buying the car for my mom. it's in great condition, looks/sounds/drives like it has low miles. still has factory cassette, hasn't been tuned or lowered or anything silly.

owner says it was owned by an ASE honda mechanic, and he put a new engine in ~100,000 miles ago. otherwise the body has 240k on it.

if there's no paperwork to go along with that, is there any way to tell if the engine in the car is/is not the original motor? i trust what he's saying, but need the peace of mind.

i read the pre '96 integras didn't have VINs on them? but if the engine was put in after '96, maybe there will be a VIN? (and where would i find that?) or is there another way to tell?

thanks.

 

bump

anyone?

 

Dont know how youd go about finding it to be the original engine or not. If they say it was replaced it could have been replaced with a motor of the same year, but I'd say theres a good 75% chance if it was replaced, it would be from a different year....can check the year stamp on the head and just see...

 

yea, its a 90 body, motors off a 91. still don't feel totally comfortable.

having it checked out tomorrow at another mechanic, hopefully they can verify to some extent the wear on the engine.

 

No way to tell wear of an engine without taking it apart to check clearences and such. Other than that just look out for a ton of built up oil residue on ths engine.