How many miles out of an engine?

[GIACUser]

Engine has 284,000 miles, stage 2 since 10,000miles. It needs a full rebuild and likely machine work. Any less and I may as well toss a junkyard motor in as-is.

I am torn on keeping her or not. Here's the dilemma...

It's $8,500 for a rebuilt engine, figure $2,500 for a new clutch and I'm guessing $3,500-5,000 in labor. I just moved to downtown Denver and have no garage, so I have no choice but to pay a shop.

We are talking $13,000 or more. Plus other things are getting old, my nav has been freaking out occasionally, original accessories still, and she was a MN car, front fenders need replaced due to rust.

Unfortunately that same $13K won't buy jack right now for another car. I'm tempted to let her die and save for my next car which I can afford right now minus the down payment, from me moving. Lol.

Catch 22

Its so hard to find anyone with significant experience and expertise to do a proper engine rebuild. If I redo my engine I will buy a factory longblock if I can find one rather than let someone rebuild it for me and not know if they did some portion of the rebuild poorly or incorrectly.

I suspect you could get it back on the road for about 1/2 of whet you are estimating by going with a used motor, The cost of putting in a clutch during an R/R of the motor should not be much more and you can find a decent clutch for a very reasonable price. at 6500 bucks you could probably get a lot more miles out of the car and drive until market turns around. Or junk it and get a new car if you have the money but its a bad time to buy.