Contract internal combustion engines: characteristics, advantages and disadvantages

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The engine is the most expensive part of a car after the body. And after a serious breakdown, the owner faces a difficult question - to engage in costly repairs, or to change the unit. The idea to replace the engine is a good one - not to make a “capital”, but to immediately put in a contract ICE, especially since it will cost much less than repairing the old one. Today, replacing an internal combustion engine is not a problem, and the law allows you to change power units. And then another question arises - what is a contract engine, and where do they come from. Let's figure it out.

Where do contract motors come from?

Consumers demanded engines to replace broken ones, and the market responded to these demands - now you can buy any power unit. Engines are taken from cars that, for a whole host of reasons, cannot drive. In the best case, the car got into an accident, in the worst case, the car rotted or completelystolen to be dismantled for spare parts in garages.

Simple math

Usually, the idea of purchasing a contract engine arises after the owner surfs the Internet sites, calls the ads, calculates and decides that the cost of repairing an old unit is almost equal to purchasing a used engine. For example, a new cylinder block or cylinder head will cost hundreds of thousands of rubles for top foreign cars. The price of a new internal combustion engine for German cars starts at 10 thousand rubles. It also turns out that overhaul will cost 20% more than buying a "contractor".

Purchase risks

The temptation to buy an assembled, just run-in engine on the roads of Europe becomes unbearable. But you need to remember that free cheese is in a mousetrap, and even then - only for the second mouse.

In order not to become this first mouse, the motorist asks questions - how often do such accidents happen so that the car is new and gets into an accident so well that only the rear part shattered to smithereens? The answer will be simple - no, it happens very rarely. And the chances of acquiring a unit that can be installed and driven right away is 50%. And the chances of getting contract ICEs in full working order are even lower.

And if the engine is from a rotten car? In what condition is the engine if the body cannot be restored? With internal combustion engines from stolen cars, the situation is simpler, because the engine number in the traffic police is not studied during registration. But suddenly they will look, they will break through the bases? This is a criminal article.

In general, purchase an engine,which can be guaranteed to last two years or more without problems, is quite difficult. Although contract ICE from Japan, as practice shows, work for more than 2 years.

Where are the problems waiting for the owners?

For starters, you can exclude the usual atmospheric units - four-cylinder. They are installed more often on budget cars. There are many of these machines, the motors are cheap and easy to repair. There are enough of them in the secondary market. A major overhaul will cost the owner a maximum of 50 thousand rubles - expensive, but tolerable. There are exceptions, but less often.

And a completely different thing - modern gasoline power units that are installed under the hoods of prestigious cars. They are more often purchased as contract ICEs. The reason is clear - it costs much more to repair a high-tech engine with 6 or 8 cylinders to perfect condition than to buy a used one.

Features of Japanese internal combustion engines

But even here there are a lot of pitfalls. For example, most of the options on the market have huge mileage. It happens that an engine from the same Japan is sold with a real mileage of 60 thousand kilometers - the economical Japanese, due to increased taxes on an old car, simply threw the car away, and the engine was sold to Russia.

But who says that the motor that is being sold has just arrived from Japan? It often happens that a car is brought to Vladivostok, where it rolls out until the components and assemblies are exhausted, then the internal combustion engine was washed and sold, although there was very little resource left. Alas, these are Russian realities.

Another common problemJapanese engines - the engine is the same model as the car, but it is not installed under the hood. The problem is that there are a lot of engine modifications that differ in seats.

German motors and their specifics

With German internal combustion engines, there are great chances to acquire not only a problematic, but also unsuitable for repair 3-4 year old unit with a mileage of more than 100 thousand kilometers. Here the matter is as follows. In Germany, engines are operated on average 30 thousand kilometers per year - the specifics of operation and long distances. And modern engines have a generally low resource, and if in the engines of the 90s a mileage of 200 thousand kilometers was half the life, today the resource before overhaul is the same 150 thousand kilometers.

The automaker can also be understood - the car is operated on average 3 years or 100 thousand kilometers. So why make overly reliable units? But it doesn't make it any easier for motorists.

Therefore, the washed appearance of the engine is not yet an indicator of its resource and reliability. In domestic conditions, even a contracted Toyota internal combustion engine can fail very quickly, since at home it worked measuredly and calmly on autobahns, and in Russia it will be operated in extreme conditions. And the resource in the engine ends - the wear of the main components has almost reached the limit. Therefore, do not be surprised that in a newly installed motor there is almost no compression left and a huge oil consumption.

Therefore, after acquiring a contract engine, ICEmay fail, and the owner will have to pay again, but for repairs. For example, for the M272 E35 Mercedes unit, only camshaft fluid couplings will cost 100 thousand rubles, excluding work.

The camshaft for a BMW (one, new) will cost 25 thousand rubles, and you will have to look for suitable beds. At Mercedes, to replace the camshaft, the motorist will have to purchase a new cylinder head.

So the cost of serviceable parts and the price of assembly / disassembly work must be added to the price of the contract unit. This will make the contractor more expensive by 40-60%. In addition, you need to remember that more often contract engines are removed from cars that have been in an accident - cracks in boats, valve covers are possible.

Winter, summer

There is one more trouble. Not a single seller of contractual internal combustion engines in Novosibirsk or Vladivostok will ever admit how many days and months ago the engine was removed, what seasons it went through in the process of transportation and storage.

If the engine was stored in conditions of temperature differences with open valves, then condensation will form in it, and with it corrosion. If she began to eat the walls of the cylinders, then the engine will not last long - rust will kill the rings.

If there are scuffs on the walls of the cylinder, then such problems cannot be detected without diagnostics with an endoscope. The motor will function normally, but the oil consumption will be significantly more than a liter per 500 kilometers. There are many such examples.

Storage Features

If the internal combustion engine was stored for more than six months, lying on its side, then inrings unequivocally lay on it, the oil curdled into heavy fractions, the properties of elastomers changed. All gaskets, seals, valve stem seals have lost moisture. The pistons could get tired, and this leads to their destruction. The verdict is that by purchasing a cheap engine, in practice the chances of getting a quality unit are no more than 60%.

What to do?

We need to seriously look into refurbishing the old motor. Next, you need to carefully look at the sellers - it should not be a private trader, but a large company. The engine must be defective with partial disassembly and replacement of worn parts.

There is a guarantee for contractual internal combustion engines and automatic transmissions - during this time the engine is disassembled and checked with experts. But you need to negotiate with a return in case the motor is dead. Buying a contractor and a small repair will still be half the price of a broken engine.