How I found a good motor (I think) at the junkyard...

[rdsrds123]

I always thought that a wrecked vehicle at the junkyard promised a good engine more likely than from a vehicle that looked good, but was junked. Sure, the good looking vehicle might have a good engine, but why was it junked? On the other hand, a wrecked vehicle was running before junked. Doesn't need to be wrecked bad. Many people get insurance checks and lose the vehicle, when totaled. It doesn't take much to total an early Ranger. the Ranger I found was hit in the rear and totaled. It had a Nationwide insurance sticker on the windshield.

I had a Carfax account when looking for Rangers recently, and I still had a couple of VINs I could check. When I found the potential doner vehicle, I Carfaxed it. The five diget odometer presents a question in the early Rangers, when determining mileage. How many true miles? Cars can have more than two hundred thousand miles these days and still look good. the Carfax said the odometer exceeded mechanical limits, but I could see that there was about 140K miles on this truck, reasonably. Finding an engine with fewer miles seemed a daunting task, so I decided on this one, but...

I found old receipts from the owner under the seat. They were old, but included emission test results for about ten years from 1995, to about 2005...then nothing. Why would a second owner leave these obsolete documents in the truck? Well, they probably still owned it when wrecked-- a one owner vehicle, maybe. I also found a receipt for new tires, dated 2003, with a phone number. I called it. "No, I don't want to order a pizza, did you ever own a Ranger?" NO! Changed phone number sometime since 2003, I guess. Maybe got a cell phone, and they no longer have a landline! What to do?

I went by their house, which was twenty miles away. Not home. In wrote a note on the tire document I found and stuck it in their door. The next morning, I got a call from them at 7:30 a.m. They were very willing to help me out, and they told me all about the truck's history. It was a good engine after all!

Today, I went and pulled it. Hope it installs easy. Gonna convert to clutch, too. I got that trans. I'll be installing them over the next couple of weeks. First, I have to get my installation ducks all in a row.

Thanks for reading!

 

[tmcalavy]

You lucky bastid...most were "running when they brought it in" just before the last of the oil leaked out and the motor seized.

 

[FritzTKatt]

Congrats on the find.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Are you a detective in your other life? Nice detective work.
Good luck in the swap.

Richard

 

[TexasRebel]

I agree with the guy a couple posts above. You are a lucky bastid. Most of the vehicles in my local JY either don't have motors, have half a motor, or have a motor with a huge hole in the side of them. There aren't many out there that would still run decently. They just crushed and scrapped nearly everything they had about a year ago to clean up. They had a couple decent third gen Rangers, one first gen and two bronco IIs. They had a pretty decent looking explorer that still had a good motor in it, but the day that I was going to go take a look at the motor, they were loading it into the crusher... I was pretty upset. I even told the guys that I would be back to come look at it and possibly pull it a couple weeks before that, but they apparently didn't feel like waiting.

 

[OilPatch197]

I agree with the guy a couple posts above. You are a lucky bastid. Most of the vehicles in my local JY either don't have motors, have half a motor, or have a motor with a huge hole in the side of them. There aren't many out there that would still run decently. They just crushed and scrapped nearly everything they had about a year ago to clean up. They had a couple decent third gen Rangers, one first gen and two bronco IIs. They had a pretty decent looking explorer that still had a good motor in it, but the day that I was going to go take a look at the motor, they were loading it into the crusher... I was pretty upset. I even told the guys that I would be back to come look at it and possibly pull it a couple weeks before that, but they apparently didn't feel like waiting.

This is why I no longer "shop" at salvage yards, older than ten years, it's gone crushed!!

Hate the reinvented Salvage yards, except you get a discount if you don't need a receipt.

 

[TexasRebel]

This is why I no longer "shop" at salvage yards, older than ten years, it's gone crushed!!

Hate the reinvented Salvage yards, except you get a discount if you don't need a receipt.

The stuff at this one that is older than 10 years stays around for a little while. Not long, but maybe a month or two. The old old stuff like 1960's and older gets put in a line towards the back. They usually stay there for a while. I have some pics on my photobucket of a few of the cars they had there last time.

 

[huh?]

Nice detective work.
Richard

seconded

 

[adsm08]

That's pretty awesome that the previous owner was willing to help you out like that.


Also yes, I generally go by that rule of thumb when looking for engines and trannies. If it's wrecked you know it was on the road when she died.

 

[ZMan]

Man if I was the previous owner I'd be creeped out lol. Serves him right for leaving all that in the truck though lol.

Body shop I work for has a couple big JY we get parts from, they legitimately run the engines before marking them as "good", thats how I got my engine for my Buick a few years back...I'd be hard pressed to go and get an engine from somewhere like Pull-a-part thats for sure, but you lucked out there.

 

[Chris_North]

Man if I was the previous owner I'd be creeped out lol. Serves him right for leaving all that in the truck though lol.

Haha agreed. Especially stopping by his house...

I'm surprised at the amount of crap people behind in junked cars. Found a roll of obsolete wire in the trunk of a '70s buick once. I still have it, not sure what to do with it haha.

 

[TexasRebel]

Haha agreed. Especially stopping by his house...

I'm surprised at the amount of crap people behind in junked cars. Found a roll of obsolete wire in the trunk of a '70s buick once. I still have it, not sure what to do with it haha.

My dad used to work for a salvage yard and he told me that he used to find all sorts of weird stuff in those cars. From tons of change, fingers, guns, knives, strange receipts for very odd things, oh and drugs. Even a deflated blow up doll.