Buying engines?

Mudskipper · World Chat Champion Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Karma :

Been half-heartedly browsing for an XL500 engine to stuff into the CB, there doesn't seem to be that many around.

Anyway, one's come up for £65, 100 miles away form me. The current owner has never heard it run.

How much of a risk is buying an engine of unknown runningness/fuckedness?

How much would you pay/travel for one? Question

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CBR125|||GSXR400|||CBR400|||CBR400|||CB250RS|||GSXR750|||CB250RS Mr. Green

"You're clumsy, you eat too much and you behave like a 12 year old boy. But you know what? Every once in a while, you find a thumb."

Kickstart · The Oracle Joined: 04 Feb 2002 Karma :

Hi

Largely depends on the engines. As the CB250RS and XL500 are both from a time when Honda singles had a habit of destroying the cam bearings in the head there is a fair amount of risk. If you are happy splashing out for the repairs (eg, think SEP in Kegworth will repair the heads) anyway then far less risk.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

b-f-c · Traffic Copper Joined: 06 Sep 2006 Karma :

If there's a starter on it, take a beefy battery and at least hear it chugging over - maybe borrow a compression tester too and you can test that too

thegubner · World Chat Champion Joined: 25 Mar 2007 Karma :

I have sold a couple of engines that I didn't know whether they ran or not.

Personally I only charged about 20-30 quid for each engine.

One was a GPZ 750 I think, and one was a GPZ 600.

And as I result I wouldn't personally pay more than that for an engine that had a big ? about it running or not.

Especially after reading what Keith said about them.