kborro01

iTrader: (3)

I should have started this thread earlier, but what the hell. First some back history on the car.
I bought a 90 T2 from Protomotorsports. Here's a link to the car I bought.

http://www.protomotorsports.citymax....10/4551315.htm

I go for a test drive and it drives pretty well for a 17 year old car. The only problem is there is a chattering (clattering sound when you mash the gas. The dealer guy said it was the ujoints going bad. I can accept that. Couple hundred dollars, new D/S no problem. No fluid leaking or any of that stuff. Only problem with the engine that I could readily identify was that it was REALLY dirty. Must have gotten there JDM from a crappy supplier. I insisted they give me a current smog sticker. They drive the car away and an hour later come back with a good certificate. I get in the car to drive it home and within 10 miles of the dealership, the engine light comes on. I call the dealership, told man that sucks....That's all. Alarm bells began ringing. I finally get home and my wife is breathing a little fire(didn't want me to get it in the first place" how many RX-7's do you need?"). I spend a couple days going through stuff and finally find some melted wires going to a switch on the AFM. Fix those and engine light problem is gone. Whole wire harness is trashed. I drive the care for about a month (with supposedley bad U-Joints) and finally one day while crossing the Coronado Bridge, the car goes down to one rotor. Time for a rebuild. By now I've figured the problem is actually something to do with the waste gate. Having necer had a Turbo before, the sounds are pretty similar.
I finally got the engine out of the car and begin disassembly. Things I noticed right away was most of the hoses and vacuum lines look like they are a hundred years old. Some of the hoses were split and the fix was slap some RTV in the crack cover with black tape and call it good enough.

Got the engine apart this weekend and found the front rotor had 2 broke Apex seals and the housing was gouged all to crap. The Chrome in both housings is in great shape, but the front one is trashed. Minimal corrosion in the irons and just a little heat marking on the surfaces that can be lapped out (hopefully). I'm starting the blasting process to get everything cleaned up and I've already got all new hoses and vacuum lines for the reaseembly. I'm going to go ahead and get new irons just in case they can't be lapped and I may end up having to get a new front rotor. When one of the apex seals came apart it put a little gouge in the rotor right behind where the seals fits in. I'm going to try and clean it up.

I started taking apart the turbo and noticed that where the waste gate flapper arm goes through the exhaust housing, there is a lot of wobble. I'm wondering if this could have been the set up for failure. If this thing was chattering and opening and closing would that set up a kind of boost oscilation that pushed an already weak apex seal past the point of no return? Also, is there a visible way I can tell if they put an S4 T2 into the car instead of an S5? At this point, I guess it doesn't make any difference. I'm going to buy another engine for this car and rebuild this engine into a swap engine for my 91 NT. I'd post some pictures, but it keeps coming up with an invalid message.

PS If you're ever in SB CA don't buy a car from Proto. I know buyer beware, but when you're deliberatley mislead and you get no help that's a whole different matter.

MaczPayne

iTrader: (5)

You basically bought a shell from Proto...

To tell if it was an S5:
-check the location of the knock-sensor, if it's on the front housing, then it's an S5.
-Is the AFM cylindrical in shape? If so, then you have an S5.
-Is there an electrical plug coming off the OMP? If so, then you have an S5.

There are other things that distinguish an s4 and s5, but they can be changed fairly easily, ie: turbo, clutch fan, etc.