Hey, anyone ever bought a complete engine assembly with harness and accessories from hawks? I’m considering it and wonder if they inspect and ensure it’s a good enginebefore they ship it. Anyone bought one from hawks before?

 

They seem over priced and I thought I saw before that they don't guarantee them.

 

At a certain level, there's only just so much anyone can do about a used engine. Hawk's or anybody else.

After all, it's not like they can just place an order for somebody to go out and wreck a 30-yr-old car with a motor of whatever properties, and sell the results to you for cheeeeep. Similarly it's not really possible to "guarantee" a used motor in all cases... maybe for something like a LM7, where there's like millions of em on the road and those trucks crash by the thousands every day, and there's no question that if the engine out of the one you're looking at isn't "good", another will roll in within an hour; but for anything older, rare, more specialized, etc., try to imagine what a "guarantee" would look like in terms of actually satisfying it. Again, they can't just place an order for someone to go out and wreck a car.

If you think they're overpriced, don't buy em. Instead go buy one some other way and see if you can beat their deal, or get a "guarantee" from whomever. And I'm not just talking about some random "rebuilt" 350 or something. Go try to buy a KNOWN GOOD F-body L98, complete with wiring etc., and see what you run up against. Likewise, YOU go try and ensure (not "insure"... different word with a totally different meaning) that some used motor is "good", whatever that might entail.

If nothing else, you're paying them to scour the country for cars, do whatever it takes to get the engines out of em, and have one sitting on the shelf when you order it. Not a trivial matter for ANTIQUE engines like ours.

Note, before you put words in my keyboard, that I'm NOT saying "Hawk's is great", "buy from them", "their motors are good", "their prices are great", or ANYTHING ELSE of the kind; only, apply a little bit of realism and common sense to the facts at hand.

 

Hawks current selection of tbi/tpi engines:
A 305 TPI w/ auto transmission @217k miles for $1495
A 350 TPI w/ auto transmission @125k miles for $1995
and 2 305’s that fall in between on miles and price.

Personally I thought it was too much and found a complete L98 locally for $600 and am now having it rebuilt.

I have used Hawks before for small things and they’re a good company. You get an engine and tranny for that price, plus I think shipping is free now. But spending that much on an engine and tranny that you probably need to rebuild soon anyways is tough.

It also depends on what you’re looking for and what you're using it for. You could buy and rebuild any sbc for similar prices and you know that its ready to go. Can also search locally and could buy an entire car with similar engines that hawks is selling for around $2k. So many variables and details that the OP didnt mention that arguments could be made for either side.

 

They're like any other auto salvage yard; where engines and transmissions are concerned, they pull them and then sell them with no actual knowledge of whether said parts are serviceable or not. Most yards will 'guarantee' that an engine is 'good' upon installation, but that guarantee usually only entails replacement after you bring the engine/whatever back to them, and they exchange it for another (untested) one. Any labor or shipping cost of all this is borne by the buyer.

Buying used parts from any salvage yard is always a crap shoot, especially engines and/or transmissions. Keep in mind that if you're intent on buying such a part from a 3rd gen, you've automatically got two big strikes against you---the age and mileage of the unit in question.

Seriously, instead of looking at old, high-mileage junk yard engines, why not just buy a reman or a factory crate engine from a local supplier?

 

LOL!

I always enjoy reading a sofakingdom post. Not sure how many other people really appreciate the wisdom and humor!