How many miles

[capt100j]

Hi Guys, new to the forum. I have a 87 325IC just bought off CL, fla car super clean with a rod rap. I found a donor car 88IC with 190K How realistic is it to swap an engine with that many miles? Guy says engine is strong, what is this groups experience with a tall miles motor like that? Thanks, John in NH

[jlevie]

That rather depends on how well the engine was cared for. I tracked a Spec E30 with a +200K engine for over a year and the engine was still running when I replaced it with a lower mileage engine.

The bottom end is pretty rugged and typically lasts a long time. At that mileage there is probably some wear in the rings and cylinders, but most of the wear will be in the head. Fortunately that is easy to remedy.

[slammin.e28]

It takes 200k miles to break it in. I've pulled the head off a 200k+ M20 and it still had the hone marks in the cyl walls.

My friend has one nearing 250k (probably past by now). Engine is solid. Just had a vac leak and oil leak from the cooler.

[jlevie]

It takes 200k miles to break it in. I've pulled the head off a 200k+ M20 and it still had the hone marks in the cyl walls.

My friend has one nearing 250k (probably past by now). Engine is solid. Just had a vac leak and oil leak from the cooler.

Hone marks in the cylinder walls aren't always a reliable indication of cylinder wear. The +200k engine still showed those, but measurement with a bore gauge revealed wear in excess of the wear limit. But even that doesn't mean that the engine is worn out. As I said, the head is usually where the most wear occurs. A head refresh usually does wonders for a higher mileage engine.

[rede30]

I had an m20 with 420, as far as I could tell it was original. It burned about a quart of oil every 1000, was loud, leaked but was just as strong as any other m20. I sold the car to a friend and due to an unfortunate event it ran dry of oil and tanked. The car rolled over to 450 this week with a younger motor.

[einstein57]

Did a headgasket at 300+ and it still had very good cross hatching.