You’ve made it. You’re a big-time YouTuber and you’ve just bought a wrecked Ferrari for your next big video series. Only, there’s a problem. The engine is toast and you need to find a replacement. You could call head office over in Italy, and sign a huge check… or you could try and find a bargain on AliExpress instead!
Yes, AliExpress is the Chinese online marketplace that really does have everything. That extends to finely fettled engines for Italian exotics. There aren’t many listed, as you might expect. Still, you really can just throw “Ferrari engine” into the search box and turn up some apparently genuine results.
The cheapest example I found? You’ll pay just $40,422 and 35 cents for an F136 engine out of the first-generation Ferrari California. Add on the $646.58 shipping charge, and you’re paying $41068.93 for eight cylinders of glory, red crackle paint and all. That is, of course, assuming tariffs are worked out with China, but we’re already in fantasyland so let’s just keep going.
You probably don’t need me to point out that this isn’t a great deal, at least as far as dollars per horsepower are concerned. The original California offered 454 horsepower from the naturally-aspirated 4.3-liter V8, along with 358 pound-feet of torque. You’re paying $90 per horsepower based on those figures.
Meanwhile, you can readily get an LS engine from a 2002 Corvette for $2,850 before shipping on eBay, call it $3500 all in. With 350 hp on tap, you’re paying just $10 per horsepower by comparison.
Of course, one doesn’t buy a Ferrari engine from AliExpress for rational reasons; it’s an emotional decision. Indeed, you’d have to be pretty emotional to consider sending over $40,000 to someone you’ve never met, thousands of miles away, with little hope of ever seeing it again if something goes wrong. Perhaps that’s a harsh and uneducated view of the AliExpress platform, but I would suggest “buyer beware” is a very valid ethos in such a situation. It’s just such a weird place to go and buy a Ferrari engine.
However, if you’re worried about trust, you can always fly out to China to check out the engine prior to shipment. Quite literally—the seller notes you’re more than welcome! “Of course we will extremely excited if you come to China and our company are very eager to make the long-term business with you powerful buyers!” reads the sale page. They back this up with photos of them hanging out and sharing meals with their customers from around the world! Honestly, it looks pretty fun to be chatting engines and chowing down on some delicious Guangdong cuisine.
I was able to glean some additional detail from the seller. Apparently, the Ferrari engine does come with an ECU and loom. This is a big win if you’re intending to swap the Ferrari engine into some other vehicle. It’s probably less important if you’re doing a direct swap into a stricken vehicle which has its original ECU intact. With that said, I did get the feeling that the seller was just telling me what I wanted to hear. I wouldn’t bet a sheep station that the engine would show up with all the necessary computers and wiring intact, particularly since they’re not shown in any of the pictures, but hope springs eternal.
If you want an even fancier Ferrari motor, though, AliExpress can absolutely provide. The same seller also has a larger 4.5-liter F136 engine on sale for $62,654.65. However, this one is curious—it’s listed as a “original fully functional 458 488 V8 engine.” It could surely only be from the Ferrari 458, as the later 488 switched to the smaller twin-turbo F154 engine.
With shipping costs of $898.03, it’ll set you back $63,552.68 in total. Assuming this is the original 458 engine spec, it put out 562 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque as stock. That’s a nice lift of 108 horsepower over the California engine, but you’re obviously paying a lot for it. $22,483.75 in fact. Those extra horsepower are costing you over $208 each!
What’s funny is that the AliExpress prices aren’t even that competitive. We’re used to everything being cheaper in China, but that’s not really the case here. eBay has 458 engines for under $50,000 from the US and Germany, and under $30,000 if you’re willing to look in Latvia. Even with shipping tacked on, you’re still well ahead compared to buying from AliExpress.
Of course, these engines are expensive wherever you look—but the high prices come as little surprise. You don’t buy a Ferrari engine for cheap power. You buy a Ferrari engine for the sound, the prestige, and the fact that it’s the automotive equivalent of racy lingerie for your engine bay.
Buying an engine like this and swapping it into pretty much anything will make you a god at your local Cars and Coffee for all time. Seriously, go throw one in a Buick Roadmaster or Ford Tempo and report back on how much everyone was poring over your build. In fact, the more regular the car, the better. People want to hear a rusty old Volvo 240 wail like an ecstatic Italian porn star, more than they want to see a Ferrari-swapped Supra elegantly drifting and reminding them of their own impotent driving skills. The combination of the exotic and the humble, that’s where it’s at.
In any case, if you’ve gotta have that spicy Italian, you can get it from AliExpress. It’s not the cheapest route, nor is it the easiest one, but hey, why not do it for the memes? The YouTube thumbnail will surely put a few grand in your pocket all on its own.
Image credits: via AliExpress, eBay
[WE ARE NOT DOING THIS, DO BETTER – ED]
I’m not a powerboat person, but it seems like a hilarious use for this.
