Bought this car knowing it most likely had a blown coolant seal and was missing a few parts(afm/ecu/shifter/airbox, wheels)

The odometer reads 94k miles but I've never verified its the true mileage it has.

It came with -
1) full exhaust 3" I believe , custom probably
2) tanabe lowering springs
3) fuel cut defender
4) blitz bov
5)electric fan
6)drilled slotted rotors
7) some kind of Turbo timer but its not hooked up and may be missing wiring
8)s5 taillights

The car looks to have been painted at some point and the hood was replaced, everything looks decent but the paint on the hood is slightly off, and the front bumper could be lined up a little closer to the hood on the driver side.

All in all I got the car for a deal for $1000 towed to my house.

So far I've gotten -

Missing parts - ecu, afm, shifter, airbox, underbelly tray, stock wheels

Upgrade- s5 turbo/exhaust manifold

Replacement stuff - thermostat, rad cap, tstat cap

I've not got to work on the car much yet but I've looked in the coolant system it appears empty and looks like it has oil in it.

The efan is set to constantly run, which I really don't think is the best option.

I have a junkyard engine that I could try running but it was said to have 160k miles, though all the apex seals appear intact. I'd want a compression test and coolant pressure test done before deciding to use it.

Plans - to get the car running on the junkyard engine or get it rebuilt, run around 8-9 psi on the stock turbo and later upgrade the ecu and fuel system to run the Max boost the stock turbo can handle efficiently.

Rotary >Pistons

 

Rotary >Pistons

 

looks like a good start, good luck getting yours going, im in about the same boat, but n/a

 

I've had an na for a daily for 6 years they're a lot of fun, but you'll always wish you had a turbo.

Took me almost 10 years of waiting before I got myself a nice turbo project, I bought a Turbo car before but it was so rough I used it for only parts.

Rotary >Pistons

 

^^^ ya for sure, ive had a couple n/a before my current one, and your right they are fun, just blows going from turbo to an n/a lol

 

not a bad buy! i was just looking at one in the same. let me know if she fires!

 

What was wrong with the one you looked at?

Rotary >Pistons

 

I'm really wanting this car to run, might just throw this block I got at the junkyard in it if i cant fix the coolant issueand see how it goes.

Pic was taken after I cleaned it up quite a bit



Rotary >Pistons

 

So I'm taking off the tstat housing and there's no tstat in there. Could that cause overheating?

There's all brown stuff coating the inside of the housing.. Oil??

Man what a hack the last owner was.




Rotary >Pistons

 

So I'm really starting to think this engine is done.

Look at the inside of the lower road hose here.



Rotary >Pistons

 

It might be, just tear the block apart already and see what you gotta work with.. Post some pics when it's apart..

 

Progress today.

Found a bunch of cracked hoses glad I didn't try running it even if the engine was good.

Dropped one bolt under where the wipers are. Its OK I plan on taking that off to repaint it.



Rotary >Pistons

 

Here's some more pics.

Quality custom flange on the bov.

Bad s4 turbo. It looks like the blades have been clipped?

Got that magnetic tool/bolt holder so I don't lose anything after losing a bolt today.











Rotary >Pistons

 

fun!

 

Today worked on the car some more, I think the next step is really to get the engine out after I get everything off and ready for it to be pulled.

I can't seem to figure out how to get the lim off, rmtge turbo etc off, or the accessories bracket on the right side.

I got my girlfriend to help a little lol.

Also discovered the car is running high and low impedance injectors (purple and orange that may be faded from red?), my car is an 87 model so it has the resistor box near where the airbox is, though none of the wiring looks modified for them.

I'm pretty sure it should of been modified and running two different sets of impedance injectors just doesn't seem right to me.







Rotary >Pistons

 

Just leave the LIM on and just drop the DP and pass motor mount.. You can remove the LIM when the motor is out of the car, but that crappy turbo & manifold comes off first then the lim..

You do have low ohm injectors, it's just faded and most likely replaced awhile back.. You can tell by that crispy brittle square inj plugs..

 

I'd think I'd be removing both motor mounts or at least unbolting them.

I'll verify which injectors the car has installed tommorow.

The engine/tranny won't be out until I can get my jack fixed and get some jackstands.

At that point I'll need a cherry picker to get the engine and tranny out, I'll be using the tranny to compression test my spare block seen above, I also plan to do a coolant pressure test.

Once I confirm its compression is okay and the coolant test checks out I'll put it in as soon as I get everything else I need.

My diagnosis says everything is okay upon visual inspection and hand spinning for a compression test.

Even chugs, and no rust inside to show a blown coolant seal. All apex seals appear intact.

Rotary >Pistons

 

So I got my jack working today and put on some much better looking 88 t2 wheels.

Car looks so much better, ignore the lack of windshield wipers/arms they're off to be painted.

Noticed not only does the car have tanabe gf210 lowering springs but also has tokico blues from what I see, car feels very stiff too

The back definitely could use some spacers to widen the stance.

As you can see from the engine bay pics, the engine is ready to come out just need to remove a few things holding it in.























Rotary >Pistons

 

Car looks good with the turbo wheels.

 

Well I am probably going to get the engine rebuilt.

I'll probably go with rotary resurrection since he did my last one and his prices are good.

I'll be keeping ports stock, gonna see if I can use als apex seals and get a warranty with them since he won't give a compression warranty with ra seals.

Rotary >Pistons

 

more pictures of girlfriend.

 

Lol. If she works on it with I'll take one, I'm not going to post pics completely unrelated to the thread.

Rotary >Pistons

 

Discovered my junkyard block has a broken spot where it bolts to the transmission bell-housing today.

You can see it where my finger is, good thing I already decided to do a rebuild using both my engines.

I also cleaned the engine bay up, the firewall and a few other spots won't come shiny clean , due to what I believe was a cheap paint job.

Rotary >Pistons

 

Looks a bit better then it did when I bought it.



Rotary >Pistons

 

Looks good man. Make sure you inspect that turbo for shaft play both in and out plus up and down. A tiny bit of up and down is okay but you don't want any in and out play at all.

Also some of those fins look kinda bent up. When people "clip" wheels on a turbo, it's usually the exhaust turbine and not the compressor wheel.