ok here goes:
when buying a car, assume worst-case scenario ALWAYS, unless you REALLY know what is going on (which you don't, since you haven't torn the engine apart).
worst case scenario is you need a new engine, AND other things may be wrong with the car that you can't find because the engine doesn't run (bad diff, blah blah). If the car is in GREAT shape visually, offer $500, and expect to do an engine swap.
I have done an M20 swap into a car with an M20 with a burnt valve. It took me and a buddy an entire Saturday from 7am to 3am sunday morning to do the swap from soup to nuts. The 20 hours consisted of:
1. getting up in the morning and heading to a junkyard
2. pulling a complete M20 from a junkyard car AFTER getting it to run (with some jerry-rigging)
3. trucking the M20 back to the house
4. Pulling the entire M20 + trans from my buddy's car
5. Swapping trans and other things onto the junkyard (good) M20
6. dropping the whole shebang back into the M20
7. test drive!
when buying a car, assume worst-case scenario ALWAYS, unless you REALLY know what is going on (which you don't, since you haven't torn the engine apart).
worst case scenario is you need a new engine, AND other things may be wrong with the car that you can't find because the engine doesn't run (bad diff, blah blah). If the car is in GREAT shape visually, offer $500, and expect to do an engine swap.
I have done an M20 swap into a car with an M20 with a burnt valve. It took me and a buddy an entire Saturday from 7am to 3am sunday morning to do the swap from soup to nuts. The 20 hours consisted of:
1. getting up in the morning and heading to a junkyard
2. pulling a complete M20 from a junkyard car AFTER getting it to run (with some jerry-rigging)
3. trucking the M20 back to the house
4. Pulling the entire M20 + trans from my buddy's car
5. Swapping trans and other things onto the junkyard (good) M20
6. dropping the whole shebang back into the M20
7. test drive!
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