I’m just gonna leave this here…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyhOh7geDn8
Shop like a billionaire…I mean m”ali”onaire?
I wonder if George Costanza would be interested in the one from Latvia?
Estelle: Latvian Orthodox? Why are you doing this?
George: For a woman.
Frank: A woman? What are you out of your mind?
Estelle: Why can’t you do anything like a normal person?
Frank: Wait. Is this the group that goes around mutilating squirrels?
George: No it’s a regular religion.
Frank: I’m calling my lawyer. It might not be too late to get out of this.
George: I don’t want to get out of it.
Estelle: George, you don’t know what you’re saying. You’re under their
control.
Frank: What, they brainwashed you?
George: No no.
Frank: You’re not performing any rituals in this house.
Estelle: Go back to the psychiatrist. I beg you.
Sounds like a good way to sell a blown engine to someone who can never return it or even track you down..
John Cena intensifies.
I recall Enzo Ferrari saying something like “when you buy a Ferrari, you’re paying for the engine; the rest is free“. So, this is basically a whole Ferrari.
Trying to think of the funniest shitty car you could put this in. I’m thinking mid engine pt cruiser
That’s the first car that came to my mind as well!
Will this fit in a fiero/lambo kit car.
Only if you believe
I bought a mirror motor for my i3 off of AliExpress for $23.21. Next cheapest option on EBay was $50. BMW price was $350.
Turns out it was the wrong part. My mistake, not theirs I actually need the mirror FOLDING motor. That motor isn’t normally sold separately, but thankfully is also found on AliExpress!
Got my last AliExpress order delivered before all this crazy began. Going off the Choice stuff is generally pretty safe. I’ve had to do some non Choice purchases. Those turned out fine, but they weren’t for big ticket items. When the exact same thing was available for half price if waiting a month wasn’t an issue, it was an easy decision to purchase Chinese stuff from Ali rather than Amazon. Never mind the fact that there were some things literally nobody made outside of China until recently. Drone components being one. But the Ukranian Armed Forces have first dibs on those items.
Every time someone mentions a Buick Roadmaster or Chevy Caprice Wagon, I’m obligated to mention Steve Morris and the Boostmaster 2.0. Who doesn’t love a steel body wagon with a 4500hp billet big block (of Steve Morris’ design), that goes 230mph in a quarter mile.
His YT channel is also a treasure of engine knowledge. Highly recommended.
That $3 savings from AliExpress will come in handy
That’s what tipped the scales for me!
Yeah, but I’m not interested in being pestered by e-mail for the next three months to write a review.
Ok, so what kind of person blows the engine on their Ferrari and thinks “AliExpress is clearly the best choice for a replacement.”
Another question is, what proof do we have that this is actually a Ferrari engine, and not a counterfeit that someone slapped together? AliExpress is know for having lots of stuff that looks good until you look closely.
I remember years ago reading an article on one of the many automotive blog sites that no longer exist about someone ordering an engine from an online store in Asia. I don’t think it was AliExpress, but if memory serves it was a Lamborghini V12 and when it arrived everything looked perfect until they got tried to run the motor and found out it had no pistons or connecting rods.
“Ok, so what kind of person blows the engine on their Ferrari and thinks “AliExpress is clearly the best choice for a replacement”?”
YouTube influencers, that’s who.
The kind that owns a repair shop and insurance is paying market value for it
Ford 5.2l sounds downright cheap by this.
90,949* dollar engine once it hits US shores. Plus/Minus around 50k depending on current mood of one guy.
For that price, just buy a whole ass California
Update: This is now a 99033.90 cents engine as of an hour ago.
Two guys. Which one is more stubborn, I have no idea.
I guess I am getting old because AliExpress confuses me. It appears to just be a classified ads site now. I thought it was for like Bulk purchases of cheap chinese shit.
You’re thinking AliBaba. Same company, but AliBaba is where bulk, industrial, and such sells. AliExpress is the retail (and lower-end) sales.
I guess I thought AliExpress was just inventory of things you have to arrange an order for on AliBaba. I’m obviously wrong. Just conversing at this point.
Originally AliBaba was set up to be a direct seller of bulk goods to businesses around the world.
AliExpress is the offshoot, that sells directly to the end customers. It’s basically a Chinese Amazon at this point, where 3rd party sellers are welcome to hawk their wares. Which is where you get the issues with quality and such. Just like on Amazon, there are plenty of people happy to sell forgeries and cheap knockoffs to make a quick buck. As with any store, “Buyer Beware”.
I used them a lot for ordering components for my side hobby of making Sim Racing button boxes and arcade controllers. I’ve had no issues purchasing things like Arduinos in bulk, or resistors, capacitors, momentary switches, etc.
