buying a civic with a built motor
01-30-2007, 07:51 PM
#1
3.0 BAR
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 2,057
buying a civic with a built motor
i found this cheap civic with a built motor and a jrsc, so im thinkin grab it and sell the supercharger and turbo the ---- out of it, ive been wanting a built d for a while now. i mean its really cheap for what it has, it has some wire issues, body issures, salvage title, but i think its actually still an upgrade from my car ha
my question, how can i tell im not getting ripped on whats in the motor? any way besides opening it? the guy seems honest, ive delt with alot of people and im usually a good judge of character. he says hes just sick of the import scene and just had a kid and wants it gone. he said its bored .20 over- je pistons i think he said? (lower compression, he said 9:1?) eagle rods, bunch of head work, cam, act street clutch, machine work etc says he has like 5k into the motor, i drove it and he said there is a 6psi pulley on it, it felt **** slow to me. he said it goes in limp mode cause the iat sensor isint hooked up and theres a cel and a few messed up lookin wires around the sc, but it does run and sounds fine
think all i can really do is show up with a comp tester
my question, how can i tell im not getting ripped on whats in the motor? any way besides opening it? the guy seems honest, ive delt with alot of people and im usually a good judge of character. he says hes just sick of the import scene and just had a kid and wants it gone. he said its bored .20 over- je pistons i think he said? (lower compression, he said 9:1?) eagle rods, bunch of head work, cam, act street clutch, machine work etc says he has like 5k into the motor, i drove it and he said there is a 6psi pulley on it, it felt **** slow to me. he said it goes in limp mode cause the iat sensor isint hooked up and theres a cel and a few messed up lookin wires around the sc, but it does run and sounds fine
think all i can really do is show up with a comp tester
01-30-2007, 08:11 PM
#3
1.0 BAR
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 503
Re: buying a civic with a built motor
Pulling the oil pan is the best option. I'd be worried about any supercharged car thats had an unhooked IAT sensor.
You could also take off the rocker cover to inspect for heavy oil deposits etc?
You could also take off the rocker cover to inspect for heavy oil deposits etc?
01-30-2007, 08:40 PM
#4
3.0 BAR
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,935
Re: buying a civic with a built motor
i bought one, for 175 bucks. crower i beams and arias pistons with a p28 ecu, half a direct port kit, broken z6 tranny, ported throttle body, regrind cam and an aem cam gear. best 175 bucks i ever spent
01-30-2007, 09:10 PM
#5
0.0 BAR
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 0
Re: buying a civic with a built motor
Pulling oil pan will verify if it has rods, but doing both cold and warm compression tests and using a borescope to check out the chamber are the only ways to keep from getting hosed.
You can forgo the borescope, but you have to be damn good at looking at the tops of the pistons for signs of detonation, and reading plugs. Compression tests both cold and hot are a must.
You can forgo the borescope, but you have to be damn good at looking at the tops of the pistons for signs of detonation, and reading plugs. Compression tests both cold and hot are a must.
01-30-2007, 10:20 PM
#7
0.0 BAR
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 0
Re: buying a civic with a built motor
Cold you won't have a bunch of oil between rings and cyl walls to bump up compression. If the engine has been damaged from bad tune you'll see a pretty big variance between cylinders. A little lower is okay, if it's even, but if there's damage one or two cylinders is always much worse than the others.
Warm compression will tell you what the compression is with oil sealing up the piston/bore gap. If there's significant variance between cylinders there it'll be pretty bad damage.
Since it's supposedly built, I'd expect there to be a bit of a jump between cold and warm compression due to the bigger piston-bore gap most forgings require. Don't let that phase you for a second as long as the plugs/chamber look good, and the numbers are even.
I'm not impressed by a built setup for sale. ALL built setups are beaten on and fail, old boy might just be crafty and trying to get out from under it while it still appears to be in good condition. Then again, I believe old boy entirely about being sick of the scene - this could be a his loss/your gain situation, too.
Warm compression will tell you what the compression is with oil sealing up the piston/bore gap. If there's significant variance between cylinders there it'll be pretty bad damage.
Since it's supposedly built, I'd expect there to be a bit of a jump between cold and warm compression due to the bigger piston-bore gap most forgings require. Don't let that phase you for a second as long as the plugs/chamber look good, and the numbers are even.
I'm not impressed by a built setup for sale. ALL built setups are beaten on and fail, old boy might just be crafty and trying to get out from under it while it still appears to be in good condition. Then again, I believe old boy entirely about being sick of the scene - this could be a his loss/your gain situation, too.
01-30-2007, 11:56 PM
#8
3.0 BAR
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 2,057
Re: buying a civic with a built motor
thanks for the advice. ya im pretty un-trusting when buying a car and i take peoples words for what there worth, which is ---- when i dont know them and there possibly trying to sell me a problem.
and for the price i dont stand to loose a whole lot considering the parts installed (and in the trunk ha) so all im really hoping for is a good motor. the fact you say they've all been beatin and fail is a little discouraging, i understand the beatin part. his whole story is the thing wont boost because of an electrical problem, causing the car to always run in limp mode, which does seem to be the case, or the supercharger is fucked, but the car runs fine and theres a belt on the pulley, besides a wierd idle which happens about %60 of modified hondas ive ever seen. best case senario this guy is telling the truth, never got to beat it hard because he never had time to fix the problem, i get a built motor thats never seen much boost, with a supercharger i can sell for enough to get a nice manifold and some parts.
p.s. its about 5 degrees here in MN and he said it has i think 20w50 in it right now, so that might affect the comp test id think
and for the price i dont stand to loose a whole lot considering the parts installed (and in the trunk ha) so all im really hoping for is a good motor. the fact you say they've all been beatin and fail is a little discouraging, i understand the beatin part. his whole story is the thing wont boost because of an electrical problem, causing the car to always run in limp mode, which does seem to be the case, or the supercharger is fucked, but the car runs fine and theres a belt on the pulley, besides a wierd idle which happens about %60 of modified hondas ive ever seen. best case senario this guy is telling the truth, never got to beat it hard because he never had time to fix the problem, i get a built motor thats never seen much boost, with a supercharger i can sell for enough to get a nice manifold and some parts.
p.s. its about 5 degrees here in MN and he said it has i think 20w50 in it right now, so that might affect the comp test id think
01-31-2007, 12:07 AM
#9
0.0 BAR
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 0
Re: buying a civic with a built motor
It's a setup that people boost on while in limp mode - there's a chance you can get lucky here, but how am I at all discouraging? Just facts.
If there's a problem, and he's at all honest, you could walk away with a rebuildable core for pennies. More work sucks, but what in life doesn't?
If there's a problem, and he's at all honest, you could walk away with a rebuildable core for pennies. More work sucks, but what in life doesn't?
01-31-2007, 12:14 AM
#10
3.0 BAR
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 2,875
Re: buying a civic with a built motor
Originally Posted by Joseph Davis
It's a setup that people boost on while in limp mode - there's a chance you can get lucky here, but how am I at all discouraging? Just facts.
If there's a problem, and he's at all honest, you could walk away with a rebuildable core for pennies. More work sucks, but what in life doesn't?
If there's a problem, and he's at all honest, you could walk away with a rebuildable core for pennies. More work sucks, but what in life doesn't?
Even with that shitty hair he can ---- whoever
