My '85 is a daily driver with high miles on it (187,000 give or take). I have found a guy locally who has a motor that has 34,000 miles on it(Its an '85 also). The car is in his back yard, apparently the car was wrecked about 10 years ago (what he says), he bought the car from an insurance company shortly after with the intent to restore. Well he never restored the car and is willing to sell the engine and is asking for me to make offer.

Whats a good price to offer this guy? He looks like he could use the money so I'm thinking I might be able to get this at good price, the only thing is, I have no idea whats a good fair price?

what all is he selling it with? If it has been sitting unstarted, for 10 years, you are going to have to re-seat the rings. As well as a number of other issues. Thats if the motor wasnt siesed when it was wrecked. Was it hit in the front?

If you can't verify that it'll start, I wouldn't give more than 800 for the engine. 1100 w/ecm and harness. If it starts in the car and has good compression, then i think 1800 w/electronics is reasonable.
Unless you are in california. In which case dont show up unless you have a briefcase full of hundreds.:lol:

My mistake, I didn't get back to this guy untill a week later and he had sold it to someone else. So I'm just surfing around looking for a great deal on a used engine. The car runs ok now, but as I pointed out it is getting up there on the miles.

I have many C4 customer that have over 200000 miles on there motors and they still run very strong. When buying a used motor. Look for documented low miles, No broke or bent parts(pulleys, valve covers, exhaust manifold) from and crash, and last get at least a 90 day warranty, Most of the time if there's going to be a problem it will show up in the first 100 miles.
David