Value of a “blown-up” Terminator

[03' White Snake]

You see rollers going for $14k? I must be doing something wrong if they are selling for that much. How many have actually sold for that price? Its real easy to type "pull a motor, take to machine shop, reinstall motor." Not everyone has the tools, space or knowledge. Between the frustration and shit ton of time it takes to do everything correctly and most importantly money. Telling OP what you just said is a fairytale man.

"So take it to a shop and have them remove and install the engine and trans." More money and that's not including all the bullshit you have to deal with if you trusted the shop and they aren't trustworthy.

OP, if someone offered you $15k for your car with a hurt motor and you didn't sell it, may God be with you on your future business ventures.

I’m sorry you don’t have the tools, knowledge, or space to pull a motor. I do. 6 hrs by myself I can have my engine out and on a stand. I hand built my motor in my garage. Makes over 800hp. So yes, I do think it is a fair task that can be accomplished pulling a motor.

And yes I do see rollers listed for 12-14k all the time. Roller meaning no engine, trans. Cracked up cars are going for more on The Parts Farm too. This one just posted last week. Just over 11k.

2004 Cobra Roller for sale

2004 Ford Cobra · Coupe · Driven 71,000 miles 2004 Mustang Cobra Roller I have many more pictures, too big to upload. $11,200 Good shape, 71,000 miles on the car. I bought for myself to put my drivetrain in after getting t boned by someone. I bought this and then a week later a Sonic Blue...

www.svtperformance.com

A car with an engine, trans, blower, interior, harnesses etc….. a complete car is worth more than a stripped down roller, hurt engine or not. Tell me I’m wrong. I know you want a deal to fall in your lap. Good luck with that.

 

[gimmie11s]

I’m sorry you don’t have the tools, knowledge, or space to pull a motor. I do. 6 hrs by myself I can have my engine out and on a stand. I hand built my motor in my garage. Makes over 800hp. So yes, I do think it is a fair task that can be accomplished pulling a motor.

And yes I do see rollers listed for 12-14k all the time. Roller meaning no engine, trans. Cracked up cars are going for more on The Parts Farm too. This one just posted last week. Just over 11k.

2004 Cobra Roller for sale

2004 Ford Cobra · Coupe · Driven 71,000 miles 2004 Mustang Cobra Roller I have many more pictures, too big to upload. $11,200 Good shape, 71,000 miles on the car. I bought for myself to put my drivetrain in after getting t boned by someone. I bought this and then a week later a Sonic Blue...

www.svtperformance.com

A car with an engine, trans, blower, interior, harnesses etc….. a complete car is worth more than a stripped down roller, hurt engine or not. Tell me I’m wrong. I know you want a deal to fall in your lap. Good luck with that.

Cool story, motor building tough guy.

Just understand you and your marveling motor-building coolness is far and away the exception, not the rule.

Only an idiot would pass on a $15k offer for this car with a blown motor.

 

[03' White Snake]

Cool story, motor building tough guy.

Just understand you and your marveling motor-building coolness is far and away the exception, not the rule.

Only an idiot would pass on a $15k offer for this car with a blown motor.

Ok cool bro. Go thru the market section and see what these cars are listed for them come back to the adult table.

My friend bought a jacked up Terminator swap and I know first hand how much all the parts cost to make it a running car. A car with an engine and trans (not running or whatever) is worth more than a roller your calling it.

Did OP say it didn't run, he said the crank was damaged?

 

[FleeMan]

I’m sorry you don’t have the tools, knowledge, or space to pull a motor. I do. 6 hrs by myself I can have my engine out and on a stand. I hand built my motor in my garage. Makes over 800hp. So yes, I do think it is a fair task that can be accomplished pulling a motor.

And yes I do see rollers listed for 12-14k all the time. Roller meaning no engine, trans. Cracked up cars are going for more on The Parts Farm too. This one just posted last week. Just over 11k.

2004 Cobra Roller for sale

2004 Ford Cobra · Coupe · Driven 71,000 miles 2004 Mustang Cobra Roller I have many more pictures, too big to upload. $11,200 Good shape, 71,000 miles on the car. I bought for myself to put my drivetrain in after getting t boned by someone. I bought this and then a week later a Sonic Blue...

www.svtperformance.com

A car with an engine, trans, blower, interior, harnesses etc….. a complete car is worth more than a stripped down roller, hurt engine or not. Tell me I’m wrong. I know you want a deal to fall in your lap. Good luck with that.

