To Save or to sell the Shell?

[butterfly_eyes]

My poor baby, 1992 black, and lots of problems.

I've been procrastinating making this decision for almost a year. I being of typical female stereotype know nothing about cars, except that I love mine.
When I was about 14 I told my mom I wanted to buy a MX3. She told me I would never have enough money to buy one. So when I turned 19, I bought one.

The shell has a few bumps, and a scrape on the back panel. (Never lend your car to friends, lesson learned) But other than that is in good condition. Small spoiler, sunroof, she looks good. Through some cash in to get a great sound system installed. So much fun to drive. Looks good, sounds good, life was good.

How does she run. Hmm that’s another storey. She started blowing blue smoke, then insurance time came and air care told me they wouldn’t even complete the test.
I took her to a mechanic who laughed at me for buying a lemon, and told me he wouldn’t work on it. But he also provided me with the following diagnostic:

-Exhaust leaking
-Front exhaust pipe has had catalytic converter welded into it (yikes, what does that mean)
-No heat shielding, will melt or damage components nearby
-#5 cylinder engine missing spark plug
-Spark plug wire damaged, all spark pug wires old
-#1 Spark plug severely oiled but fairly new
-#163 evidence of fuel management problem
-Possible o2 problem due to oil and fuel

I have no idea what any of this means. My co-worker says I could put a new engine in, and I am willing to put money in, does anyone know of a mechanic they trust in the lower mainland area??? Maybe someone who won’t see dollar signs when this clueless girl walks in.

Or to accept defeat and sell her for parts, who am I kidding, sell her shell. I guess I could find happiness knowing she could live a good life in the hands of a more mechanically inclined person.

Honesty……………………

[solo_ryder]

I am sorry to hear that, I had the same issue as you, my car was burning oil badly, I ended up swapping it out for a klze and that does not burn any oil thank god. As for reliable mechanics down there i am not sure, when I lived there all mechnaics were ghetto and I dont trust them, specially around surrey area.

You may want to part out the car or sell it as-is, or see if someone can give you a hand with another motor if you can afford it. If I was still living down there I may be able to help but I am in the Interior Now.

If you car was burning oil and you lived here you would have no issues as there is no aircare, but Vancouver is a diff story, the only way I see that you car would pass aircare is if you dropped another 1.8L motor in or a KLZE, but you still may run into issues with a larger engine size as it puts out more emissions. When does your insurance run out? You may want to check your #5 cyclinder to see if there is actually a spark plug there? Sounds important to me.

[Rick Johnson]

a properly tuned ZE should pass emmisions fine, I would find a local automotive forum and ask around there for a good mechanic/shop. Do the ZE swap, it's pretty simple and if you love your car now you will really love it after.