ok, I've been looking at this forum for a while now and this would be teh moment to introduce myself.



I'm a car nut in general and accidentally purchased an FC about a year or so ago.

Now that I totalled it ....



... it's time to commit that I'm totally hooked on the rotary sound and the looks of the FC in general.



That's where my actual problem starts.

My first FC never had any problems and I never did any work on it either (except for changing clutch, transmission and brakes, which I picked up from local HW dump, as they had a wrecked FC available)



So basically, even though I do know how to handle a wrench I'm not sure how complicated/easy it is to do some serious revisions on engine and chassis.



But I did happen to find a neat looking FC for a meagre $3000.

Now, here's the hook in this whole story. It ran roughly 140k miles and had a new engine installed after 80k miles.



Basically, and also compared to my last car, this seems quite a bit of use out of the car. It's a '88 FC, so it is the exact same make as the one I had and prefer (bit more fuel efficient and lighter then the later model. T5 I believe it is) so I'm a bit worried about the chassis and drivetrain here.



The basic idea is to purchase this relatively cheap FC and start modding it.

My ideas are to:

1)remove powersteering and replace with one of teh nice manual steering devices I've seen available at reasonable pricing

2)remove airco, seats, most of the interior padding and redo padding and replace front seats with corbeau bucket seats w. racing harness

3)install either Tein or Koni shocks and some Eibach springs lowering the car roughly an inch

4)install piggyback ECU, boost control, wastegate, spark plugs, bigger intercooler, bigger radiator

5)get a decent exhaust and air filter in there to let the engine breathe a bit

5) last but not least install better vented hood and drifter rear spoiler.



of course I also have to check out the brakes to see how those are doing after 140k miles and will probably have to replace all bushings and maybe better install some strut bars.



So now I'm looking for someone with experience to tell me approximately how much work I'm looking at and whether or not a chassis with thsi mileage is worth the effort.



Any input is more then welcome at thsi moment as I never really took a car apart this thouroughly

 

Welcome to nopistons.com! I've moved this to the 2nd gen forum, where hopefully it'll get more traffic.

 

First off....welcome again.



Secondly 140K chassis isn't a bad starting point, especially if your looking to modify the car. These cars are fairly easy to work on as you may have already experienced. The only problem you'll really run into for what sounds like a decently modified FC is cost. Aftermarket is few and far between, and quality parts are a little pricey. You can get away with doing basic shocks/springs instead of a full coilover setup to save some doe, as well as a custom FMIC kit, intake, exhaust, etc...if you buy name brand stuff for our cars it will cost more. Granted the quality/fit/soundness of the name brand stuff is generally better than what most people would do on their own... for $3k in a car, and another $3k in your own mods...you'll probably have the car you wanted...

 

ok, that sounds pretty much ok.



I was intending to spend roughly $8000,- on the car, maybe in time adding a further $2000 for rims, tires, general trim.





I have indeed seen that aftermarket parts are rather difficult to come by so I was planning on shipping in some stuff from japan and US (living in europe this will cost me some extra money but in this I prefer to have quality parts built in for especially the engine mods.)



As for the springs and shocks, I do not need the expensive adjustable kits anyways as I do not intend to do any racing, just considering that after this mileage shocks might need maintanance I will choose to upgrade right away.



thanks for the advise. I feel a bit more comfortable in purchasing now, will of course look for any signs of damage/corrosion on the chassis before buying it as I have not yet seen the vehicle.



Could anyone give me some advise on good ECU/FMIC for the FC?

(Intending to spend some $1200 there)

 

Not an FC guy but welcome to the forum!

 

Well one of the only FMIC kits for the FC that is reasonably priced is from GReddy. Some will argue to just build your own, blah blah...but it is the kit that I went with because I'm trying not to skimp on my car. There kits start at around $899 and go up to $1300... another option is to search around for maybe a used RE Amemiya FMIC kit, they generally run $200-$300 cheaper...



As for the ECU, a good piggyback will just be the APEXi S-AFC for fuel control and you could purchase a Crane-HI6 for added spark power. If your looking for an overall fuel/timing computer I'd look into the Haltech or Microtech units... both are priced anywhere from $900 to $1800 depending on options, etc...

 

Welcome, now for my usual list:



MAINTENANCE MAINTENACE MAINTENANCE!!!



There is absolutley no point in adding modifications to a poorly running/maintained car

 

Which is exactly the idea.



After exchanging gearbox on my last FC I kind of noticed how easy it really is to take apart the suspension, so that in any case is something I plan to do. Take apart everything that looks kind of easy to take off, exchange hoses/cables/bushing that needs to be exchanged in the process, then clean up the whole thing and see what needs to be done next.



Just, while I'm at it, I might as well add some upgrades left and right. Preferrable step by step replacing original parts and testing the upgrades one by one before adding and taking apart more of the car.



At least, that sounds like a sensible way to deal with the matter.

 

Sounds good to me... far better than my tear down the whole car and do everything at once approach,lol...

 

guess I don't really have the guts to do just that.

one reason for that is because I'll need the car for daily transport to work and back so when I take things off I have roughly a weekend to put them back on again and get the car back in working order.



This kind of limits the approach and I am moving closer to my work one day not all too far from now, but untill that time I have to make sure the car runs throughout the week.



Fortunately, one can do quite a lot in a weekends time.