So these days I am in the process of buying a 1990 turbo swap with a large street port. The rear rotor has approximately 40lbs of compression (front has 160, so the ad says). The car still starts and drives, but the engine definitely needs a rebuild. I need to get it back to my house, but the thing is, the car is about 150 miles away.

Would I be doing permanent damage to the engine by driving it to my house? The shop that I intend to have the rebuild done at is also probably a 100 miles away, but I won't drive it there for a few months (while I wait to have the appropriate funds), so I might drive it there as well to have the rebuild done.

This will be my first rebuild, so I'm not too familiar with the process. What do you guys think?

 

I don't think that the ad should be trusted.
160 psi. of compression is insanely high, so their claim of 40 on the other rotor is equally suspect.
If it starts and drives, I'd drive it.

 

its like buying a lotto ticket, oyu have no real idea of whats going on till its torn down, a decent rebuild will factor in new hoousings anyway so fukit, just drive it but short shift and dont load it up, keep the revs light of load light if you know what i mean

 

Agreed, you will have no idea what is going on with it until you split it open. These car are money traps its just the nature of the beast.

 

cant sum up a fc in any better fashion than what you have right there, they are dirty traps, im still paying for mine years later

 

It's not a good idea to drive it. If it needs a rubuild, some of the parts the have to be re-used (ie. Irons, Housings, Rotors, ect.) Could be damaged in the process and be un usable, then your out looking for a new motor.

 

The current owner thinks it has been rebuilt in the past, but you are right, 160 does sound high, but then again that was an approximation. Basically what he told me is that the car is currently running on one rotor (that front one with the high compression).

By driving the car on one rotor could I cause severe damage?

 

Alright, that is what I wanted to know. Thanks.

Guess I have to look into a tow truck after all...

 

Conflicting info here.
Your first post stated that the car "starts and drives", now you say it's only running on one rotor, which would hardly be considered drivable.

I realize that you're at the mercy of the current owner info-wise, but he really doesn't seem too knowledgeable (160psi?!), so you're certainly safer to just tow the car home and perform your own eval.

 

I drove mine 15 miles one one rotor with zero compression on every face and 100psi on the rear rotor.

It started very quickly and drove. On the down side when I took the engine apart the rotor and housing were toast, not to mention the apex seals were obviously shot.

I would compression test it myself, it sounds like the guy selling the car is full of ****.

As for driving it, if you are unlucky I would imagine you wouldn't do much more damage than i did which is about $100 for a rotor and $100 for a housing.

Or you could get lucky and do no more damage.

Or it could already be messed up and you wouldn't be hurting it any worse anyway.

How much would it cost to tow?

Its a gamble but I would probably try to drive it.

 

Should be fine to drive. If the engine goes then you could cause some internal damage. Just take it easy as suggested. Blew a seal on the rear rotor of my car once and it didn't cause any rotor housing damage and I had to drive it another 50 miles on one rotor and it still came out ok

 

Yeah, but this will be 5-6 times that distance. I don't think I want to take the chance. I'm gonna go check out the car early next week I hope, I'll keep you guys posted on how it turns all turns out.

 

Currently, I'm racing, daily-driving, AutoX, in my engine that needs a rebuild. It eats away coolant as well as the compression is quite low; however, I have AAA GOLD so I really don't mind it (Been saving money for a swap, just waiting for the motor to conk-out).
I think you should drive it so long as you have AAA, if not, see if you can move the car cheaply without cost, all else, drive it.

 

I've been driving my car with 120 on the front and 60 on rear for a while now. it HAD 30 on the rear when I got it, the compression has rised a little from driving, probably a flattened seal spring.

 

I just had a similar situation. O psi one the front rotor and 90 on the rear. I had it towed by AAA.

When I tore it down I found out the front rotor was ruined as well as the housing. The irons would goo however.

My point is, in my case driving it would have been tedious because of the lack of power(NA). but it would not have caused any more damage. I ended up finding an engine that was rebuilt 40k miles ago, paid $800 for it and installed 2 weeks later.

Car now runs great(for an S5 NA)

 

Just figured I would let you guys know how the ride back was, even though it has been a few weeks now.

Well first off, it was loud as hell. Of course, the full APEXi exhaust didn't help matters, but combined with the sound of the engine, after the 3.5 hour drive my ears were ringing for a while (I thought the drive was going to be 150 miles, it was actually closer to 200, doh!). The car was capable of picking up speed, although slowly, but I just kept it at around 60 mph. The vibration caused by the rear rotor was ridiculous and probably the worst part. As you all suggested, I short shifted and kept the revs light (or, as light as possible, anyways).

All in all, it was about how I thought it would be except a little louder. It's going to be a while before I can tear into the engine and see what's going on with that, but I'll post again when that happens.