Do you believe the term "Warranty Engine"

[Rarepearl]

I had the pleasure of meeting a very knowledgeable Mopar expert (I know) and he did not buy into the claims of the owners claiming to have "Warranty" engines in their cars in place of the original.  His point was that if you went back to the dealer with an engine problem they would politely tell you to "Go F_ _ _ yourself".  The warranty period back in day was very short as compared to today.  Was there actual paper work that proved this for a fact?   I would also be curious to hear from someone who worked at a dealership in the late sixties or early seventies that would have direct knowledge on this subject.  Go ask your dad or grandpa somebody and report back because the old school guys might not know how to work their computer to answer this question.  LOL!   

[Scaregrabber]

I do believe it could have happened. My brother was a mechanic at a Plymouth dealer in the glory years and he never replaced an engine although he repaired lots that were hurt. He changed hurt cranks, pistons, valves etc. Mopar engines were the best of the best in those years and they took a lot of abuse, throwing a rod out the side was about the only thing that would make for a new short block being necessary and it didn't happen all that often. Believe it or not there were probably  more warranty claims on cop car engines then there were on muscle car engines.
The guys that bought the cars new and were making the payment on a new car generally weren't the ones that destroyed the original engine, The second owners that paid $1500 or $2k for the 3 year old car were the ones that blew them up.

Sheldon

[randy73]

Yes it did happen, read Mopar magazine, there was a great article about a hemi cuda given to the head of plymouth in england. Car had 139 miles when engine blew, they replaced it w/440 and then 20 yrs later the guy who owned the car, found the engine and rebuilt it.

Dad bought a 74 Duster slant 6, car barely made it home before a seal gave and the engine seized, dealership picked it up and replaced the engine. The engine did not have a vin number or date stamp as I recall.

Sounds like your mopar expert needs to brush up on his knowledge.

[stripedelete]

Not a myth.  I don't know how far into the '70's it went and I don't know if it was part of Chrysler drivetrain warranty or very generouse corporate good will money.  Or a mix.  Since "good will" repairs are at the dealers discretion it would explain the Plymouth dealer not replacing the motor.    

Over the years I've listened to first hand accounts from Chrysler mechanics and dealers who recounted specific instances when engines were replaced, even on standard shifts, when they knew failure was caused by the operator.  Those were different times.  Customers were loyal and many bought new cars every couple of years.  If their kid blew an engine, he was probably going to get a new one for free.   Also remember, they weren't that easy to blow.

Of course Chrysler was on their slide into bankruptcy #1, but, what I was told first hand, at a point they realized the practice was not yielding "good will".   Instead of gaining a loyal customer, they were getting their new engine and trading the car in at the Chevy dealership.  

[saltdog]

my 69 has a warranty short block.Here's the tag.

[Rarepearl]

The factory rep would have had to OK this.  I am sure he would of had to personally inspect the block before it was replaced.  The million dollar question is what happens to the failed engine?  Does it get destroyed, shipped back to the factory, or did one of the mechanics get to take it home?

The goodwill theory goes along way.  It is also speaks to who you know instead of what you know.

Love the tag picture!

I subscribe to ACC (Keith Martin's excellent car magazine for car lovers and collectors) and the term is used on certain cars sold at auction.  I have also seen cars with this on Ebay.  It is a term used more commonly now than in the past.

How many of us in the past have exchanged a motor for the sake of speed and cost instead of rebuilding what we had?  The machine shop business is not a very profitable one and I am sure more than one shop owner has exchanged a motor or two, on a valuable car, without the customer's knowledge.

[Ghoste]

I believe in warranty engines a lot more than I believe all of a sudden all of these cars have matching numbers engines in them.  Because back in the late 70's it seemed like they had all blown up their original mills.

[Cooter]

Don't know bout Mopar, but FORD has had a rumor circulating for years about how people would "rent" a Hurst Mustang with the Hi-Po 289 engine and it came back with a low-perf. 289 engine installed.

[stripedelete]

Don't know bout Mopar, but FORD has had a rumor circulating for years about how people would "rent" a Hurst Mustang with the Hi-Po 289 engine and it came back with a low-perf. 289 engine installed.

Saw that on TV not long ago.  Ford made a special Mustang for Hertz.  It was something like at black and gold Shelby.  It took quite a while for Hertz to figure out the engines were being swaped out.

[Cooter]

So.....Dude buys a brand new 440 HP car. Can't pay for it and pulls HP 440 out, installs low perf 383-440 in, dealer/bank gets car back (Repo).

It happened you can bet your ass.

[XH29N0G]

Don't know bout Mopar, but FORD has had a rumor circulating for years about how people would "rent" a Hurst Mustang with the Hi-Po 289 engine and it came back with a low-perf. 289 engine installed.

Saw that on TV not long ago.  Ford made a special Mustang for Hertz.  It was something like at black and gold Shelby.  It took quite a while for Hertz to figure out the engines were being swaped out.

Don't know if he still has it, but in the 1980's this is what my dad's second cousin (or cousing once removed- don't know which) had.  It was at the shop where they had me help with bringing my first car (a 69 lemans) back into shape.  They did very nice work. GT350H black and gold.

