My Son is looking for ideas on his car!
 

Hi I have a 87' turbo II that I purchased in excellent condition and my son wont let me sell it! So im giving it to him.... he is 12.... this will be his first car! we are going to build it. I am new to rotaries, but I am not new to engines in general.... im trying to freshen this car up for/together with him for when he turns 16! what are the first things I should do? already in the process of eliminating emissions and redoing the ground/power wires. I know I already stated this but the car is a 1987 turbo II, completely stock been maintained at the dealer its whole life and runs great! thanks guys.

here is the car im going to rebuild with my son... runs great I just don't want to down it for more then a weekend so I can take him for a drive in it on a regular basis!

What are you looking to do. Just body mods, engine mods or a all around moded car? If your looking for a little bitmore power get a front mount intercooler. And full exhaust not ebay either.

check your compression to make sure the engine is in good health. at 137k miles it is probably getting tired. That could be a major overhaul you and him could share together. I dont think a 16 year old needs any more power than the car puts out stock, make sure your thermostat and radiator caps are in good shape, there are no cracked vacuum lines. a new set of shocks and springs or bushings really wake the car up. All new fluids always makes me feel better when I purchase a car as well :)

We did a compression test, we got around 95 psi on both rotors on the bounce test and 104 psi on the front and 105 on the rear with the hold/ total compression test. its good for now. we are going to go through the car little by little and find out what needs replacing and what not, and start cleaning up the engine bay.

great start, after fixing all of the little issues I personally would address the bushings, even a well kept car from the 80's will have bushing's that need replacing. Best of all it is not expensive to do!

seems your engine is still in good working order, if you are looking to pull out some more power just the exhaust alone can give a noticeable difference, The racing beat system is a bit more expensive then some of the others but it is one of the cleanest sounding ones without being insanely loud. Unfortunately to replace the system you will need a fuel cut defender and supporting computer hardware/tune since your boost pressure will be raised, If left unchecked it will eventually grenade your engine from fuel cut.

If you are handy I would recommend porting the wastegate on your turbocharger if and or when you decide to upgrade the exhaust. This is another cheap upgrade that mainly helps with boost dropoff on the stock turbo unit.

Wonderful thing about a all stock car is you can leave it as is and enjoy it, or make it yours(in this case your kid's)

that's what I was thinking racing beat exhaust, it seems like the single best item I can do to the car. I like the racing beat setup seems like the best oem look to the car and like you said not too loud. also I found a set of energy suspension poly bushings on craigslist for the car for $80 locally never installed couldn't pass that up. we might start by cleaning up and painting the suspension. new ball joints, bushings and bearings all around since everything is most likely original.

My god... that is super clean.

yes the car was repainted original color about 15 years ago and has been in a garage only driven about 10,000 miles since then looks sharp! only thing is the sunroof has rust bubbling under the paint and the outside window seals are rusted up. otherwise we agreed on just lowering and finding some nice wheels for it.

exactly what I did to my rx7 when I purchased it. I used por-15 on my underbody and steel suspension parts after wire wheeling the parts.
On one of my fc's I have tokico blues and tanabe springs, the drop gave me no wheel well gap with 16x8 inch rims (245 tires but I have 30mm wider front fenders) the ride is stiffer then stock but no annoying bouncing or scraping, and this is on terrible Illinois roadways, I would recommend this to anyone, It is also cheap!!

some of the rear bushing's are a pain to get out if you are using a standard press( harbor freight on my end) the front is simple and easy.

If you ever want extended wheel studs this would be a perfect time to do so since everything is apart.

that's the exact shock/spring combo I was thinking of going with. I was thinking of trying to paint the control arms as well just have to make sure I use the right primer.

I definitely recommend por-15 for any underbody parts. It is basically a higher quality version of a chassis saver type of paint, and is made to bond to any metal or rusted metal surface. I do not see this ever getting eaten through, but it does turn brittle on parts exposed to the sun for long periods (basically they are saying do not paint the car panels with it LOL)

how built do you want this car to be? usually that is a hard question to answer but atleast a ball park, I would guess it will be a dd for your son?

how built.. that is a good question, I was going to go all out with it before I decided to make this a project car for my son, as of right now getting the car reliable is step one. otherwise performance wise I was thinking exhaust, intercooler and computer are the main things im looking at right now. was thinking about rtek7 for the price but, unsure of it when I could put the 500 towards a standalone and tune for daily driving. of course these things will come later but trying to get a plan together. where is a good place to get the por-15? and I should still use primer as a base layer right?

Hey fayt, I think that's really great that you're planning this out with your son. You sound like a great dad.

As previous posters have mentioned, a 16 year old doesnt need more power than the stock puts out. Personally, I would focus on building the suspension then teaching him how to really DRIVE (driving lines, heel-toe, etc) with a set up that's not too much. If you build it with too much power it will be harder for him to learn on. That would be another great way to spend time together.

