techboy

Good luck with finding the seats ... be prepared to pay some expensive shipping. I have a set of 88 Starion tail lights I might be willing to sell, but the p/o drilled small "water drain" holes in the inside corners. I can post up some pics if you like.

ColdScrip ... sorry, I'm getting confused ... which car are you interested in ... the red 87 or the white 88 w/ the crushed roof? I think from the context you're talking about the red 87. My red 87 is in excellent condition ... no rust and straight body. It does need a paint job though, the red is very faded like on all of them. Currently, i have no pictures of the car. I bought it, flatbeded it to my father-in-law's shop 25 minutes away and that's where it sits. I can drive over and take some pics though. Currently, I don't have the title in hand, but the paperwork is at the notary being processed. I bought the car a little over a year ago, w/out a title. I did my homework, tracked down a former owner and got some signatures to get the title ball rolling. At this point, it's just a matter of a phone call to push things along. The short story is ... I bought the car to use as parts, and then couldn't bring myself to do it b/c it was too nice. Instead, I actually started buying parts for it. I'm such a sap.

The red parts car is in excellent condition, never wrecked, no rust, 98k. It's been missing some stuff since I bought it though. It's missing the whole front end. Needs a bumper support, bumper, airdam, grille, header panel, hood, and of course an engine and trans. Interior is complete and driveshaft / exhaust are there. Up until the Starion got crushed I was planning to sell it. About a month ago I started paperwork going through the proper channels to get a title in my name to make it a more attractive sell. Obviously, if I do decide to cut the roof off of it, I will stop the paperwork process.

I actually drove to Ohio a few years back for a motor ... maybe a trip Cincy is in order this spring? How soon you scrapping the car? On 2nd thought ... how about I just buy your black car off you while I'm out there ... that thing is beautiful!

Head has jet valves in place, but they are disconnected at the top. P/O did this, not me. I was going to install an elimination kit while the motor was tore down.

Body guy was at the house today, the verdict is that the car is fixable, which is pretty much what everyone was saying. He said the roof that's on it can't be used, there's too many "hard" kinks in it to ever be straight enough again w/ the hatch hinges and getting the doors to close right. However, he said he can press the roof back up, get the doors realigned and then cut the roof off and weld another on. We agreed the tentative plan for now is to cut the roof off my red 87 parts car and use that. That roof has a factory sunroof, which isn't my preference since the Starion wasn't originally a sunroof car, but we'll stick to that plan unless someone reasonably close to me comes up w/ a roof I can buy or have. (Burton, I'd be interested in your solid roof, but I agree, I think the shipping would be killer.) The work would happen in the spring/summer next year. So, for now, I need to get some plywood and a tarp to protect the car for the winter. I also need to start parting out what's left of my 87 car since we're going to cut the roof off ...

Between the crazy snow storm last week, my work schedule, and my Starion taking a whack from a tree I haven't had much time in the last 2 weeks. Did a compression test today, definitely a compression issue. Cylinders 1 & 4 are showing 125, while 2 is reading 100 and 3 105. Sometime this week I'm going to grab the leak-down tester from the shop and do a leak down test just to verify what's going on. But, I think at this point it's looking more and more like rebuild time w/ some new rings. I have a spare hydralic head I'm going to send out the machine shop this week, so I'll have a fresh head for my bottom end when I'm done w/ it.

LoL ... the tree that the branch came from is an Oak about 160' tall and roughly 3' round ... so it's a little outta my league. But, I definitely took some rage out on the branch. If the cost is reasonable for fixing it my preference would be to eliminate the sunroof altogether and go w/ the solid roof it should have from the factory. I could cut the roof off my car and use it, but I hate to cut up a perfectly good car just to save another. I'd rather find a rusted out car and take the roof off that. The funny thing is a friend of mine and I where just talking the other week about tacking some sheetmetal in where that sunroof is and doing a carbon fiber overlay for a roof ... then this happened. Maybe that'll end up being what I do anyway. Burton - I'm tempted to buy you a plane ticket. If I do end up parting it out I would never cut it up. I'm too emotionally invested in these cars to do that. I know someone can fix this car, even if I can't. I'll let everyone know what the word is tomorrow. If anyone knows anyone close(ish) to me that would let me cut the roof off their rusted out one, I'm all ears.

Luckily, I had removed the front seats for the winter and put them in my basement. I didn't want mice getting in and chewing them up. So, I may have avoided some interior damage by doing so.

You guys are right about the insurance. I did a "title only" transfer when I bought the car, so I wasn't required to get insurance. I am currently working w/ my homeowners to try to get something out of it, but they're not being helpful so far. Kinda expected. I have a family member who owns an autobody shop, he's been in business for decades. He is coming over tomorrow to take a look and give me his advice. We'll see what he has to say about saving it. There is a guy here locally I know has a hatch just sitting, I emailed him last night, I waiting to hear back, if not, I may take you up on that offer, thank you. Again, you guys are correct, the sunroof is aftermarket, which was the only part I hated about the car. I really dislike aftermarket sunroofs. But, I had a car with one before that needed parts and sunroofdocotor.com is an awesome at helping you figure what make and model sunroof you have and get you the right parts. Plus, if I decide to try and repair this car, I might be able to use this situation to eliminate the sunroof.

