Help Assess Value

[cobra]

Agreed the "big 3" is not that important. The vanos and rod bearings are totally preventive so if it hasn't blown up it's probably fine.
The RACP is highly dependent on driving style. If the car is clean and well taken care of it's probably fine and worth over 30k easily.

To me what's more important is - was it a salty road car or not. That can make ALL the difference.

[Gt4]

Agreed the "big 3" is not that important. The vanos and rod bearings are totally preventive so if it hasn't blown up it's probably fine.
The RACP is highly dependent on driving style. If the car is clean and well taken care of it's probably fine and worth over 30k easily.

To me what's more important is - was it a salty road car or not. That can make ALL the difference.

VANOS is the most important of the big 3… If it hasn’t blown up, it just mean it can blow up anytime. It’s a preventive maintenance that should be address unless you don’t mind replacing motor…

Rod bearings are wear items

RACP can still have stress cracks developping if it was done with small Turner or AKG underside plates.

I like when people skip those big 3 cause ‘’only happened to few peoples on the internet’’ and when car break, makes cheap car to buy. Bought a car with VANOS failure and another one with RACP damage within the last 2 years. Both cars had lots of modifications…

[cobra]

VANOS is the most important of the big 3… If it hasn’t blown up, it just mean it can blow up anytime. It’s a preventive maintenance that should be address unless you don’t mind replacing motor…

Rod bearings are wear items

RACP can still have stress cracks developping if it was done with small Turner or AKG underside plates.

I like when people skip those big 3 cause ‘’only happened to few peoples on the internet’’ and when car break, makes cheap car to buy. Bought a car with VANOS failure and another one with RACP damage within the last 2 years. Both cars had lots of modifications…

With the VANOS - point being is that if it hasn't been done and the engine is fine, you can just fix it when you buy the car and there are zero downsides or wear. It's either fine or catastrophic failure.
Same with rod bearings - if it's running smooth and quiet it's probably perfectly fine.

RACP, there is just no way to know. I personally would not want a reinforced car because there's so much variation in that job quality. I'd rather have a stock unmolested car that I can fix up myself or by my own preferred shop.

[Gt4]

With the VANOS - point being is that if it hasn't been done and the engine is fine, you can just fix it when you buy the car and there are zero downsides or wear. It's either fine or catastrophic failure.
Same with rod bearings - if it's running smooth and quiet it's probably perfectly fine.

RACP, there is just no way to know. I personally would not want a reinforced car because there's so much variation in that job quality. I'd rather have a stock unmolested car that I can fix up myself or by my own preferred shop.

RACP you can see if there is damage with subframe in place. If you don’t see anything, it will be small stress cracks at worst that will be easy to fix while doing underside and topside reinforcement.

[bigjae46]

VANOS is the most important of the big 3… If it hasn’t blown up, it just mean it can blow up anytime. It’s a preventive maintenance that should be address unless you don’t mind replacing motor…

Rod bearings are wear items

RACP can still have stress cracks developping if it was done with small Turner or AKG underside plates.

I like when people skip those big 3 cause ‘’only happened to few peoples on the internet’’ and when car break, makes cheap car to buy. Bought a car with VANOS failure and another one with RACP damage within the last 2 years. Both cars had lots of modifications…

This brings up the painful memory of buying my car, first track event a month later I get a rod knocking. Although my car was a cheap auction car. Back then, pre-s54 swap into everything old and slow, you could find a used motor in good shape for less than $3k.

[E464life]

I picked up 2003 112k miles literally 2 days ago. Bone stock, thick service records, manual tranny, slick top with big 3 not done for $23k in cali from private seller. Hope this helps and good luck with your search!