Hey everyone. So bad news, I'm out of town and left my 85 GSL with a carb with the mechanic to check out whats going on with low compression/ the car dying/ not starting while hot/ overheating, etc. He says its time to rebuild that motor sooooooo here I go.

First step: I get home tomorrow and plan on going to Pick-and-Pull on Monday to pull out the motor from a wrecked 85. I plan on using this one for the swap and having mine rebuilt properly.

Second step: clearing space in my garage, anyone wanna buy a 69 Mercury Cougar Convertible?

Third step: take lots of pictures!


And thats where I'm at: I'm going to depend on your guys for a play by play action.

The sucky thing is this is my primary vehicle and I start work on Tuesday at my new job, so I'll be bicycling it/bumming rides until we work this out.

Pray for me and wish me luck, any advice is much appreciated. I'll be constantly monitoring the site daily for any input and I want to pre-thank everyone for everything.

Also I'm in Tallahassee, FL so if anyone is around and can lend a good hand you can count on free beer and good company.

-James

 

James, I am at the same spot as you. I've had mine since 1989. It is a 1985 GSL-SE - all original. I got an engine through this forum that I will be receiving shortly. Same plan, install the temporary engine and use that until I get the original rebuilt. Good luck on your rebuild. I'll follow it and hopefully get some good ideas for mine as well.

 

Cool, I hope I can do it. It's a bummer but also exciting to finally get my hands dirty on this thing. I'll be posting a lot of pictures along the way.

 

Have you confirmed that the pick-n-pull engine is good? Good 12A rotor housing are hard to come by. In my experience, it is rare to crack open an engine and have rotor housing that are good enough for a rebuild. Also, over hearting can cause bad things for the rotor housing. Just be prepared to do some looking and $$$. I have $5000 in my last rebuild.

 

Not sure, it's an accident vehicle. I'm gonna pull it just to get my bearings on whats going on with the project. Hopefully I can do this one on the cheap, seeing that $5000 made my heart skip a beat.... We'll see guys.

 

Takes me back to my first rebuild - - all I had was a friend's garage to work in (I was rooming with him at the time) basic tools, and a manual. There was no internet at the time, & I knew no one else who owned a rotary, much less worked on them. We got thru it OK, and that motor lasted about 8 or 9 years of daily driving. Took severeal weeks of bumming rides, though. Some of it waiting for $$ to land.

All depends on what you find inside, cost-wise. I got away with my recently-completed rebuild for a little over a grand, I think. Rotor housings were fine, luckily. End housings not so much.