might be buying a laser... many questions...

[FunnyGas]

i am looking into a 1990 Laser... the car was a turbo car, but i did not see a turbo when i looked at the engine. the intercooler and all the piping is there, but no turbo. first how can i check if the engine is a turbo engine (ie. numbers on the block or something)? the car is an auto, and they say overdrive doesn't work and its electrical).. how hard is a 5spd swap? the previous owner was setting up a nitrous system (NOS wet kit I believe) but never finished / used it. the car has (what they say) to be about $900 in aftermarket guages (tach with shift light, fuel pressure guage, air / fuel, temp guages, boost guage) all autometer guages. for $1000 (most stock turbo fwd 5spd dsm's are going for around $3000 in the area...) car seems to runs and drive well. is this worth it for a project car? or

 

[ndilo21]

Not trying to be an ass, but do you know what a turbo looks like and where it's located? If the car has a boost guage, I'm assuming it's turbo.

 

[TurboDSM86]

i am looking into a 1990 Laser... the car was a turbo car, but i did not see a turbo when i looked at the engine. the intercooler and all the piping is there, but no turbo. first how can i check if the engine is a turbo engine (ie. numbers on the block or something)? the car is an auto, and they say overdrive doesn't work and its electrical).. how hard is a 5spd swap? the previous owner was setting up a nitrous system (NOS wet kit I believe) but never finished / used it. the car has (what they say) to be about $900 in aftermarket guages (tach with shift light, fuel pressure guage, air / fuel, temp guages, boost guage) all autometer guages. for $1000 (most stock turbo fwd 5spd dsm's are going for around $3000 in the area...) car seems to runs and drive well. is this worth it for a project car? or

To be honest i would have the transmission concern checked out by a tech before you buy it. Its your choice but i wouldnt want to buy a car with any shadow of a doubt that there is transmission problems. I'd at least like to know EXACTLY what it is. Look for the turbo hanging right off the exhaust manifold. Intake from the passanger side of the car. If the IC and IC pipes are there im sure its turbo. I dont know how or why someone dropped 1K on gauges on a pretty much stock sounding car but thats cool for you i guess. Good luck with the car.

 

[FunnyGas]

I TAKE OFFENSE.... just kidding. i know what a turbo looks like. my friends all have turbo cars.. (skyline, laser, etc.) I know what AND WHERE the turbo is supposed to be. and thats what gets me.... cause its just a plain old non turbo exhaust manifold. all the piping for the SMIC and the intercooler is there but not hooked up to anything. I am just wondering how to tell if the engine is turbo from factory (like a code on the block), cause usually turbo engines are lower compression, and somewhere on these forums someone said that the turbo engine has bigger (or different) injectors.. cause if the engine is N/A that means it might be more work that i want to be into to get this car where I want it... If I could do some upgrades to the internals (forged rods / pistions), bolt on a stock 14b turbo, swap to 5spd and get that NOS kit running.. thats all I want out of the car for now. maybe with an FMIC thrown in.....

 

[TurboDSM86]

I TAKE OFFENSE.... just kidding. i know what a turbo looks like. my friends all have turbo cars.. (skyline, laser, etc.) I know what AND WHERE the turbo is supposed to be. and thats what gets me.... cause its just a plain old non turbo exhaust manifold. all the piping for the SMIC and the intercooler is there but not hooked up to anything. I am just wondering how to tell if the engine is turbo from factory (like a code on the block), cause usually turbo engines are lower compression, and somewhere on these forums someone said that the turbo engine has bigger (or different) injectors.. cause if the engine is N/A that means it might be more work that i want to be into to get this car where I want it... If I could do some upgrades to the internals (forged rods / pistions), bolt on a stock 14b turbo, swap to 5spd and get that NOS kit running.. thats all I want out of the car for now. maybe with an FMIC thrown in.....

If it turns out to be a N/A, its not even worth all that work. Think about how much time and money it would be to turbo a N/A. Pull a Carfax and see what it comes up as. You could always drive it and watch the boost gauge. Sounds easy enough. If it goes over 0 into boost, id bet you its turbo'd

 

[FunnyGas]

like i said, i KNOW for a fact there is no turbo there right now... but my main concern is if the block was built from factory for the turbo or for N/A... and if there is any way to tell...

 

[hiimt0ny]

yeah its not worth it, i wouldnt even bother.

 

[Defiant]

Pass. Healthy DSMs are headache enough. No point in starting in the deep end of the cesspool.