Today my dad picked up a 1984 GSL for $500. It is in really good shape for the price and we have not found one spot of rust yet. We got it to run while spraying starting fluid in the carb but it smokes alot and as soon as we stop spraying starting fluid it dies. We only tinkered with it for an hour or so but we are pulling the motor anyway in the future and probably putting in a 13b but not sure yet. As of right now we plan on building an autocross/ time attack car out of it and building the whole thing ourselves. I already own a 2nd gen so we are not new to the rotary game but this is our first 1st gen. We can not wait to start building it. I also posted this in the first gen section but i lurk in this section more so I figured I would post here to.

 

wow very nice!

that was a steal for $500

 

Its hella clean bro

 

Looks like a superb interior; I don't see any cracks or much significant fading. Also, I love the brown exterior color. Agreed that was a great buy. I wish I had space to add another car to my "collection." I'd grab up an SA/FB in a heartbeat.

 

I wish i could fit into a 1st gen....

 

Today we figured out that the fuel pump is not working so we will need one of those. We also compression tested and the front and rear were pretty much the same but not great numbers. I don't remember exactly but they were somewhere around 70/80/80. Then we put a tiny bit of oil in the spark plug holes on the front rotor and saw higher numbers, but it was getting dark so we didn't do the rear rotor. We are really surprised because this car has sat for a couple years. Plus I cleaned it up a little. The driver side is really nice but the passenger side used to have a line of spray paint down the side and the previous owners used some kind of solvent to get it off and it ruined the paint.







Plus we found this

 

Uh oh. Soon it's gonna have bandana dash and WCC is gonna put a fish tank in there!

I kid.

Not a bad find man. Get it on the road and 5 speed swap it at least! Haha

 

Sweet deal! It makes my second gen look like crap. I would just do a fresh rebuild on the 12a (keep it simple, I hate fuel injection) and get a 5-speed manual in it!

 

that thing is clean. I wouldnt change a thing on it, just restore it. Maybe the fuel pump died and they thought it was dead and parked it?

 

Oh it will be a manual! And we still have not decided on what to do as far as the engine goes. I think I want to stay with the carbed 12a. I have not done a whole lot of research but it looks like a street ported 12a with after market carb, intake, exhaust, and ignition would make around 135-150 whp and thats not bad.

^I don't want to make it a street car as gas is at like 3.90 for 91 right now and my dad and I have been trying to find a cheap find that we could build in to a race car on our own. But the auto would make it a comfortable little dd.

 

great find, cant wait to see what the future brings!

 

+1

just swap a manual trans and it will be perfect

 

Autos ******* suck in rotarys. My s4 is so gutless off the line and there is nothing u can do about it. Takes ages to get moving and its a 13b turbo. Wouldn't wanna know what a 12a autos like

 

well even if it is the best automatic around I will always prefer a manual, especially on a sports car

 

Yeah, I only got the auto because I got the car ridiculously cheap. But takes all the fun out of driving a rotary

 

Holley Red will work, just put a fuel pressure regulator on it and set it at 3-4 PSI.

Add oil and let it run... As it runs, it'll build compression.

I had a 13B turbo go from 30PSI on all faces to 90 by towing it in gear for a few miles.

Pull the rear wheels and check up on the suspension link bracket where it's attached to the body. 1st gens like to rust there because it's double layered steel and water gets between the two layers. If you catch it early, you can grind the rust out and weld a patch panel over it. Fairly common.

I hate carburetors and think fuel injection is more simple. I hate dealing with all kinds of tiny needle valves and floats and jets and crap...

Wiring diagram is much easier to read than a carburetor is to rebuild.

 

 

Same deal here. My dads buddy has a manual trans that we will probably pick up.

We got the car running today! Put in a new fuel pump then found out that we had a clog on the hard lines that come out of the gas tank. We got it all cleaned out and it started up. It had a good amount of white smoke for a while but as it warmed up it went away. Sad part was the oil pressure is way low. Highest we could get it to go to while revving the car was maybe 50 lb/in2. I'm sure it needs a rebuild but we were on a mission to get it running. The things purrs like a kitten though, very smooth. And we got a straight link from the junkyard and installed it. A couple more pics soon

 

 

Short video. It is hard to here because it is stock exhaust but it stayed running til we gave it gas and it would stall. Once it warmed up it revved freely though.

 

Dude. Please buy a set of ramps.

 

I have ramps. They weren't needed. Half of the weight was on the wood most of the time and the other half on a 3 ton jack. Even if the jack gave way nothing would have happened.

 

To each their own, but I wouldn't work on a car like that.