[randy73]

The factory rep would have had to OK this.  I am sure he would of had to personally inspect the block before it was replaced.  The million dollar question is what happens to the failed engine?  Does it get destroyed, shipped back to the factory, or did one of the mechanics get to take it home?

The goodwill theory goes along way.  It is also speaks to who you know instead of what you know.

Love the tag picture!

I subscribe to ACC (Keith Martin's excellent car magazine for car lovers and collectors) and the term is used on certain cars sold at auction.  I have also seen cars with this on Ebay.  It is a term used more commonly now than in the past.

How many of us in the past have exchanged a motor for the sake of speed and cost instead of rebuilding what we had?  The machine shop business is not a very profitable one and I am sure more than one shop owner has exchanged a motor or two, on a valuable car, without the customer's knowledge.

I do not think they were destroyed, maybe special engines would have been. I know when GM replaced the LT5 engine's in ZR1's under warrenty, they were shipped back to GM for inspection and then destroyed. But I got the heads off a LT1 for my vette, off an engine that had ring damage, it was sitting behind the garage at a dealership.

[Troy]

If I remember right, Hemigeno's Daytona has a warranty engine in it. When you look at it, it is just the short block. They reused the heads and accessories.

I have a friend with a Hemi Super Bee and they replaced just the heads on his.

Troy

[stripedelete]

The factory rep would have had to OK this.  I am sure he would of had to personally inspect the block before it was replaced.  The million dollar question is what happens to the failed engine?  Does it get destroyed, shipped back to the factory, or did one of the mechanics get to take it home?

The goodwill theory goes along way.  It is also speaks to who you know instead of what you know.

Love the tag picture!

I subscribe to ACC (Keith Martin's excellent car magazine for car lovers and collectors) and the term is used on certain cars sold at auction.  I have also seen cars with this on Ebay.  It is a term used more commonly now than in the past.

How many of us in the past have exchanged a motor for the sake of speed and cost instead of rebuilding what we had?  The machine shop business is not a very profitable one and I am sure more than one shop owner has exchanged a motor or two, on a valuable car, without the customer's knowledge.

They would have been handled like any other warrenteed part; tagged and kept for "x" number of days in case the factory called it in.

"exchanged for sake of speed"

I think there may be something to that.  I deleted this comment from my original post:

The term "sticker shock" entered our vernacular (I think, in the late 70s) because of sharp year-over-year vehicle price increases.  It was bad press for all the manufacturers.  One of the manufacturere's strategies for leveling it out and mainting profit was to pass the sharp increases off to the parts.  Parts got "stupid expensive" very quickly.  

Prior to "sticker shock" many major parts/components were "stupid cheap".  Therefore, there may have been more cases where it was less expensive to replace, rather than repair, when you considered labor costs - even in the case of an engine.

     

[1974dodgecharger]

Don't know bout Mopar, but FORD has had a rumor circulating for years about how people would "rent" a Hurst Mustang with the Hi-Po 289 engine and it came back with a low-perf. 289 engine installed.

Saw that on TV not long ago.  Ford made a special Mustang for Hertz.  It was something like at black and gold Shelby.  It took quite a while for Hertz to figure out the engines were being swaped out.

heh..holy sheit...wow.

[NorwayCharger]

I think my 70 GTX has a warranty engine.
The car is all original, but the 440 HP has no serial number

[pandamarie]

I dont know about mopar but I do have a 1932 Buick rumble seat coupe that has a warranty engine in it. Buick has a historian that has the records from the first 65 million cars built by Buick and if you have the #s he can tell you everything about the car. the first straight 8s Buick built were prone to freezing and cracking and buick would replace the engine and document it in their files. SO as far as Buick is concerned I have a #s matching 32 model 66S.

[BrianShaughnessy]

I think this warranty engine term was basically re-invented so some people could feel better about their non numbers matching cars so somebody pay up believing because it was replaced at at dealer it was OK. 

Engines replaced under warranty still happen...  but it doesn't make the car worth any more.   Probably less in fact.     Most of the time I attribute new car engine fails to owner negligence or abuse.

Paper trail or not,   the engine doesn't match.    Sorry... will not pay matching numbers prices for unmatched.   Do not pass go,  do not collect $200. 

[tan top]

I think this warranty engine term was basically re-invented so some people could feel better about their non numbers matching cars so somebody pay up believing because it was replaced at at dealer it was OK. 

Engines replaced under warranty still happen...  but it doesn't make the car worth any more.   Probably less in fact.     Most of the time I attribute new car engine fails to owner negligence or abuse.

Paper trail or not,   the engine doesn't match.    Sorry... will not pay matching numbers prices for unmatched.   Do not pass go,  do not collect $200. 

[The70RT]

My car had a replacement engine put in in Nov 1973, the car had 36,800 on the clock. The original owner sold the car before this so I guess the next guy footed the bill. The engine I have now has no pad stampings. Here is the original sales receipt. So I guess transfer of warranty was not allowed or mileage was over the allowed amount? Installation of short block 169.00, total labor 193.00   I guess that was a lot back then.