Buying junk yard engines - what's the scoop?

Is there a "best practices" on buying an engine out of a crashed donor car?  Haven't done it, though I'm going to!

Specifically, I'm looking for a 2012 or newer 2.0 EcoBoost.  Preferable Focus ST, but could be out of a Fusion or Escape.

Roughly speaking, I can think of the following guidelines:

• No engine fires
• No floods
• Preferably hit in the rear or roll-over, rather than a big front end hit

What's the usual test for these cars?  I guess they try to start them if they can.  Compression tests seem to be done.  What else?

Please impart wisdom!

Scott

Are you able to look at them before you buy?

Professor_Brap said:

Are you able to look at them before you buy?

 

Potentially, yes.

Pull the dipstick to check for abuse. Or a valve cover. Old Oil leaks? This tells you who drove it. Riced out? Hooned to death. High miles and automatic? Carbon build up. 

I just went through this myself and my research said avoid rollovers, the cars tend to run with empty sumps for a bit while the vehicle is upside down and that's bad.

Edit - I didn't do this myself but thinking back I should have pulled the oil filter and inspected that. The yard has likely already drained the oil by the time you get to the car but the filter should still be full depending on orientation and give you an idea on any crud floating around. The VIN may be able to give you info on service history, mileage if you have someone that could run  it for you.

Happy hunting!

Adam

Thanks for all the good points, everyone.

A lot of the yards seem to record mileage, which is nice.

Probably a Fusion or Escape wouldn't have been pushed as hard as a Focus ST.  I should be able to get something with less than 50K miles.

Check the glovebox and see if there’s a maintenance record or receipts. I bought a wrecker engine and I was able to gather a lot of info by just looking at the condition the car had been kept in. In my case the car was mint but had taken a big hit in the rear drivers side quarter panel. The glovebox contained a record of every service the car had received.

I'd find a salvage that offers some type of warranty. 

Years and years ago I purchased the engine out of a '98 M3 to swap into my E30.  I can't think of the name now, but it's a (or was) a well known salvage for BMWs down in Alabama I believe.

Once we finally got the engine the car, the headgasket popped after about 300 miles.  They sent me a reman'd head, gasket kit, and OEM head bolts to make the repair.

Auto will have less wear on the thrust bearing than the manual.

For something that new, I'd probably just be searching ebay motors and getting something on a pallette sent to me.  Not going to find a 2012+ motor in the junkyard here.  And if you do, it'll be gone the next day.

This 2.0L eco engine was also offered in the Ford Edge.  I would try to get one from an Edge, because...

In the Focus, Fusion and Escape the 2.0L was offered as "the big engine choice."  In only the Edge, it was offered as a "small engine choice". My thinking is that the "small engine Edge SUV buyer" is the least likely to have "raced" the engine.  My next choice would be to get from and Escape since the SUV's are less sporty of a chassis  vs the 2 "cars " and then maybe are less likely to attract a hot-rodder.  

I'd avoid a roll-over.  Possibility of a lot of fluids going the wrong way and wrong places until the engine stopped.  

In reply to John Welsh :

Good idea!  I hadn't though about it, but with Colorado being "The Land of the SUV" there are about a million Escapes in the junk yards.  And all the engines are cheap too - $750 - 850.

Good points on the roll-over vehicles.  Will definitely avoid them.

In reply to USERNAMETAKEN :

Yes, I never thought about avoiding the roll-over engines, Sure does make sense!

Is the "roll over" thing really a concern? Even my '89 Ford Escort GT had a fuel cut that shut off the pump when I got into an accident, and that was just being TBoned in the passenger side of the car. I had to pull the passenger side trunk plastic to reach the reset button for the pump.

I'd be nervous about buying this engine:

LKQ has never done me wrong and has a 6 month warranty.  

In reply to Patrick :

That's as important as anything else in this discussion.

There are two LKQ yards in Denver.

How up-to-date is car-part.com?  They list several Escapes at LKQ, but the LKQ site only list older ones.  Or maybe it's the LKQ site that doesn't get updated.  Or maybe the engines were already removed and are stored on pallets.

I buy from LKQ via ebay just because it’s easier. I don’t know what pricing is versus ebay if i walk in the door, but I do know that i hit buy it now, pay with paypal, and they put it in will call for me the next day.  Then i go in, give my name, and it’s strapped to a pallet and in my truck in minutes.  I have a ‘14 legacy fb25 in the truck right now.  Have never had to warranty anything and they’re always good to go.  I keep going back because they treat me right

Just called on a motor from an Escape.  It's a 2014 with less than 9K miles.  Hit in the rear.  He has to check and see if it's been dismantled yet, but I asked for the engine, alternator, and intercooler.  He said $927 for the motor, and unfortunately I have to pay another $150 for a core deposit.  That's a little annoying.

See if you can wrap some harness/electrical action into that price.

Dirtydog said:

See if you can wrap some harness/electrical action into that price.

Every engine i’ve purchased from them has the full uncut engine harness on it, but they don’t guarantee it will.  The subie engine was cut on the body side of the harness connector so i could unplug the cut bits and have a full engine harness

They have them for less with no core on ebay, including shipping. I just searched 2014 escape 2.0 engine LKQ.  

There’s one at their portland location for $660 shipped.  Item number 362258044430 on ebay

No turbo on that one.  And I admit I'm fond of doing business with local establishments. I like to talk to people and see what I'm buying.  Just my mentality.

I found one with 25K in Ft Collins (1-1/2 hrs north) for $800, including starter and turbo.  No core charge.  ROAD TRIP!

In reply to USERNAMETAKEN :

Last time I called a junk yard from Car-part, I started talking to them about my intent. I wanted to build a Locost 7, and told the nice lady that I didn't need the warranty since I wouldn't have the engine even installed before it was up. She laughed and dropped some money off of the price and dropped the warranty.

Yeah, the guy was asking about my VIN, and how many miles my existing vehicle has.  I told him about the swap and he thought that sounded pretty cool.

I've got a line on an NC 5-speed too.  Looks like it'll be a little over $400.

Didn't see it mentioned whether you're after the entire drivetrain or just the engine. If it's the whole thing, yeah, it's important to avoid any car that's taken a hit to the front, especially the wheels. The force of impact can feed back through the axles into the transmission, and usually not in a good way.

As an aside, I remember a Locost builder talking about the awesome deal he got on a complete Miata drivetrain, casually noting that the car had hit a telephone pole. Yes it had, which had pushing the engine into the transmission, into the driveshaft, and into the differential. There was so much damage done to every part that he had to find another. Pictures are a big requirement and is one reason why buying an engine on a pallet without a warrantee is dicey, since you don't know what happened to it while it was in the car.