Tough call, Joe. I don't spend other guys money. That engine SHOULD be healthy with only 87K on it. If it is really an 87K engine. Hell the Tracker I just bought the 14th of last month (Sept) has 81K on it. I have no reason to believe it was excessively abused nor any reason to believe the past owners really kept up on the oil changes and other maintenance either. Judging by the build-up I can see inside the oil cap I can say they probably could have done a little better. But... it doesn't blow, use nor leak any oil anywhere and holds its compression and runs smoothly. I'm driving mine for another 18K before I take it the dealer for the 100K check-up. The guy who bought my old 2000 now has close to 120K on that one now with no problems and on the same chain/s and I expect he'll go another 20K before they get changed out. If that yard who is offering the engine has a decent reputation then go for it. Ya gots to have an engine! Unless you can run diagnostics on the engine (compression etc) it is a crap shoot to some degree, like most the rest of life is.
It boils down to if you have the money on hand to buy the engine AND the parts and whether you want to spend the money for this purpose or not. It appears the rub is it would be easier to swap out the chain and maybe even the water pump while it's still on the ground and even cheaper if you do the work yourself than to have do the same tasks once its sitting in the engine mounts. The cost of the new chain will buy you a little piece of mind.
I can't give you a solid dollar amount on the repair costs to help you metric the difference. IF I had the extra bucks, AND if my HOME 6 (wife unit) was good with it, personally I'd spring for the new parts while it's still on the floor.
The only other thing that comes readily to mind on these 2 Liter engines (given my limited experience with these engines) can be easily addressed after the install. The spark coils ride over each of the spark plugs on these engines (on top of the head) and the rubber boots that cover them extend well down into the head. When you go to change plugs, the boots have a tendency to adhere to the spark plugs and valve cover walls and will frequently rip before they finally pop off. When this happens you can have some arcing through these cracks into the head (cyclinder missing). This isn't a really big deal except I can't find any place to just buy the replacement boots for them.. I have to buy the whole damned coil with the boots attached for each cylinder affected and they are salty. About $80+ each as irecall. I had two rip on me the last time (that's a 50% rip rate!). So before they go back in both the inside and outside of the rubber gets a light coat of of dialectic (sp?) grease which should make them easier (and cheaper) to pop off the next time they need changed 80K+ miles later or as requried for whatever reason.
That's my thoughts.
Hopefully some of the other forum members with more experience on this issue can toss in their two-bits on this issue as well.
At any rate, good luck and I hope you got an engine that will pull you 200K+ miles.
norm
