Engine Purchase Question

[1nfamou5]

I have a question about the new engine I'm going to be buying in a few days here... For all who don't know the story of my car please check my "Introduce Me" Post I made when I joined the site.. I was referred to two sites where I could get this engine.. www.car-part.com and www.pullapart.com... Pull A Part being a site where it's at a cheap base price but you must pull the parts yourself (leading me to believe there could be a part missing from the engine) and the other site Car Part sells the engine as a whole I believe but for a lil bit more.. (although there is something in the description of some of the engines that makes me think it's not all there, if someone could check out the site and verify what they see that would be a big help).. Now I'm wondering if I were to go to Pull A Part and some things were missing from an engine would I be able to use the parts from my locked up engine.. or is the whole thing shot out and it would be better to buy the engine in whole.. Like I said in my introduce me I am a completly new to cars although I am a quick learner so I'd greatly appreciate any helpful advice given to help me get my car successfully back on the road.. thx all..

[renmike]

If you go through pull-a-part, you can make sure you get everything you need because YOU pull the engine out yourself, as opposed to going to a regular salvage yard. The engine I found through carpart.com wasn't a bad deal, but it didn't come with any accessories and the throttle body had been removed as well. I have a couple of pull a part - type yards around where I live and if you know what you need to get, it's much easier (and cheaper) to do it that way.

[es250nut]

The first (car-part.com) is essentially a way for you to find out what the wrecking yards have listed on their online inventory. Remember that each wrecking yard has their own quirks and some are great to work with and others will bend you over and over and over. Case in point, I never go to the local wrecking yard anymore, but will travel 100 miles to one that has a much better return policy and generally better pricing too.

The second (www.pullapart.com) would be for a wrecking yard chain that as you noted, you pull your own engine. Depending on how long the donor car has been in the lot, there might be some parts pulled from the engine mostly alternators and the like. The advantage would be you can inspect the engine youself before pulling it and be able to get an idea if it is any good before buying it.

Before you pull an engine, you will want to drop the oil pan and look for signs of problems like metal shavings or white gunky oil, You can also pull a valve cover off and check the top for unusual wear. Pull the spark plugs out, put a little oil in the spark plug holes and see if you can turn the engine over from the nut on the harmonic balancer.

Remember cars that are in these yards that have no major body damage are usally there for either bad engines or bad transmissions. Also keep in mind that cars with major body damage can also have an adverse effect on the mechanical soundness of the engine.

[1nfamou5]

Thanks for the advice guys any more advice would be well appreciated I'm learning alot from some opinions.. and others experience

[atobe]

another option you got is buy a used JDM engine.... they're usually low milage in good shape... but it won't have any smog related stuff like EGR valve and you can't just add it. but if you're in a state that doesn't care about that stuff then no problem.....

and sometimes your local junk yard will have a 50% off sale so ask when it is... and you pay a lil higher entrance fee but it's worth it if you buy an engine