Thinking of going S52 instead

[Kilomph]

I've been looking for an S50 for a couple weeks now. There is a low mileage one in FL, but they're not willing to ship. I figured i'd just go with TheEuroDepots, but they're asking 4500 now. I've found an S52 locally, it's got 55k miles, came from an auto, but it's located in a major city. They're only asking 2k though. For that price I could convert it, and get a propper Conforti chip for the cost of a 100k+ S50.

I always thought a major city is the toughest place for an engine, and 55k could really mean 150k+ with all the stop-go-idling going on. No comp. tests available, they said I could come down to do my own. Opinions?

[FredK]

Yeah, if the S50 is not readily available, you might as well get an S52 if you can pick it up cheap. It has the updated valve spring retainers, so no worries about that. You just have to drill and tap an additional hole for a temp sensor in the head, and switch over a bunch of OBD-I parts like manifold, TB, knock sensors, crank position sensor, etc.

I'd look into getting a spare M50 parts engine if you want to do the swap as cheaply and quickly as possible. I dunno if you're in north or south NJ, but Motorsport Recycling in north NJ has S52s with no accessories for ~3K IIRC. Just another option.

[LINUS]

Yeah, if the S50 is not readily available, you might as well get an S52 if you can pick it up cheap. It has the updated valve spring retainers, so no worries about that. You just have to drill and tap an additional hole for a temp sensor in the head, and switch over a bunch of OBD-I parts like manifold, TB, knock sensors, crank position sensor, etc.

I'd look into getting a spare M50 parts engine if you want to do the swap as cheaply and quickly as possible. I dunno if you're in north or south NJ, but Motorsport Recycling in north NJ has S52s with no accessories for ~3K IIRC. Just another option.

+1

Doing the OBD1 S52 thing myself - I bet I've wasted 2-3 months of interupped working time chasing/buying/waiting for UPS OBD1 parts after identifing something I didn't have. I'd have saved a TON of time buying a OBD1 motor to take ~30 digi pics of harness/component layout, then strip it of all goods and put it onto my S52. But I'm almost done, with any luck it will get cranked over next weekend.