pinchvalve wrote:
My assumption is that if the car is rust free, the mechanical stuff doesn't bother me. I know parts are plentiful, and I would enter the purchase knowing that I will be pulling the motor for a rebuild or a swap.
Is the motor bad? If it hasn't been heavily modified and otherwise runs okay you may not need to. My original motor was still running strong at 200k miles after a steady diet of 25 psi boost on pump gas for a decade. You may want to replace the turbo if it's got a lot of miles on it. A larger OEM Evo3 16g unit will run you ~$500 new. Updated manifold and o2 housing, new piping, gaskets, etc. will double that cost.
The question is, how reliable is the rest of the chassis? I am cool with updating the suspension and brakes, but rebuilding transmissions and transfer cases is not in my scope, nor am I interested in learning.
The chassis should be fine if it's not rusted. Rear brakes on rust belt cars seems to need to be replaced/rebuilt often but autoparts store rebuilts are cheap. Same with front CV halfshafts. Those are $60 new with no core these days. Xfer case should be fine if the recall was performed and it was kept filled with oil. Transmission will almost certainly be notchy and rebuilds are expensive at $1500 and up. DSM trans can hold a fair amount of power before breaking but they're not known for their smooth shifting, even with specialty gear oils.
I am cool with a new project for a few months, but am I looking at a money pit that will never run right? Will I like the car if I cap the budget at $3K - $4K? I think it would be a great project car for GRM and since they are not getting on the ball, I may have to.
There are so many upgrades available out there you could easily blow that budget if you got crazy. However, you should be able to go far with that amount if nothing major needs fixing. If original, plan on replacing the suspension. If it's an AWD car without a good maintenance history, plan on rebuilding the prop shaft (carrier bearings and u-joints). A clutch job alone can set you back a weekend and $500. If you get caught up in the upgrade cycle the project could easily go on forever. Almost a decade into mine and it's still not done to my satisfaction. It has, however, given me over 100k miles of service and had very few weeks of downtime.
I guess it depends on your goals for the car as well. If you want to make a boost monster you're going to end up spending a lot more on replacement parts ;)
