ad on craigslist for a 350 tbi jasper engine out of a 1991 G20 van. the guy is asking 350 or best offer. the engine only has 30K miles on it. what do you guys think? i think it sounds like it could be a winner. its a complete engine, everything still installed. altenator, water pump, distrubtor, manifold, injectors, wirring harness. he says he bought the entire van for the engine. wanted the engine for a project car, but ended up buying a big block instead. it almost sounds too cheap. what do you guys think? also i have never done an engine swap. what is involved? i know that the 2 top transmission bolts would be a real pain to remove. whats the best way to remove them. since i will have the entire engine if i buy it, what else do i need? it would basically be turn key, wouldnt it? i have a 305 tbi right now. i think i might need a new prom chip and fuel pump. what fuel pump would i use? how much more performance would i gain by doing this swap? i would installed the engine stock in my car, maybe i would swap in a better cam. how involved is this whole process, what im i getting myself into?

Be careful. I've seen many used engine deals that turned out to be no deal at all. The price is a red flag. Can he prove it only has 30K on it? Can you hear it running? He may have bought it, found out there's a problem with it, and is trying to unload it.

unfortunately it was removed from the vehicle already, the vehicle was sent to the junk yard. he tells me that it ran strong and he didnt use it becuase he bought a big block instead. he tells me he drove the van home and it ran strong with plenty of power. he said that the van had an ID tag from jasper on it, listing the mileage. he also said that the tag went with the van to the junk yard. so he has no proof of the mileage. the only thing i have to go on is his word. my stepfather told me that the economy is poor and some people have been forced to offload things cheap to get some money. this could be the case, but its kind of risky. if i bought it and installed it in the car and it knocked, i would not be happy. he could just want it out of his garage. i once bought a kohler single cylinder K series(K301, 12 hp) shortblock engine for 150 bucks, that only had one season on it. i dont know if you guys are familiar with kohler cast iron engines, but replacement shortblocks cost over 1,000 bucks. i went out on a limb and bought it. i installed it on my john deere 112 garden tractor and it runs great, i was expecting something to be wrong with it. anyways, i know thats off topic, but sometimes you can get deals.

can external apperance be any indication on whats inside. if its a low mileage engine, it should have decent looking valve covers, no signs of oil leakage, and a rust free(or nearly rust free) block?

It should still have decent paint on it. Take the oil filler out (or better yet pull a valve cover). There should be zero sludge. Check the plugs for signs of oil fouling. They should be nice and grey or brown. There's a lot of "he said" in your last post. Maybe he's telling the truth, but you'll only know after a lot of time and money has been spent. If it was me, I might go for it, but I'd pull a head and a couple of bearing caps to see how it looked before I went to all the trouble of installing it.

Run a compression check on it.

as i said, its not in a vehicle. in order to do a compression test, you need to be able to crank it over.

You can still crank it if the starter is still there all you have to do is hook power to the starter and ground it and activate the solenoid to crank the engine .

You didn't mention starter, but as stated, all you need is a starter hooked to a battery to do a compression check.