So I pulled this motor out of my 74, just trying to make a little cash off it to put towards a new motor. Im only asking 150, has 88kthe original miles and still would run, I think the problem is that people who call about it are turned off by my honesty that I pulled it because it had a carb fire. Question is: are these motors worth much more if I were to tear it down and do a full rebuild, clean and paint. Or would I just be losing money? Im wondering if it would just be a waste of money... I can't find a actual full rebuild kit but rocksauto.com has all the rebuild parts sold sepertly. So im asking 150, is that to much already for this running motor? If I spent 150 to rebuild, would it gain more value then just what I put I have it? Will it be only worth 300 (if asking 150 isn't to much) or would it gain me another 100$?
That and is there any market for this motor at all anymore? Am I better off just cleaning the motor and asking 50$?
Your best bet would be to part it out and be patient in selling it all. You would need to keep the lower end intact (sold that way), but the rest could be parted out separately. I have the 18RC in my '74 Hilux LB 2x4, but now call it an 18RX because its been modified. I put in a Petronix 'Flame Thrower' coil, hotter plugs, Hi-E cables, and modified the emission system. In process of porting & shaving the head to increase flow and compression. The 18RC's aren't in high demand because everyone thinks they suck-but they just need to be tweaked and they work really great. Typically today the 22RE is what most people seem to want or something more exotic like a V-8 or a 6. For those of us who still have the 18's there are some parts which can't be easily obtained and you should be able to get some pretty good $$ for those parts. I am looking for a decent manifold and need one of the choke heater tubes (PO hacked my carb to pieces and I don't want a Weber). $150 seems like a fair price if you sell the whole thing. You could probably bank about $300-500 by parting it out (maybe more).
