I contacted a person that has a 77 Brave with a 440 selling for 1K. The ad said he has new carb & starter but needs to be towed & new batteries. i?? He says that last summer on his way home it overheated twice. pulled over, cooled drove again, etc. and limped it home. He says it developed a possible rod knock from overheating and limpin it home but he's not sure? Says he has some mechanic buddies that haven't shown yet to check out what's wrong. I have basically walked away from it without even lookin at it. It's clean on the outside, haven't seen the inside, no pics. Should I go look at it or walk away? I do know and work on old Mopars, so I'm not afraid of them. I just really don't have the place if I need to pull the motor. WWYD?
I would walk. If it overheated twice then it is probably a head gasket and once coolant gets into the oil it will take out the bearings very quickly if he kept pushing it. It will also take out the crank with the bearings. Antifreeze has silicates in it, silicates are basically sand. That is pretty simplified but the end results are the same. Add in the cam bearings and oil pump.
Outside of a possible cooked bearing/s motor. I'm possibly looking at new/repaired heads &/or block, if it's cracked, it's toast! New radiator, severe engine flush, new H2O pump, hoses, and God knows what else? I'd like to go look but I don't want to waste his time if it's a no sale. Who knows what other hidden neglected maintenance is hiding if it has this problem?? I'm thinkin the same, that's sad as it's a clean lookin machine.
:)ThmbUp My first reaction is go with your gut feeling. If it doesn't feel good then don't do it. So curiosity's got the best of you. Never hurts to go look. Keeping in mind you may have to pull the engine and replace it with another. Straight bolt in. No pissing around. Straight bolt in. Possibly and extra $1,000.00. If it's handy you never know until you go look. Hm?
You can always see if he is open to letting you crack the drain plug just a hair and see what comes out first, oil or antifreeze. If it is oil then you can be pretty sure that even if it was head gaskets the bearings did not get wasted. If he is not open to doing that then walk because there is no other easy way to tell other than see if the oil is milky and if it has been sitting for any period then milky oil would have settled out.
I have no real flat pad to work with if I need to use a cheery picker, it'd be a royal PITA to deal with. I'll just keep it on the back burner and keep lookin for something better.