April 9, 2018

It is difficult to determine if an engine rebuild is worth then buying a replacement engine

Buying a replacement engine is not an easy task, rebuilding an engine is rarely worth the price. There might be two reasons for an engine rebuilding, one is you are unable to find an adequate engine for your vehicle and other is that you need a new engine like performance from your same engine. On the other hand, there are crate engines available in all configurations and make rebuilding unpractical but it is a costly option. Sometimes crate engines cost more than the residual value of the vehicle. These factors make the rebuilt engine worth buying and cost-effective at the same time. There is nothing wrong with the rebuilt engine or a remanufactured engine compare to a crate engine. A reconditioned engine or a rebuilt engine costs almost one-third of the price of a new engine and they deliver almost same performance as of crate engines. But the utmost performance level can be attained only if the reconditioning or the rebuilding done properly on the engine. If the old engine has worn out and eating oil or giving thick black smoke on the tailpipes or damaged or sipping ultimate fuel and it needs a rebuild. Then there is no case if it is damaged by the driver, worn out by bad servicing, or damaged by an accident, or it has completed its life and covered massive mileage. Either way, it is clear that the car has completed its most part of life and replacing an engine will not change the residual value of the car even a crate unit has been used as a replacement engine. Buying an updated model with a healthy engine might offer a substantial saving than buying a rebuilt engine.

What are the costs?

Recently, a Volkswagen engine was rebuilt due to bad servicing by a mechanic; the cam belt has been jumped and spoils the entire cylinder head. It spoilt all the hydraulic tappet adjusters as well. When started rebuilding process, several other issues and faults appeared. The parts only cost was nearly £4000 so the engineer decided to buy a vehicle of the same spec. In this case, rebuilding the old engine is only worth when a sentimental value or anything classic is connected to the vehicle, and then it is worth spending time and money on the old engine. Buy an engine from a salvage yard around and then add all the labor costs of swapping the old engine with a new one, calculate the total cost and it will be far below then buying a new engine. Now research the market and see if you can buy a relatively good conditioned vehicle and calculate the budget to buy a car or repair the existing old unit. It can be any car of your choice that can fill your needs. Now it is easy to calculate the cost of a rebuilt engine if your engine rebuilding cost is less than any other option, it is worth rebuilding an engine because the performance is not the issue at all. But at the same time, if the vehicle is more than 15 years old, it is not worth to opt for a rebuilt engine.