Have you guys bought crate engines off EBay?

[Mrturner1]

Hey guys I've been searching and reading all over about crate engines (specifically a 383) and checked places like Summit, Jegs, Speedway, Blueprint...ect ect. For the most part, to get around 400hp with decent parts, balanced internally and externally, and dyno tested its about 4K-5k. So I started putting together a plan to try building my first short block because 5k is a little steep right now, and I was a little reluctant because I've only ever done heads and cam changes and this would be my first time with pistons and rods and a crank, all that cool stuff. So here's the thing, I never considered looking on Ebay for a crate engine because I just figured it's not a safe bet, and that's just asking to get scammed or taken for a bunch of money. But I looked around and I found a few guys selling really nice crate engines and they had 100% positive feedback, and had made hundreds of sales over the past couple years. As far as I know, positive feedback and a record of successful sales cannot be faked on EBay right? I found a guy who would build me a 383 out of a 4 bolt main, 1 peice rear seal, with all new parts including hyper pistons and ARP hardware, for about 3k that makes 440hp. That's not bad at all, in fact it sounds too good to be true which is why I bring this to you guys so I can make a good decision and not loose a bunch of money to a scam artist.

So tell me what you think, your experiences if you have them and if you'd trust the eBay machine shops with 100% feedback and a long record of engine sales

Thanks guys, Matt