Hi, I’m considering buying a car that has an engine pulled. My wife does not want me to buy it unless there is a way to test the engine as she does not easily believe people.
Please explain engine pulled, as my guess was it has no engine.
Are you saying the engine is now out of the car? If so maybe if you can give us some history and explain why it is in not in the car?
Yes, pretty much the old engine was taken out…something happened it, not sure what…
i think the person said it had a blow head gasket…
the new engine is a 2001 s40 engine, w/only 54k miles on it…the engine has not been installed…so basically the the car has no engine, and they have an engine sitting that just needs to be installed in order for the car the run…
so my question is, w/the engine not being installed in the car, is there a way to test the engine?
You will be buying scrap. Is it priced at scrap value?
About the only test that can be performed on an engine out of the car is a compression test and this may require some dinking around to accomplish.
This could (sort of) give you an idea of what the cylinder pressure is but doesn’t tell you much else about engine internals.
You state the engine is an '01.
What year is the car, how much do they want for it, and if they’ve gone to the trouble of finding another engine for it why don’t they install it?
At this point I’m in agreement with Rod Knox, whose ID here may fit in very well with this car… 
This could easily become a bottomless money pit. Run away.
the car is a 2000, and is priced @ 1200…yeah most likely i’ll just walk away…the last thing i want is my wife to be “i told you so”…
my wife asked as to why they dont just install the engine themselves…i just shrugged…i assume the best in people and she assumes the worse and we find a middle ground;-)…
thanks everyone for their input…
Maybe the guy fell on hard times in the middle of the project and needs to sell quickly. What’s the car worth with a good engine installed? What will you have to pay to have it installed, or will you be installing it yourself? Does the seller still have the “bad” engine, or is he trying to sell the car with its original engine sitting beside it?
About the only way to test the engine is to put it in a “test stand” and hook up gas lines, and water lines to a radiator. There will be no exhaust system so it will be loud but you can tell if the engine runs. It won’t run very well without the back pressure of the exhaust system.
A test stand isn’t that easy to build unless it is a facility that has them and tests motors frequently, like a rebuilder for instance. If it is just sitting in a salvage yard or at the garage the easiest way to find out is install it in the car and get it running.
Short of running the motor it should be possible to manually crank it, first with out spark plugs.
The seller should be willing to install the motor and give you an opportunity to test drive the car before you buy it. If not, let it go unless you are looking for a project that might just be a flop.
Perhaps you can make an agreement with the guy that you pay him half and the other half he gets when the engine is installed and is proven to be good.
Otherwise, unless you are a masochist that enjoys overcomplicating your life, or the actual value of the running car is well worth the hassle, I’d walk away.
Purchasing a car like this sounds like something Triedaq would do. He bought a Corvair from a Rambler dealer at a good price. The dealer and Triedaq both thought the car would need major engine work. We had the car about a week and we went out for supper. It rained and the Corvair barely got us back home. Triedaq spent $15 for new wires and a distributor cap and the car ran great for a long time. Our first television set he bought from one of his professors while he was in graduate school. This professor had separated from his wife, and she demanded a new set because the sound kept cutting out on the old set. Triedaq went to work with his soldering iron and had the set working perfectly. He has taken two junk lawnmowers–one with a working engine and but rusted so badly the wheels wouldn’t stay on and one with a good deck but a bad engine.
It took me years to break Triedaq of bringing home junk to be repaired. He needs the time to go fishing. Your wife is right. Use your time for something more enjoyable than patching up a piece of junk.
Mrs. Triedaq