Kai, you may want to advertise in your local paper, or city paper. We
were able to find one for $500 complete, needing rebuild. I wouldn't
be afraid of an engine with over 100k over it. In our case, our motor
had over 150k miles, and we used all standard bearings throughout.
our piston bores were only worn about 5 thou over max, so we decided
to bore over .020 (don't ask me why we didn't bore .010 over). In
this case, we figured it would be best to get the high compression
Buick pistons at over 9.6:1. Using the Fel-pro gaskets, that
compression ratio will come down some.
We do have a core Buick 215 motor, that we would be willing to sell
you for next to nothing. It does not have a front cover, oil pan, or
heads (that's why it will cost next to nothing). You can get a front
cover from one of the dismantlers, and also get the better oil seal
instead of the crappy rope seal. you're on your own with the oil pan,
and the heads... well, if you could find some good heads from a speed
shop, that would be sweet. We decided to go the route of stage 1,
ported/polished heads. Great breathing.
The Buick 215 we mentioned above is badly rusted. A machine shop
would need to do quite a bit of cleaning, and I can't guarantee that
they won't be able to get the bearings and all clean enough through
grinding. If you're interested, let me. I can get MEGA cheap FED-EX
overnight shipping from work. I will be leaving the company I'm
working for in three weeks, so let me know. I think I could ship the
whole block for around $50-75 overnight.
Just to let you know what you are getting into, you're talking
$1000-2500 for engine rebuild (depending on mild or wild), another
$1000-3000 for tranny, auxilary parts, etc.
BUT... You're looking at 200 HP and killer torque. The motor we are
building up should supply us with 225 HP, and gobs of torque. Unless
you like to pull stumps, or race, you probably won't need the 3.9L.
Sorry to be so long winded... trying to summarize my thoughts. Might
save you some time and headaches.
Jay and Mike
|