What's it worth? 318 w/some performance parts

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flyingfrog509

flyingfrog509

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How much would you guys be willing to pay for a used engine, pulled, w/unknown miles?

It's a 74' 318 with automatic trans out of a barracuda. Was running when pulled out of car. Lots of extras. Edelbrock Performer Intake, Cam, Carb, Fuel pump, MSD Pro billet Distributor, 6AL Box, Blaster coil, Headers, Harland Sharp 1.5 Roller Rockers. M/T aluminum valve covers.
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I believe the "Harland Sharp roller rockers" is incorrect simply because I've only seen the orange-ish gold colored ones & the ones pictured in the ad are red. It would be great if I could just pull it apart enough to reseal everything and put it in and drive it until something dies (or until it is replaced with a 408 stroker) So I'm looking at it mostly as
200-300 for the tranny (more or less a core)
150-200 for the base engine (that's what I can get a run of the mill magnum in the junkyard for)
50-100 for M/T aluminum valve covers
??? for Cam
100-200 for the unknown Carb
0 for the Fuel pump
100-150 MSD Pro billet distributor
75-100 6AL box
0 for the headers, already have some and they are rusty

So I'd say 700-1000 max in parts knowing there is a good chance I might end up rebuilding it from the get go. I don't trust "it was running when I pulled it" but the reason is the Barracuda is at the paint shop.

Am I crazy?

(this goes along with my post about a 318 from an e-body fitting in my a-body roller I'm starting to restore. I'd love to just slap it in so I can drive it while restoring it instead of building an engine & getting a rebuilt tranny that will sit for a year or two during restoration)
 
Just in case someone can identify the rollers?
rollers.jpeg
 
Harland Sharp makes rockers for Mancini. They are red.
 
If those are Harland Sharp rockers they are expensive on their own...$800-$900 new! There’s a good amount $ in the aftermarket stuff on that 318....
 
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Anyone notice the break-in grease on the cam and lifters or the surface rust below the plugs. These heads look like they were hot tanked at the least and installed and looks like the engine has been setting for a while. The header bolts being bare metal have enough surface rust for at least a few years of humid storage. Consensus; the engine is an unfinished rebuild, I would look at it for its parts value and without taking it apart consider the internals as used.
 
If there are no receipts for the parts, then they are cheap chinesium.
Do not buy it for the parts without the proof that they are good.
Yes, I saw the assembly line on the cam there, or at least that's what I thought it was in the pic.

Buy a core, and buy good parts new, or here. If you have to save up over a year for all you need, what is your loss? What is your

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Worth?
 
Looks like they pulled a running mill, had the heads freshened up, bought all Eddy Performer stuff new, added some roller rockers, MSD etc. If that's a new T-chain kit as well, there's a bit in new parts alone, new fuel pump $0.00? Really? If it were Perf. RPM stuff, it would be more desirable, but....
Verify the rockers, if they are Mancini/H-S, You've got more than $1,000 in new parts easy all together. It's only worth it if that's what You want tho'. It don't take long for condensate rust to form in an un-heated garage, if short-term(if any) rust preventative is used on stuff from a shop.
Trans, 998,999,727? Get pic of serial above pan rail, value diff there as well. Should be 998, but who knows if it was optioned up or changed out, so..
 
Well I'm probably crazy or at least impatient because I went ahead and bought the engine/tranny from the guy. I could be screwed, but I don't think so. I'm counting on my instincts that the dude was being straight up. I mean usually you can tell when you're dealing with someone who is trying to screw you, and typically they aren't going to sit there and talk for over an hour either. (but I've been wrong before)

The picture of the rockers w/lube were from when he took the heads off, had them rebuilt (stock) and then put the roller rockers, new lifters, new etc. Had pictures of everything he did to the engine as he was trying to increase the performance. The bottom end of the engine has about 64K on it. The parts have less than 15K on them over 5 years. (he has 3 e-body barracudas 1 poor rusty AAR, a 74 that this engine came out of...that's at the paint shop being made into a replica AAR that he can comfortably drive, & a 71) I was thinking he was a little crazy to take a matching engine out with low original miles BUT when he said he was slapping a 440 in it and making it an AAR, well it's hard to argue because most of us would love to be in the spot where we could do that too. The pictures of the progress were making me drool just a bit.

