200,000 Miles?

The Grinch · January 2, 2004

Found a deal on a 5spd 92 sc3. problem is it has 195,000 miles. how many miles are to many miles? and what do you have to do to blow these things up? I just dont see enough problem posts on this board :lol:

AWJ · January 2, 2004

If you want to blow it up - drop something in it while the head is off or something. Suck something through the throttle body. Advance the timing until it sounds like Kosovo. Don't tighten critical bolts on a rebuild or modification. And lastly - hit 25 psi with naws. That ought ta do it.

Honestly, if the price is right, 200k miles don't scare me away. The motor potentially can last 1 million miles or something was the exagerated claim I heard once. Frankly, I don't doubt it.

The Grinch · January 2, 2004

lol. dont get me wrong. im not trying to Blow it up. but reading the forum i enjoy not seeing a million posts about something blown up like on a DSM forum .

AWJ · January 2, 2004

I hear ya. To be blunt - most failures I have heard about occur from an error on install or tuning. I.E. some tech in a hurry forgets to tighten rod end cap bolt, rod end cap bolt backs out, hits inner block, shears head, jams journal and bearing, crank seizes, crank snaps, then the chain reaction through the line. Nasty, nasty stuff.

Better yet, some Jack Squat drops a shim or something in a cylinder while the head is off during the lowering of compression with a new hg job. Shim binds piston, rod breaks, punches 4 holes in the block and oil pan. Shrapnel through the turbine - vital life juice everywhere.

The more common failure mode on a turbo job done right (or maybe just not yet failed) with these SC's is the shredded tranny syndrome.

There have been speculated issues with the newer cranks (specification and tolerance) and bearings or possibly the block and journals - being off enough to stop the motor and cause damage. Nothing verified yet. I currently have my eye on a long block taughted to hold 900+ hp if myself and the potential seller can work something out - we will see where these things break at.

As far as my set-up, not one problem as of yet other than typical 10 year old car stuff that I have been going through and doing maintenance and replace/upgrades on. The oil pan could probably use a re-seal - and I might suspect there is oil leaking past the distributor. These are things I would call very minor. Boost does tend to creep on me though and I may have to pull the turbo and check the gate on her. I plan to tear into her pretty soon. The head stays on this time around though fellas. Every time (not everytime) someone pulls the head off their turbo SC, their seems to follow complications.

UCF3 · January 2, 2004

I have over 200k, and the car's doin just fine.

Don't forget to check the car out throughly before you buy it--you know, accidents, leaking gasket, check engine light, paints coming off, blah, blah, blah. :)