My 88SE Practice Build

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I only have pictures up to a certain point, as I haven't been able to get over and work on it for a while due to financial reasons (not surprising for an FC owner of course). I don't have any good pictures of the car "before" because it's always been in garages (non-drivable).



The coolant seals were blown rather badly...



Overall the chassis is in good shape, but it was a Pittsburgh car and seems to have been driven in the winter. It also seems to have had a fairly good rust proofing applied. It only really rusted in places that I expect the coating was beaten off of one way or another.




Plenty of corrosion here though...


Engine finally out


That's as far as I have pictures of...

I had the irons and housings cleaned up and ported by KDRotary, and rebuilt the motor with a pretty base level of parts. This was my first rebuild, so I didn't want to sink a lot of *extra* money into it for it to not run (judgement day has not yet arrived either). I reused side seals and corner seals, and the metal oil control rings that were in spec, which was all of them. Pretty much everything spec'd beautifully for an 86k mile engine. New springs for all seals, Atkins apex seals, viton oil control seals, etc.

I used Atkins seals as the only reason I wouldn't on an N/A IMO is longevity past a point that is already way past where I expect this motor to crap out. You can see the chrome flaking on the edges of the housings which is fairly typical, and the scorching. They were nevertheless in spec, and when it ran (I actually got about 1500 miles out of it before it really died) it ran very strong. It made good power (got in a few races on the way home...) both down low and up high, no starting issues even hot etc. I think it should run fine, just not for as long as what one might expect out of a good rebuild.

The engine is in the car, I just need to get my injectors back from being rebuilt, and install the intake/wiring/exhaust/driveshaft/accessories and see if she starts. I should know within a few months, though I wish it could be within a few weeks.

To get it road worthy though I need to finish my 5 lug swap. The front is done, but the rear is a mess, I think I'm going to break and hence need new half shafts when I pull the axle nuts off. That whole area is so rusted the lock washer came off with a wire brush. I've also got a bushing kit to install front and rear, KYB AGX shocks with GC coilovers, and a few other goodies. Then it's ready to get it inspected after going on 3 years now, half P/O, half me.

At some point I'm going to cut up come metal, and weld a patch over the rust on the front of those c-rails and a few other places.

That's about it for now. I'll have better pics after the project of course.

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I thought that was wrong... so, here are the rest of the pictures that I thought I had.

A good day in the mail: