How It Works
Six steps from the details of your car to an engine on a pallet. The order matters: nothing is quoted, confirmed or shipped until the engine has been matched to your specific vehicle.
Buying a used engine is unusual among car purchases in that the hard part happens before any money moves. Once an engine is on a truck, a mistake in identification is expensive to unwind — freight in one direction, freight back, and a car still on a lift.
So the process here is arranged to put the identification work first and the commercial conversation second. You are not asked to commit to anything in order to find out what your car takes.
The sequence
Each step has to finish before the next one starts. That is what stops an order being filled from a model name.
- 01
You send the vehicle details
Year, model and trim, the ZIP code the engine is going to, whether you would collect it or need it freighted, and how soon you need it. Name and one way to reach you — a phone number or an email address.
Everything else on the form is optional. If you already know the engine code, the transmission or the VIN, those fields are there and they help. If you do not, leave them empty and send it anyway. A buyer who cannot read a code off a block is the ordinary case, not a problem.
- 02
We identify which engine your vehicle takes
This is the step people skip, and it is the one that decides whether the rest of it works. A model name and a year very often describe two different engines. The trim, the transmission and the body style are what separate them, and where you have given a VIN or a stamped code, that settles it outright.
If the details you sent leave a genuine ambiguity, you get a question back rather than a guess. It costs a message. It is considerably cheaper than a pallet.
- 03
Availability is checked for that specific engine
Once there is an engine code rather than a model name, the seller checks what is actually available against it — the variant, the condition, and whether more than one option exists at different specifications.
There is no live stock count published on this site. Used import stock turns over, and a number on a page that is wrong by the time you read it is worse than no number at all, because it makes people plan around it.
- 04
You get a quote with what is included
The quote states which engine it is for, what physically comes with it, what condition it is in and what it costs. What comes attached varies more than most first-time buyers expect: a long block, a complete engine with accessories, and a front-clip assembly are three different things at three different prices.
Any warranty or return terms are the seller’s and are stated in that quote. This site does not set them and does not guarantee them.
- 05
Collection or freight is arranged
An engine leaves on a pallet either way. If you are collecting, you need a vehicle that will take the weight and a way of loading it. If it is being freighted, it goes crated or strapped on a pallet with a freight carrier, and somebody has to be at the delivery end with a way of getting it off the truck.
Delivery to a shop rather than a house is often the easier answer, because a shop already has the equipment and somebody there during the day.
- 06
You inspect it on arrival
Before you sign anything, look at the pallet and look at the engine on it. Check the stamped code against what you ordered, walk around it for impact damage, and write any exception on the delivery receipt before the driver leaves.
A clean signature is a statement that the shipment arrived in apparent good order, and it is the hardest thing to walk back later. Two minutes with a phone camera at the tailgate is the cheapest insurance in this entire process.
Fitment is verified before anything is confirmed
Nothing on this site — not the engine pages, not the vehicle pages, not the factory application tables — confirms that a particular engine will work in your particular car. Those tables record what vehicles were built with, which is a narrower claim than it looks.
Whether a used engine actually drops into your car also depends on the transmission and bellhousing, the intake manifold, the accessory layout, the harness and connectors, the ECU and immobiliser, and the exhaust. Two engines wearing the same family code can differ on any of them. The information that settles fitment is set out here.
That verification happens against your specific vehicle, and it happens before an engine is confirmed for you rather than after it arrives.
What speeds this up, and why
Every one of these is optional on the form. Each one removes a round trip, which is the only thing that genuinely shortens the process.
- Trim. The single most useful optional field. It is what separates a Civic Si from a Civic EX and an Accord four-cylinder from an Accord V6 — different engine families in identical-looking cars.
- The stamped engine code. It is on the block, and it describes the engine that is actually in the car right now. If the car has had an engine before, it is the only source worth trusting. Where to find it.
- VIN. Seventeen characters that identify the vehicle as built. It resolves trim ambiguity without you having to know what the trim was called.
- Transmission type. Manual, automatic or CVT. Some variants were paired with only one, and the bellhousing pattern is not negotiable.
- Whether this is a repair or a swap. A replacement wants to match what the car had. A swap wants something it never had, and that is a longer list of parts and a different conversation. The notes field is the place to say which.
- ZIP code and how you want it delivered. Freight and collection are genuinely different propositions, and knowing which one you want means the answer arrives complete instead of in two parts.
What we do not promise
There is no response time published on this page. None has been measured, and a number invented to look reassuring is worth nothing to you the first time it is missed. What can be said honestly is what has to happen before you hear back: the vehicle has to be read, the engine has to be identified, and someone has to check real availability against it.
There is also no price on this site, for any engine, at any point. Used engine pricing moves with condition, variant, what is attached and what is in stock this week. What actually drives the number is explained here, without a figure attached to it.
What happens to the details you send
Your request is stored and passed to the seller so they can quote it. Contact details are used to answer the request you made and nothing else, and they are never sent to an analytics platform. The privacy policy sets out exactly which fields are collected and where they go.
Where to go next
- Engine FinderTell us the vehicle and we identify the engine before quoting it.
- Shipping & PickupFreight versus collection, what each involves, and what to inspect on arrival.
- FAQThe questions buyers ask before they commit to an engine.
- How to Verify Engine FitmentThe information that settles fitment, and why a year alone never does.
- What Does a JDM Engine Include?Long block, complete, half-cut — and what you still have to buy.
- AboutWhat this site does, how it is paid, and what it does not claim.
Find the right engine for your vehicle
Tell us the year, model and trim. We identify the engine your vehicle takes and come back with current availability and pricing.