not changing a timing belt is not doing preventative maintenance. i'm not advocating that.I'm the same as Towcat. I don't replace stuff just to have new stuff. I run my **** until it breaks....which for me usually takes a long time. Had a mechanic tell me 2 years ago that my LS400 needed a timing belt ASAP. Well...2 years and 20,000 miles later, the engine runs slicker than a lawyer's mouth. No way I'm changing out a perfectly good part.
what you and Javier missed is I
I can't think of a better way to test out to see if a motor is any good or not. If it's good, I transplant it into a chassis needing a motor and sell off the rest of the parts. to me, that's a win-win in my book.buy a used truck, run it for a while to see how the motor behaves and if it has any problems
I just did a repower in a '99 F450 the same way. I bought a E350 van and drove it around for a while. The van was ugly and beat up but the powertrain was in great shape with almost no leaks or blow-by. buy-in price? $1700. drive it around looking like a hold-up crew casing a bank....priceless. motor passes the eval and is pulled. sell of the rest of the carcass to the wrecking yard....get back $400. total outlay on the motor? $1300. what is a PSD currently going for in CL? about $2500-$3000 and I have to take the word of some random ******* that the motor is good. I'll buy a unwanted vehicle anyday over that .