Quoted:
how to work on cars. I love the shit out of tinkering/anything mechanical in nature.
Say I wanted to search junkyards far and wide for a motor to buy, tear apart and rebuild just to see how everything flows together...
What engine would you recommend? I am a partial to diesels, but wasn't sure if diesel vs gas presented any unique challenges for someone wanting to learn all the ins and outs. I also wasn't sure if you could even find junked cars with a diesel.
I appreciate any advice/help
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the basic problem with some of the "get a small block" advice given above is that you will have a difficult time running your rebuilt engine without a rolling chassis or a dedicated test stand to run it in. so unless you have the room for a old pickup truck, or have the long term goal of having an engine test stand (complete with fan cooled radiator and such), you should consider an engine rebuild scenario which doesn't require so much space/investment to test the end product.
for example, if you want to learn about engines you can pick up a used-and-abused Suzuki DRZ400 motorcycle. the bike is cheap, and parts are widely available for the water cooled single cylinder OHC engine. the nice part is that everything you need to test your rebuild is right there, and you can put the engine under load as well. and of course you can sell the finished product easily, since folks can test drive it.
another on-the-cheap approach is to find a blown up Scag/Exmark/etc zero-turn mower. these are premium commercial landscape ZT mowers which use Kubota, Honda, Yanmar, or Kawasaki gas and diesel engines. the lawn guys run these things 6 days a week, 10 hours a day, and i don't know if you know many lawn guys but sometimes basic maintenance takes a back seat to beer, girls, and football games. so finding a bad engine isn't usually a problem, but i don't think you will find a cheap rolling chassis too easily since they are generally "re-powered" with a new engine.
the side benefit of a ZT (or hydrostatic tractor) rebuild it that you can learn about hydraulics as well, since a ZT is basically an engine coupled to a hydraulic pump. the output of the pump is plumbed to a set of valves and a set of motors (including the wheel drive and blade spindles). if you are looking for well-paying employment, knowing both engines and hydraulics is one way to do it.
ar-jedi