Taking apart a boat engine.

Mystic Muse · 10-27-2012, 01:18 AM

My dad was hoping to take apart an old boat engine of his, in the hopes he could sell the metals and such inside for more than he would get from just the engine. Does anybody know much about this, or where I could find out more about this? I can't seem to find anything on Google.

Jack Squat · 10-27-2012, 07:46 AM

what type of boat engine?

Either way, you're not going to get much from scrap - probably somewhere around $0.10/pound.

Erloas · 10-27-2012, 08:27 AM

Boat engines can be rather expensive, even if they are very old, so long as they work or at least can be made to work relatively easily.

But a lot does depend on age and type of engine. The old 2 cycle outboards are being made difficult to use over a good portion of the USA, so they are loosing a lot of value.
A lot of inboard engines are actually from cars/trucks with only very small modifications to them. How much they are worth again depends on age because there is going to be very little demand for a 20-30 year old car engine when there are piles of them all over the place in junk yards, unless it is some specific popular engine, like the sorts used in rebuilding muscle cars.

As for scraping it, there might be no advantage to taking it apart as opposed to selling it intact. Local junk yards and metal recyclers can give you a better idea of what it is worth, which probably isn't much.

factotum · 10-27-2012, 04:36 PM

I doubt there's going to be anything particularly special in terms of metals in an engine. The main engine block, which is by far the largest portion, will most likely be cast iron. Cylinder head could be iron or aluminium alloy--again, not particularly uncommon metals. There'll be some copper in the wiring and lead in the battery, but not in quantities you'll get much money for.

Overall, I'd say you're far more likely to get money for a working engine than you are for the constituent metals.

Keld Denar · 10-27-2012, 06:57 PM

I'd agree. It would probably be worth more even if you spared it out than if you scraped it. Then again, if you spare it out, you have to find someone to buy it. Scrap yards will pretty much take anything.