[DML] Take my engine...please!

["Gus Schlachter" <gus@xxxx>]

It finally happened: my dripping water pump turned into a spraying
water pump. I'd been avoiding this particular chore of replacing the
pump because of the complexity, and I was planning to get PRV-Plus
engine from the nice folks down in Houston anyway. But the engine swap
is about another month away, so I was hoping for everyone's informed
(or even uneducated) opinions on To Fix or Not To Fix.

The obvious answer is to wait, except that after next month I will have
an extra PRV that I don't need. I'd like to sell it to someone that
needs a better engine, or has none at all. I'm thinking it's worth far
more in good running condition. Unless, of course, somebody wants to
part it out, but I think that unlikely.

The best situation I can think of is to have someone here buy it and
let USADMC put their new mods on it to bump up the HP while it's in
Houston. Then it could be shipped and quickly swapped with almost no
down time. And then the hand-me-down cycle could continue!

If anyone is interested, this engine has 100,000+ miles on it, but no
problems other than the water pump. It accelerates well and idles
rock-steady. I just switched to synthetic 10w-30 and aside from a
small puff of blue right at start-up, it loses no oil. (What I thought
was an oil leak in a previous post was actually from the transmission.)
It always cranks right up (except occasionally when hot...damn
accumulator!) and makes up to 100 HP accoring to my G-TECH performance
meter, with a 0-60 in the 11-13 second range, and makes about 19 MPG. 
I plan to get a compression test shortly.

I have no idea what to sell it for...new engines from DMC are close to
$5k, but I know this one is well broken-in. Can it go another 100k
miles? I bet DMC Joe thinks so. :-) The original owner was an
officer in the local DMC club and treated the car well, the second
owner mostly stored it, and I think I've taken good care of it; in
fact, until I bought it it lived in Houston and got all it's service
from Stephen Wynne (and still does).

So, do I fix it for $200 in parts and $20 in beer? Or try to sell it
as-is?


Gus Schlachter
Austin, TX
VIN: currently taking the bus :-(