The engine is the most expensive part of the car after the body. And after a serious breakdown, the owner faces a difficult question - to engage in expensive repairs, or change the unit. The idea to replace the engine is a good one - not to make “capital money”, but to immediately put in a contract ICE, all the more it will cost much less than repairing an old one. Today, replacing the internal combustion engine is not a problem, and the law allows you to change power units. And then another question arises - what is a contract engine, and where do they come from. Let's get it right.
Where do contract motors come from?
Consumers demanded engines instead of broken ones, and the market answered these requirements - now you can buy any power unit. Engines are taken from cars that for a whole host of reasons cannot drive. In the best case, the car got into an accident, in the worst - the car decayed or was stolen altogether to be taken apart for spare parts in garages.
Simple math
Usually, the idea of acquiring a contractual internal combustion engine arises after the owner wanders around sites on the Internet, calls ads, considers and decides that the cost of repairing an old unit is almost equal to acquiring a used engine. For example, a new cylinder block or cylinder head will cost hundreds of thousands of rubles for top-end foreign cars. The price of a new ICE for German cars starts with an amount of 10 thousand rubles. It also turns out that major repairs will cost 20% more than buying a “contractor”.
Purchase risks
The temptation to acquire an assembled engine that has just been tested on European roads is becoming intolerable. But you need to remember that free cheese happens in a mousetrap, and even then - only for the second mouse.
In order not to become this first mouse, the motorist asks questions - do such accidents often happen so that the car is new and gets into a traffic accident so successfully that only the rear part crashes? The answer will be simple - no, it happens very rarely. And the chances of acquiring a unit that you can immediately install and drive are 50%. And the chances of getting contracted ICE in full working order are even lower.
And what if the engine is from a rotten car? In what condition is the motor, if the body cannot be restored? C ICE with stolen cars, the situation is simpler, because the motor number in the traffic police do not study at registration. But suddenly they’ll look, they’ll break through the bases? This is a criminal article.
In general, it is quite difficult to purchase an engine that can guarantee a guaranteed life of two years or more without problems. Although contractual internal combustion engines from Japan, as practice shows, work more than 2 years.
Where are the problems waiting for the owners?
For starters, you can exclude conventional atmospheric units - four-cylinder. They are installed more often on budget cars. There are many of these machines, motors are cheap and easy to repair. There are enough of them in the secondary market. Overhaul will cost the owner a maximum of 50 thousand rubles - expensive, but bearable. There are exceptions, but less often.
And a completely different matter - modern gasoline power units, which are installed under the hoods of prestigious cars. They are more often acquired as contracted internal combustion engines. The reason is clear - to repair an engine with 6 or 8 cylinders to perfect condition is much more expensive than buying a used one.
Features of Japanese ICE
But there are also many pitfalls. For example, most of the options on the market have huge runs. It happens that a motor from the same Japan is sold with a real mileage of 60 thousand kilometers - thrifty Japanese, because of increased taxes on an old car, simply threw the car away and sold the engine to Russia.
But who says that the motor that is being sold has just arrived from Japan? It often happens that a car is brought to Vladivostok, where it is rolled out to exhaustion of components and assemblies, then the ICE was washed and sold, although there was very little resource left. Alas, these are Russian realities.
Another common problem with Japanese engines is the engine of the same model as the car, but it is not installed under the hood. The problem is that there are a lot of engine modifications that differ in their seats.
German motors and their specifics
With German ICEs there are great chances to acquire not only a problematic, but also unsuitable for repair 3-4 year old unit with a mileage of more than 100 thousand kilometers. The point here is as follows. In Germany, engines operate at an average of 30 thousand kilometers per year - the specifics of operation and long distances. But modern engines have a generally low resource, and if in the engines of the 90s the mileage of 200 thousand kilometers was half the life, then today the resource before overhaul is the same 150 thousand kilometers.
The automaker can also be understood - the car is operated on average 3 years or 100 thousand kilometers. So why make excessively reliable units? But it’s not easier for motorists.
Therefore, the reclaimed appearance of the engine is not yet an indicator of its resource and reliability. In domestic conditions, even a contractual ICE “Toyota” can fail very quickly, since at home it worked measuredly and quietly on autobahns, and in Russia it will be operated in extreme conditions. And the resource in the engine is running out - the wear of the main components has almost reached the limit. Therefore, do not be surprised that in the newly installed motor there was almost no compression and a huge oil consumption.
Therefore, after acquiring a contract engine, the internal combustion engine may fail, and the owner will have to pay again, but already for repairs. For example, for the M272 E35 Mercedes unit, only the camshaft fluid clutch will cost 100 thousand rubles excluding work.
A camshaft on a BMW (one, new) will cost 25 thousand rubles, and you will have to look for suitable beds. At Mercedes, a motorist will have to purchase a new cylinder head to replace the camshaft.
So to the price of the contract unit you need to add the cost of serviceable parts and the price of assembly / disassembly. This will make the contractor more expensive by 40-60%. In addition, it must be remembered that more often contractual engines are removed from cars that have crashed - cracks in boats and valve covers are possible.
Winter summer
There is one more nuisance. Not a single seller of contractual internal combustion engines in Novosibirsk or Vladivostok will ever admit how many days and months ago the engine was removed, what seasons it went through during transportation and storage.
If the engine was stored in conditions of temperature changes with open valves, then condensation will necessarily form in it, and with it corrosion. If she began to eat the walls of the cylinders, then the engine will not last long - rust will kill the rings.
If there are scuffs on the cylinder walls, then without diagnosing with an endoscope such problems cannot be detected. The motor will function normally, but oil consumption will be significantly greater than a liter per 500 kilometers. There are a lot of such examples.
Storage Features
If the internal combustion engine was stored for more than six months, lying on its side, then rings uniquely lay in it, the oil coagulated into heavy fractions, and the properties of elastomers changed. All gaskets, oil seals, valve stem seals have lost moisture. Pistons could get tired, and this leads to their destruction. The verdict is such that, acquiring a cheap engine, in practice, the chances of getting a quality unit are no more than 60%.
What to do?
It is necessary to seriously study the issue of repairing the old motor. Next, you need to carefully look at the sellers - this should not be a private trader, but a large company. The engine must be faulty with partial disassembly and replacement of worn parts.
There is a guarantee for contractual internal combustion engines and automatic transmissions - during this time the motor is disassembled and checked with experts. But you need to negotiate a refund in case the motor is killed. Buying a contractor and a little repair will still be half as expensive as the “capital” of a broken engine.