3.8 motor 40,000+ miles September 16, 2007, 05:06:41 PM hey i went out looking for a motor for my 94 mustang this sat and found 1 with a lil over 40,000 miles on ... its out of a 95 mustang ... i was just wondering ...thats really low miles ... how can i find out if thats actually how many miles it has b4 i buy it ????? Thanks ED Quote Selected
3.8 motor 40,000+ miles Reply #1 – September 16, 2007, 07:06:57 PM usually around here any j/y you call all there motors have 68k mi. unless the motor is still in the car you can't verify it. also think about this. a 95 mustang is 12 years old how likely is it that someone only drove it 40k in 12 years. if it was crashed in say 99-00 it would have been a honda by now. now i'm not saying its a bad motor but beware. also if you do get it i would put new head gaskets in it to be safe(read much easier with the motor out of the car). Quote Selected
3.8 motor 40,000+ miles Reply #2 – September 16, 2007, 08:16:44 PM Quote from: dudeman351;176685usually around here any j/y you call all there motors have 68k mi. unless the motor is still in the car you can't verify it. also think about this. a 95 mustang is 12 years old how likely is it that someone only drove it 40k in 12 years. if it was crashed in say 99-00 it would have been a honda by now. now i'm not saying its a bad motor but beware. also if you do get it i would put new head gaskets in it to be safe(read much easier with the motor out of the car).That may be true, but not all cars are driven daily, and some, especially cars like Mustangs, are not driven at all in winter so it's possible that 12-year-old car has only seen the road for six years. My '88 Bird had 47k on it when I bought it in '03 and now has about 65k. My friend's grandfather has a '94 Grand Am with 3900 kilometers on it (that's about 2500 miles). He has the oil changed every three months, has had the cooling system and brake system flushed every two years, and he was going to trade it in last year because the A/C didn't work. I fixed his A/C and told him that if he ever traded it in I'd kill him. I want first dibs - Grand Am or not, I want that car...I agree with the head gasket thing - in my experience 50k seems to be about when they pop for the first time, so at 40k they're likely getting there... Quote Selected
Hellooooo! Reply #3 – September 16, 2007, 09:05:37 PM Quote from: dudeman351;176685usually around here any j/y you call all there motors have 68k mi. unless the motor is still in the car you can't verify it. also think about this. a 95 mustang is 12 years old how likely is it that someone only drove it 40k in 12 years. if it was crashed in say 99-00 it would have been a honda by now. now i'm not saying its a bad motor but beware. also if you do get it i would put new head gaskets in it to be safe(read much easier with the motor out of the car).dudeman, while you make an extremely valid point, THINK about THIS one:I know someone who has a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda Squareback sitting in their garage that has right at 40,000 ACTUAL VARIFIABLE miles on it!!! Yes, it's TRUE!!!!!;) My friend knows the milage is correct because he is the Third owner of this car. His Grandfather was it's second owner.SO, as you stated, unless it's still in it's ORIGINAL vehicle and ALL the numbers match up, there is very little way ...like slim to none!... to varify milage on an engine that has already been pulled.Just my:2c: :2c: [COLOR="Red"]@[/COLOR][COLOR="Green"]};--[/COLOR] Quote Selected
3.8 motor 40,000+ miles Reply #4 – September 16, 2007, 10:22:07 PM i didn't think about the winter thing. down here in sunny florida we don't have to deal with road salt and all that. in fact in the 25of my 38 years we lived here it only flurried 2 times. christmas of 89. and last thanksgiving. so down here 15k a year is not unusual because of the weather and everything is so sprauled out. Quote Selected
3.8 motor 40,000+ miles Reply #5 – September 17, 2007, 01:08:40 AM Quote from: dudeman351;176685usually around here any j/y you call all there motors have 68k mi. unless the motor is still in the car you can't verify it. also think about this. a 95 mustang is 12 years old how likely is it that someone only drove it 40k in 12 years. if it was crashed in say 99-00 it would have been a honda by now. now i'm not saying its a bad motor but beware. also if you do get it i would put new head gaskets in it to be safe(read much easier with the motor out of the car).or how about this one...............rich kid gets a stang for a birthday and like a dumbass showing off, wrecks it. No telling how many stangs i see that have been in the yard for years. I see em show up total and parts are grabbed off of em till the bones in em turn white.I think its likely based soley on that. Quote Selected
3.8 motor 40,000+ miles Reply #6 – September 17, 2007, 09:08:23 PM i wish i lived where y'all lived. around here 6 months and the car is crushed no matter what. Quote Selected
3.8 motor 40,000+ miles Reply #7 – September 18, 2007, 11:36:21 PM yea the car looks in really good shape ... interior and exterior looked brand new the convertable top looked brand new ... only thing was it was crashed... motor and everything is still in the car ... tranny fluid looked really clean when i checked it ... if i do a car fax on the car would it tell me the miles??? or that dont really work? Quote Selected
3.8 motor 40,000+ miles Reply #8 – September 23, 2007, 08:22:53 AM Maybe it's just me, but all the discussion about how many actual miles the engine has on it is rather moot. A. If the engine's still in the car, check the odometer. If it's the digital cluster/odo you're kinda outta luck unless you take a battery with you to power up the electronics. Beware, the car has been wrecked, so there may be bigger electrical problems that could make a battery blow up in your face. B. You're buying a USED engine. It's out of the car, and easily accessible. A rebuild gasket set would cost less than $100, and would be really easy to put in an engine on a stand. This is a no-brainer. Yank the pan, check all the bearings for wear/play. See if the crank thrusts front to back. Yank the timing cover, if for no other reason than to seal it up. Check the chain for slack while that's off. A new chain can be had for around $30. Put one on if the existing shows ANY signs of wear at all. You're in there, may as well. C. Regardless of the mileage, the car/engine has been sitting up for a while. CHECK THE FREEZE PLUGS!!! Coolant is naturally caustic to keep the system clean. The engine has aluminum heads sitting on steel gaskets on top of a cast iron block. The timing cover (aluminum) is separated from the cast iron block by only a paper gasket. Dissimilar metals + Caustic = battery effect, which will cause all manner of corrosion if the coolant isn't moving on a fairly regular basis. It's an awfully optimistic dare to put a used engine in without at least a minor rebuild to replace all the gaskets, regardless of age or mileage if you know it's been sitting for a while. You'll more than likely find yourself doing the rebuild in the car in a very short period of time if you install it without at least replacing gaskets. No way would I just take one out of a junker and stick it in my car unless I was in a HUGE hurry with plans to pull it again later. Quote Selected
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