What would you do?
 

Alright, so I'm looking into getting this white 89 GXL. It has a blown coolant seal and WILL run, it just smokes like hell and goes through lots of water. I can probably pick up the car for $800, drive it to the shop, and work on it there with all the tools I could need. I've already decided to fix all the body imperfections and paint the bastard- Innocent Blue Mica with House of Kolor Candy Purple Clearcoat. If I paint it, it'll be right. In other words, its not gonna have white in the engine bay or on the insides of the doors. Now, heres what I could do as far as the motor goes. Option A- I take it to Tito at Alamo Rotary, whom I talked to Thursday (he's about to drop a 3rotor in the RX-8, BTW, but thats another story). He said I could bring it to him and for about $3,000, he'd have a new motor sitting in there with a streetport and the necessary supporting mods, tuned, and driving out of his shop in a week. Now, Option B- I get a TII motor from jdmaddiction.com for about $1,000, get a TII tranny, LSD, and ECU from someone (probably on the forum or eBay), and do the swap I've wanted for the longest time on my last FC into this one. The only problem is, I've seen Tito's work, and I must say its amazing. A fellow forum member I met (Sideways7) had his FC worked on by Tito, and it was great. I'm kinda unsure about all the shit I may have to fab up to work with a TII swap. Would a simple TII swap be reasonable as long as I do it by the books and don't jury rig and don't cut corners, or would I be better off settling with Tito's deal?

Oh, on a side note- both options come with warrantees.

There are so many factors that I would take in to consideration.

First what are you wanting? If you’re wanting a fast car, of course you have to go turbo. You can make an NA quick, but eventually your going to want to mod it some more and it gets to a point with an NA that its hard to make it much faster with out shelling out some big bucks.

If your going to do the turbo swap correctly, your going to need a complete drivetrain form a turbo. You can get by with your NA drivetrain for a while as long as its pretty stock, but once again your going to start wanting to mod it and start braking stuff.

It’s a lot of work to do a swap. It’s a lot easier and economical just to buy a TII. It really just depends on the cash flow or your skills if you do it yourself.

turbo turbo turbo

Didn't Sideways7 engine blow?

How much money do you have?

How much HP are you wanting?

Also, what about all the little things needed for a swap?

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/tii-swap-expenses-those-thinking-98988/

engine rebuild? J-specs suck, only worth a core IMHO.

Yeah, but it was my own fault. I had the intake off and I think something fell in the chamber and popped a seal. It didnt have great compression, but I think that was due to something that happened while it sat for a month. Before it ran fine, and after it started flooding badly.
I personally reccommend Tito highly. I took the car to protech in austin and it sat for 4 months with nothing done. I called up Tito and he put together an engine and had the car running 3 days after it got there. He was very helpful and did a very good job. While the car was running, it ran great. The only problem it ever had was a small idle problem, but I think it was a bad or on-its-way-out tps.
As smoken said, it depends on what you want to do. If you really want the turbo, just get the jdm turbo engine and do the swap. Also, I must say there is a certain satisfaction in doing the work yourself.

I would use jdmaddiction...use a quality company like Jarco. Mike is actually in Japan right now trying to locate an FC...he can get a really low miles half-cut to you for about $2500...more expensive, yes, but warrentied, unparalleled service, and a lot better merchandise.

You wont listen to me, but get a reliable NA, enjoy the car!

put a 20b in it:) real men use the 20b. haha. jp, for $800 thats worth it to me as long as the body and interior are nice. Turbo is the way to go, but thats just me!

turbo, it really is cheaper overall.

huh? Explain, please.