im not good at motors and what not, but when people sell motors/longblocks they almost always say motor has 60k or 80k miles etc. how do you tell if a motor is actually at a decent mileage or super high? i could only go by seeing if someone had good vouches/references. i purchased a longblock from a member here maybe 2 years ago, he had good references. claimed motor had about 80k. motor sat around for 2 years and i finally just had a shop swap the longblock and install a greddy kit for me. during the longblock swap i had the tbelt, waterpump, couple seals etc replaced. ive only driven maybe 150miles so far and the engine feels fine, but the shop said though the motor feels pretty solid, they think it was a high mileage longblock. i forgot to ask why though.

next time i purchase a motor, i either gotta get some more proof to back up the mileage, or go to a reputable shop and spend more $

 

You really can't tell just by looking at the engine unless you want to tear it down, but an easy way to check for a "good" engine is a nice, consistent, strong compression test. I don't jive with the whole "our motors have less than 40k on the clock" companies. I'd like to see them sell engines with meters that tell you hours of use on them, like forklift engines or diesel trucks. That would be sweet.

 

even when u tear it down, its still hard sometimes to tell if its high mileage.

Ive torn down 150+mile honda engines that still have the cross hatches.

all u can really do is tell if the motor has been abused by how much sludge is built up and how wel the piston tops and piston walls look.

compression test and leakdown tests are really the only ways to tell a motors health when its still together.