Hello Everyone, my name is Chasity and I am new to this forum. I have owned my 2004 S2k for 3 years now, after selling my 98 GSR that I had for 10 years. S2K started having issues with the engine about a year and half ago. To make an extremely long story short, I need a new engine. Honda told me this last week and I took it to LHT Performance in St Petersburg, FL and they verified this is correct. I am having LHT put a used engine with 19k miles on it. I know a little about cars but no where near enough to know about replacing an engine. They seem like a very trustworthy and reputable shop but I am about to give them $6k for the engine and a few other things needed and I was hoping that you all could help with some things I should ask or know regarding a used engine. For instance, is there a way to tell if the engine does in fact only have 19k miles on it? Any other advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

There is no way to know the mileage for sure, but there are usually signs.

High mile engines will have more corrosion (white salting), dark spots from oil seepage, flaking red paint off valve cover.

A leak-down test will tell you a great deal about the engines current health.

 

That and a bore scope in the engine. It should have pristine walls with so little mileage! I know this from first hand experience with one that had 16K when I got it.

 

Chasity, you can take what Billman250 says to the bank. He is one of the most knowledgeable individuals on this site. Is the shop doing the engine swap offering any type of warranty for the engine/work? Welcome to the site by the way!

 

You can have an engine with only 19k miles that was taken care of like crap, w/ low compression or significant leak

...or you can have a high mileage engine with healthy compression numbers and healthy leak.

The best thing I can tell you is a pay a shop to:
-check out the cylinder walls
-do a leak down/compression test
-crack open the valve cover and inspect cams
-If it has oil in it have the oil examined by UOA
-remove the pan and inspect the crank for scoring
-remove the head and check the head for war page

While it sounds excessive; it's just a pain in the ass to be constantly fixing problems

 

Wow thanks for the information guys. Low compression is actually the reason my engine needs to be replaced. Car stalls as soon as you remove your foot from the gas pedal. They are offering a 6 month warranty. Better than Honda offered me. Honda wanted to sell me a 79K mile engine for $7k with a 101 day warranty. I will definitely take everyones advice and have everything checked out.

 

What were the compression numbers on your current engine?

 

Cylinder 1was about 30PSI and the others ranged from 60-90

 

you could also do a vin check, you can see mileage on the last inspection date was.

 

Yea Ive read about checking the VIN number, Im getting the VIN number this afternoon. But a lot of people said that won't always be accurate. Especially with a low mileage engine or maybe the owner did the routine maintenance themselves.