V12 Touring Project Update, aka -- avoid this junk yard

[Kalevera]

Fiona, my touring, is still at the bodyshop. I stopped by to have a look today, she's taped, blasted, primed and ready for paint, which is exciting. My body guys removed the doors and resealed them with a nifty wax type product. Hope to have her back by mid next week.

Meanwhile, the M73 showed up:



This is where it gets depressing.

I thought I was buying an engine from a reputable company (New York Engines, owned by LKQ) at an amazing price (around $1800 shipped). I was told that this engine had ~60k on it and that it ran great. I decided to deal with them directly, versus bidding on this auction to save THEM some money -- http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...221977&rd=1,1). This all happened before they attained that wonderful cooked (yes, all but one of the positives are from other accounts they own) feedback rating.

The engine shows up, and like all idiot junkyards, they cut the ($4000) wiring harness. This wasn't much of a surprise. How difficult could it have been to simply disconnect it? Not difficult. Added value of having an intact wiring harness? Lots.

More alarming is that it looked like it had sat outside for a while -- rust on the harmonic balancer. A rag for an oil cap, it sits outside for a while, hmmm.

Meanwhile, I was trying to get the VIN from the original car out of the junk yard. They kept giving me excuses. I finally got it from someone who didn't know they were supposed to stonewall me, ran it by my sources and found out that the car had ~108k on it in 2001. The junkyard person who gave me the vin also said that it had an "old" stock number.

At that point, I got suspicious and got into the motor a bit. Loosening the oil drain bolt and out comes about 2 quarts worth of rain (?) water and sludge. Katrina car?

Then the junkyard had the audacity to say that this is normal and not a problem ("We clean all of our engines before shipping" -- does the engine in that picture look cleaned to you?!). I don't have enough space here to detail the ridiculous ******** I've heard from these people.

So, moral of the story: stay away from New York Engines. I wouldn't trust them to sell me a used condom.


On a better note, my friends at Zionsville have a 28k mile S52. I have been thinking long and hard about that, the price is right, but I am fairly certain that I want to stick to the V12 plan at this point. So, I'm still looking for a > '91 E32 750 parts car and now another M73.