Good Price For a 350?

[JTESTER]

someone wants to sell me a stock 350, he wants $200 and told me that it needs new piston rings a flywheel and a water pump the only bad thing is is i have to put it back together because he tore it down, would that still be a good price for it?

and also can i put the flywheel and water pump on after its in my truck or do i have to do it before?

[slammed79]

If its a four bolt main and he's had the machine work done then $200 is a good deal. Both the water pump and the flywheel/flexplate can be installed after the engine is in the truck. The transmission will need to be out to do the flywheel though.

[Irish_Alley]

Find out why he took it apart and what he did to fix it

[JTESTER]

he was going to bore it out and clean it up a little bit and i think he was going to replace the piston rings

[Irish_Alley]

Bore it out for performance or to fix the gouges from the rings

[JTESTER]

bore it out for performance

[thirsty]

If you can trust him that the block and heads are rebuildable, not damaged, and it comes with everything I think it is worth $200. I have motors that I saved that need rebuilding. I wouldn't part with them for less than $200 but I know that they are good just not worthy dropping in a truck now. 2 for example are a 400 4bolt and a 350 4bolt. I drove both into the garage just to take the motors. The 400 I pulled the bearing caps to see the bearings then oiled it up and stored it. The 350 is taken apart and will be the next one I build if I ever have to. That one is in very good shape! Anyway if I was to sell either one of those I would feel confident they are good motors but it would take some cash for me to let go of them.

I guess it depends on how well you know this guy. If I was dishonest I got one with a bad crank I could say that was running good when I took it out and sell it (I wouldn't ever do that).

[JTESTER]

hes a good guy he took it out of his 69 nova to clean it up and replace a bunch of things and he was going to bore it out but he ended up not having the money to bore it so he doesnt want to put it back in his car because he wants a different motor, he said he will put it all back together and replace everything he was going to for a little bit more money, he sounds like hes pretty confident it runs

[Irish_Alley]

One thing that doesn’t make since is I don’t know of anyone who would tear down a good motor then price out what it would cost to rebuild it. That’s usually the first thing anyone does. So to me it sounds like it had some sort of problem he tore it down and found out what it was or he tore it down so someone can’t just start it up before they take it home. My 350 that I bought from a friend I paid 200 for it 7 years ago and she’s still running today haven’t had to do anything to her except for common parts like distributor and so on. My advice same your money for an engine that’s not such a high risk like this one, one that you can hear/see run. You can’t take anyone’s word now days. I was raised that that’s all we had, we didn’t have money so all we had was our word. Now days it don’t mean crap. Well I know mine is still good but you don’t know whose trying to scam you out of a penny

[thirsty]

he said he will put it all back together and replace everything he was going to for a little bit more money

Don't forget that this always turns into more than you expect. If it is torn down plan on a complete rebuild, any goodies you might want, and the costs that go along with putting a new engine in. And make sure he knows how to build an engine. It would be a waste of alot of money if it didn't hold together.

I forgot to mention that the motors I saved are for someday projects and didn't plan on leaving them stock. I also have one that is ready to drop in if I needed to so the project motors aren't spares.

I agree with Irish If you need a motor it would be cheaper to buy one already running.

[fitz]

If you are looking for a motor for a rebuild project $200 for a 350 4 bolt core is not a bad price.
If you are just looking for a good running 350 to drop into your truck you should be able to find a complete running motor on craigslist for about $350.

[txchainsawgogi]

I keep finding decent deals for running or mild performance rebuilds between 300-500. If I knew how much a shop would charge for an engine swap id look into it.

[JTESTER]

thank all of you for the input i will probably think a little bit harder on what im going to do thanks