I completely agree with that, and Mom definitely has talked to me about doing to much to the car, the main thing I want to get rid of though is the exhaust... for the health of the engine. I hope I can do this and it will drive fine with just porting the wastegate for a regular driver. fmic is another item I like because it will help keep temps down. im not looking for power as much as being reliable and keeping the car in lower temps. right now the car is really sluggish... first things first, I want him to put effort and time into the car so it means more to him when he starts driving and thinks twice before racing or doing stupid stuff with it...

por-15 works best with a metal adhesion applied first( this is basically the primer for it ) then the por-15 afterwards. I purchased mine off summit, it is not normally sold in stores, unless there is a auto body store by you.

The top mount intercooler should not have a issue cooling the stock turbo output, and the piping for this is shorter then a front mount, this could actually increase lag(probably a small difference) on the car going with a front mount on a stock turbocharger. If you are worried about heat I would upgrade the cars radiator. Doing so you could also install electric fans and have even more work space in the engine bay :D

for a computer I always recommend megasquirt if the user wants to learn tuning themselves rather then paying someone to do it. They are more then capable of handling a rotary engine and are another cheap option.

There is a ton of little things you can do that do not cost too much on a stock car, that make a noticeable difference as well. I would focus on some basic low cost suspension stuff shocks, bushings, strut tower bars, front sway bar. I did this to mine and the car is insane with its cornering speed capability's just from having a fully functioning suspension again, But it also is not such a track orientated set up that wants to break your back over every bump.

everyone also loves aftermarket rims as well :P

Best dad ever.........

How about you don't touch it? You said you are new to rotaries, but you are ready to start "deleting emissions". I've seen 1000 "emissions" delete threads. They turn into "my car won't start, my car won't idle cold or hot, my car stalls out at traffic lights, et cetera. LEAVE IT ALONE. If you want it to drive in 4 years, LEAVE IT ALONE.

Follow the other good suggestions, by all means. New rubber (or silicone), hoses, fluids, suspension shocks and bushings. Dot dot dot.

I like all the positive feed back, my son read the thread and he is excited. as far as the emissions thing, ill be more specific. I want to remove the EGR, ACV and airpump leaving the BAC and the start up systems intact. I hate EGR valves with a passion when they fail they are expensive and can cause vacuum problems. also going to clean out the cat and make sure the precat is not causing any issues. This car is going to be running a racing beat exhaust front to back, as i have not seen any reasonable downpipe/resonated midpipes for the car. i totally understand the car wont start or is acting funny thing, i guess some people buy a block off plate set and feel that they have to use the whole set... i read the threads about removing the thermowax and accelerated warm up parts kill drivability, and that is why im leaving those alone. if im mis-informed on any of this please dont hesistate to correct me. thanks guys.

If you leave the start up system's you will be fine
deleting the egr, acv, and air pump should not effect the operation of the car. But do you have emissions testing on a old car like this?
just remember to get a fuel cut defender when you upgrade the exhaust, If you leave the stock computer and change the downpipe your boost pressure will go up, and can easily cause the rear rotor to be leaned out by your computer when the turbo boosts more then 8psi. So basically the correct way of changing it would be getting the FCD and either a stand alone ecu or a chipped factory computer and tuning it. This is why I promote megasquirts :P every time you upgrade the engine a tune is recommended if you want it too fully function properly and last.

i would change the vacuum lines, flush all fluids, spark plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter and leave the emissions alone

Good to see you are doing your research. :) Most people tear into the "rats nest" as well, but that can effect start up due to the removal of the FPR solenoid, and operation of the twin scroll which will effect drivability on a series 4 turbo. Also, keep the crank case evap equipment in place. It helps prevent a smelly engine bay.

Believe me, I went through most of this. I was the one weird guy BUYING stock emissions equipment from the classifieds. :D

yes flushing the fluids are on the top of my list, although I hate messing with the liquids... but I wanted to do it in stages. for example when I flush the coolant, I want to replace the radiator, thermostat, tap a hole for the new temp sensor and I also have a leak underneath the water pump so replace the pump just because and gasket. I was planning on doing this all at once to avoid from doing double the work. same with brakes, replace the soft lines possibly master cylinder and such at same time, as well as annotate when I did all these things mileage and date wise to keep track. lol I maintain fighter jets in navy for a living and I guess their insane maintenance schedule is rubbing off.

If you need to change the shifter bushings, you could get them on mazdatrix. Should be about $30 or so plus shipping and that's for the top and bottom pieces. Real easy to do and takes away the slop in your shifter.

sounds good. this is going to be a long night i have to work until 8am, sleep a little and get working on this car so we can post some more pictures. another thing i want to add is, when the car was running like crap i thought it was a fuel issue saw the fuel pump pressure wasnt where it was suppose to be so i replaced it with a walbro 255. tomorrow im thinking of testing my voltage and then running new wires for the pump. i want to get the car up on stands and front wheels off and see the condition of everything under there. not sure how deep i want to get into it right away because i still drive this car to work on fridays so its not just sitting for long periods of time. plus this car is just as fun as my 94 fd, something about the turbo II maybe its just the 80's feel of it lmao.