Anyone want to throw an opinion out there feel free, negative or positive.

I'm about to purchase a motor AP1, I'm stuck between these 2 at the moment.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/171638376126?nav=SEARCH

http://m.ebay.com/itm/291336320489?nav=SEARCH

I talked to the guy for the first one, some red flags... he said the engine actually has 71k miles and sent me compression results of 258-260 on all cylinders, isn't that a JDM motor? The engine doesn't look as clean either. Here is a video they sent me, sounds loud to me https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=f50f3f6cf460156a&id=F50F3F6CF460156A%21130&it hint=video,AVI&authkey=!AJ9b4HhVJwimuXY

The second is local, engine looks great, just the price is almost $600 more. Money is an issue atm as I have to replace the top and new wheels when I get the car back.

My mechanic said to just go with the cheaper one, don't worry about the rust since everything will be changed/inspected and it leaves me extra $$ to work with, if anything ship it back under the warranty... Should I factor my core being replaced in to any of this?

 

How much is shipping? Is the local close enough to just pick up, and avoid shipping? That would offset some of the $600 difference.

Also if the local one is close enough to inspect, I would go with that. No surprises.

 

Both are free shipping. Local one isn't close enough to inspect but TAE is a very reliable place, I'm not worried about their quality, just the price.

Just talked to the guy for the first one, asked him to resend the video cause it cut out his response was "weren't the compression numbers solid enough". He keeps giving me weird responses

 

I would go with the second one IMO. 600 bucks for the peace of mind makes sense to me. You don't want to throw 2k+ at this thing just to find out there is more money to be spend to get it right. If you are getting a weird feeling from this guy, I would go with the local

 

I agree with you and that's what I was going to go with... but the guy that's doing the job does all the s2000's around here and said the cheaper one as long as the miles were low. It comes with a warranty and he gave me the VIN, do people actually sell broken motors over ebay expecting not to have it returned? This is my first purchase off of there so I'm skeptical

 

I'm going to move this to Under the Hood section. Will get the thread more exposure (by having link here and thread there) and may yield some opinions from folks who frequent that subforum more than the Talk subforum.

 

I would go with the second one, no questions asked. I don't know the year on the first one, but the second one is a 2003 so it will have upgraded banjo bolts.

I wouldn't deal with someone who is being shady either and that compression is way too high, which means he is lying or something is wrong

 

Agreed, I told him the compression seems like it would be close to a JDM motor, he then sent me a link to a forum write up about reading compression results... lol. Since posting this I've talked to him more and he hasn't been uniformed with the responses, 3 different mileage quotes, told me it was from an 02' but the VIN is a 00', keeps emphasizing how FLAWLESS it is, felt like I was talking to a dealership salesman. Gonna just spend the extra $$ to know what I'm getting -_-, thanks everybody for the input

 

I was in a similar situation about 6-8 months ago. Have an ap1 and blew my motor. Ended up getting an ap2 motor longblock with header and clutch for 2900. I found a few ap1's cheaper but he gave me a 3 month warranty so didnt mind paying a few extra bucks. Made up about 800-1k selling my old blown motor and the ap2 clutch/header. Check to see if you can find one wtih a good warranty incase the motor is trash.

 

It has a 30 day warranty on it. Figured after inspection and install that's all I would really need, especially with only 80k miles. I wish I could keep looking but I've been without my car for a while now