Alright guys, I'm stumped.

Right now, I have a 87 Luxury.

INTERIOR:
-Missing the 3 vents on the top of the dash
-Seats are shot under the seat covers
-2+2 (with the lovely maroon interior)
-Overall, it's a pretty clean interior.

EXTERIOR:
-Whole car needs to be sanded down and re-painted
-Needs a small amount of body work here and there
-Maybe 10 small dents overall
-The suspension really needs to be replaced, but it's not shot to **** or anything.
-It wouldn't hurt to replace the windshield seals.

ENGINE:
-Stock with 231,406 miles
-Engine still looks good
-Deff. lacking some power due to wear
-I've replaced: pd with banjo bolt, clutch, pressure plate, t.o.b., alt, starter, plugs, wires, and rebuilt the tranny
-And it uses about half a quart of oil a week


I know I'll have to replace the motor in the near future, and like I said before the shocks and struts could use replacing. But my real question is, should I just get rid of my car with it's worn chassis and find a lower mileage n/a to own and modify, or keep it and continue building on it. And as promised, pictures.







that last pic's from doing the pd to banjo bolt fix

 

That is super clean.
Keep the chassis, get a roll cage and start stich welding the chassis points.

 

And so when someone told me my chassis was worn, they meant the chassis points were worn? And stich welding these points will make my chassis stronger and basically restore it?

 

That's exactly what I said.

 

it depend on what you whant realy in the future.
u will put a lot off money in that car soon so..
my advice: if u want more power(because your engine and car look great) sell your car before the rebuilt and buy a nice tII .

Dan

 

i'd say keep it as a daily.... its paid off, insurance is possibly low, still looks good, runs ok......

 

+1

The car is very clean, but it's at the age/ mileage where it becomes a veritable "money pit".
It's hard to part with a car like this that you have had for a long time, but saving your money to get what you really want makes the most sense IMO.

 

i have a 160K GTU hope it will run till my college year are over, maybe 3 and half more years so yeah. what you guys think no problem?

 

wow, 230k miles.
well i'll tell you it makes no difference really if you start working on this car or one with lower miles if both are in similar condition, but with a higher mileage car you can pretty much never expect to get back anything you put into it. if you go to sell it in the future the mileage really affects the value. it's bad enough trying to sell a project with lower miles, one with higher miles would just be a write-off.

 

Original engine? I doubt it. Engine bay has been painted black. People usually do that when the enignes pops.

But the chassis looks awefully clean. Is there rust somewhere I dont see? Why would you not want to keep it?

 

seafoam the engine you ll notice a difference once you do this, it cleans up the carbon buildup and Im sure u have alot of it with that kind of mileage.

 

160k is right around early rebuild time. So it depends entirely on how well maintained the GTU is. Could fail tomorrow, could go to 360k.

Sea foam, etc.: Most of these products are either very harsh or inneffective (or both). I dunno, maybe Sea Foam is different, but I wouldn't use it. Just clean it slowly with high revs from time to time and detergents from good quality gas & oil.

 

^You may not know, but alot of people swear by their water/seafoam treatment.

 

Ive heard nothing but good about Seafoam. Ive used it myself with good results. They also make a killer transmission flush and engine flush that works wonders. Putting Seafoam in your fuel cleans out your system pretty well too.

 

whats wrong with maroon?

 

That was ignorant. It would've been more logical to ask if the engine bay was black or if it was just the lighting and/or poor photography skills (Sorry, Brett.).

His engine bay is not black, it's Tornado Gray Metallic like the rest of the car. I've personally given his car regular once-overs, and the motor is indeed original to the car. It's quite obvious that it's got 230,000 miles of wear on it, but he maintains it well enough. How long it will continue to run remains a mystery, as they all do...

The motor runs alright...it lets out puffs of oil smoke at higher RPMs. The transmission is showing its age. It screams for dear life all of the time and it can be heard over my exhaust even from 30 feet ahead of him. I've got a spare transmission he could buy off of me, but I think the motor would let go before the tranny would, honestly..

The suspension is worn badly. It's not near as bad as the average car with similar mileage, but in retrospect of what it was originally like brand new...it's pretty bad.

The steering is pretty loose feeling. The car shakes intermittently at highway speed.

The DTSS bushings have pretty much dry rotted straight off the car, so bumps in the roadway cause shuddering and squirrelly movements from the rear.

IIRC, the P.O. (His dumbass uncle) twisted the driveshaft and snapped the rear subframe off the car, it is now welded to it.

The motor runs hotter than it should 70% of the time. It's most likely an aging waterpump and the radiator mixed with an elderly thermostat. One thing at a time though...he should go for the thermostat first...then the radiator and waterpump.

Let us not all forget, that the S4's Oil Metering Pump is solely dependent upon throttle position to inject varying amounts of oil into the motor. My understanding of it all, from what I've ever read on here, is the more gas you give an old rotary, the longer it'll last when maintained accordingly.

All in all, it's an old car. It's a fun car, and he loves it to pieces...which is why I know he'll most definitely call me up and bitch me out for writing all of this, but I've told him time and time again, he needs to be preparing for the inevitable. The motor will croak some time, and it won't be giving him any warning. Mine haven't...

Though, with his luck as it usually goes, we will all be seeing one of the few FCs that sees 300,000+ miles!

 

I, sir, salute you!!!

 

One correction...
The P.O. drove with a warped driveshaft,
literally snapped the tip of the tranny off,
and replaced it with one from a junkyard.

It (the tranny) has been rebuilt,
but the P.O. forgot to put 3 small somethings back in,
so it wines...

And the front differential mount broke,
so the nose of the diff. is welded to the sub frame.

There we go
(And it's not my poor photo. shills, it was with my phone)

 

... and now I regret not looking into that near mint, white on black 90 GTU... even if it was overpriced at 6K at a buy here pay here place...

 

Counter Correction...

Warped, twisted...it's the same thing.

You yourself told me that he just took the tranny apart and 'cleaned things'. That's not rebuilding the transmission, but I'm sure it helped a little..

 

car looks well cared for for its age, any rust? hows the undercarriage?

btw nice wheels i have a set i pianted gunmetal for my red car, i have the center caps though ^_^

 

You are truly a good man. Keep it til it gives, then keep it some more.

 

Have you ever premixed the fuel on this car? If not I suggest you get some 2 cycle oil ( I use Pettits Protek-R and Amsoils 2 cycle oil) and I bet you'll notice a difference even in the cars old age.


Congrats on the high mileage, I had a friend with a 10th Ann. that had 250K miles on it when it let go, due mostly to him modding it, thats great for a turbo RX7.

I say keep it, its super clean you know you took good care of it and when the time comes for a rebuild it might be cheaper in the long run than an abused 4th owner car.

 

Silly Collin, I asked if rebuilding the transmission ment to take it apart and clean things. My uncle rebuilt it, not just cleaned it .

yea, I've PM you a few times about them. I finally came to find that they are Platinum's from some company called Ultra. I'm just going to look into some new used rims instead of paying over 100 for USED centercaps.

(0% rust, undercarriage could use a coat of undercoat)

Thanks a lot for the reply's guys. I still dont know, but I'm leaning towards keeping it and finding another FC in the next year to play with

 

Amen . And btw, my uncle has had it since 150K, and he drove the crap out of it. A few redline's a day, always on top of the oil, and needed new rear tires monthly