Spare Engine; Hoarding or Piece of Mind?

For the past several years I've been all about decluttering in the garage.

I've slimmed down the Datsun parts but I now have the Foxbody and I'm starting to get a parts stash and that seems to be counter to my decluttering.

Part of the deal with the car is it came with a spare running engine. Last night my buddy asked me to come and get it out of his garage as he needs the space.

On one hand I like the idea of a spare engine, as the car is an auto-x occasional track day car I could see having a spare as piece of mind.

On the other hand 5.0 motors are abundant and keeping an engine around for a rainy day boarders on hoarding. I also hate the idea of the motor taking up garage space.

I might be able to make room in my storage shed for it but that still doesn't alleviate the feeling that I'm hoarding.

So for those of you with dedicated dual duty auto-X/track day cars do you keep spare engines?

Is the engine built or have any work done to it? Maybe sell it? 

If there's nothing special about it, and the engine in the car seems healthy, I'd sell it. If it's got a bunch of upgrades that you want, and/or the engine in the car may not be long for this world, then you're just getting ahead of the game by holding it for a bit until you put it in.

The motor is bone stock; I could use it to build up a better motor but frankly I'm just not in the mood to build stuff at the moment.

My goal for the car was 275-300hp (it's at around 240hp now) so some basic bolt ons would get the car to that point. That could be done to the motor in the car.

STM317 said:

If there's nothing special about it, and the engine in the car seems healthy, I'd sell it. If it's got a bunch of upgrades that you want, and/or the engine in the car may not be long for this world, then you're just getting ahead of the game by holding it for a bit until you put it in.

Agreed.  If it's a common engine, nothing special about it, and you're not using the car in a way that's likely to blow up an engine and need a replacement on short notice, then I don't think keeping a spare around is worthwhile. 

I might build a second engine for my Audi. This one will be a bit more stout than the current one, and I'll get the block properly machined this time (better compression numbers would be nice). As for the current engine? There's nothing wrong with it. I'll keep it. Racing is hard on engines, and I'd rather have one ready to go so that an entire racing season doesn't go down the toilet when I scatter bits of 1.8t all over the track. Of course, the 1.8t is tiny, and I can pull the head off and store the thing in two chunks on shelves in my garage.

If I wasn't racing this thing, I wouldn't want a spare. Driving around on the street and doing occasional autocross events, I never bothered with spare engines. All this thing will know, for the rest of its life, is high RPM and too much horsepower. I anticipate breaking it, or at least, I anticipate wearing engines out pretty fast. It'll be nice to pull one out and relatively quickly have the second one ready to go in so I don't make mistakes or forget things. Ideally, between seasons, I'll be able to swap in a refreshed engine and rebuild the worn one.

Tom1200 said:

On the other hand 5.0 motors are abundant

Are they?  I did a quick CL search and I could probably piece one together if need be (non-roller block) from a 500 mile search radius.  None complete for sale.

They stopped making the SBF over 20 years ago.  I know the cars that had them aren't in yards anymore.  Truck 5.0s can be found sometimes, but more likely it would be a 351 I'd be pulling. 

My area isn't yours, but I'd make sure they are as available as you think before I got rid of it

I agree.  Spare engine for a race car makes sense because if the one in the car blows you don't want to have to hunt for a replacement before the next event.  If you're going to a high-investment event (like the runoffs) you may even bring the spare engine with you in the trailer so that if it blows up in practice you can still make the race.

I swapped the engine in my M3 last year at about 200 hours for a fresh junkyard one.  I kept the old one though -- it's the core if/when I decide to build an engine for that car, and since it still runs (just down on compression a bit) it can serve as an emergency replacement in a pinch.  S54s are a bit more expensive than 302s though.

For a track day car I don't think I'd bother unless you have thoughts of building one.

I'd freshen up the spare engine and include updates you want to do for more power.

