What to look for when buying an engine.

elbert79 said

Hi, new member on the forum, been lurking around for a while but as I plan to start a G3 swap in my 1971 Dodge Dart Swinger I thought is was time to register.

Anyway my first question is what to look for when sourcing an engine. I'm looking for a 5.7 345hp engine so that limits the selection to 2003 up to 2008 engines. Reason is that a bigger/stronger engine might be difficult to get approval for by our local version of DMV.
So should I look for a truck or a car engine?
What mileage should be the upper limit to have a fair chance of avoiding a rebuild?
Are the 2008 engines better than the earliest with regards to loose valve seats and other potential issues?
See there are a lot of engines on ebay sold by wrecking yards etc. Would they be a good place to get the engine from? Buying a wreck to pull the engine is not an option as I'm located in Norway and there aren't many Hemi cars around here in the first place.

Click to expand...

Welcome aboard!

Another place where you can find these engines are in the country right to the east of you but not as cheap as they seem to be in America,the ones in Swedish wreckingyards tend to be somewhat expensive but atleast many of them are marked as tested and ok(if we want to trust that is a different story)its alitle anoying to have to check all listings individualy but there may be a way aorund that. Most wreckingyards list there stuff on:
Bildelsbasen.se - Sveriges största utbud av bildelar You can probably figure out the Swedish text, ohh wait its also available in Norwegian,see below:
Bildelsbasen.se - Nye og brukte bildeler

You can also check out Blocket for adds from both private persons and bussines,have seen a few 5.7s for sale on there,most to expensive in my opinion but a few that has been very reasonable priced.
Link directly to search for adds,you may figure out some better searchterm but Hemi have brought up more than a few over the years, even thougth the good priced ones are not as comon.
Hela Sverige > Bildelar & biltillbehör | Blocket