Newbie question, don't shoot me!
 

Well I finally broke down and sold my Honda and bought the wife a Minivan. So now my daily drive is our Outback.
I'd really like to buy a fun car with a low initial investment. A friend of mine used to have a GXL and really loved it. So now that I'm older, I'd like to have an FC TII. My question is what's the easiest way to differentiate between TII vs an NA. Is it GXL vs GTU? Most of the ads I've seen locally don't specify whether or not it's a TII. What questions should I ask and how can I tell on site? My wife has given me "permission" to collect RX7's, so hopefully I'll be a "real" member of this forum soon. Thanks in advance!

the easiest way to tell is the hood scoop, but this is not always the case, as some N/A owners put T2 hoods on their cars. Another way to tell is the "TII" graphic on the sides of the front fenders.

Cool, thanks. If I were to open the hood, where is the physical location of the turbo? I used to be a mechanic, in a former life ;-) so I'm familiar with the layout of some piston engines....

Lots of NA guys put scoops on their car and some tii owners w/ fmic put NA hoods on. Easiest way is to ask them on the phone if you think it has been changed.

The turbo is on the left side of the motor, there is a black intercooler with silver trim on the top of the motor. They're impossible to miss..

if worse comes to worse, just write down the VIN and post it in the VIN check section in this forum--some people will hack up a car so much that you wont know what it originally was without doing this.....I had a guy once claim to me that his FC came from the factory with the 3.0L CHRYSLER(lmmfao!!) V6 that he had under the hood!! and if I didnt see that v6 with my own eyes I would have never believed it!!

either way, get that compression tested first. I own a NA, and I love it...just made a 900 mile cross country drive with it with no problems at all.......and all that from a $300 car that was only flooded! lol

Just take it for a test drive you know it right away. The Turbo has a hard kick at mid rev. If it is an NA to turbo swap it no big deal less insurance to pay. And if you cant get a test drive, becareful.

you could tell by opening the hood, it has a intercooler right under the hoodscoop. different exhaust, most likely different sounds too.

You could also look for the boost guage in the instrument cluster.

Exhaust looks exactly the same at "first glance". Not the best way to tell. Just look for the big "Rotary Turbo With Intercooler" graphic on the intercooler. :)

the easyest way other than the intercooler is that you will see the turbo on teh passengers side of the engine below the ABS pump (if abs equiped) the Intakew ill go dirrectly into that! this is what it owuld look like!
http://www.members.shaw.ca/jreynish1...s/hoodcar1.jpg

Thanks guys!!!