picked up an 87 kmIII for 500 canadian but have some ?'s

[Lococoin]

Just picked this car up tonight(non turbo, auto ) Found in in the local bargainfinder and scooped it up quickly as they usually sell for much more then that. Body is in pretty decent shape considering its from Alberta, Canada and is 19 years old. Couldnt really complain at the price but it doesnt run right now.

The guy before me bought it this way and said it needed an ignition coil which is completely missing. I also noticed that the coolant lines were off and the top bolts for the timing belt cover are loose. The timing belt isnt broken(i had a peak)

I havent been able to crank it over yet as the battery is frozen but im wondering if you guys could tell me what potential reasons would be for removing the rad? The only thing i can think of is the timing belt. Ill be trying to crank it over tomorrow and pull the plugs to see what they look like but i wouldnt mind your thoughts in the meantime.

Thanks

 

[pimptrizkit]

while.. sounds like you just bought your self a bhg car..


yes a now it's a deal. depending how you look at it..

i picked up an 88n/a targa, straight body good paint, not perfect but nice, and fairly clean interier, but horrible frnt seats. it was also a bhg car..

the owner say he drove the car for roughly 2 weeks before taking it into a shop/ friend to have to work done,
where they left it in a basket case to sit for some months..

i have owned the car for 4 months. and have purchased alot of needed and un-needed items..

i am in the car about 4000 dollars now and thats including purchasing a jdm 7mgte ,fmic,hks ssqv, maft pro/along with stuff for speed density, used afm, new rad, new coolent hoses. 2 engine harness,boost gauge, turbo gauge cluster, ic couplers & reducers. clear turn sig's,strut bar and a wide band,

i am sure there is more i have purchased but have forgotten.. but as you can see it can easily add up. and it's all dependent on the path you choose for you car, if you want Daily driver, might be a wrong car, but you may only need to change the head gasket and purchase some arp's and make sure your head and block are flat and not warped.


i do under stand i ranted about a bhg and your query was for the ignightor. but since you said the timing cover was off and looked like the rad was being pulled.. then it sounds like a begging of a bhg job that they never started due to belief they had other problems...


well i hope soem one else chimes in and can give you some better news..

btw. i purchased this car knowing it had a bhg, and i intended to go turbo with it all the long, so my cost figures were considered, buying a working car for 3000+ usd or find a broken car i could fix and personilze....
i set a budget of 5000 dollars start to finish, and i am still under it at the moment. but im only a grand off. and parts add up quick....

 

[Lococoin]

ya i was leaning towards headgasket myself but who knows. For 500 bucks you can barely get a rusty ford tempo so im not worried about my investment. Replacment engines are abundant from a local jdm importer for around the 750 dollar mark.

I always get excited when i buy a new project. I have purchased 4 or 5 other cars with blown engines/other mechanical problems for good prices and then fix them up and either drive them or sell them. It keeps me busy and helps pay for my turbo civic project thats draining a boatload of cash.

Ill do some more digging tonight and see what turns up.

 

[dirtlord420]

i just picked up a 86.6 n/a auto for 300. with no rust and a horrible rod nock. trashed interior. but i already had all the parts

 

[Lococoin]

i just picked up a 86.6 n/a auto for 300. with no rust and a horrible rod nock. trashed interior. but i already had all the parts

sounds like a decent deal. Unfortunately cars dont usually last 20 years up here without having gaping holes in the car from rust. The salt they put down in the winter doesnt do the poor things any justice. Im suprised at how little the car is rusted actually. They must be built fairly solid.

 

[pimptrizkit]

i hope so there a tank of a sports car...

3500 pounds or so..

well it's always good to hear you know what your in for!..

hope the project goes well for yeah. have any pics?

 

[bigal0043]

You said you are saving for a civic project once you get going on this you are going to trash that civic and get the supra up and running with a turbo!

 

[Lococoin]

You said you are saving for a civic project once you get going on this you are going to trash that civic and get the supra up and running with a turbo!

Sorry, the civic project is already done. Putting out 300 whp right now. Its my summer car that i drag race.

The gf is eyeing up the supra though. i was thinking of making it my winter car but maybe i will be nice and let her have it. Of course she has to sell her corolla gts first.

