I recently purchased a preowned Buschur 2.3L shortblock with 250 miles on it.

Cylinders 1 and 4 have some bad scoring and piston material
2 and 3 have some vertical scratching from shavings
The crank had about 1/4" of endplay before disassembly

I spoke with my machinist and he stated that it looked brand new, with fresh lube.

The crank is shot and pistons are shot
main journal is too small
block needs to be line honed and bored .30 over

The shop quoted me $1200 + a new crank + new pistons

I am extremely upset with the hole situation, as I was buying Buschur to avoid potential assembly issues.

I've been in contact with Buschur and he refuses to work with me.

 

You should link up with Buschur and have him tell you what happened-- from your description you seem to have other issues with the motor, but give the vendor a chance to address it first.

 

I would assume he is VERY busy this weekend so if you don't hear from him, don't get butt hurt

 

soooo.... what's the issue?

 

I suggest you contact Dave first before posting anything up .

 

Still wondering what this issue is. whatever it is im sure BR will address it if you contact them.

 

Yeah I figured he would be too busy this weekend with the shootout and all, thats why I was going to ask for your guys advice. I sent him a message yesterday, nothing yet.

Do you guys know if the non RPM 2.3 Buschur sells is bored over?

 

It probably is.why whats happening with it?

 

All Buschur Motors are .020 over I believe. But Dave can tell you for sure.

 

great to know! I almost pulled the trigger on a set of 85.5mm pistons, but I've been waiting to be sure. Someone told me that the 2.3 utilizes the stock bore, but I can't find any solid information. Nothing yet from Dave, hopefully he'll chime in soon!

 

Just take it to a machine shop and have it checked and find out what bore it needs to clean up and then order pistons. Never order parts without checking with machinist first.

 

I've updated the original post with more information.

I spoke with the machinist and they said the bore was .020 over, with a piston to wall clearance of .001 (.021). This sounds small as i've read that it should be around .0035 or something.

What do you guys think?

 

Key words here are you bought a PRE OWNED Buschur block, with 250 miles of what? "Smooth" driving and who knows what else was done to the block before you got it. And then you had another machine shop crack it open and they had no idea what it was built to in the first place. I'm not suprised Buschur doesn't want anything to do with it, it's already been through 3 sets of hands since it left his shop.

 

The original owner has been working with me and contacting Buschur as well. He has all necessary receipts and everything checks out. Dave was given every bit of information about its life. I also would have sent it to him to have him tear it down but he wanted nothing to do with it. There is virtually no difference of me contacting him or the previous owner, since we are working together to get it fixed.

 

He probably doesn't want to touch it due to the fact someone else already has. Most shops will not want anything to do with a motor they built and someone else tore apart.

Also, did you know of these problems before you bought it? What is the original seller saying since this motor only had 250 miles on it and it is that damaged? Sounds kind of fishy to me.