at the color and health of your oil. The best thing to do would be to cut open your old oil filter and cut out a section of pletes ( sorry if thats spelled wrong ) squeeze the oil out of it with a vice and open it up to see if there is any or how much metal is set itself in there.