Trade
 

I offered trade with no respose.

It’s like holding a winning lottery ticket but you cannot turn it in...in his case a grenade

It felt like a kidnap for ransom right from the start. He was trying to fund his retirement off the engine. And I agree, he knew what he had all along, just needed the people on here to verify/find the car so he could make his ridiculous price.

How much difference in the price/value of the car when comparing non-born-with engine as compared to born-with engine? In a rate high performance car like a 427 Yenko, I think it would be quite a bit.

The way I see it, IF the value of the car differs by X amount, a reasonable price is around 65% of X. Were not talking peanuts here, were not talking run of the mill engines and cars. So if the "value" of the car goes up 100,000, why should the guy with the engine not be allowed to get his share of the value either? Now IF the Yenko value is only increasing say $40K, then YES $20K is a strong offer.

Is the engine worth 20K to anyone else, no. But the car owner should be the only one making huge profit IF and when he sells. IF I was the owner of the car, I would find out the how much MORE the car is worth with the born-with engine. I would start at 50% of that value. BOTH should profit almost equally in the reuniting of the born-with engine.

BUT now that the engine is out there and known, will probably be reunited down the road once reality sets in on both side. Might take time or a few years, but should happen some day.

Must have never heard of the situation with the two Daytona Yellow ZL-1 Camaros.

For 30+ years, the #3 ZL-1 had the engine from ZL-1 #26. That car has the engine from #3. Why not just swap? As #3 moved on, each owner tried to get it done, no go.

The engine from #57 has been known for years. Not in use, just sitting. Won't sell.

Value
 

I did quite a bit of thinking about this before I made the offer. I feel that 25 to 30000 tops would catch the difference between an original engine Yenko Camaro versus a restoration motor. Original trans and rear push that number higher. Even though reportably rebuilt this motor would need to be diassembled to determine pistons and camshaft used. Aftermarket rocker arms indicate a custom build probably not correct for stock application. Then theres the actual remove and replace. Not for the faint of heart. Dont forget transportation 1000 miles. Could even be an issue like a cracked cylinder bore or out of round bores or line bore issues. Reported to be blueprinted but obviously not decked. Easy to spend another 5000 on top of the 20000. If your number was 65 percent using 25000 invested then that would yield a car value increase of around 35000. I think thats at the very top of added value. Of course theres a restoration motor to sell. It would need to be decked as well.

All this adds up to my offer of 20000 which I feel is fair. How much the seller has invested or to gain or lose is irrelevant.

Even if he pays 20k ...he has to build the damn thing and then swap them out of a restored car....that’s not fun. Plus who takes responsibility if it turns out to be a boat anchor . 20k is more than fair. 512 MN motors do 10k. And no it won’t raise the value 100k. Just get to the chase ....the seller is an IDIOT and a greedy SOB.

I agree with your math Andy and as you said on top of the purchase and motor rebuild you have a perfectly restored engine bay that then has to be torn apart and we all know no matter how careful you are, something always happens. As the motor sits to anyone without the car its worth less than 10K. Your offer was generous. As far as the questions as to what is the car worth it doesn't matter because it is unlikely Dennis will ever sell it anyway. But after all this frustration, I guess it's his motor and if he wants to die with it that his decision to make.

Hey Tim, What were the odds of me contacting you to see if you know anyone with a red L88 missing its original block. I also reunited the original engine for the Black/white gut low mile COPO that Gary H use to own, I sold the engine in 2019 to Rick Hendrick the current owner for $10k. While I was at Hendrick's shop, I got a tour of his collection & did see the car with its restoration engine in it. A personal friend of mine bought both of these engines off of Ebay over 20 yrs ago.

This is really proof that this is a "dog-eat-dog" hobby. Sucks.