Well it finally happened. 290,000 miles and cylinders 1 & 2 with under 100 psi compression, happened last Friday. A lot of issues to sort out. First, if I get rid of the car, it's going to really suck, not just because I loved that car, but also because I also put in $7000 in the last 10,000 miles to rebuild the turbos, new radiator, water pump/timing belt, and a lot of other stuff. All of that money is down the drain if I junk the car now, but pouring several thousand more for a refurbished or Japanese 50K engine is more of the same. Counting the intercooler, boost controller, intake/exhaust and other minor mods, between that, the repair/maintenance and labor since 2003 when I bought the car, it's been roughly $70K into the car. Bought it used for $26K with 59,000 miles on it so that's close to $100K in 17 years. How much longer should I spend $3-6K per year for a car that's now 23 years old?
The other issue is that JDM is out of 6-speed manual TT engines right now. I can wait, that's not an issue, car is at the dealership, they won't charge storage I don't think at least for now. E-Bay has nothing, Surefire/Autozone is out of stock, O'Reilly is probably out of stock. The dealership told me it's not even worth rebuilding my engine, they took a look inside and it's pretty much done, more money in parts/labor than a different engine would cost. Some of the TT engines are around $2700 to $3400 with 40-60K on them, plus about $2700 labor to install the 'new' engine and get everything hooked up. That's about $6000 total. I'm willing to spend that. But the O'Reilly engine is over $5K, and 3SX told me their rebuilds are around $7500 and I'd have to get the car there and back from California. Once you start going up to $8-10K for everything, I mean, the car is 23 years old and what will happen next?
Any 6-speed TT engines around that have proven compression readouts for a decent price? Should I just junk the car and share an E46 M3 or M235i with my wife? I'll miss the Mitsu's hatchback for sure, since I mountain bike and can easily fit two bikes in the back. It's a pain to shove a bike into a sedan, and it scratches up the leather seats in back. I don't want to junk this car, but it's been such a money pit already maybe it's time to move on and get something newer. What else can I do to find a reasonably-priced engine that has a good 200K miles left in it?
The other issue is that JDM is out of 6-speed manual TT engines right now. I can wait, that's not an issue, car is at the dealership, they won't charge storage I don't think at least for now. E-Bay has nothing, Surefire/Autozone is out of stock, O'Reilly is probably out of stock. The dealership told me it's not even worth rebuilding my engine, they took a look inside and it's pretty much done, more money in parts/labor than a different engine would cost. Some of the TT engines are around $2700 to $3400 with 40-60K on them, plus about $2700 labor to install the 'new' engine and get everything hooked up. That's about $6000 total. I'm willing to spend that. But the O'Reilly engine is over $5K, and 3SX told me their rebuilds are around $7500 and I'd have to get the car there and back from California. Once you start going up to $8-10K for everything, I mean, the car is 23 years old and what will happen next?
Any 6-speed TT engines around that have proven compression readouts for a decent price? Should I just junk the car and share an E46 M3 or M235i with my wife? I'll miss the Mitsu's hatchback for sure, since I mountain bike and can easily fit two bikes in the back. It's a pain to shove a bike into a sedan, and it scratches up the leather seats in back. I don't want to junk this car, but it's been such a money pit already maybe it's time to move on and get something newer. What else can I do to find a reasonably-priced engine that has a good 200K miles left in it?