Lets just agree to disagree and move on with life. Good on you for your mechanical skills and good for you everywhere else. Cheers.

 

[DCguy]

At the end of the day it can easily be fixed for $10k so I don’t think I’m nuts since either way I’m coming out with about $15k. And if I fixed it I’d probably just keep driving it since I enjoy the car, it’s just been problematic. I have a hard time imaging that taking an engine apart, touching it up and replacing the crank would cost upwards of $6k-$7k though.

You'd be at $6-$7k on a rebuild before you knew it, especially if you're delivering them a non-running car and expecting a running car when you return. It'll be at least a grand to pull the motor and then another grand to install it. That leaves you with $4k for a rebuild.

Its very unlikely that you're going to pull the motor, tear it apart down to the bare block and ONLY fix the crank and then put it all back together again without touching anything else. That's if the crank is salvageable...if not there's another $600-$800......at the bare minimum you're going to get all new gaskets and seals, main and rod bearings, and misc items you should definitely do while you're in there.......billet oil pump gears, new water pump, iron primary tensioners if your car still has the plastic ones, head cooling mod, ARP hardware etc..........no sense in not getting ARP main and head studs while you have it apart along with side bolts and crank bolt.

If your crank is salvageable, that's going to require some machine work getting the keyways fixed and you might as well have it turned and polished while its there.....that's going to be a pretty penny.

Since you're going to the machine shop anyway and you have the heads off the car I would highly suggest having them gone through and at minimum doing a valve job. If you have 4 thread heads this would be a good time to convert them to 9 thread with some timeserts. Hopefully your valves, springs, retainers, locks are in good shape so you can leave those alone, but if you want to add cams in the future now would be the time to do those as well. Finish them off with a deck job and you're looking at least $1-$2k in machine work/parts for the heads there.

If your keyway is jacked up hopefully your balancer and crank gear also not in need of replacement.

Lastly, if you're opening up a factory sealed motor with old timing components, i'd also throw in a fresh set of lifters/adjusters to be safe and a fresh set of timing chains.

All that is IF everything else in the motor is in good shape, which I promise you, is not the case. There is always something that you're going to find or needs attention. New belt tensioners, pulleys, power steering pump/rack leak that you're going to want to fix while you're in there, etc etc.

Anyway, I could keep going on, but you get the point. That's just off the top of my head and I just spent $10k for you on what I would consider a pretty "basic" rebuild. These motors aren't cheap and if you plan to build/rebuild them with the same money it takes to do a 5.0 you're going to be doing it again pretty soon. Do it once.

 

[Weather Man]

You'd be at $6-$7k on a rebuild before you knew it, especially if you're delivering them a non-running car and expecting a running car when you return. It'll be at least a grand to pull the motor and then another grand to install it. That leaves you with $4k for a rebuild.

Its very unlikely that you're going to pull the motor, tear it apart down to the bare block and ONLY fix the crank and then put it all back together again without touching anything else. That's if the crank is salvageable...if not there's another $600-$800......at the bare minimum you're going to get all new gaskets and seals, main and rod bearings, and misc items you should definitely do while you're in there.......billet oil pump gears, new water pump, iron primary tensioners if your car still has the plastic ones, head cooling mod, ARP hardware etc..........no sense in not getting ARP main and head studs while you have it apart along with side bolts and crank bolt.

If your crank is salvageable, that's going to require some machine work getting the keyways fixed and you might as well have it turned and polished while its there.....that's going to be a pretty penny.

Since you're going to the machine shop anyway and you have the heads off the car I would highly suggest having them gone through and at minimum doing a valve job. If you have 4 thread heads this would be a good time to convert them to 9 thread with some timeserts. Hopefully your valves, springs, retainers, locks are in good shape so you can leave those alone, but if you want to add cams in the future now would be the time to do those as well. Finish them off with a deck job and you're looking at least $1-$2k in machine work/parts for the heads there.

If your keyway is jacked up hopefully your balancer and crank gear also not in need of replacement.

Lastly, if you're opening up a factory sealed motor with old timing components, i'd also throw in a fresh set of lifters/adjusters to be safe and a fresh set of timing chains.

All that is IF everything else in the motor is in good shape, which I promise you, is not the case. There is always something that you're going to find or needs attention. New belt tensioners, pulleys, power steering pump/rack leak that you're going to want to fix while you're in there, etc etc.

