Price range 2002-2004 NA engine/tranny

[Frank818]

Is there a post somewhere mentioning an approx price range for a 2002-2004 NA engine (no matter the mileage, with or without ECU and harness) and 2002-2004 5-sp manual tranny?

I will sell these 2 parts off of my donor as I don't need them. My donor will be a 2002-2004 NA. But I failed to find an approx price on a good working engine and tranny so I have no idea what I should expect. For instance if I see a donor at 2500 (there are plenty) but know that I could sell the engine/tranny for 1000, then I can expect about a real cost of 1500.

I currently hesitate to buy a good donor cuz I have no idea how much these parts are worth. I look only for real crap donors sold for almost nothing, which means I would end up with all the other parts potentially in worse condition too (those I need!). I would like to better gauge all that and make what I think would be the best choice at the time I would buy.


tnx

[Xusia]

Frank, isn't the worth of those parts academic? By that I mean, you need the donor and $2500 isn't a bad price, so what does it matter what the sell off parts are worth? Is it somehow affecting your decision on a donor?

[Frank818]

Hey Brian,

It does affect yes.
Since I do not need the engine and tranny, I am capable of buying a donor that does not run, but has the other parts (the ones I need) in good conditions.

There are rare donors for 1500 less that do run, bad and good. Good ones are sold within 24h after being listed.
But there are plenty of donors for 2500 that do run better and probably have better other parts (spindles, hubs, rack, column, etc.). Now if I can sell the engine and tranny for 1000 or 1250, maybe I'd be better off investing 1k more to get better all around parts and a value out of the engine, knowing I could sell the engine/tranny for that price. If it's worth 500, maybe I'm better off looking for a 1k-1.5k crappy running donor, scrap entirely the engine and sell the tranny 200 bucks for those who want a backup tranny or for any other reason.

The 2500 price tag is very common around here, but what if those good engines can be sold for 2k? I'd buy a 2500 donor in good condition right away, rather than a 1300-1500 donor with bad engine that I'd scrap.

That's mainly the dilemma I am facing now. It affects my choice cuz when I see a 2500 donor, I tend to be repulsed from it. So I wait for the rare crappy ones at 1000-1500. Rare means more time to wait. If I stayed in October for my delivery, fine, but I accepted April, so I gotta run faster. lolll :)

Maybe it's just my mind getting crazy?
Or crazier, as it it always crazy. lolll :)

[RM1SepEx]

check craigslist and ebay

I use them to benchmark what the parts that I don't need will be sold for

Right now I have sold $1612 from my rolled over donor

[Frank818]

You're right.

On ebay the non-turbo are super rare, but to stay on the safe side, a running high mileage engine may be 500.
A running high mileage tranny, say 300.

I'll go with that.
tnx!

[Xusia]

Frank, bear with me a moment here...

$1200 "does not run" donor vs. $2500 "runs" donor. <-- Trying to look at the worse case.

That's a difference of $1300. How much is a running engine worth? I don't know, but it's worth something. Just for the sake of example, let's say it's worth $300 (I think it's probably worth more, but again, this is worse case). That puts the difference in cost between the 2 options at $1000.

So the question is, in the end, is $1000 (max!) worth stressing over? And let's not forget the $2500 runner is more readily available (according to you). It seems to me with your delivery date coming up, this would be a no brainer: Get the $2500 runner and start having fun, instead of worrying!

[Frank818]

1k is very close to a RaceLogic Traction control system, that's how I see it. :) Cuz I can't figure out if I really need a 2.5k donor when I know a 1k-1.5k would do the job just fine.

But, as said, my delivery date is coming fast, that's more important than traction control, all true.
So I won't wait too much and get those 2.5k donors a try.