Junkyard Score - what's yours?

I went to Sahd's to pick up some Aluminum chunks for the Sunbird, and 2"x3" box tubing for the 1926 Star/1929 Essex. As always, I ran over to the engine pile. I have pulled many steel cranks and blowers and blocks from this pile. And it's all sold per pound. As I drove by I saw this.

This is after I rolled the engine on top off of what caught my eyes. So, I had the crane lift it off the pile.

And 39 minutes later......yes I noted the time.....

One 427 steel crank and a set of 4-bolt main BBC caps. Price $40. That $32.16 for the crank and $7.84 for the caps.

I wish there was a $3000 Challenge....between the $300 1926 Star/29 Essex, the $150 454 and the newly acquired 427 crank.....the 2"x3" box tube is for the Star/Essex project at $0.45/lb....it could be fun.

I've had plenty. 99 Torsen Miata Rear Diff. Bought for $75 and sold for $450. A lot of 1.8 Miata upgrade parts at LKQ's Half Off Holiday weekends. 95 Eclipse EPROM ECU for $20 that I re-sold for $120 pre ECM Link EPROM conversions.

Plenty of very valuable parts laying in wait at the pick and pull, but you really have to know what to buy.

I can't be the only one...

So, what's a 427 steel crank and 4 bolt main BBC caps worth?

Are you going to sell them or use them?

I bought a gently crashed Neon a couple of weeks ago, in an odd shade of blue. Went to Bucks and found two fenders, in pretty good shape, in the proper blue. I love it when that happens. Paint is expensive!

RossD wrote: I can't be the only one... So, what's a 427 steel crank and 4 bolt main BBC caps worth? Are you going to sell them or use them?

Crank - between $100 and $250, depending if its cross-drilled (bad) or nitride (good). And if it has the heavy counterweight. Fortunately, this one is not cross-drilled and it is nitride. Caps are about $40 at most flea markets

Junkyard scores require junkyards that let you wander around. Every yard within a reasonable drive of me keeps you at the counter while they go get exactly what you asked or (or not) - and charge accordingly.

I put a bunch of electrical connectors & switches from various Volvos into the bottom half of a turbo 850 air filter box. Took the filter box full of little stuff to the counter to check out, guy dug around in the box a little, charged me like $5 for the box, and $0 for any of the stuff in it. It's contents included a dimmer rheostat that the dealer wanted $200 for new, and the cheapest one on eBay at the time was around $40.

I found 2 very rare BBS E30 valences in the same junkyard 6 months apart. I think that's my best score.

Nothing recently unless you count a pair of Vise Grips...

Nice score.

Duke wrote: Junkyard scores require junkyards that let you wander around. Every yard within a reasonable drive of me keeps you at the counter while they go get exactly what you asked or (or not) - and charge accordingly.

My local yard is like that. I am one of a handful of people the owner let's go back there and rumage around.

A good engine for my MR2 Spyder for $75 plus $50 core charge.. They're not getting the core back.

Duke wrote: Junkyard scores require junkyards that let you wander around. Every yard within a reasonable drive of me keeps you at the counter while they go get exactly what you asked or (or not) - and charge accordingly.

There is a crazy rays in Edgewood, MD that looks to be +/- a 50 minute drive from you. That seems a pretty reasonable distance.

05 sentra ser 600 with bad engine plan b challenge car)used engine with goodies 400.

05 civic coup se bad engine 600 replaced with 400 engine sold for 3500.

91 240sx 400 clean and fix brakes sold for 2300

All came out of the same yard.

Integra trailing arms, with disk brakes and all hardware, for $40. Upgraded the drums on a Civic.

bluej wrote:

Duke wrote: Junkyard scores require junkyards that let you wander around. Every yard within a reasonable drive of me keeps you at the counter while they go get exactly what you asked or (or not) - and charge accordingly.

There is a crazy rays in Edgewood, MD that looks to be +/- a 50 minute drive from you. That seems a pretty reasonable distance.

Yeah, I've even bought parts at Ray's, but it's not within "I'll run down and see what they've got" distance. Thanks, though.

Ultra rare (as in, no record of these in existence online prior) Eibach sway bars for 1st gen Lexus LS400. Made a nice penny on that one.

Thats some awesome scores!!!! I haven't been to the salvage/wrecking yard in over a year!!! Time to do some catching up

My best score was the set of Pontiac #96 heads currently residing in my Trans Am.

Back around 2007, I asked the guy at the front desk of a local yard if he had any Pontiac engines kicking around, and we adjourned to his "private collection" (a storage trailer) and showed me the heads that were on his old 1971 GTO street machine. He pulled the motor in the early 80's to install a 427 BBC and sold the rest of the Pontiac 400, and these sat around in dry storage for years. I paid $90. They usually go in the hundreds for a decent set, and back then, bare cores were around $300+.

455 guys LOVE these heads because slapping them on culminates in a magical, still-safe-for-pump-gas compression ratio, and they have the "big" 2.66/1.77 valves that everyone wants. After a clean-up and 3-angle valve job, they were tossed on my PontiMutt 414ci engine in my Trans Am.

I pick up Jeep XJ Dana 44’s whenever I see one. I buy them for $75 at the yard and sell them for $350-400. Same with Miata torsens but I rarely see them in the yard. 36 lbs injectors from supercharged GM 3800’s being decent money too. LS guys run them as a cheap upgrade.

Duke wrote: Junkyard scores require junkyards that let you wander around. Every yard within a reasonable drive of me keeps you at the counter while they go get exactly what you asked or (or not) - and charge accordingly.

Me too. Extremely sad.

I got tetanus.

do i win if i got the same crank for free once?

i've had so many junkyard scores i don't keep track anymore. a $40 working 4L80-e might be the best.

i did yard sale myself a ford 9" disc brake rear end a couple weeks ago for $30.

I've scored a couple 4 bolt LSD rear ends for DSM's in the $60 ea. range. Quite a few transmissions and transfer cases for the same car, all for pennies on the dollar. I found a set of front and rear Suspension Techniques swaybars off a Talon for less then $50. Sadly, the same car had a set of BAER brakes on it that someone beat me to. They left the 13" Cobra rotors and hub rings, I'm guessing they thought they were just regular DSM 2 piston calipers.

My two local junkyards aren't pull it yourself so I can't get killer deals. I was able to get a passenger seat for a 4th gen camaro that isn't too worn out for $50.