My '92 GS-T

[MichaelSuch]

I just picked this car up Friday for a vehicle that I can get back and forth to college with this fall. It's a little ugly, but for $900 what can you expect? The paint is faded pretty bad, and was backed into on the drivers side door (window doesn't roll down, the track was bent, and it doesn't lock). It has a little rust in front of the drivers side wheel well, and the rear bumper is a little messed up. Overall the body is in fairly good condition, just needs a drivers side door and some new paint.

The motor is a 4G63T, and from what I can tell it is all stock except the air filter which appears to be a K&N. It does smoke a little when accelerating, but it's nothing horrible yet. It starts a tad weak (probably just the old interstate battery) and idles great. The turbo pulls amazingly well, it takes no time at all to get up to speed. The synchronizers are going out of 2nd gear, it grinds a little if you shift too fast into 2nd, you just have to take it a little easy. The previous owner said that the computer has been rebuilt and new front brakes put on last year. The oil was changed about 300 miles ago (5W-30 Pennzoil). It also needs new rear tires.

I'm new to DSMs, and don't plan on really "modding" it until next summer. First thing I need to do with it is do some regular maintenance. I think 5W-30 is too light of an oil for a car with this many miles especially during the summer and it smokes, so I have been told that some 15W-40 and a quart of lucas oil will really help out the smoke. I am about to jack it up and check all the wheel bearings and the rear breaks. I am about to order some new plugs and plug wires, and probably rear brakes (they do sound a little rough). I'm going to start looking for a drivers side door, and once I get one I am planning on taking it to a Maaco paint shop and having some paint put on it.

I really love driving this car, which I haven't drove it much. It handles the road pretty good, and has a lot of power compared to what I'm used to driving ('92 Ford F-150 with a Straight 6). Tuesday I'm going to get it licensed, insured, and new rear tires.

What do you guys and girls think?

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[fwdmaster]

Good buy, whats your plans on it

 

[talonalex92]

Looks like a steal man! If nothing else a great turbo DD. And for the record thats not a K/N filter, so thats something else you need to buy

 

[Mitsumaniax]

Nice buy for 900!!! a new paint job and it will look sweet As far as the engine have it checked from bottom to end and the tranny too.

 

[DSMTalonTsiAwd]

Great Buy. How many miles are on it? +1 To Mitsumaniax

As far as the engine have it checked from bottom to end and the tranny too

 

[MichaelSuch]

No major plans until next summer besides paint and a few minor bolt-ons. It has a 150,000 miles on it.

 

[tunethis]

Nice find. You'll be happy with the gas milieage compared to your straight six F-150. Once you do all the maintenence and small repairs, you'll be good. It's a ton of information here. Everything you need to know is here. Enjoy!

 

[MichaelSuch]

Well I've been driving it every day since I had it licensed and it runs pretty good. Every now and then when I start it up sometimes it sputters pretty bad and will die if you don't give it gas soon enough. The only other thing is it gets great gas mileage. I filled it up when I started driving it earlier this week, and I filled it up last night (it was a little over 3/4 tank full with 122 miles) and it only put in 3.23 gallons, which is 37 MPG. That's too good for this car from what other people have been getting. I think it may be running way too lean if its burning oil and blows some dark smoke out the exhaust. But I wonder if this car was tuned, because the original owner said that the computer in it was rebuilt. I'm going to pull the plugs tomorrow and probably do a compression test on it to see what it does, but I just don't want to blow the motor up since another 6-bolt motor will cost almost as much as the car itself did.

 

[SpiralOut]

It is probably a stock ECU that got rebuild. Also is the smoke coming out of your exhaust blue or black?
Make sure you do the comp test, And when you change the plugs make sure you use NGK BPR6ES or BPR7ES gapped at .28. Our cars seem to run the best on those.

 

[dikdiamond]

Def a sweet find! Enjoy!!

 

[MichaelSuch]

Did the compression test, it ran 163-170 all the way across. The old spark plugs had a bit of oil on them when I pulled them out, and the electrode was a dark red. I checked the gap on them and they were over .040". I also put in a new PCV, the old one was almost completely plugged up, I could BARELY get any air through it. Also the smoke wasn't dark colored as I thought it was, it was white. It only smokes when you give it gas though. So that usually means a coolant leak, most likely bad headgasket? I've been watching my coolant temps and I haven't noticed a change, which I've only drove it about 300 miles now.

 

[erald01]

Fill up the coolent reservoir and check the level of it on a daily basis. If its the headgasket then you will start loosing coolent. BTW nice find for 900 bucks and the engine sounds pretty strong if the compression shows 163-170 all the way.

 

[DimShady]

def a good find, congrads on the new dsm