Turbo blowing engine seals??

[nickc]

Hi all,
I just bought an '81 Turbo spider with 48,000 original miles on it (documented) from the original owner (also verified).
The car is in great shape both mechanically and cosmetically. The original owner told me he removed the turbo unit (original Legend Turbo) because it gave him more problems than it was worth, finally blowing the engine seals? To compensate for the lost power, his mechanic installed pigger pistons, etc. (at 41,000 miles). I am having a difficult time swallowing this.

The fiat 124 spider may have a lot of faults (rust, etc) but I have always thought that the strongest part on the ca ris the engine! An engine rebuild at 41,000 miles seems strange; the fact that it was caused by the turbo unit seems even stranger. I can; however, see a mechanic not understanding, or not wanting to bother with, the turbo, and so, he would recommend 3an engine performance rebuild - more money, less headaches for the mechanic. This still doesn't answer the question of the original problem with the engine that it was blowing it's seals.

Any ideas?

Having said all that, i can tell you that the car definitely has more power; it pulls much harder (torque) in all gears, but I can especially feel the difference in first gear. Oh, forgot to mention, the car also has an ANSA performance exhaust on it; i'm sure that helps too. By the way, I am making the comparison to the 1978 spider that I had when I was younger. Now, I know the fi has more HP thean the carb model; however, I weight more (maybe 100 pounds more) than I did when I was younger, so, I figure, that more than balances.

Questions:
1. what do you guys think of this story?
2. Is there any reason than I should not put back the original turbo? I realize I will probably have to rebuild it. I just think its stupid to have the emblems but no turbo. Also, I would love to see the difference it makes, especially with the larger pistons!!
Nick

[So Cal Mark]

by larger pistons, I'll assume you mean higher compression. Adding a turbo may be way too much compression, but the story sounds suspect to me anyway. Did you know upfront that the turbo was not on the car?

[nickc]

Yes, I knew the turbo was out. The work was actually done in 1999 at 41,900 miles (at a cost of $3100 + 900 for re-install, clutch and other work). I have the mechanics receipt on the work that was done; just looked at all the receipts. Yes, hi compression pistons were installed. It looks like the engine was removed from the car and went through a complete rebuild, down to the block. The previous receipt mentions leaking head gasket and leaking turbo, causing no turbo boost. There was another receipt that states a turbo rebuild in 1988. I am starting to see the picture.
Mark, I don't know if this means anything to you, but the pistons that were installed were part# 331011 at a cost of $365 for the part.
So, what do you now think about putting the turbo back on?
Nick

[kmead]

I would advise not reinstalling the turbo onto the rebuilt engine. The Turbo motors were low compression for a reason as the control systems for fuel and ignition are not capable of dealing with detonation sufficiently on a higher compression engine.

Modern cars have knock sensors and careful mapping of the injection and ignition maps with specific routines for dealing with preignition. They also tend to have intercoolers to cool the compressed air which makes it easier to minimize preignition issues.

[nickc]

Dang! Dang! Dang!
I wanted to put the turbo back to make it original again!
I guess I could always get another engine and drop that in with the turbo.

Do the fact that my "turbo car" has no turbo make it less valuable even though it runs great?

[So Cal Mark]

it's only less valuable to someone wanting an original turbo car

[wengr]

Hello Nick, is this a brown car recently from Connecticut?

[nickc]

Yes it is from Connecticut; do you know thw car?
Nick

[nickc]

And its brown.

[stefhahn]

Hi Nick,
the Turbos have had a rather badish reputation here in Germany. They seem to be not-to-the-end-engineered as the setup is told to be not reliable for medium and long-distance full-throttle journeys (which we are used to over here due to our Autobahns). I know some owners of Turbo cars and all the stories are similar to what your previous owner told you. You might be better off with the setup you have in your car now.
ciao,
Stefan

[wengr]

Yes it is from Connecticut; do you know thw car?
Nick

Hello. No I do not know the car other than the fact that I really wanted to buy it! I just seemed to recall a brown car from CT on ebay, and it was listed with a story very similiar to yours. seemed like a good deal. congrats.