How to make a choice?

[N-jinn]

It's possible to buy the 1UZFE from ebay, but at a shop near my town they have 2nd hand 1UZFE's. The one that looks best at the shop has 145.000 km's (that's around 90.000 miles).
On ebay they sometimes have engines that have run much lower mileage, but can I trust this.

Friend of mine advised me to buy the one at the shop hence it is more easier to get money back or make another deal.

But I also hear that ebay can be trusted at delivering quality stuff most of the time.

Any advice or pointers that I can take in regard.

 

[Lextreme II]

Ebay???? Never trust it unless you can not find anywhere else locally. Online shopping you can not touch it, smell it or taste it. Shipping would be very expensive. Get it locally and u can deal with the owner.

 

[Anaema]

true. eBay has some bad spots.

 

[mycarhasposessedme]

Buy the local engine, I buy "some" stuff on ebay, but would never even consider an engine unless it was local.
Unless, as Lex stated, It was something you couldn't get locally.
Are the ebay engines local to you?
If so maybe you could ask the seller if you can inspect the engine before bidding.
Cheers

 

[N-jinn]

I got a friend who has bought an RB20DET via ebay and it worked for him, but he didn't really have a choice 'cause they don't sell RB's in the Netherlands.

I wanted to know your opinion and I made my choice and will buy it from the shop.

Thanx!

 

[rarson]

90k miles on a 1UZ really is kind of barely scratching the surface. In stock form, the longetivity of these motors is nothing short of amazing. I'd MUCH rather go with a "high" mileage (90k) local motor (after checking it out, of course) than a "low" mileage (40k) ebay motor that you're basically risking a chance of not even receiving, let alone paying a bunch for shipping. When you consider that you probably won't even need to hone the cylinders for the first 300k, the mileage difference between the two options is basically nothing.

 

[N-jinn]

That´s good to hear.

I hope I´ll be able to buy it in the summer. That way I also have a little bit more time to sort stuff out and maybe even ride my car with the V8 before end of the year.