skareb

Hey new to the forum, and don't have a car yet. I am going to look at a 90 lx 5L 5speed just wondering what you guys think are the major concerns with it would be. I am in Canada so the car has about 175 kms on it and looks to be in stock form from the pics. My concern is how do I tell if this car was once not a 5L, I would assume there is some obvious stuff like having a 8.8 instead of a 7.5 axle. Is there anything in the vin that would tell me, also what are some other things I should check in general.

Thanks in advance and if this car becomes mine I will be looking forward to spending more time on here .

mjr46

look for rust and 8th digit of the vin will tell the tale of the motor that belongs in the car

GGT

look for the fan hitting the bottom of the black fan guard, means it needs new motor mounts (no big deal)

check the rubber hoses for cracks, they should have been replaced at least once.

Check for oil in the water.

Do a compression check on it. all cylenders should be with in about 10%, 45 lbs is good, 75lbs means you may have carbon built up in cylender. Dont put supercharger on a high reading, or cylenders not within bounds.

Do a leak down test, see if rings are good, afer reading the plugs

Read all the spark plugs (colar tells a LOT, google for it)

If a plug is realy oily or wet, you may have an engine rebuild coming up.

Lots of 5.0 support out there, so if you want to work on it, youcan get the parts etc.