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What's it Worth? Running M97 3.8L Core Engine with Bore Scoring
I have an M97 from a 2005 I just bought from a member on here. It has confirmed bore scoring. Picture attached from cylinder #6. Right now it runs and drives fine, obviously that won't last too long. I have other plans for this car, so I had no need for this engine.
My question is, what is this engine worth? I'm happy to sell as a long block or part it out. Ebay prices seem inflated for parts, I'm guessing not a lot are actually selling.
Note: Depstech bore scope was not good. I had to wire up a separate LED to stick in the cylinder with it. I do not recommend... The only mirror it comes with is a weird blue one that barely works.
Note 2: For those keeping tally.. This car has 130k miles, tiptronic, and spent most of it's life in southern California.
Do you know the oil consumption rate? If it's not too bad, the car can probably be driven for quite some time. Even after my oil mileage started to decline noticeably, I drove my car roughly 27,000 miles before getting the engine rebuilt. If one had the funds ready, I wouldn't recommend waiting this long, but I necessarily had to save up. The scoring does not look anywhere near as bad as mine looked in the beginning, so I would use the oil consumption rate to make the decision. I am sure the core is worth something, especially since it doesn't look too bad yet.
That part I don't know... The records I have with the car show that it was getting oil changes every 5000 miles or so, but I don't know if oil was added in between.
I sold a scored 3.6 4 or 5 years ago for $2700. It was disassembled and damage was disclosed in pictures. It had 144,000 miles so I can imagine the3.8 to be in that ballpark. With the state of things all that is subject to change quickly though.
That's what I was figuring would be the best route. Pull the heads and take clear pictures of the bores for the potential buyer. I may get to work on dropping it tonight.
This video should be pinned in a thread called "Want to diagnose bore scoring from a video? Click here first." Maybe then we can save a lot of folks bandwidth and sleepless nights.
This video should be pinned in a thread called "Want to diagnose bore scoring from a video? Click here first." Maybe then we can save a lot of folks bandwidth and sleepless nights.
It's loud, I can hear it driving down the road. It sounds very similar to a collapsed lifter or exhaust leak. I did check into that just to be sure. I would think this cylinder has lower compression, but I haven't checked.
Do you know the oil consumption rate? If it's not too bad, the car can probably be driven for quite some time. Even after my oil mileage started to decline noticeably, I drove my car roughly 27,000 miles before getting the engine rebuilt. If one had the funds ready, I wouldn't recommend waiting this long, but I necessarily had to save up. The scoring does not look anywhere near as bad as mine looked in the beginning, so I would use the oil consumption rate to make the decision. I am sure the core is worth something, especially since it doesn't look too bad yet.
FYI, you don't have to go through gyrations on Rennlist to provide an email address and have it post. You can just type your Email address and it will show up, unlike on ebay or similar sites - I do it all the time.
FYI, you don't have to go through gyrations on Rennlist to provide an email address and have it post. You can just type your Email address and it will show up, unlike on ebay or similar sites - I do it all the time.
It's more about not having an easy to "search" email address posted that is picked up by spambots. Maybe I'm being paranoid.