well, I finally got a chance to drive my R, needs a bit of work.

going to take it to work tomorrow and put it on the hoist, take the tires off and have a good look at the underneath, from what I can see and feel so far, I need to tighten up the steering box, has some play in it, the drivers side lock cylinder rod has come off, and the passengers side is jammed, the exhaust is hitting the floorboard over bumps. need to clean up the terminal on the alternator.

one thing that I definitly need to do is do an engine swap, it runs decent, but has a lack of power and a slight miss due to the one apex seal that has a small chunk missing out of it.

I grabbed a good engine out of an 84 R, took the exhaust manifold off that engine and all apex seals are good, loose and from peering into the housings, I cannot see any (or too much) chrome flaking off at the bottom of the housing.