Once it's ready you can swap engines and reduce downtime from incremental update to a worn engine. Then you can either sell the one in the car which will be easier and more profitable since it can be seen running, or set that aside as a spare before it suffers any catastrophic failure. 

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Almost 30 years now in abundance. Explorer in '99 was the last model but previous was the F150 in '96, Mustang in '95....

Back to the question at hand, it's only hoarding if you have multiples of the same for the same reason. On top of that, there is no reasonable expectation of use. I have a 300 i6 I'm junking because I have no vehicle to put it in nor any plan to use it in anything. Same with probably all the 2.3 Limas I have and associated t5's. Now the big block and stock 89 5.0HO.... I have plans for eventually.

I don't think having a rebuildable core engine is hoarding for a car that you are actively using in motorsports. I guess it depends on how tight your storage is vs. how important it is to have a quick turnaround if something happens to the engine in the car. If you are chasing points in a season, the time to acquire, and refresh/rebuild a motor could really mess that up.

Kinda sounds like a good idea to build it up to your 275-300hp spec and keep the existing motor as a known good spare.

Of course this is coming from a guy with a hoard of rx7 stuff much of which I won't ever use. But, but, but it's different you see, rx7 stuff is thin on the ground these days... maybe I shouldn't be considered a trusted advisor on this 

Depends on how rare and/or fragile the engine is, keeping a spare Iron Duke or SBF arguably borders on hoarding, keeping a spare 4AGE or 13B is more like a necessity.

Since this engine is common and not fragile maybe put it up for sale.

Edit: +1  on what Mr. Asa said, just confirm whether they're rare these days...

I have a spare Datsun engine because............race car.

As noted, the Mustang 5.0s are no longer nearly as abundant as they once were, especially stock bore blocks.  I would definitely hang onto it, the short block at least.  

I'm watching an auction for a spare for one of my cars at the moment, but I'm guessing the reserve is much higher than what I'm willing to pay for this particular engine.  Then again, it's pretty rare in the US, and it's only a 3 hour drive away...

I always had a spare engine around when I had BPs in my NA/NB Miatas, but now with a K powered NA and stock NC that commonality is gone and so are the spares.  I need to pick up a spare K24 while they are still easy to get and cheap....

In reply to Rodan :

After all the replies I've decided it would be wise to keep it.

I've had spare engines for multiple vehicles over the last three decades. I've never used a single one of them, and they usually got tossed in with the cars when I sold them.

Sounds like a no-time-pressure base for a 347.

Just sayin'.

There's also the superstition that the running engine won't break as long as you have the spare but will shortly after getting rid of it.

j_tso said:

There's also the superstition that the running engine won't break as long as you have the spare but will shortly after getting rid of it.

Hey hey hey, get out of my head....

ddavidv said:

I've had spare engines for multiple vehicles over the last three decades. I've never used a single one of them, and they usually got tossed in with the cars when I sold them.

This does seem to be the way of the world.

Ranger50 said:

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Almost 30 years now in abundance. Explorer in '99 was the last model but previous was the F150 in '96, Mustang in '95....

Back to the question at hand, it's only hoarding if you have multiples of the same for the same reason. On top of that, there is no reasonable expectation of use. I have a 300 i6 I'm junking because I have no vehicle to put it in nor any plan to use it in anything. Same with probably all the 2.3 Limas I have and associated t5's. Now the big block and stock 89 5.0HO.... I have plans for eventually.

... throwing away a 300, you say?

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

If you're going to a high-investment event (like the runoffs) you may even bring the spare engine with you in the trailer so that if it blows up in practice you can still make the race.

This exact thing happened at my first runoffs. Very glad I had the spare with me.

If keeping a spare motor doesn't take up needed space I would keep it.

I had a mint condition 5-speed that I pulled out of a 240Z and sold it since I figured a Z got out of my price range.  Sat in my dry crawlspace for 10 years. 

Then I bought a 240Z that came with three 4-speeds.......Doh!

What a bunch of enablers we are.  Of course keep it.  Maybe buy another mustang with a bad motor.