I need some advice guys.

[BlueChariot]

Long version in short form: Unfortunate things happened, I no longer had my Ranger. My uncle gave me an '84 Mazda, more unfortunate things happened. I then aquired my Vic and sold the Mazda. I bought an engine, had it installed, now more unfortunate things.

Details on the recent unfortunate events: I was referred by my cousin (who usually does the work on our vehicles that requires a shop) to a shop in town, went and talked to the guy who happened to have a 5.0 in his shop he was sellin which apparently came out of a Vic like mine. "My lucky day" I thought to myself. He wanted 500 for it. He informed me that it had been rebuilt, put in the car, some time later it became his (I think because the PO never paid him). It was then used as a demo derby car until it was crashed enough to scrap (please no comments on how stupid a move it may have been to buy an engine from a derby car, I've no clue why I was so ok with that at the time). He told me it ran fine when it was yanked.

I then wait an excessive ammount of time for an insurance job he already had in the works to be completed to get my car in there. It went in this past monday, and I picked it up today. When I left with it it had a CEL probably due to the TPS or related programing in the computer (3 TP sensors were tried on it with no change). Basicly, it would cut off once in gear depending on how you treated the throttle, but this improved with a battery he loaned me as mine was dead as dirt. The throttle was also a little wonky and the coolant temp sensor didn't work. He also told me the transmission was apparently leaking (which it certainly didn't do in my driveway which is the only place it's been since I took possession of it, and I drove it home when it's last engine was 3 inches from death) and needed 5 quarts of trans fluid. I was charged for 10.1 hours labor, hazmat disposal fee, oil and filter, and trans fluid totaling $603.15. (I had to borrow most of this)

Well, I get it home, my friend comes over and we inspect it a little, finding that it has blowby, grit in the oil, oil going where it shouldn't, and an oil leak. I found his home phone number in the good ol' yellowpages because it was after hours and I sure as hell wasn't gonna wait til monday to talk about this. He essentially said that me buying that engine from him was (as far as parts warranty goes) the same as buying from a junkyard. In other words, if it's messed up it's messed up.

Basicly, was I just the biggest idiot in the world? How screwed am I? and, What can be done about this?

 

[bilzy7]

You can kick the shit atta him for selling you a motor he knew was bad, then charging you to put it in. Then you can beat the crap out of him again. F that, dude better hit me in the head with an air hammer to stop me. His ass would never stop bleeding from how deep I would be in it.

 

[bilzy7]

I'd spend my next paycheck on steroids and some fighting classes and a gym membership.

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

He cant sell u an egine HE knows its toasted.
even down here, junkyards have warranty on engines, no matter how old they are or how cheap they sell it to you. If you test it and its toasted they give u another one or your money back(engine only)

 

[bilzy7]

True. They usually go as low as 30 day warranty giving you time to install and drive it a couple miles...

 

[BlueChariot]

Well, he exclaimed to me many times that ALL he KNEW about the engine was it's history, and that it ran. It DOES run, but it also leaks, and has the throttle issue which I don't know the cause of and might be a computer issue which would make it a pre-existing problem. The very true part of his side is it IS running. It idle's fine, doesn't knock, etc, etc, theres just the condition of the oil grit and the leak, tbh if it wasn't for that I'd be overjoyed just for the fact i've been four months without a running vehicle. The fact that he just let the damn thing sit in his shop without taking ANY sort of storage precaution is beyond me.

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

U should have made him change the seals and gaskets as part of the deal.

Well leaks can be fixed. I thought the engine was toasted.
The TPS issue could be related to tother stuff, not just the sensor.
Maybe coils, spark plugs, wires, MAF, IAC.

 

[BlueChariot]

This is the first time I've gone to a shop for anything. It doesn't seem to have a MAF, and if it does it's invisible. I could check and clean the plugs tommorow, but my friend advised me not to screw with it because then if I have to resort to some sort of action he could rais the "well, you screwed with it too" arguement. The thing about those leaks is that I am flat broke, I still have another $1K worth of expenses to deal with before the car is even road legal. I got the car from my friend, who is letting me make payments to her, and said I could fix it before I started payments. Then I need to deal with title transfer and tag/registration, and insurance. As far as the grit is concerned, alot of flushing via oil changes may work but I still might have to drop the oil pan and clean it out. I think this is alot of f*cking work to do for an engine I paid 500 bucks for. I know that as the buyer i should of been smarter, but still.

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

Some silicon would help u if the pan is leaking, at least while u get money for the gaskets.
The maf is usually on the air filter box or close to the throttle body
U should do an engine flush instead of several oil changes.

Its tough, but take it easy man, try to chill your head out, that way ull think clearly and wont have to take wrong turns

 

[BlueChariot]

there is nothing between the world and my TB but a filter and some tubing. No MAF or sensor of any kind.

Well, the oil light came one and it's got to be because of oil pressure, because it's got full oil level, supporting the idea that I might need to clean the oil pan out and that just flushing it might not do the job. This added to the fact that the trans may be cooked (unrelated to all this), and that I MIGHT need a new computer(possible throttle problem) means I'm forseeing a metric ton more cash having to be thrown at this and theres no way out.

I'm no lawyer, but from a legal standpoint I don't seem to have a case, now, on a moral and common sense ground, there are screw ups on both sides. I should of checked the engine out more, and he should of stored the damn thing properly and check to see if it had something like grit in it.

 

[JFortner5]

If the engine had grit in it I would be worried about oil pressure. Not to scare you, but the grit is going to wear the rod and main bearings, then the tolerances get too big and you have no oil pressure. That would be the worst case scenario.

Best case is it has some trash in it clogging the oil pickup.

I hate it for you man, it will work out somehow it always does.

 

[TheTopher]

How deep into this thing are you?

 

[BlueChariot]

@ Topher- How deep as in money? $1103.15. And to answer your question in the TPS thread Yes he told me that, but the last TPS sensor was tried when I was there, and I remember it being difficult to start and doing something a little similar when I rescued it from the road when it had a blown head gasket.

@JFortner- Unless it was there for a while before it was yanked out fo the last car, the grit shouldnt of caused damage. When I spoke to him on the phone laste night he said the grit could have resulted from it sitting for a while and the oil that was in it degrading, etc, etc. IF it wasnt ran alot while the grit was there, I'm hopimg there isnt damage because since it was in the last car, the only running it's done besides some idling is me driving it home.

I'm getting alot of conflicting ideas and information making it difficult to decide if this guy is being shady or not. He was always very courteous, I asked around and he does have a reputation as being a good mechanic and I think if he was the shady type I'd of heard something. He also charged less an hour than the rest of the shops (I asked around and most shops here charge about $60+ per hour while he charges $50).

 

[TheTopher]

Well, I just found two 302 short blocks here in good condition for $150 each. So if you do your homework and the work yourself (You'd be amazed what you can do in a driveway) it shouldn't cost too much to fix, whatever's wrong with it.


As far as the TPS thread, I meant more specifically that he said there was no option on his computer to see what code the check engine light was throwing. ANY code reader should have that option. Take it to autozone and have them scan it for ya, just take their possible solutions with a grain of salt and do your own homework about the issue.

 

[TheTopher]

Whoops, double post