I'm about to pick up a 1987 FC turbo that has about 90K miles on it. The original engine was replaced about 10K miles ago with an engine that had 10-15K miles on it. I skimmed through www.fc3spro.com but I still have some questions:

I wanted to know the following:

1) Should I expect the shocks and struts to be replaced soon? The car was taken good care of but it's still a 20 year old car so I was wondering what parts would likely need to be changed.

2) Should I also expect the tranny to be replaced soon? I read that the LSD should have worn out at about 50K miles.

Any help would be appreciated because I'm trying to plan ahead as this will primarily be a beater tracking/autocross car and I want it to be safe.

FYI- I'm already planning on doing all the tune up work and replacing the break pads so I'm looking for more major changes that will be needed. Thanks!

 

ok the shocks might need to be but you never know and the tranny is good the lsd ya no matter what car u get lsd only go till 50k if that.

 

i wouldnt worry about the differential...drive the car and find out what needs to be replaced. check and see if the tranny grinds going into gear. often just the shifter bushings need replaced which costs about $20-$30. you should probably be able to tell if the shocks need replaced by riding in the car...it wouldnt hurt to get some new ones.

 

Yeah, I was thinking of getting some KYB AGXs and some springs just to be safe. However, I really wasn't sure about the tranny. Frankly, I'm new to working on cars and being able to tell if something needs to be replaced.

I'm just trying to get a handle on how much I should expect to spend to get the car track safe since it's old. It doesn't need to be a high level track performer, I just want it to be safe at first.

 

You should do a full tune-up (oil/belts/filters/trans and diff fluid) and then have fun driving it.

If you hear noise from trans or diff then you can think about replacement.

 

A full tune up for sure. I'm really excited to start working on it. I'm just hoping that the good value I think I'm getting in the car won't end up blowing up in my face or at the very least reducing the chances my "affordable track car" will blow up in my face.

 

best overall advice I can give you is 1) thoroughly research ANY sort of engine modification before you do it and 2) don't detonate or overheat the engine

as far as the LSD goes, don't worry about it. I'm sure it's fine, mine has 120k on it and it's fine. If you want this car to seriously be for the track, I would replace whatever suspension you can that's legal within the racing class you are considering, and that would be true even for a newer car that wasn't all worn out.

 

Whoever said the LSD's don't last very long was false information. That's probably one of the last major components to bite the dust in any car. You would be more likely to snap an axle from wheel hop than screwing up the differential.


Post pictures when you get it, and welcome to the forum's. Read through the FAQ's thoroughly, and check out aaron cake's site as well.

 

Thanks for the help guys! I'm actually pricing out all the parts that I think I'll probably have to address early on and so far I have about $1600 in total parts assuming they are new:

1) KYB AGX shocks - 450 (found some on sale)
2) Kumho Ecstas - 450
3) Racing Beat Springs - 240
4) GranSport Breakpads - 180
5) K&N Air Filter - 60
6) NGK Spark Plug Wires - 25
7) Motor and tranny oils - 80
8) NGK Spark Plugs - 40
9) Boost gauge and pod - 100

This is what I could think of so far and man...costs add up quicker than I thought. I know it's "pay to play" but I've been used to modding newer cars and haven't had to almost restore some of the basic aspects of a performance car.

If there's anything else you guys think I'm missing please let me know. I know I'm definitely going to see if I can find these parts or something similar used to get the initial costs down.

 

Look for shocks on ebay from jdmwerks13