Recently at a track day I seem to have blown a rod on my 1995 Z28 (LT-1, T-56) I do not have the time or the money to do a proper rebuild. So to put me along for a few years I am looking at some used motors.
These are my questions:
What should I look out for in a used motor?
-Pretty much all I know to look out for is a knock of course and to check the compression, but that doesn't seem to cover everything?
How many hours of work have you guys been quoted before? I can't find a reasonable amount of time or for that matter any amount of consistency in labor hours or cost. Any advice would be very helpful!

 

The problem with buying used motors is your most likely going to get one from a junkyard and you have to trust the junkyard when they say its a good motor. But things to look for is first see if you can see it run. Now if its in a junkyard you probley wont be ably to since they drain all the fluids. But check the milage on the car then depending on the milage see if it was tuned-up. If your looking at a car with 16000 miles and it has orginal spark plug wires then its a good bet it was treated the best. Also check the dipstick to see if there are any signs of water in the motor. Now if you can see the car running your in better shape since you know the motor runs. But you still want to check the oil and cooalant also to see if oil is in the coolant.
Now to replace the motor the labor time from GM is almost 20 hours. Now for price its going to change depending on where yor live and the shop. Different labor rates and different shops do things different. Now my shop (and this is just for pricing. I refuse to install use motors because you have no way of knowing what you getting, and I've been bit before doing use motors). But we'er looking at almost a 2 grand job with parts and labors and that dosent include the cost of the motor. Now how I came up with that price is labor, fluids and with it being a use motor I would recommend replace belts and having it tuned-up at the same time.