I'm looking to buy a 4th gen. LT1. I found a 85 z28 locally with some of the features I want and the owner claims the engine was rebuilt 4000 miles ago. Everything under the hood is pretty dirty/grundgy. It was supposedly rebuilt at a technical school to be stock....no mods. The rest of the car is 175,000 miles old. It runs strong but how can I easily (cheaply) confirm the rebuild? Would a compression check work?

 

Meant a 95 z28

 

From experience I would say never trust a seller unless you know the car and the person personally. I had to put a timing chain in an s-10 that supposedly had a rebuilt motor about a month before I bought it. It clearly hadn't been rebuilt once I pulled the cover. Ask for paperwork proving that it has been built. If I were buying it I would buy it thinking that it is a 175k mile car. This will help you if you ever need to resale the car for any reason. You can check the oil if it has been built recently and see how dirty it is. If it was built right and had maintenance performed right it should be pretty clean. What kind of rebuild did it have? A cheap and dirty one where they just used a cylinder hone and cleaned up the cylinders or was it bored? Ask about cam bearings and oil pump also. Just ask a lot of questions and be very weary of buying it with that in mind. I'm sure other members can give you more specific advise about it but in general that's what I would do.

 

+1 ^ People lie and are prone to make up stories to make a sale, the parts don't lie.

 

I find most people to be honest, if you give them the chance. A compression check will tell you if it has good compression and indicate if it may have been rebuilt.