Pics will follow shortly.

 

[Lococoin]

well i think the engine is done or at least the headgasket. Im getting 132 on the first cylinder and 75 on the 2nd. I cant even get the rest out because there is water sitting around the spark plugs which has turned to ice. Me being the "ill eat anything" kinda guy tasted it and i dont think theres any coolant in it. Either someone washed the engine recently and filled that full of water or something else is majorly fubared and the previous owner was perhaps running just water instead of coolant. Maybe it was burning a lot or something. The two plugs i could take out looked nice and brown though...

I was really hoping to get out the rest of the plugs and see if perhaps the compression was down on the 3rd one and then back up on the rest. That would be a pretty good indicator that the headgasket is done in between those two cylinders.

On a side note i did some calling around and can get a complete 7mge non turbo from the jdm importer near me for 500 dollars (CAN).

You think im better off just picking up a full new engine or try to salvage this one? It has 235,000 Kms on it if the odometer is right

Decisions....decisions....

 

[pimptrizkit]

well , call around to a couple machine shops and find out how much they want to deck the block, or have it checked for cracks..

the nice thing about jdm motors is... that you have a good running motor from the get go for usualy the same or lower cost then rebuilding...

you dont have to break the motors in.

but the down side is, yet again you dont know how bad the motor was beat.. you dont know any history on how well it was maintained.. and last you dont know what problems you may run into..

i picked up a jdm block. i felt the block / head rebuild would be far more expensive. exspecaily since i wanted to go turbo..

i have ran into these problems..

when they shipped my motor, they lost the paper work to it, so i dont know how many miles are on the engine and i dont know what they recorded for the compression test. let alone if they did one. called them , and aparently they dont keep records.. and they send the only document with the motor...
during shipping my oil pan was ruined.. i lucked out and my 7mge oil was the 7mgte oil pan and had the oil return lines !
being i had the bottome end open, i looked around in side and it looked clean. oil doesn't look burnt no carbon deposites.. and every thing still looked faily well oiled
then i resassmbled and relized my heater hoses came out on the wrong side, again i had the correct part i needed, so i started tearing apart the top end.
by the time i got this far, i allready purchased arp stud's and planned on sum day putting them in, .. decided what the heck i'll go for it..
pulled they head cleaned the gasket, and found a crack on the block, from water passage to head stud hole, back to water passage, i have no idea how it got there. but make's me quite upset.

i also found that the motor was blowing exhaust into the coolent at the back of the block, #6.
but to top it all off, i looked into the water passages to try to tell how deep the crack went. (not that bad) but found that the bottom of my water jackests have what looks like mud in them. my dad says it's the sand casting they use to cast the blocks.. but eh i know it's not good for cooling matters..

so i guess a short version would be, your buying used, so dont expect what you payed for.. i paid 1475 shipped to my door and took a month to recive my engine.

 

[bigal0043]

you should get a front clip and do a 7mgte into that... if he was running just water for coolant chances are that it frooze now that stuff is cracked or broken pretty harshly now

 

[Lococoin]

ya it can be a headache for sure. I picked up the 4age for the gf's car and it was from japan. It was in pretty shape and has been running great since. If i buy from the importer he will do a compression and leakdown test on the engine while im there to show me and gives a 30 day startup warranty so if theres a major problem i get a new engine. I dont think its even worth opening the old engine up because 500 dollars doesnt go very far at all.

My only concern is this. should i do the headgasket on the jdm engine before i put it in the car. id hate to put it and and have a problem but it would also be worse to put a new headgasket on the engine and then find a major problem with it once its in the car. Then im out all the extra money i put into the engine even if i can get a free replacement.

 

[Lococoin]

heres some pictures of it. I forgot to mention it has the targa roof.

 

[s383mmber1]

looksss sexyyy....and you mentioned your gf had a corolla gts....does it need a new home bye any chance?

 

[Lococoin]

i think shes going to be keeping it as far as i know. Its not the ae86 anyway which is what im assuming your looking for.

 

[pimptrizkit]

that car came stock with an lsd didn't it? luckie you..

 

[Lococoin]

im not too sure about that. i dont really know that much about supras so ill have to look into it more. can you run the vin at the dealer and they can tell you?