s185 "fushi"

[scandinavian link]

Short for fushichō (my understanding being the Japanese word for Phoenix)... If I wind up finding a way to do this this time.

Once again, I'm looking into fixing my brother's Alltrac. It has now been sitting for 3-4 years. The engine has seized while sitting. There is some rust as well.

I'm not worried about making a show car or a race car. The goal would just be to get it to drive again, and to take care of the body well enough to keep it from getting much worse. For the time being.

As previously mentioned, the engine seized from sitting. When it was parked, it had begun smoking, due to the turbo we believed. Unfortunately we didn't get to working on it, and it went from bad to worse.

I do not have the proper tools for rebuilding the bottom end at the moment, so I think I'd want to just find a "decent" short or long block that I can swap in, for relatively little money. Again, I'm not worried about high performance, it's all about getting it running.

Anyone have advice on that, or is it just best to keep an eye on the parts for sale forum, and wait for a decent block to come up for sale?

Ideally, I'd love to just grab an RC engine and swap it in, but...I do not have the money for that at the moment (or any time in the foreseeable future).

The car does have some nice parts on/in it, that could possibly be separated to fund the project.

Thanks guys for any advice. Though I know generally the rule of thought with the Alltrac is that you'd better have $$ to burn. So if anyone has experience doing some of this stuff on a tight budget, let me know.

[underscore]

Though I know generally the rule of thought with the Alltrac is that you'd better have $$ to burn. So if anyone has experience doing some of this stuff on a tight budget, let me know.

So very true. Every time I look at the car, I think of something that it needs that costs me money. On the flip side, when it's finally "done" it will be fantastic. As far as doing stuff on a budget, their are certain things that you can certainly save money on, but there are also many more that add up quickly in the "while I'm doing X, I may as well save some time and do Y. And Z."

[scandinavian link]

Well, since some pistons, rings & bearings are for sale in the classified section, I considering tearing it down.

There were never any bottom end noises from my knowledge, I think the turbo had just gone, then it was parked, then seized.

What are the odds that the block itself is salvageable? I mean, since it didn't seize from being driven with a lack of oil or anything.

If I tear it down and pop out the old pistons, clean things up, and put in some clean pistons/rods with new rings & bearings. Check the condition of the head, and replace/rebuild if necessary. Hopefully the crank is still in good shape.

I used to have a used ct26 from an MR2 that we were going to use to replace the blown one, but now it's been sitting for 3 years or so as well, so I'm guessing its seals are gone as well.