Used Engines, Used Motors, Auto Parts, Used Car Parts, Honda, Ford, Toyata

When used in applications for light trucks and larger, diesel engines endure more strain in their day to day use than their gasoline engine counterparts. This is as it is supposed to be; diesel engines are designed to take this extra stress, and half a million miles is not an uncommon service life. These long life designs are fantastic for haulers, but the reliability is pricey – when a diesel engine fails, getting a replacement engine can be an expensive proposition. If you know a few things, you can save significant amount of money.

The first thing you want to know when looking for a used diesel engine is why your original engine failed. Check service bulletins to see if there is anything urgent listed. Many times, there are external parts that can be swapped with new, updated parts. When these fixes are applied, they will allow your used engine replacement to be a true long term replacement and not just an expensive, temporary fix. One expensive item that I can think of is a late model engine that has an oil pan with a propensity to rust out. The manufacturer issued a service bulletin on the engine, but no recall. To replace this oil pan requires a complete removal and reinstallation of the engine; it is much more cost effective to replace this oil pan when the engine is out of the vehicle than in the vehicle.

The second thing you need to know is that if you buy a high mile used engine, you might be replacing a problem with a problem. What is defined as high miles? It is not uncommon for haulers to put 40,000 miles plus a year on diesel trucks. Many customers call us with 400,000 + miles on their diesels. If someone calls us looking for a replacement motor and their bad engine has less than a quarter of a million miles, normally they’re angry and swearing! I consider low miles on a diesel to be less than 100,000 miles. I try to sell them with lower miles than that, but it isn’t always possible due to pricing considerations.

The third thing you need to know is that having a competent installer makes all the difference in the world. I cannot emphasize this enough, so I’ll say it again. Having a competent installer makes all the difference in the world. I can’t count the number of times I’ve sold a diesel motor to a customer who didn’t need one. The most common reason this happens is when an injector problem is missed. This is common on 2.7L Dodge Sprinter engines. Low compression is reported, and the customer is lead to believe that their only option is complete replacement. I can remember an instance in which I sold a 2.7L engine to a customer. We got their core (a core is used engine that has failed) back, and it was a good not in fact a core; It was a good used engine with no rebuilding needed which had an injector problem. We let them know that state of their used engines, and they were mad, but the replacement used engine had already been installed. Later, that same customer called with a problem on their new used engine. We got it back, and it was an identical injector problem. Their installer was horrible, and cost them thousands of dollars they shouldn’t have spent.

Finally, we recommend that you only buy from a BBB accredited business. There are many companies that will lie to you on mileage, not stand behind their warranty, and do you an overall terrible job. Typically, a business will treat you no worse or no better than they’ve treated customers in the past.

We’ve addressed many of the possible difficulties that can arise in purchasing a used engine, and it is our hope that this will help you with finding a good used diesel engine. If you do not deviate from the above list, you should have a great experience and come out with a good used engine

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