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New to the site, so forgive me if posting in the wrong location.

Anyways, I'm new to Honda's in general, never really given them much thought, even though I know they make some of the most reliable and longest lasting vehicles on the road.

So my issue, I'm in need of a new (to me) car and I found a guy locally with a 97' Civic Hx w/ 5 speed manual. The car has 160,000 miles on it, but 110,000 on the motor currently in it.

The guy bought it a year ago and within a couple months he said it developed a noise in the top end, so he bought a replacement (used) motor and put it in the car (from another 97 Hx). He said just a few months with the new motor it too developed a noise, but this time in the bottom end. He's pretty sure the knock in the bottom end is the crank shaft is too rough on the first rod bearing, so it spun the bearing, but says the crank in the old motor is good. during the time he owned the car he invested a fair amount in modifications to it and added the following;

Tinted the windows 35%
15" XXR rims w/ Kuhmo Ecsta tires (approx 3/4 tread on the rear and 1/2 tread on the front from what I saw)
stage 2 clutch
Apexi Exhust
Airmass header
New plugs and wires
Halo projection headlights
Memphis speakers front and rear

The previous owner (or one of them) put an AEM cold air intake on the car and completely removed all of the components to the AC.

Also, the car was originally red, but is now painted black and on some of the edges of some of the body you can see some red showing through, likely from wind erosion.

The car has one dent/gouge/scrape in the body from his father backing into it with a truck, near the fuel door, it's not horribly bad, but it is easily visible. One of the tail lights has a chunk of the red plastic housing missing. The drivers seat is worn pretty good, the driver's door panel has a nice crack with a small piece missing near the top of it. As well as the interior being a bit messy/dirty.

There are supposedly no other issues with the car, but he has most of the work done to drop the motor, so there's no way to hear it run or test drive the car.

His asking price is $600.

Personally, I feel that is too high for a car that currently doesn't run with no way to test further functions of the car, but I know that there's high potential for the car and there's obviously been some work done to it.

I also found it a little odd he put so much into it and now wants nothing to do with it. He opted to buy a 02' Camaro, which he showed to me and I seen he invested a good deal on performance parts for it as well. His reason for selling the car, he tells me, is he's into American muscle cars, not imports, but had a friend talk him into the Civic. After having the second motor develop issues he decided to call it quits when he seen the Camaro for sale.

So... what does everyone here think? Is it worth messing with and at what cost? I believe I can swap out the crank and new bearings myself, given a day or two to get it done. Allegedly, he was getting 33-34 driving around town when it was running, which is what primarily appeals to me, my current car gets 19 in town.

 
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Well, the absence of a response on a Civic forum (after 160+ views) leads me to believe that if it isn't worth commenting on, then it probably isn't even worth a second thought by me. Thanks for letting me know not to waste my time and money on it. Later.

 
Rep Power: 367

a day is too short to have replies worth... We are not professional service, you see I do not get paid for replying to threads :P
i would talk down to 300.