Buying an engine

I have some golden rules:

Whenever you are about to buy, determine a fair price elsewhere BEFORE you negotiate.
Never exceed your own price limit because you have become attached to an engine. It is better to walk away.
Play with the engine as much as you like - if the seller does not want you to do this then forget it - they have something to hide.
Pump the seller for as much information as you can.
ALWAYS GET A RECEIPT which has your name, the sellers name and address, the date, a description of what is sold complete with serial number(s), and the price. This is vital. A friend of mine purchased an engine and spent hundreds of hours and dollars rebuilding it only to have it recognised by its former owner at a show who claimed it had been stolen. In this situation you are likely to lose the engine, but the receipt should keep you out of jail. This advice is good for any purchase - not just engines. In the case of the friend the former owner was happy to see it had gone to a good home and just let the matter drop.

There are four main places where you will find engines.

Swap Meets usually lowest prices here as there is often much competition - if one person won't come down to your price, move onto the next.
Farm/Estate Auctions these can provide excellent bargains as there is usually an inspection day prior to auction where you can inspect and fiddle with the engines. In recent times, Auctions have lost some of their charm due to higher prices. There are more and more collectors bidding for available equipment. I often attend local auctions and usually come away empty handed.
Scrap/Junk Yards my first engine (Rosebery 3C) came from a local garden centre who had a scrap yard down the back. I noticed the engine peeking out from under a tarp and asked about it. They could not understand why I wanted it but were more than happy to sell it to me. You may get a good price here, they often do not know the items real value - they see it as n kilos of iron and are happy to exceed the price the metal buyer will give them. I also try equipment hire shops and engineering works - both sometimes have old equipment they are happy to part with.
Private Sales Keep an eye on classified sections in local papers, trading papers (eg. The Melbourne Trading Post), and farm oriented news papers. You may also see ads in engine magazines.

Negotiating your price

My negotiating method was taught to me by an ex-used car salesman who I worked for for a while. This method works most of the time!
The first thing to remember is that the sticker price is NOT the price of the item - in a supermarket the sticker is god, but almost any kind of second hand dealership it is only a starting point.
When buying remember your aim is to lower the price as much as you can, and the sellers aim is to keep the price as high as they can.
Never be rude when buying, always be polite, if a negotiation stops above your price do not get nasty, just leave.
There are two ways of haggling: the first is the one I prefer - start at 50% of the sticker price and work your way upwards in small increments (say 5%). The second is start at 5% of the sticker price and work up in big jumps, then slow down to small jumps when you reach 50%. Some people think the latter method works better as it shows you are getting serious - I personally think that the latter method makes you look like a disrespectful fool.
Treat professionals and individuals very differently, you can be cool and aloof with a professional salesperson - you both know where you stand, but an individual has probably owned the engine for a while, and often regrets having to sell it - pushing them will only make them unhappy and stubborn. Upset them enough and they are likely to tell you to go away.

This article is part of the Stationary Internal Combustion Engine Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). This series is a combination of my views and knowledge and the views and knowledge of other people - most of them members of the Stationary Engine Mailing List (More info on ATIS). Those articles which were written by others are © Copyright to the author. Those articles written by myself are © Copyright to Paul Pavlinovich.

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Disclaimer:It should be noted that the information given in this document is considered to be good advice by the people who give it, however any legal liability lies strictly with the reader. The contributors are hobbiests not professionals.

Last modified Sunday, 06-Aug-2006 12:03:08 BST

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