1988 Turbo 'Vert Project

[toplessFC3Sman]

Not much to report on the 7 - just that the convertible top repair is holding up well even with a bit of use, and now that the Saab is back together & I'm back in MI, the next job is figuring out a more permanent repair/replacement for the window regulators.

[toplessFC3Sman]

The top repair is still holding up well, although the glue has turned an odd brownish color.  I got the window regulator out of the door last night & one of the cable ends just pulled out of the solder clump that was serving as a cable-end. It's repaired now, with a bit of the cable spread out more through the solder to make it much harder to just come apart. Hopefully it'll be back in the car tomorrow.

In other news, the blower motor has stopped working at any speed, and the heavy rains we got earlier this week made the passenger's carpet soaked.  Always something...

[ITSWILL]

I "fixed" my blower motor a couple weeks ago.  It just stopped working, so I took it out and with it plugged in, turned it on and it worked... I put it back together and it has worked flawlessly since.

[toplessFC3Sman]

Yea, it may be corrosion on some of the wiring, and I've heard that there is a resistor built into the blower that sometimes burns up too. I need to pull it & re-grease the bearings anyway, since it's started making little chirping sounds when it worked.  I also want to go through the HVAC vents and clean them out of debris - with the latest rain there was a LOT of water on the pass side floor - maybe a drain in the HVAC is clogged?

[toplessFC3Sman]

I didn't get to the blower motor this weekend, but was able to reinstall the window regulator earlier today. Nibbling away at the various little issues

[~Groll69~]

Aat least your making progress,  i need too get to the window issues on the wifes vert

[toplessFC3Sman]

Well, all the evidence points to a coolant seal in the engine going south... bubbles in the coolant, lost coolant, a nice white coolant-smelling cloud upon startup... Its going to be a few months before I can pull the engine & tear it apart, but I definitely don't want to let it sit & pool in the rotors, so my plan was to try to keep driving it every week or so.  Any other advice?

[ITSWILL]

Sorry to hear that man. There's not much you can do really, some might say to use Bars stop leak but I wouldn't do that to anything I cared about.  I'm hoping to be back for good in August, I could give you a hand pulling the engine and we could use my garage if you like.  If your work has moved to Pontiac I am only 20 minutes away from there.

Maybe this is a good opportunity to rethink everything.  I know you were mentioning you would like a coupe, maybe you swap all the goodies over to a coupe and bring the vert back to a stock cruiser? LS swap?

At any rate let me know how I can help.

[murz]

Ouch, that's no good. I say let's rebuild! How many miles are on the engine?

[toplessFC3Sman]

Yea, the engine still runs well & makes good power, it just eats coolant too. I don't know too many of the details of the first rebuild, but that was 40k miles ago. I'm hoping that I can get away with a soft-seal kit, and that the housings and everything are fine. The only time I've come close to overheating her was about 4 years ago on a hard drive up cherohala skyway in TN when the temperature crept up to 2/3's of the gauge, but it came back down when I let off, and I didn't have any coolant related problems until a month or so ago.

I'm really looking forward to cracking the block open - the big question is how much else I want to do at the same time. The idea of swapping everything into a coupe is very tempting; I've been spending more time on craigslist recently than I have in years.  The 'vert body is pretty beat up and needs some straightening work and definitely paint, so if I get a running NA coupe or something & swap all the other bits over into the 'vert, the question is whether I'd keep it afterwards or re-sell it.

Or... do I take this as a chance to just rebuild this engine & drop it back in the 'vert, and as a track car go for a completely different experience with an MR2, Fiero, C4 'vette, Mk3 supra, S12 or S13 silvia, or something similar...  I think it will really depend on what pops up for sale, but the turbo engine is definitely getting rebuilt one way or the other

[murz]

The hard seals should be usable still i'd reckon if they were replaced 40k ago. Could always upgrade while it's open of you wanted. I've been on CL a lot too lately, not sure why though. There's a few fbs out there, turbo engine in an fb would be something. Not really any good coupes, yet.

[fidelity101]

Pressurize the cooling system and see if you hear bubbles when you remove the spark plugs each rotor at a time.

[ITSWILL]

FCs are about the best bang for your buck performance wise.  All the other cars you mentioned there really wouldn't compare, especially considering the engine you have now.  I have recently been kinda wore out on the styling of the FCs though, was even considering plopping my 20b in a 90s 300zx but I think everyone might hate me if I do.

[toplessFC3Sman]

The 20b in a 300zx would be a fantastic idea, especially compared to incredibly cramped VG30dett.  Even better if it pisses people off!

FCs do tend to be great performance bargains, especially compared to 240s and supras, but the RX-8s are getting pretty cheap for something 20 years newer, and Fieros & Firebirds (V6) can be found for pretty ridiculously cheap too... A $500 fiero would leave a lot of $ for an interesting engine and some "creative" cooling system ideas. A buick 3800 4th gen firebird with a couple of turbos hung off the side could be interesting & a much different feel than I'm accustomed to.  S12 silvias are usually very cheap when they show up, since they seem to be mostly forgotten about.  My first car was an S12 silvia too, so it has that going for it.

The pressurized cooling system idea sounds good - I'll try that this weekend.

[Haro2488]

Or.....dare I say it Miata!