Should I install a used engine?

[DeepFrz]

Of course the guy never did say how much that song cost...

[nickn]

I would be suspicious if water entered the crankcase and wasn't dealt with quickly. Was it salty?
The other problem would be if they pulled the head to have a look and then just rested the head back on top for a few years, plenty of room for air/water to get in and corrode the bores etc.

[Aloha_float]

I am not sure how old this thread is however....

I bought my boat with a seized westerbeke w13 and it sat on the hard for more than 6 years. I had the engine rebuilt with new pistons and rings and it has been working great. I have had it up and running for four seasons now. These engines are built like tanks. I would go for it.

[zeehag]

i bought my boat with blown westerbeke 4-107. i bought a used perkins 4-108--installed it for 3 loaves of bread which turned out to be a near year cruise in gom, and
now i have done some work should have been done prior to install, but is an awesome great investment--i LOVE it. runs smooth and damn near quiet----now i am having gauges installed--(only had oil pressure before now--) and i have a secondary set of gauges in main saloon -mounted next to radio---
secondary set of gauges is an excellent practice, btw.

[Fernweh]

I stumbled across my old post and thought I'd follow up. I purchased the engine for $100.00 and it came with lots of parts. Bought a complete gasket kit and re assembled the engine replacing the freeze plugs. By the way, there are freeze plugs that will leak coolant into the crank, so many posters were ill informed. Got the engine running and installed. Engine compression is 460psi on all cylinders and runs brilliantly. All said and done the cost of rebuild AND install was around $1000.00. I've taken the boat to the Caribbean and have put several hundred hours on it, with no issues. Moral is sometimes thing that seem to good to be true really are that good.

[Cheechako]

Cool, glad it worked out! Sometimes people change out things because they are worriers. kind of a "if I'm sailing around the world, I better just put a new engine in" logic after they had a minor engine issue. Maybe you got one of those discarded engines!

[Lake-Effect]

My mechanic friend and mentor had many 'discarded' boat engines behind the shop, and some rebuildable gems safely indoors. And he would always jump whenever he got wind of an abandoned engine. They were an unbeatable source of spares he could recondition, and sometimes the engine was either a candidate or parts source for a rebuild.

So, I suspect it's not all that common for a non-insider to come across a rebuildable engine at a firesale price.... but it apparently happens.

It was always my intention to buy one of his rebuildable 1 or 2 cyl Yanmars as an educational project, but he closed shop and sold everything off before I got the chance. . I'm still looking.