cost of a used M20

#1

Long story, the weekend before Nationals and I am having to replace my engine. I have found a donor. What is a fair price for a functioning but used M20 engine?

#2

http://car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

the mid Atlantic search for am M20…
Sorry to hear that news…

#3

David - we had to do the same after VIR. I found a local donor car for $700 with a working motor (driven to my house), tranny, and LSD. It was a 200k motor.
Ed

#4

Going rate is about $500 I believe.

#5

David,

Sorry to hear about your engine. Too many racers are having engine issues lately. Wasn’t yours a BMW factory rebuilt "crate" engine.

#6

Going rate on a "good" used engine is $500. The motor in my Black car was one weekend from trashing the bottom end, seems that around 1-1.5 seasons is what you can expect from a used bottom end. It will be interesting to see how long the factory crate motors last before they need a freshening. I am seriously thinking about buying one as the supply of sub 200k mile motors is drying up. I would guess that a crate motor would go 2 seasons before it would need bearings/rings. I guess a valve job every winter would be a good idea. I did oil analysis on the black car every 2 oil changes and nothing ever showed up. The #6 rod bearing was toast when I checked it.

#7

screwynewy wrote:

[quote]David,

Sorry to hear about your engine. Too many racers are having engine issues lately. Wasn’t yours a BMW factory rebuilt "crate" engine.[/quote]
Is this true?

#8

I wonder if it’s due to oil starvation? :unsure:

#9

Without trying to be rude. How much does a BMW crate motor run and are they sold on an "exchange" basis or bought outright?

#10

No, it was a freshened junk yard engine.

#11

Mark Lilley wrote:

Nothing rude about a legit question.

AFAIK, a BMW Reman’ed M20 325i engine is about $4k, and they are sold outright with no core exchange- again, AFAIK.

Ask your dealer for "RMFD SHORT ENGINE part number 11001730856" if you’re curious.

There is at least 1 specE30 driver who recently had his engine rebuilt locally- I’ll let him comment about his experience with that- probably after nationals though…

I think the going rate for a good used M20 325i engine is ~$500-600, unless it’s got very high or very low mileage (verifiable) or some sort of issue. I personally would not be afraid of an engine up to around 200k, provided it looked OK, especially if I could hear it run or the seller vouched for it (and you trust the seller).

Bret.

#12

Lots of guys in the SE are running original or junkyard engines, and so far results have been good. Kelly’s car is 250K+, and my motor is closing in on 210K. It was a track rat car for the previous two owners besides me, so it’s had a lot of hard life in the last 8-10 years.

I will put in a plug for crank scrapers though. Late last season my oil pressure gauge was dropping below 20psi going through the long lefthander at RRR (T3) and staying low all the way through the curve. At 5000+ RPM this wasn’t a comfortable thought. Over the winter I dropped the pan and put one in, and this year, in the same corner, the pressure drops slightly (to maybe 40) but not all the way down to sub-20, where the oil pressure gauge warning light comes on.

I haven’t dynoed mine back to back with anyone else, but I did take it to Balanced Performance last fall (on a pretty hot day) and it put out 150/150, which seems about in line with what most guys showed at the Nationals last year.

#13

Matt Russell wrote:

[quote]screwynewy wrote:

[quote]David,

Sorry to hear about your engine. Too many racers are having engine issues lately. Wasn’t yours a BMW factory rebuilt "crate" engine.[/quote]
Is this true?[/quote]it is a plot by the other ‘shrinking’ classes…:laugh:

#14

Anyone that wants a BMW reman engine, I can get you the following deal on BMW P/N 11001730856:

$3310.85 + tax

There is no core charge if you can provide a good core with good meaning a good block! Otherwise there is a $500.00 core charge.

This deal is directly from a BMW dealer and is dealer cost + 15%. This price is $430 less than the wholesale price on the engine. Anyone interested just send me an e-mail and I’ll give you the phone number of the dealership and the name of the person you need to talk to.

Steven

#15

wow…I wish I could get 500 for the Block I have taking up space in my shed

#16

Sean Thompson wrote:

Yeah, I know what you mean- I wish I could get 1/2 core charge for pretty much ANY E30 part that has one attached to it.

:huh:

So, if anyone ever needs any cores- post up here on this board, I know I’ve got tons of hard parts that are not good enough to use as-is, but would be good for rebuilding- and I’m sure other folks do too.

BTW, that deal that Steven Canterbury posted for the OEM longblock sounds hard to beat- if you’re considering going that route… :slight_smile:

Bret

#17

Steve - thanks for posting that info. We just went through this - bought a donor car, rebuilt head and spend about $1k. This looks like a good option in the future if we kill another engine.
Ed

#18

What would the cost be to rebuild one if you do most of the work yourself? I was thinking about getting a junkyard motor this winter and rebuilding to use as a spare.

#19

It all depends on machine work and if you want/need to buy new pistons. I just spent over 1k just on the head, New cam, rockers, shafts and springs. Motor now makes 1 less HP than one of the junkyard motors we tested…If you deck the block, bore it, turn the crank, buy all the associated parts, I think you will be close to 3k. Myy biggest concern would be quality of machine work, get the clearnces too tight and it makes less power…

I am thinking hard about the crate motor…

Al

#20

if a complete rebuild is not necessary what is the absolute minimum that you would need to do to a junkyard motor to get it ready to take track abuse, besides fix all the leaks.

Thanks,

Greg Moberg