What to look for in a swap?
 

I've recently found a JDM B18C swap that includes everything except the engine wire harness. The guy that is selling it bought it off his friend who bought it from hmotorsonline.com, which I know is a very reputable online shop. Its already been swapped into his buddys car and was driven for about 20k with no problems, or so ive been told. The guy that bought it from him is selling it now because he changed his plans. He was going to boost it in his ek but decided to keep his b16. Right now, the engine is out of the car and is sitting at his place. But anyways, to the point. I was planning on looking at this swap and was wondering what should I be looking at? Since its out of the car, I cant start it up. I know I should check to see if the timing belt is cracked, and also check the oil, but are there any other things I should be checking? Help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

look for cracks in the intake manifold, alot of idiots when they pull em out, bang the back of the engine on the firewall etc.

check to make sure ure knock sensor is ok, once again i know alot of guys break it off when pulling engine out and just look for any general cracks in the block or head.

^ ok will do, thanks. Now, someone told me I should do a compression test by hand cranking it over. How exactly would I do this?

if your gonna do the swap make sure you put in a new timing belt even if the old one looks fine also check for all the sensors, you don't wanna go around looking for sensors afterwards.

i dunno bout compression testing by cranking it but i do know if it cranks by hand then at least u know its not seized or w.e

yup thats exactly right, since the motor is already out might as well replace ure timing belt since it will be easy, besides u dont know how hard the other guy pushed it

one major thing i forgot to mention and i do it everytime i look at an engine, pull out each sparkplug and check for oil on the plug which will tell u if the seals have been broken

^true. But I would like to know what the compression of each cylinder is, so im not buying a motor with a blown head gasket or something. Does anybody know how to do this without the engine being in the car?