So as far as a pile of performance parts with not a ton of miles on them I think I'll be pretty happy. He is sending me the dyno paperwork from when he had it dyno tuned. (or he was a big fat con and I just spend almost a grand on a lot of used parts that honestly would have cost almost that much anyway) I think what pushed me over the top was having an engine with all the brackets I need for PS & AC already on it and all the linkage for the tranny. Get some new motor mounts, swap over to my a-body headers, and get my car driving this winter.

Now the question is do I pull it all apart & reseal the bottom end since the top end is pretty solid OR just put a rebuilt tranny behind it and drive it until it needs to be replaced with something with a little more get up an go. Who knows, I might be happy with the 318. It will certainly work for moving my Scamp around while I restore it and a bit beyond. I think I'm going to go ahead and decide what color the car is going to be & paint the engine bay so I can just leave it in there until I want to pull it out.

Any how thanks for all the feedback. Love this community.
 
Man I dunno I'm used to paying 40 bucks for 318s wit a 904 attached to them but alas it isnt the good old days. I say $500 max. There is this underworld who thinks 318s are 340s or something i dunno...
 
Dartswinger70 said:
Man I dunno I'm used to paying 40 bucks for 318s wit a 904 attached to them but alas it isnt the good old days. I say $500 max. There is this underworld who thinks 318s are 340s or something i dunno...
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I miss the good old days. The barracuda in my icon I bought for $750 and it came with a 273HP complete engine and an extra mostly rebuilt 318. That about how much I paid for this engine tranny combo because I'm impatient. Most of the blocks or cores were going for 200-300 around here and then tranny cores were about the same. So 500-600 bucks and then rebuild it all, then buy all the performance parts. So I rolled the dice and figured I'm not loosing out unless I happened across a good deal. (haven't seen a good mopar deal in my area in a long time)
 
At some point, in terms of cost effectiveness you can buy a crate engine with a warranty, maybe even tear that down and add performance parts. Of course the warraty would b evoid but it shouldn't need any machine work.
 
Ottmundr said:
If there are no receipts for the parts, then they are cheap chinesium.
Do not buy it for the parts without the proof that they are good.
Yes, I saw the assembly line on the cam there, or at least that's what I thought it was in the pic.

Buy a core, and buy good parts new, or here. If you have to save up over a year for all you need, what is your loss? What is your

View attachment 1716004148

Worth?
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That's a good album.
 
66340SEDAN said:
If those are Harland Sharp rockers they are expensive on their own...$800-$900 new! There’s a good amount $ in the aftermarket stuff on that 318....
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those from HS that Mancini sold/ sells are more like 499 complete with shafts, etc. at least they were about a year ago
 
flyingfrog509 said:
I miss the good old days. The barracuda in my icon I bought for $750 and it came with a 273HP complete engine and an extra mostly rebuilt 318. That about how much I paid for this engine tranny combo because I'm impatient. Most of the blocks or cores were going for 200-300 around here and then tranny cores were about the same. So 500-600 bucks and then rebuild it all, then buy all the performance parts. So I rolled the dice and figured I'm not loosing out unless I happened across a good deal. (haven't seen a good mopar deal in my area in a long time)
Click to expand...
If the fluid on the dipsticks looks clean, clean 'em up & drop 'em in, don't over-think it. If it's been more than a year since it was running, You may want to pour a little Gumout in the breather tubes & let it soak a day or so, but I'd put it in & roll it. I've seen "junk" run for 20+ years, and "I did everything" 's that couldn't finish their maiden voyage, and "crate" engines are a big ??? unless a known Pro shop does it.
A former co-worker had a "crate" BBC in His mid-'70's Nova drag car, low 12sec ride, nothing wild, cam bolt came loose & lunched the motor. I say if it runs, run it & enjoy it, focus on the restoration. JMO.
 
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