Stumbled across a motor for sale. Motor was pulled out for a v8 swap. Owner stated motor has 6k miles and is a BRAND NEW shortblock not reman, or claimed, with all original long block parts and pettit blueprinted rebuild twins.

In person the motor looks like crap, super dirty. Turbo do not have shaft play. Motor turns over fine and has the audible chugs.

Owner does not have his documentation from mazda, and motor continues to sit at the shop going on 6 months without oiling/turning over.

What do you guys think is a fair price or what would you do?

-lack of documentation
-lack of compression test
-lack of maintenance proof (turning it over)

I'd say $1500-2000?

 

A brand new motor shouldn't be very dirty. If it has any surface rust I'd call foul. But regardless, I'd be really skeptical about a NEW motor with no receipts.

 

It should be really easy to tell if it's a new engine.

All the hardware will look NEW, housings will look new etc.....

If it is it's worth north of 3k

Otherwise 2500 as a long block or 1500 as a short

 

At the very least pull the turbos off and take a peek through the exhaust ports. its not a clear indication of whether its new or not but you can at least see/have an idea of what you're getting yourself into.

I cringe when I read threads like this. Good luck, keep us posted.

 

Do a compression test....

 

...My understanding was that the engine is out of the car...if it is in the car "Do a compression test"

 

Even out the car he can compression test. Just need your trans and starter of course.

 

i ran into some thing similar to this with a motor i bought off allrotor93.... the engine looked like **** but the tension bolts looked brand new... never really know without a compression test...

 

exactly if you've seen a new short block before it's really easy to tell.

the irons, housings, tension bolts/all the hardware, water pump, oil pan etc..... will look new because they are new. If they don't it's not a new engine

 

I put a Mazda Reman GSLSE engine in my GSLSE that even though was cruddy, it was surface stuff. It was Reman in 2002 and with my Mazda Compression Tester, it gave me 9.5, 9.5.9.7 on the front rotor and 9.7, 9.7, 10.0 on the rear with no MMO or ATF fluid ever put in.....Judging by the clutch and looking through the ports it was very clean. I wouldn't have given it more than 1000 miles. The clutch and pressure plate looked like it came out of the box

Compression test is the key and looking in the exhaust ports for coolant and oil problems are the key...

 

Im going to run back over to the shop this week and snap a few pics, see if I can pull the turbos off and check the ports.

Ill post some of the pics. These guys don't have a mazda comp tester, although the motor is hooked up to the trans with a starter

Thanks for the help you guys!

 

If it's hooked up to the trans with a starter, should be easy as pie to get a battery and verify the compression right there and then. Saving you potential $$$$ pain down the track.

 

with no documentation i'd say $1500 max.

because who knows when it was built, with or without 3 piece seals and it has 6k miles so it still is hardly what i would call "new" any longer. even new parts lose half their value as soon as you buy them, add in the term "used" and it drops another 50% off the already 50% figure.

if they wanted to get more they could tear it apart for some pictures of the internals and simply reseal it. but i doubt that's going to happen.

 

Great info, I will try to get him down to at maximum of $1500. Figure I could sell the trans, turbos, alternator etc and recoup at least $1,000 bucks have $500 mystery core for backup