Hi everyone! My partner and I recently bought our first FTO. As we each already have a running and driving car, we were hoping to find something we could treat more as a project car, something to pour money into over the next few years.
We had our eye on this FTO for a few months, a non driving car in what seemed like good condition (here's the previous owner's forum post: viewtopic.php?t=33634):
Here's where things start to get a little more interesting: the car didn't run in the previous owners ownership due to an ECU issue. Explained in more detail in the previous thread, the ECU was in some way corrupted, and would generally prevent the car from starting. Additionally, any time it would start, it'd be a crappy idle and would shut off above 3k rpm.
We had the car towed to our house a few hours away, and this is how it sits now:
Unfortunately, the front bumper seems to have been sanded down, and was left outside during the teardown from the previous owner. We were given an extra veilside front bumper, but its in similar condition.
A bit of crappy paint peel and whatnot, but nothing too inordinary for a '96 imo.
One of many previous owners allegedly backed their car into the FTO, so the rear quarter panel is a bit wrecked.
The engine (6a12 MIVEC) is in pieces. This is how it currently sits. The up-pipe and down-pipe for the turbo are pretty dodgy, with a flex join on the up-pipe and the engine wiring harness basically sitting on it. No heat shrink in sight on the wiring, and only around half of the connectors have been changed. Random bits of tape everywhere that don't cover anything, just randomly placed.
Boots a bit of a mess. There is a battery relocation here that is awfully placed right near the middle. Maybe theres a reason for that but I'm sure we could do a little better than that.
Interior is pretty good overall - it's a little dirty but nothing a vacuum won't fix. Aftermarket head unit as always, stock shifter (I think?) and stock wheel. There is also a boost controller and turbo timer behind the wheel. OEM throttle peddle and cable throttle are installed.
There are a couple cracks around the center console. A bit sh*t but they all have this problem it sounds like.
Generic gauges. Why they chose a voltage gauge? No idea. We'll swap to a nicer set, and include a oil pressure.
Here is the collection of parts we received in the sale. This includes:
Majority of the parts for the 6a12:
- Heads
- Cams
- Intake Manifold
- unlabelled bolts and bits
- intercooler piping
- turbo*
Also, we received extra parts for a 6a13:
- 6a13 block (less than ideal condition)
- busted heads
- good heads**
- Cams
- More cams
- Pistons and sh*t
- Cams again
- Everything else
- 1/2 of the twin turbo setup
We also got all the other parts not on the car, such as axles that are in need of a rebuild.
6a13 block:
Center: Maxpeepeerods turbo, offscreen to the left, 1/2 twin turbo
Front passenger side fender damage:
The good news: it still exists. Our plans, basically, are:
1. Put the 6a12 back together
2. Replace the exhaust and sh*t
3. Redo wiring (I'm going to use this as a learning opportunity to do a full custom harness)
4. Haltech ECU - we've decided to run a Haltech Nexus S3 or similar
5. Clean up interior
6. Clean up exterior (paint, some rust fixes, etc)
Then, potentially afterwards, build the 6a13 and put that in. Potentially frankenmotor 13 block with mivec heads. I can smell an awd conversion perhaps, or maybe we'll drop to 4 cyl to match the rest of our fleet. Who knows.
* Its an unknown size maxpeedingrods turbo. It also does not fit in the engine bay currently - we cannot figure out how to get it in because of the up/down pipe placements. Very bizarre situation there.
** The working set of heads were allegedly machined, but they don't seem to be in post-machined condition. We'll send these off before running them.
We did just move into this house, so before we can start the build we need to tidy up the shed, which means moving all of the last residents garbage out, buying shelving, and the necessary tools to pull and build engines. It is our first build, but at this stage I am confident overall and very excited to get into it. We'll keep this thread updated as we go.
GPXXX / Mikey's / edsFTO Turbo FTO - Current Status and Build Log
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Re: GPXXX / Mikey's / edsFTO Turbo FTO - Current Status and Build Log
Glad it found a new home, keep us posted if there's ever any updates!
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