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 piss 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

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

Unless you want to pull the oil pan i dont think there really is alot you can do.He doesnt have any receipts for parts or machine work?

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?

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

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.

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

what will doing them both cold and warm tell me?

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.

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

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?

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

Being Trump. :( Even with that shitty hair he can ---- whoever

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

last time i sold my car with a built motor is when the oil pressure wouldn`t go back up anymore :l it locked up on the kid after a month :1

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

make the fucker sign something.

Put on there like you have 72hrs to pull the pan, etc. etc. etc. to varify the internals or full refund will be granted.

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

pull the pan and look at the pistons and rods from the bottom

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

its a 96 civic ex with 102k and i talked him down to $2300. the body is rough and it has a salvage title. looks better then my car. a little. salvage was from few yrs ago.

i figure, i can sell the my car for that, stock 94 civic with a rough body and junkyard turbo kit, runs good though, tuned etc. and break even. then sell the supercharger and be up some cash and a built motor, in a equally shitty but slightly better looking shell.

it aslo comes with a pile of ---- i can sell and come out with a few hundred in my pocket depends how much a jrsc is worth used, and build a kit and be making 250whp or so for basicly nothing

pretty much i have to buy it or not sometime today, he says he doesnt want to deal with a bunch of people so he said its mine if i want it, otherwise theres others wanting to check it out, which is a common tactic, but i dont doubt it cause thats how it is around here, people swarm on cheap hondas, i was just the 1st to get there.

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

the car was branded salvage? holy ---- dude, that thing probably has more bondo than steel, those jrsc kits are junk, you better watch your ass, DTA man, trust your own judgement, sure the car may run fine, but it's running in limp mode? some bad wiring? sounds like red green auto to me, watch your back. i'd for sure get him to sign something and do what the other guys have said previously, don't worry about what the seller thinks, worry about what you want, it's your money, remember he's workin for you, tryin to get your money.

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

20w50 in an engine ment for 5w30....it makes me wonder what other sort of retarded things the previous owner may have done

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

I would pass on it for today.

Tell him you want to pull the pan and cover. He should be fine with that, no skin off his ass.
Also pull the codes, try to connect everything and get it running right.

The salvage title is also something I would be wary of. Just buy some other civic and put your time into it. Not like this thing is that great of a deal anyway.

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

hey i put 20 50 in my integra all the time

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

im not so worried about the title and body, my civic now isnt the greatest, basicly i figure cause it comes with the stock intake manifold, ill take the jrsc off and ebay it for a few hundred hopefully, not really sure how much there worth, then it will be like upgrading beaters for little or no money, as long as the motor is cool. everything worked and it ran well enough that i doubt the wiring is serious, the engine bay is pretty stripped down it shoudnt be to hard to straighten out the wiring. then if the motor is good i can just drive it until a better shell comes along. then like i said it comes with alot of other ---- i can sell, he basicly threw all his honda related parts in the trunk.

thats how i logicalized it at least :1


but ya, good advice, thanks

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

---- that, i use delo 400 :P

Re: buying a civic with a built motor
 

I use gear lube cut with marvel mystery oil in my beater.