dw1313

I am about to purchase an 87 TII with 100,000 miles, very clean car. Interior is solid except for one cracked dash piece above the radio. Engine looked clean as a whistle with all new hoses. Drove fine, idle not perfectly smooth but acceptable, tranny was good. Test drive in driving florida rain in neighborhood area so hard to tell too much, turbo came on but engine seemed a bit muted (also never went much above 3500 rpm. Car is clean and nice, I liked it and want to buy it but am a little scared of the feedback from TII owners regarding engine longevity, vehicle reliability, maintenance, etc. from reading several message boards. Am not interested in modding the car. Is this going to be a nightmare or can it be trusted as a daily driver, is this going to be a money pit.
Its not a lot of money and I understand that I am going to have to shell out some bucks in maintenance because it is a 15 year old car with 100,000 miles. All insights appreciated. David

Cosmo Tri-Rotor

go for a non-turbo the engine will be in better shape all the way around. den put a turbo on dat

Scott 89t2

with that many K's you'd definalty be looking at a new engine sometime in the near future. unless it's been changed before. it's really not that bad though. like a couple thosand.

Scott 89t2

hey newbie I've read 3 of your 5 posts and they have all been stupid...

Erik

i hope you're joking...

dw1313:

just have to have the faith. one way to get some reassurance is to have a compression check done on the present motor. that might give a better indication on how strong it is. when you say the idle was "acceptable" was it still around 750?

by muted do you mean quiet? i've been in a stock 87T2 and it was about the softest quietest car i have ever been in...in stock form they aren't loud at all.

not to hammer on the guy's car...but you should definately take it over 3500 and see how it feels...pulls hard? smooth revving? no hesitation to redline?

good luck!

dw1313

I have been interested in these cars on paper for a while because the cornering and acceleration combination is simply awesome, especially for the money.
Test one several years back with a shot turbo, knew it and walked away (loved the handling!). I had an 85 300zxt at the time, mediocre handling but hellacious low end torque. I currently own an 88 MR2 SC, loud and revvy motor, fun to drive, lots of low end pull, lots of low end pull, want a change and getting a bit of claustrophobia. Just sold an MR 2 turbo, amazing if a bit unpredictable handling and awesome acceleration, but the car was problem from day one, extremely well built but not meant to be for me, from major ordeal to another. Compression check is a great suggestion, I will probably do that. The rain was coming down hard & its difficult to really test the car in a neighborhood setting, gonna test drive it again. Impressed with the tranny and the whole car. But somewhere in the back of my mind something clicked that the acceration/power was less than I expected, even in that setting. What is an average gas mileage, does the car require super unleaded, and is a turbo timer as mandatory is I suspect it is. Feedback appreciated, thanks, David.

Erik

gas mileage for an FC in great condition would probably be around 17 city 25 highway. best i got in my 91 n/a was almost 450 miles on one tank (18 gal) and close to that in the T2 as well cruising at 70-80mph for some 7 hour road trips...

a turbo timer isn't mandatory. if you are hauling *** to your destination and are boosting up until you pull in a parking spot and are in a real hurry, then yes it would be good to have one and let the car idle for 2 minutes or so to cool down. but usually if you are taking it easy and not getting on the boost for a few minutes before you will be shutting the car down, you'll be fine without one

dw1313

apologies for rambling a bit. I am fired about the car. The idle bottomed at about 800 but once or twice it fell below that to about 600/700 only to return to 750/800. Acceleration was smooth, it just didnt seem to have the power that I was expecting. The car was much quieter than the MR2 s/c.

dr0x

Not a good idea. Heh, mine has 3 blown apex seals on the rear rotor and my exhaust consists of my turbo. You cant tell me that isnt loud My car at 3000rpm is atleast 2x louder than my dads 97 chevy 1500 revving to 5k

dr0x

Boost controllers, a home made intake, ported waste gates, and some fuel mods do amazing things to these cars

Scott 89t2

how can you expect to feel the power before 3500 LOL... go back when it's dry and redline it.

MaTT_FoULk

Most of the power is going to be above 3500 rpms considering its a small displacement, turbo car. Good luck with your purchase!

And if you still think its kinda lacking power after you buy it (if you buy it) these cars respond really well to bolt ons.

StarionX

Considering that full boost doesn't come on until about 3500-3800, I'm not surprised it felt slow if you didn't go above 3500. The secondary fuel injectores don't open up until 3800.
As for whether this car is a money pit... it can be, and it can be big.
A few possible problems for you.
1) Flooding. - as the engine gets on in life, it can be harder and harder to start it when warm (lack of compression). This can also be caused by leaky injectors. After your next test drive, stop the car and chat for 20 minutes, then see if you can start it. If it does, that's one less worry, for now.
2) Electrical problems. Most 2nd gen cars have notorious electrical problems. Some are easy to fix, others are a real pain in the ***. Look for problems with the idiot box (warning light cluster), alarm, door light, power antennae, horn, stereo.
3) Logicon (heater control box) - You will sometimes have problems getting heat, or not being able to change the temp mixture. You may also have problems switching to different vents.
4) Bad/jumpy idle. - This is probably the number one problem everyone has at one time or another. Usually this is caused by vacuum leaks (missing/hardened or loose vacuum hoses). The other usual suspects are TPS, and BAC.

That's just a basic summary, and I haven't even gotten to the engine, turbo or drivetrain. The following link is a great source of information.
http://fc3s-pro.com/TECH/tech.html

Apart from all that, it is a wonderful car (when it's working ). Looks great, goes great and cheap to buy.
Just DO IT!!

Psychoblue23

With any car your gonna have to put some money into it. I think a simple rebuild and some minor maintenece to keep it up to par is a smal effort to be able to drive a TII.

- James

J-Rat

iTrader: (2)

QUAID

If the car is cheap go for it. While you stand around scratching your dick a real enthusiast will come along and restore it.