September 17, 2026 at 7:15 pm

She Put Up $300 to Buy an Engine to Flip With a Friend — Now They Disagree Over Whether She Gets Repaid First

by Heather Hall

Woman arguing with man over money

Pexels/Reddit

Unfortunately, money is one of those things that can make people turn on you pretty quickly.

One woman says she and a friend decided to buy an engine and flip it for a profit.

She put up the full $300, while he handled the work of pulling it out.

At first, that seemed to work just fine. However, once they started talking about how to split the money, they realized they had two very different ideas.

She expected to get her $300 back first, while he thought they should divide the entire sale price evenly.

Keep reading for all the details.

AITA for taking my $300 investment back before splitting engine sale profits?

My friend and I went to Pick-n-Pull during a sale to grab an LS-swap engine to flip.

I paid the entire $300 upfront because he didn’t put up any cash.

He did the physical labor of pulling the engine out.

Our plan is to sell it for a profit.

When it comes to the profit, they had different ideas.

My plan was to recoup my $300 upfront cost first and then split all the remaining profit 50/50.

He thinks we should just split the total sale price straight down the middle, 50/50, without me getting my $300 seed money back first.

My logic: He couldn’t have pulled the engine without my cash, and as a single mom, I can’t afford to just throw away $300 so he can profit off my money.

His logic: His physical labor equals my initial cash investment, so everything coming back should be split evenly.

AITA?

Oh no. It’s never good when you don’t make agreements about these types of things up front.

Let’s take a look at what the readers over at Reddit think about what’s going on.

This doesn’t seem very fair.

Money 3 1 She Put Up $300 to Buy an Engine to Flip With a Friend — Now They Disagree Over Whether She Gets Repaid First

Here’s a great way of looking at it.

Money 2 1 She Put Up $300 to Buy an Engine to Flip With a Friend — Now They Disagree Over Whether She Gets Repaid First

It really did.

Money 1 1 She Put Up $300 to Buy an Engine to Flip With a Friend — Now They Disagree Over Whether She Gets Repaid First

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a sister who refuses to give up her own holiday traditions to spend the day with her family at her brother’s cabin.

This person explains how pulling an engine is expensive.

Money fa32af She Put Up $300 to Buy an Engine to Flip With a Friend — Now They Disagree Over Whether She Gets Repaid First

She’s looking at this all wrong.

In reality, she put up the cash investment, and he put up the labor investment. These are not independent of each other.

What she needs to do is figure out how much he should get for his labor. Then, she gets her $300, and they split the rest.

But with the way mechanic’s wages go in some states, he may end up with more of the profit than her.

Enjoyed this story?

Readers who liked this also read this story about a group trip that sours when additional guests are added without agreement.
Read Story

Heather Hall | Contributing Writer, Life & Drama

Heather Hall is a contributing writer for TwistedSifter specializing in internet culture, workplace conflict, and viral customer service stories. With over a decade of editorial experience in digital publishing, Heather excels at curating trending online discussions and providing insightful commentary on the daily dramas that capture the internet's attention.

Since beginning her career in 2011, she has developed deep expertise in SEO-driven digital content, having written for a wide array of publications covering lifestyle, business, and travel. At TwistedSifter, Heather focuses on synthesizing complex social media threads into engaging, highly readable narratives that highlight the human element of viral news.

When she isn’t analyzing the latest internet discourse, Heather is a dedicated mother of three sons who takes family gaming nights entirely too seriously—whether she is dominating in Mario Kart, exploring The Legend of Zelda, or jumping into Roblox.

Connect with Heather on Facebook and LinkedIn.