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I am currently restoring my boss' 86' NA FC car. Back in the late 80's and early 90's this car raced in a spec series in South America. I forget exactly what the series was called but apparently the racing was pretty bare knuckles and the drivers seemed to forget a lot of the rules . He pulled this car out of storage along with an 88' turbo car. The turbo car unfortunately spent a lot of its life in the north and in result, it is all rusted out on the underside. Everything else, particularly the interior, is in good shape so it will be a parts car for the NA. The red interior in the 86 was pretty faded, had a lot of mildew and all the plastics were brittle as hell. So the first step was to gut it and swap in the blue interior from the 88.
Started ripping out the bad interior
All out! The dash was tough. Reaching all of the connectors wasn't too bad but separating them in the awkward positions they were in was a pain. Pulling the main carpet out from under the A/C unit was a bit of a struggle as well. Had to unbolt the roll bar so that I could lift it up and move it around to get at the trim, seat belts and carpet. Not easy when all the bolts were seized. Now to do the exact same thing with the 88 and put it all back in the 86.
Got everything I had installed, but missing some pieces. The 88 had power windows and a sunroof, the 86 had neither so I'm probably going to die the red headliner black and I'm on the search for blue door panels for manual windows.
Started rebuilding the brakes. The pistons on the fronts from the 86 were stuck so I just used the fronts from the 88. They blew out just fine. Dust seals were all torn up, shims were rusty and brittle, and the main seals looked like the edge was slightly rounded so I'm on the hunt for a new seal kit and shims. Took this opportunity to go ahead and bead blast the rotors, and calipers.
Before
After
Also got some high temp paint
Took apart the BMC and all looked good so just honed it out with some scotch brite, plugged it and bead blasted it for some paint too.
So its time to think about the engine!!!
The 86 was stored without its engine so something is going to have to go in it. First thought was to pull the turbo motor and see how it is.
Donor engine. Looks clean now but just wait...
The easy stuff.
I thought I was good to pull it at this point but the wiring harness is snaked all under the manifold and I forgot about the damn injectors.
Now you can see just how dirty things are getting. I had to take everything off the top to undo those red connectors for the fuel rails. NOW its ready to pull.
ITS OUT! Working on old, dirty, rusty **** makes things take just a bit longer...
As you can see I had to cut the exhaust at the cat. The bolts for the heat shield were rounded off and besides, I couldn't find a way to access them in the engine bay anyways! We are going to replace the exhaust with something much nicer.
This old snail still spins quite nicely. Trying to figure out if its worth rebuilding? Probably not.
Getting all of the accessories off...
Tranny off. I need some help deciding what I should do here. The 86 didnt have a trans but it still had a driveshaft, diff, and axles. We probably going to use this one and pull the diff, ect. with it so we don't have to machine new splines, or replace the yoke for the driveshaft (Im not a driveshaft expert here). Does anyone know the gearing difference between the NA and the Turbo S4's? Final drives? We are going to build the new engine NA so what would work the best?
Time to pressure wash the hell out of these crusty b*****ds.
Before.
Looks like you got some work ahead. Should hopefully be fun.
Originally Posted by StarkesideDorito
We are going to build the new engine NA so what would work the best?
What's the story here?
I would think N/A stuff would better simply because I read where the drivetrain losses higher with the T2 stuff. That said, many people have built N/A setups on T2 drivetrain and were happy, so it's really up to you. You have all the parts, so unless you have specific (or weird) goals, why not use them?
Last edited by diabolical1; Aug 12, 2018 at 09:20 PM.
The idea is a "hot-rodded rotary street car". It wont be a daily driver nor a track car. Just something to make the ears bleed and pupils dilate
Drivetrain loss is a good point to bring up. The driveshaft is substantially larger and the axles are only slightly larger from the turbo to NA. The only issue is mating the NA stuff up to the T2 trans. Thats the trans we are probably going to use (cost effective since we already have it). I measured the flanges to everything and they are just slightly different. Theres got to be a way... But who knows. Our engine builder might have some ideas on what he wants his engine to mate up to.
Last edited by StarkesideDorito; Aug 16, 2018 at 08:20 PM.
Took apart the Clutch MC and all looked good. Plugged it, blasted it, painted it. Small things like this really clean up the engine bay... which is still empty.
The damn diff. I decided to pull the turbo diff and axles for the sake of having some options. What a pain. Well, I guess if you have done it before its not too bad but working out a way to get the the diff mount bolts that connect to the rear subframe while having rust flakes rain on your face was not easy. Pull the axles: easy... with a big hammer. Remove driveshaft: easy. Side diff mounts: easy with some PB blaster. Getting to the bolts on the diff to subframe mount: > YOU HAVE TO LOWER THE SUBFRAME... A LOT. You don't have to drop it but it has to come down a bit. I tried forever with all sorts of extensions, swivel sockets, ratcheting wrenches, ect but nothing worked UNDER the car. There was just no access whatsoever. What I did (and if you do/have done this job, you'll know what Im talking about) was get three very long 1/2 inch extensions for my air gun and went straight at the bolts from the left hand rear wheel well. OH! and I also had to find a large enough strippen bolt remover socket. They are a f***in' lifesaver. Seriously. Invest in a set.
Going to need some pressure washing as well.
Once we come to a decision about the transmission, then it will be time to figure out what diff to use. Ill count the teeth on the gears to get some final drive ratios.
. He pulled this car out of storage along with an 88' turbo car. The turbo car unfortunately spent a lot of its life in the north and in result, it is all rusted out on the underside. Everything else, particularly the interior, is in good shape so it will be a parts car for the NA. The red interior in the 86 was pretty faded, had a lot of mildew and all the plastics were brittle as hell. So the first step was to gut it and swap in the blue interior from the 88. 
YOU HAVE TO LOWER THE SUBFRAME... A LOT. You don't have to drop it but it has to come down a bit. I tried forever with all sorts of extensions, swivel sockets, ratcheting wrenches, ect but nothing worked UNDER the car. There was just no access whatsoever. What I did (and if you do/have done this job, you'll know what Im talking about) was get three very long 1/2 inch extensions for my air gun and went straight at the bolts from the left hand rear wheel well. OH! and I also had to find a large enough strippen bolt remover socket. They are a f***in' lifesaver. Seriously. Invest in a set. 