Like with all things, if the price is TOO good, then it’s probably fake or a scam.
Funny you called it the Chinese Amazon, because that cuts both ways. Amazon no longer being as reputable with so many shady 3rd party sellers. I’ve had really good luck with AliExpress, and your “price is TOO good” policy is the way. I haven’t ever spent anything I couldn’t lose, but I have bought a lot of machine tools (carbide lathe tool holders) and the like that have been fine. Last year I spent a whopping $11.50 on their big sale, I got a set of step drill bits that are OK, carpenter mechanical pencils that were a bit dodgy (but what you might expect for 99 cents), a digital clock that was perfect for the shop, large enough to see across the garage and small enough to set out of the way, a poop-ton of shrink tubing that has been fine. Oh and a bunch of small drill bits, 1-3mm that are strictly going to be used in scale modeling. All for $11.50 including shipping!
If you’re willing to try a Ferrari engine by any other name, looks like the Maserati-Ferrari engine is even cheaper. Like under $10,000.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/365276142581
No flat-plane, no attain.
Brand-new Voodoo 5.2L crate engine can be had for under $30k. Flat-plane and probably much cheaper parts availability.
Now we’re talking!
More than you can afford pal, Ferrari.
I would feel better buying the Ali Express engine over the used engines from a Latvian company called “heavy-smash-salvage.”
While I am sure most of these engines come out of wrecked vehicles, it seems questionable to imply these came from vehicles that were obliterated in severe accidents. I might have gone with “theft-recovery-salvage” or “insurance-fraud-salvage” instead.
Wonder if it is a translation issue?
That’s possible.
But even if it is an accurate name, I guess I would feel better buying from them than a company accurately called “chop-shop-salvage”.
My trade deficit with AliExpress remains $0.00. No amount of sus Ferrari engines will change that.
You should start charging yourself a tariff. I’m told by totally reliable sources that you will suddenly find you have trade surplus.
“Of course we will excite to see you kidneys for the visiting”
They have a surplus of prisoner kidneys. They don’t need yours.
A Ferrari engine would be considered to be of Italian origin, so it will ‘only’ attract whatever duty is chargable for car parts from Europe rather than the 11 billion percent tariff on Chinese goods.
You assume that both the paperwork is correct, and that the customs office process it properly.
I’m sure it’ll be marked down as “GIFT – VALUE $5”.
“Display unit ONLY”
I think the one and only time I ordered something off AliExpress was a set of tires for a Segway Mini at one point (I absolutely could not find anyone selling them in the US, and they’re an oddball specialty airless tire with “splines” on the inside). To my surprise, they arrived in barely over a week, and appeared to be a genuine Ninebot part. I think I paid $60 or so. There was also one extremely cheap tiny rubber ducky in the box (the kind you usually see stuck to Jeep dashboards, it’s a Jeep Thing, I wouldn’t understand). The customs form was labeled “TOYS” and the value was $0.10.
I guess they do that for some deniability that if the package gets searched, they could say I “actually” just ordered 1 ten cent ducky, and the two segway tires just got put in there by accident or something? I dunno.
Also assuming this is a genuine Ferrari engine.
Long before these crazies I re-impoeted a telescope from Down Under. It was originally made in Illinois
Of course the Customs hit me with over $1500 of import duties. To their credit they took it off pretty quickly when I called DHL to complain.
I wouldn’t be so confident about them admitting and correcting their errors so readily these days.
My limited info take is that you will pay the huge China tariff, because this is sold, and shipped from there. Could be wrong.
Or the rules may change again by the 2pm Big Mac break….
It’s all based on the country of origin, rather than where it’s shipped from. Otherwise there’d be nothing stopping Chinese suppliers moving their goods somewhere else before shipping them to the US.
That would be the rational approach, yes, but really you should be considering what the most arse-backwards way tariffs can possibly be implemented, and then assume that it’ll be even more stupid than that.
The tariffs change so quickly it’s almost impossible to reference them in side articles right now
I started to breathe again once I realized it was a used engine. I was more concerned that it was New and assembled there to be a new replacement.
Why are you just ignoring the “$3 off any purchase over $29” coupon in the Alibaba ad? $3 is $3 even if it doesn’t go as far as it used to.
“Probably shouldn’t buy?” In a couple weeks it’ll be “You’ll never guess what I shoehorned into the Changli”
More likely it’ll be “Some geniuses are stuffing bargain used Ferrari engines into their Changlis”.
Let’s start a GoFundMe for Jason.
Or better yet, this could be a great tie in with that Mr. Beast guy I keep hearing about.
MY WIFE IS DUE IN A WEEK AND I HAVE 24 HOURS TO SWAP THIS HOLY GRAIL FERRARI ENGINE INTO MY PICKUP
Just the idea of this is titillating. The entire article and comments section is basically softcore auto porn.