I contacted Surplus City about the ones they advertised. They don't
have any as of present, but will look around for me. They said that
since they moved to Northern California from LA it isn't profitable to
rebuild and sell them. Their rebuilder is in LA, so they have to truck
them south and back. All the local rebuilders are much more expensive,
and they haven't gotten a machine shop set up yet at their new location.
They will let me know--I am just looking for other options.
This follows the conclusion of the Volvo engine fiasco. For those of
you tuning in late, I had a volvo engine rebuilt to go in my GPW--it
came with the jeep. The inital estimate was $500 and when completed it
came in at $1668.This was way above any estimates they gave my mechan
ic. They tired to claim it was an oddball engine (the Swedish Bricks
mailing says it is a standard 4 cylinder Volvo engine used in the
60's/70's). I had $500 down on the engine, based upon the initial
estimate.
What transpired next was my mechanic had a long talk with the owner, and
got him to conceed that they did blow their estimate, and talked the
price down to $1432. It was more than I was wanting to pay, but it
would at least resolve the situation. One selling point to him agreeing
to the deal was that I could get a replacement engine for less money
than it cost to get this one from him. The owner thought I was set on
that particular engine, because of it's increased horsepower--but my
mechanic deflated that view with an explanation of the importance of
authenticity and this engine decreased than increased the value.
He called me and told me of the deal--I wasn;t happy but it at least
solved the situation--and I could resell the engine a couple years from
now when I changedto a GPW engine. The deal then fell apart a couple of
days later when he explained our intent to pay another $500 immediately,
and the remaining over the next couple of months--mainly because he
completely blew the budget. That would have given him $1000 immediately
($500 now and $500 originally) and then another $100 this past weekend,
and it would be paid of by August. He refused these terms, so we kissed
the engine and $500 good bye last week. Painful-yes---expensive-yes but
right--yes as well.
I am sending this just to find leads on a different engine, and to
update those who sent helpful advice. If anyone wants to send me a
words of wisdom e-mail with catchy phrases like I received last time
from several people please refrain. Experience is the best teacher and
I don't need you reminding me of the mistakes. If you have something
constructive go for it.
Thanks from everyone who constructively responded and keep your years
open for a block/engine for me. TAS
************************************************************************
* Tim A. Scherrer "You'll be fighting WWII for the rest of *
* Facilities Supervisor your life", Ron Scherrer, 1971 *
* Truman State University *
* WP: 816-785-5551 CPT, MI, USAR *
* WF: 816-785-4201 Commander, D/2/334th INF RGT *
* HP: 816-665-6704 *
* E-mail: TIMS@ACADEMIC.TRUMAN.EDU *
************************************************************************
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