Let me give you a piece of advice from an A.S.E Certified Master Mechanic with 11 years service as a mechanic and 1.5 before that as an apprentice. I have installed enough motors and transmissions to say the following to be true and accurate. For everyday use a Jasper( or similiar rebuilt) is good. Bear in mind though they refurbish them to like new. That does not always means it get new pistons etc.....I have pulled some apart that had different bores (.030 in one hole, standard in another etc....) and different brand pistons. If you are looking to keep it all even have your mechanic do a total rebuild. If you plan on racing I wouldn't recommend anything but a local machinist..........seen a few crate motors wipe out too..........Good luck and have fun mavericking.... Welcome aboard matey
Did he say the car was USED to the motor...I have never heard that before, lol, just my $.02 but back away from the mechanic slowly and run like hell.....Jim
Thanks, 1badmav. You've confused the issue, because everyone else had convinced me that a brand-new motor would be no problem. But you've also reaffirmed my faith in my mechanic, whom I know to be good. I'm still debating the next step. I've been driving her way too hard, commuting long distances 3 days a week, for a couple of years. So I'm not surprised that she needs some work. But now I think I can back off and just use her for local trips, so fitting her with an off-the-shelf engine might be okay. I've gotten a lot to think about from this thread, I'm really glad I found you guys.
What about pulling a low milage used engine from a parts car? Check out the Mustang grave yard in Colorado (in another message). There's got to be a good used 250 six in one of those dead Mustang IIs. BTW I feel your pain. I live in the Bay area too. The guys on this list don't know that mechancs here live in million-dollar mansions in Alamo. They soak us shnooks to keep up their monthly payments. Roz
Mustang II s had v6's in them, but 65-73's had straight 6's. As for your question, I'd run a compression check. This will tell you a lot about the health of your current engine. You can get a compression gauge at just about any parts store, and if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, take it to another mechanic. If the compression is low, you will know that you need to rebuild/replace it. This guy may be a super great mechanic but it sounds like he really doesn't want to work on your car.........hence the high estimate to run you off, seen it happen many times. Replacing that 6 should be pretty easy, plenty of room to work on it. Like somebody said, with proper tools, about a 1 day job. Me and a buddy once swapped 2 VW engines in 38 mins....and had both running but thats a different animal!!!!
My dad built up a VW beetle back in the early 80's. He told me he could take the engine out in about 10 minutes. It took me 3 hours to pull my 250. This was the first time I had pulled an engine out of a Maverick. The hardest part is breaking the exaust manifold bolts loose without snapping off the studs. Took me under 2 hours to put it back in and have it running.
Something like this would be perfect for what you need: Mustang 6 cylinder motor and auto trans from 67 mustang
well this question is a real delama - since i don't know your location it might make it difficult to answere and also you might not believe me - anyway here goes - we have a wrecking yard out here in la called pick-a-part - for about 4 years we have been going to this place and getting 302 or 5.0 engines from years 86 to 90 - take all the electric things off - pull the pan and clean it out - repaint and put an intake and carb - ignition (durspark) - and turn it loose - they cost less than 200.00 dollers - yes 2 hundred - they have been averaging about 75000 miles left on them according to ford - haven't so far found a bad one yet - couple guys i know tried to see how much they would take - that was bad - beat the poor thing to death - finally killed one - took two years - what a nut - hope this gives you another option - rich
