I have just aquired a 86 N/A MT 7. The shop owner who was working on the car tells me that a gasket is shot and the water is coming back up out of the Radiator. Does anyone have any thoughts at what I should do?

I bought the car knowing that there were problems but it was a steal for $345 with only having engine problems. The rest of the car is in prime condition. No rust, interior looks almost new except for a little dust and a little sun fading. It could have easily gone for $1000. But I do plan on getting a rebuild kit for the engine to start with. I will keep adding things to this throughout time.

 

Rebuild the engine first off, dont try anything with it on blown seals. Things you should do while its all apart depend on what your gonna use it for.

Now would be the time to do any porting (assuming your motor isn't already), if your looking for a high performance car then porting will allow an NA to break out of the 15s easily. If thats not your thing, dont worry about it. They're plenty of fun with stock ports.

I would put some pineapple sleeve inserts on your intake sleeves. Those are hard to get too, you can put them on with everything pulled easily. They are about $50 and provide a noticable top-end boost.

Check carefully all air and coolant lines, pay extra close attention to the lines coming out of the oil cooler, if those are stock then they might as well be replaced cause they will break.

The stock clutch is garbage too, I'd replace regardless of how it looks if thats the case. Make sure to put new throwout and input bearings in.

Obviously if the radiator is leaking replace it.

Thats all the stuff i can think of that would be essential to dos with the motor pulled. Is this your first rotary? Congratulations on the buy.