I absolutely do not want to sell this car, let me start off by sayin that. Its an 87 TII, and i recently chipped an apex seal.
I dont have the time or the knowledge to pull the motor and rebuild it.
If i had it my way i'd keep the car, fix it, and keep it going, but im worried
that i'll ruin it if i try to do this myself.

I dont have the budget, nor the trust to let a shop do the work either, on top of the fact that i never go to a shop for anything.

So i guess im asking an opinion on whether or not i should attempt to fix the car, or just sell it to someone who will know what they are doing, and very, very sadly, move on.

In all honesty, i know that with some guidance i could most likely fix the engine, i guess a good walk through would be great. Well, let me know what you guys think. thanks

 

my first time attempting a rebuild was with absolutely no skill what so ever, it was sort of like a, one last shot, type of deal. about $1.2k later in tools, the rebuild kit, etc..

lets just say i learned one way how not to rebuild a motor

it was fun nonetheless. it definitely helped me on my second try on a friends motor. if you want a great learning experience, a great deal of.. edge of the seat moments, and if you have friends that have no life. it'll be an experience you'll never forget

 

if your fc is your daily driver i would def sell it...if you have another car to drive, let this be an opportunity to learn how these engines work. read up on the forum and the haynes manual/fsm. you should be able to pull the motor out if you have any kind of mechanical abilities at all. buy the parts for a rebuild when you have the money and when you have all the parts, have someone local help you rebuild it or send it to kevin landers for a budget rebuild. you'd be surprised how much you will learn by tearing everything down and you should feel good knowing you did the work (or most of the work) yourself.

 

i know i can pull the motor no porblem, im just worried about putting in the seals and housings and such back together correctly.

 

honestly, i would let someone who knows what they are doing help you or show you how to do it. there are videos you can buy that show you the rebuild process but you are at risk of losing more time/money if its not done right.

 

To the O.P.

Don't sell it if you love the car. My first FC was nearly totaled out by my insurance company...I didn't have the money to fix it at that point, so I sold it. My second FC death locked on me one day when I went to start it. I didn't have the money to even buy the rebuild kit...so I sold it. Both times I was kicking myself for ever letting the cars go. The first car was very repairable with two fenders, a bumper cover, a hood, and some chain hooked to the back of a truck. The second car was nearly flawless with the exception of carpet stains and the driver seat. I should've held onto it.

My point is...if you're attached to the car...keep it. Rebuilds are apart of Rotary ownership. They are inevitable.

Find a cheap $200 rusted out Escort to get you around for a few months. So what if the heater doesn't work? You've got jackets. So what if it pulls hard to the left and then it pulls hard to the right when you brake? You'll learn something new. It doesn't have to be pretty. It doesn't have to last two or three years. It doesn't have to be fast or make you look good. Even if you have to smack the dash three times to get the indicators to work...buy it. Quirks and dents be damned. Deal with it, save some money, make some new friends at your local car club and have a Rebuild BBQ!

Post pictures of the TII or I'll Baby Fail you.

 

some pics

 

That car looks to be in fantastic shape...which is VERY rare. Keep it. Fix it when you can.

 

Definitely keep that car man, it's real nice. I think of selling most of my projects all the time. What keeps me from doing it is all the stories I hear from my dad and other older guys about all the cool cars they had at one point or another that they wish they'd have kept. They all kick themselves for it, mostly cause they'd never have to work again if they had them to sell now For instance, my dad owned 7 different 66-68 Mustang fastbacks and 11 49-53 Mercurys (way back before he was married lol), I can only imagine if he still had even half of those.

One day, these cars will be there, well really the nice ones already are. Find some way to keep it, even if you have to save for a year or so to fix it. In the long run you will be glad you did. One day in 2030 you'll be like "Dang, I'm glad I didn't sell this car. You can't even touch a clean T2 for less than 25k now!" lol

 

thanks guys, deffinatly inspired me to keep the car. Gunna just save and prolly send the motor to a professional to get it fixed. unless i can have someone help me with it. I mean i'm also starting to think it's not a seal, i think its a spark issue, im gunna do another compression test in the morning, because i realized that i did the first one with the engine cold, i was told it makes a big difference. ill let ya know, thanks for the support folks!

 

Personally best **** to do is fine someone selling an engine n dropp dat **** in there, buy the rebuild kit n practice on the engine just my .02. G/L on which ever road you take


Trini

 

Yeah you could probably buy a running T2 engine for 400-800 bucks and just drop it in.

 

yea dude nice car. hang on to it. check the FS section. there are always people selling and trading all sorts of stuff. good luck

 

do not sell!

1) do as others have said and drop another motor into it and rebuild/sell old motor
2) if you have another car than pull the motor and rebuild it (not too hard)
3) pull the motor and have someone else rebuild it. i can recommend an excellent builder that lives in PA and would be willing to meet halfway to pick up and drop off the motor. he did one for me recently and is a great mechanic (did rebuilds at KD rotary) very fair on price, and will work with you and communicates great. always answered my calls/pms/emails promptly. just lemme kno if youn want his name and contact info

 

i like option 3, can i get the name and number please. thanks!

 

i have a spare 87 motor with only like 34K on it. But its off an N/a. the seals are the same though correct. Cuz im thinking that would be a good way to see if i can do it, remove them from the spare motor, and put them in mine. think its a good idea?

 

Have kevin at rotary resurrection rebuild it for ya after you pull it yourself. you can probobly get it rebuilt, ported, and have most of your accessories powdercoated for under 2k. I just had him rebuild a motor for me, I've seen pics and it will get here tomorrow.

I tried to rebuild my motor by myself, and it would have worked, but I didn't clean the coolant seal grooves enough and they leaked into my motor. So doing it myself was fun, but it was about 2 months of work and it didn't really pay off.

You could try to put the seals from the other motor on it if you want, but you have to replace all the soft seals when you crack the motor open, and if you are spending that much, why not just get new seals? and at that point, you have just performed a complete rebuild anyway. Just have a pro do it for you if you are short on time/knowledge/money because it will be faster, cheaper (unless you are lucky and manage it right on your first try), and far more likely to not explode.

 

i dunno if you can use na internal seals on turbo motors, im really not sure. but i wouldnt reuse them anyways. i just pmed you his name and forum name

 

the only major difference is compression ratio.

the materials are the same and after 1985 all 13B apex seals are 2mm

 

this is true, i just wasnt sure since there are diff kits available, but i guess they come with external (manifolds, etc) gaskets as well which would be where the diff is.

 

i JUST looked at your pics.....why the hell would you even think of selling such a clean fc??! you kno most fc's arent that clean rite? i wouldnt sell that thing unless i had an equally nice or better fc, or an fd that i was trying to buy.

 

for a moment i was thinkin of gettin an RX8. But im pretty sure i want to just pull the motor and send it to get it rebuilt. But i dont want to spend more than 1K =(

 

The RX-8 is an awesome car...but it costs a whole lot more now and in the long run than getting your motor rebuilt or doing it yourself.