I found a fairly nice car on craiglists. 89 Turbo 2 with 120K on it. bone stock and looks like it is in good condition. the only problem is he mentioned the turbo is blown. i sent him an email asking what was wrong and he mentioned that it has 'shaft play'. I know a cracked iron for a turbo is non repairable but is this?

This will be my first rotary and im prepared to work on it this summer as i have a bike to get me to and from work sad part is the bike cost 2/3 what im paying for the car

 

That means the bearings are bad. Its rebuild-able.

but its not hard to find a used stock turbo in good condition.

 

after reading around, it seems to be that it is easier to replace the turbo than rebuild it due to some carbon seal? I dont mind doing work myself but if it is safer to buy a user turbo i guess thats the better route...the guy wants 3300 for the car. is that too much? i was looking at the classifieds and there was a GTUs for 5500 and that looks like perfection on wheels

 

get a compression check done. that will give you a semi reasonable gauge on what kind of shape the engine is in. Replacing the turbo is a pretty easy deal.

 

Well do you want to drive the car or collect it? the "s" is cool and all but why not spend less money and have more fun? (this is assuming the compression test comes back ok)

 

replacing the turbo could be a big job if you don't have much experience working on more complex repair jobs. There are enough wires, gaskets, and hoses on a stock car that you can screw something up. This better be a "weekend tinker car" that you plan to regularly put time and money into.

Plan your life around this car never running. Assume it will always be broken down--not that it will, but if you plan that way you will be better off because you won't be trying to rush repairs because you need it fixed now.

 

compression and coolant seal test before buying.

although buying the turbo car instead of the n/a and having to swap everything would be a lot easier to do.

go for it