I'm looking to buy these parts off of craigslist. The owner states that he bought all these parts from jegs 10 years ago and never ran them in a motor. He claims that it is a forged rotating assembly...are there any worries with buying an old kit like this? He wants $500 cash. Any insight? This is going to be my first motor build. http://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/pts/4959580562.html

 

If it's your first engine build, don't risk it, go with parts you know are new. At least, that's what I would do. It's probably fine but if there's just one deep scratch somewhere on one of the smooth surfaces, like a crank journal, you are screwed out a lot of cash to get it fixed or replaced. And it's not like you can inspect them in person for wear, scratches or use in general. Just my

 

I was told that if the crank has been sitting too long that it can warp? I appreciate the input, and I'm leaning towards not buying the parts but wanna make sure I'm not screwing myself out of a bad deal is all.

 

To me that looks like a good deal, I'd just be aware with the age and sitting you may need to fab some things to work, like he said some surfaces may not be absolutely smooth like they should be. If it were me I'd go for it. Looks pretty good for the money.

 

Pretty good deal IMHO. The crank will not warp if it is sitting in an engine block, or a crank box/package, or stood on its end upright. What can happen is if you take a crankshaft and lay it on your shop floor it may warp over time due to the unevenness of how it sits on the counter weight.

Now keep this in mind... NO MAIN CAPS on that block. You can not just bolt any old caps up and it work right. You WILL have to buy the main caps then have the block at least line honed, maybe line bored. That's where a machine shop will torque the caps on and pass a spinning boring bar through all 5 main caps/saddles to remove metal to make the saddles/caps perfect straight line.

 

That's probably the reason it's (a) not assembled yet, (b) for sale in the first place, and (c) so cheap besides.

Pass. This belongs in the "if you have to ask, it's not for you" category. Good way to bite off more than you can chew and end up spending more on setting straight whatever gremlins (in addition to that one) may exist, than in buying new and with less risk.

 

Unless you're buying a junkyard motor with a solid and KNOWN warranty, you shouldn't be buying someone else's project motor.. because like sofa mentioned, it may seem great initially, and then you realized where the gaping flaw is (usually after you've already invested even more money into it).. and now you're deep over your budget getting less than you would have just going the "all new parts" route.

Look at it this way: if you start all new, you know exactly what you've got. No guessing, no gambling, and no dealing with someone else's stupid mistakes. I call that insurance.

 

Skip it. Might be a good deal, but not worth the headache. Not to bash, but you can't really fab engine components like that. Deep scratches ruin cranks, and small ones create big issues like having a machine shop turn down the journals. Any warping will ruin it. Especially if you are doing anything over a street motor, it comes down to the smallest possible things to make or break the engine just running correctly, let alone running good times.