On Sat, 30 Jul 2005 12:10:57 +0000, John Doe wrote:

I would walk away.

Well, I wouldn't necessarily. It depends.

I bought my current plane with a runout engine at an appropriately
discounted price. I then had the overhaul done the way I wanted it, by
the shop I wanted to do it. I was planning to keep the aircraft a long
time, so the quality of the work was important to me.

I looked at a lot of planes out there with cheap overhauls done for the
purpose of sale. Some were already leaking oil at 100 SMOH.

As to the $5K - that's kind of meaningless. I'd figure $20K to do
a quality overhaul of everything forward of the firewall. Determine what
the plane would be worth - accounting for the condition of airframe and
radios - with a fresh overhaul, subtract $20K, and that's what this one is
worth.