Okay, so in a compound down the street from my work there has been an ek hatch sitting there for about half a year. I called the compound owner today and he told me it was his nefews car. I called him up and he said that its an 89 SI 5spdwith 280K KMS (170ish miles). He said it had a decent interior, paint, tires,etc, but the engine is ****ed up. He was driving on the highway when the engine started knocking, it eventually lost more and more power and they ended up having it towed back to saskatoon and put into the compound where its been sitting. What could have caused the problem with the car (knocking, and complete loss of power) or what could possibly be wrong with it? He said the tow truck company would pay 100$ for it. So thats what he's asking for it.

If I were to buy this car, I might end up just putting in another engine. But I can't think of what could be wrong with the engine in the first place, and would it be possible to fix... Some opinions on the car would be nice, and some advice on what could be wrong would be accepted as well . Thanks

 

No idea whats wrong with the engine...but if he only wants 100 bux...thats a pretty good deal...Ef's are hella light so you could drop a zc in there for pretty cheap and haul....

on the other hand, you could buy it and part it out..and if it had black interior you could sell it to me....

 

If you wanna come pick it up, come on up.I only live about... 28 hours (without traffic) away. lol

I already started searching for a temporary engine for the car if I need it, andI found a d15b2 with 5spd tranny for 40$. The guy isnt sure if it works though... lol

 

lol..ill be there in 5 min!

 

Well, I've been thinking about what could have happened, and maybe he ran it out of oil, and things started to warp. Therefore the engine is beyond repair... is it not?

 

At speed, knocking, losing power... could be lots of things. Could be as simple as a head gasket - I got my '95 HB with a blown head gasket, clogged radiator, and warped head for $800. Now, I have less than $2000 total (including registration, price of the car, repair parts, head work, etc.) into it.

I say buy it, pull the head, and see whatcha got. You migh get lucky and only need to straighten out the head and put it all back together with new seals. Ya never know. If it's FUBAR'd, work on getting a new engine in there. At least you'll have something to work towards.

I know you can't beat the price.

 

get it without hesitation... put a new motor in there for a few hundred, sell it and make some money... or keep it if you want

 

Well I saw the car today... and it's a complete mess. There are tons of pieces missing from everywhere, a bunch of interior pieces are gone... the guy lied about the mileage... he said there was 280k when there was 350k. (kilometres) that doesnt matter though. He also said there was a little bit of rust... I looked in theback under the carpet, and rust was eating through the floor. I checked the engine, it was completely black everywhere, the distributor was gone, and a bunch of wiring was unhooked and scattered. And to top it off, he took off all the locks, and the ignition so it isn't possible to see if it will start. It is the SI though... I checked the back quarters for rust... there was none, but it was full of bondo and it was done horribly. I dont think the engine is in that bad condition, but with the rust in theback and all the other misc parts that are missing that he never stated before, I dont think I will buy it. That rust eating through the floor isnt very good... I just wish he was more honest when we talked on the phone... it's not like I would have eventually found these problems. And one more funny thing, when i popped the back hatch, the tail light fellout because rust ate away where the bolts were attached.

I thank you for your opinions... but this one is just too much work, and wouldn't be worth the effort for fixing. Iftherust wasn't completely through the floorsI would go for it...