So, some of you out west probably don't know this, but we had this freakish October snow storm over in here on the east coast last weekend that dumped around 10" of snow on treed areas that hadn't yet lost their Autumn leaves. The result - massive numbers of downed trees and branches that left many without power for days (5 days for me). And the added bonus: The 88 Starion SHP I just purchased 2 months got crushed by a downed limb. The car was a 58K mile car, garage kept, me as the 3rd owner. I bought it as a shell, no motor or trans. I was going to take the motor out of my 88 Quest, rebuild it this winter, drop it in this one and make this new car my baby. Not any more. http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/482/dsc04180d.jpg http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4637/dsc04181a.jpg http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/6208/dsc04210a.jpg http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/6263/dsc04211.jpg http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/1374/dsc04212a.jpg http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/4027/dsc04213ta.jpg http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/5127/dsc04214o.jpg The worst part is, this car was virtually mint. Had some small cosmetic issues, but no rust and a beautiful interior. I finally felt like one of the lucky ones who had "found" a rare diamond in the rough. Problem is, now I don't know what to do. I see myself with several options: Try to sell the car as is and get some money back. Part it out and scrap the rest. Explore having the roof cut off and another welded on (concerned about $$ to do this and the fact that the rear pillars are bent in several inches) Pull all parts needed to make my Red 87 parts car a viable road vehicle again (not crazy about 87's or red) Swap the better parts onto my somewhat rusty 88 Quest to "better" that vehicle Sell all 3 cars and pool the money to buy a nicer, already or nearly finished Starquest Thoughts?

I think your price is great for a rust-free car that nice. Wish you were closer since mine just got crushed by a downed tree. Free bump - GLWTS.

Dale - I think for 2 grand you should keep it and daily it like you were going to, that car is sweet EDIT - I like the new sig pic w/ the trophy!

You might have to back off on some of your stipulations to get a nice SHP Quest ... there's just not that many of them left that meet all that criteria. There is a super nice Fuji non-SHP in this section just a few threads down w/ ultra low miles. Check it out.

Well, I'm even more interested in this than was when I posted up before .... my Starion just got crushed by a tree in the stupid Oct. snow storm we just had. Problem is, till I part it out and scrap it to get some money together, this car will be long gone.

Wow! I really like this car ... esp since two of mine are white. What kind of mileage are talking? How long it's been sitting since last run? (Your referenced post is from 09). Any new mechanical issues? Still have the knock?

I know you said you had no codes, but do you have spare CTS laying around? If so, I'd swap one in just to see if it makes a difference. You might be stuck in closed loop - that would explain the rich.

I do have a mechanical head. I did recently adjusted the lash. Maybe something's worked it's way loose and messed up the compression.

I can get new plugs, that's no problem, but I physically watched each one of those plugs spark today, and they each had a hell of spark, a little bit scary actually. I seriously don't think it's plugs.

So I've been working on the car since 8 this morning. Unless you guys have other suggestions, at this point, I'm convinced it has to be compression. I have spark at all 4 plugs, I checked them all individually. They were each wet w/ fuel from trying to crank several times this morning. You can see spray from the primary injector when cranking. I dried all the plugs off, put them back in, no start. So, I have spark and fuel, but no start. Oh, and I bought a new battery first thing this morning on the off chance it was the battery. It cranks, so it can't be the starter can it? I don't have a compression tester at the house, but there's one at the shop. I'll have to borrow it. I did a compression test a few months ago and I remember it was w/in FSM spec, but I don't remember the numbers off hand. I was going to pull this motor over Christmas anyway, but I was planning to drive it to my shop, not flatbed it.

Typically, chain length doesn't really matter b/c usually when you pull a motor you just let any excess chain hang. I invested in a load leveler a few year back and love it. I think I got it at Harbor Freight; can't remember. It comes w/ chain and makes controlling the motor while you pull at lot easier. I think I've pulled at least a dozen motors with it.

I'm attempting to remove my first busted up air dam tonight. Bumper assembly is already off, so I'll just be working on it on a workbench in my basement. Everything looks pretty rusty though, should be interesting.

I really appreciate you guys sticking w/ this thread. I have a friend coming over on Sat. morning and we're going put a couple of hours into it since it's been about a month now the car's been sitting. Hopefully w/ all this info we can figure out what's going on and be driving by Sat afternoon. I will certainly post an update.

I have a stock ignitor and I had a MSD coil that was working fine for the last year before the car stopped running. When I started this thread, the first thing I replaced was the coil. I have since replaced it with a stock one, which I believe is working and hooked up correctly b/c I am currently getting spark from the high tension cable on the side of the block while cranking the motor. As stated before ... I have tested the fuel pump through the test port and the pump primes. The plugs, wires, cap and rotor are new (w/in the last 300 miles). I have also swapped in a new ECI relay, which made no difference. ECI fuse link was also replaced as a precaution. So, in my mind, I am left w/ these possibilities: A bad primary injector A bad igniter module (although Indiana stated that the 88/89 don't usually go bad), plus, I'm thinking if the coil works = the igniter is good An electrical issue somewhere that is not readily visible. (Starfighter's input) So, wait, you're telling me there is bad information in the FSM? Or, is "power transistor" just Mitsu's word for "igniter modual"

I've got a center console for sale in here, if it sells I'll take the MSD coil. I'll pm you.