Anyway, I could keep going on, but you get the point. That's just off the top of my head and I just spent $10k for you on what I would consider a pretty "basic" rebuild. These motors aren't cheap and if you plan to build/rebuild them with the same money it takes to do a 5.0 you're going to be doing it again pretty soon. Do it once.

There it is, it costs so much in time and effort that going over the motor carefully is just a no brainer, and replacing things that wear out is common sense.

 

[cj428mach]

Cool story, motor building tough guy.

Just understand you and your marveling motor-building coolness is far and away the exception, not the rule.

Only an idiot would pass on a $15k offer for this car with a blown motor.

You did see that it has ported heads, aftermarket cams and blower right?

 

[FleeMan]

You did see that it has ported heads, aftermarket cams and blower right?

Did you see the part where the motor is hurt?

 

[HudsonFalcon]

$15-$18k as @lOOKnGO said and wash your hands of it.

Or

Pull the motor and trans, sell the roller, rebuild the motor then sell that as well.

 

[BigBart33]

You'd be at $6-$7k on a rebuild before you knew it, especially if you're delivering them a non-running car and expecting a running car when you return. It'll be at least a grand to pull the motor and then another grand to install it. That leaves you with $4k for a rebuild.

Its very unlikely that you're going to pull the motor, tear it apart down to the bare block and ONLY fix the crank and then put it all back together again without touching anything else. That's if the crank is salvageable...if not there's another $600-$800......at the bare minimum you're going to get all new gaskets and seals, main and rod bearings, and misc items you should definitely do while you're in there.......billet oil pump gears, new water pump, iron primary tensioners if your car still has the plastic ones, head cooling mod, ARP hardware etc..........no sense in not getting ARP main and head studs while you have it apart along with side bolts and crank bolt.

If your crank is salvageable, that's going to require some machine work getting the keyways fixed and you might as well have it turned and polished while its there.....that's going to be a pretty penny.

Since you're going to the machine shop anyway and you have the heads off the car I would highly suggest having them gone through and at minimum doing a valve job. If you have 4 thread heads this would be a good time to convert them to 9 thread with some timeserts. Hopefully your valves, springs, retainers, locks are in good shape so you can leave those alone, but if you want to add cams in the future now would be the time to do those as well. Finish them off with a deck job and you're looking at least $1-$2k in machine work/parts for the heads there.

If your keyway is jacked up hopefully your balancer and crank gear also not in need of replacement.

Lastly, if you're opening up a factory sealed motor with old timing components, i'd also throw in a fresh set of lifters/adjusters to be safe and a fresh set of timing chains.

All that is IF everything else in the motor is in good shape, which I promise you, is not the case. There is always something that you're going to find or needs attention. New belt tensioners, pulleys, power steering pump/rack leak that you're going to want to fix while you're in there, etc etc.

Anyway, I could keep going on, but you get the point. That's just off the top of my head and I just spent $10k for you on what I would consider a pretty "basic" rebuild. These motors aren't cheap and if you plan to build/rebuild them with the same money it takes to do a 5.0 you're going to be doing it again pretty soon. Do it once.

Fair enough, I didn’t clearly note in the OP that the engine was rebuilt about 700 miles ago (with just about everything you noted included) so that would bring most of the miscellaneous costs down. That was about $7k from MMR IIRC (with the engine brought to them out of the car).

I’d assume it would, for the most part, just need a new crank, harmonic balancer, plus gaskets and seals, and minimal machine work. I don’t expect it to be “cheap” but I’m pretty sure that if I were to keep and it fix it and sell it (which I probably wouldn’t at that point) I’d be coming out ahead or at least breaking even, which is why I’m not too worried about missing out on the $15k.

 

[cj428mach]

Did you see the part where the motor is hurt?

Yes I did and I'd value an anniversary terminator with that mileage with a hurt stock motor at more than 15k.

Also the motor has been rebuilt, so why does he need all these extras? Yes there is the labor R&R the motor and remove the crank for repair but there should be very little snowballing. Heads should have been rebuilt, timing components good, lash adjusters/followers good, shouldn't need all new ARP stuff because it probably already has it.

 

[FleeMan]

Yes I did and I'd value an anniversary terminator with that mileage with a hurt stock motor at more than 15k.

Also the motor has been rebuilt, so why does he need all these extras? Yes there is the labor R&R the motor and remove the crank for repair but there should be very little snowballing. Heads should have been rebuilt, timing components good, lash adjusters/followers good, shouldn't need all new ARP stuff because it probably already has it.

Valid points.