Synthetic oil rebuild?

I just bought a 64 jeep wagoneer with a new ford 289 installed. It has sat for 2 years…the guy never finished putting it back together. He told me that the engine had the synthetic oil in it, and that the bottom end must now be bored and rebuilt due to some synthetic-oil related issue. Is there any truth to this? The motor has never been turned over according to him…

supposedly the synthetic oil gums it up or something? Is this true?

That makes no sense to me at all. Maybe you should ask him to explain. Are the oil and the additional work he wants to do connected? Has he had the motor all this time? Is this new engine one that he had sitting and now you want to buy it?

There should be no “oil related” issues if the engine has been sitting. Neither synthetic nor conventional oil “gums up” if it is just sitting in the engine.

I don’t understand why the engine needs work if it was just installed. There are pieces of the puzzle missing. Someone is not telling the whole story.

yes…new engine and he told me that the new synthetics do something to the low-end of the motor if it sits. He said to make it right take it to his ‘buddy’ for a rebuild. the wagoneer is in great shape…With the price I paid it will be worth it. Even better if the oil ‘gunk’ was his misunderstanding. I’ll try to get more info from him

That story makes no sense to me and sounds absolutely bogus. At this point you should assume the engine is junk and the guy is full of cxxx, one of the world’s biggest liars, or both.

Agree that this story sounds less than plausible. The owner may not even know he is lying to you, it appears he combines hearsay with imagination and says whatever sound credible in his opinion. I have bought 7 used cars from private owners, and only one had any real idea and was truthful of the condition of the car. The rest seem to have read classified ads and fabricated a story around their vehicle. Private owners are actually worse liars than used car salesmen. The onus is on you to inspect and evaluate what you have really got. If the owner damaged the engine through incompetence he may “blame” the synthetic oil for his mistakes!

The owner may not even know he is lying to you, it appears he combines hearsay with imagination and says whatever sound credible in his opinion.

Sounds like Every service writer I’ve ever met.

Mike, thanks for the comment. I’m not a service writer, but to get people to properly describe something is very difficult; every doctor I have met says the same thing. I ask a lot of seemingly unrelated questions to get at the truth.