should i buy this stealth???

so this guy in my town is selling his son's stealth. it's a white 1992 twin turbo with 100k miles. the guy priced it at $2000 but will take less. his son got it from rhode island and shipped it here, but it still has the rhode island plates which i thought was weird. the son never had it registered and it's been sitting there for a month. it cant run cuz it needs a new timing belt and water pump which is like $400. it has the red leather interior also. the back seat is fine but the 2 front ones could use replacing and the carpet needs cleaning.  the rear bumper is cracked but for the price i'd most likely do a 1999 vr4 conversion to it and just get a new rear bumper. one tire is bad and it needs a spark plug, which i would just replace them all anyway. my only concern is if the car even runs. i dont wanna buy it then find out the engine needs replacing or the tranny is bad once i get the timing belt in. the car also comes with a polished y pipe and blow off valve still in the box from 3sx for free. let me know what you guys think and what i should offer him for it. or any things i should look out for

Needs new timing belt? What happend to it?

not sure what really happened. the guy and his son bought it from some guy who said it needed a new belt cuz it didnt get the 60k miles replacement. the belt is still there, it just loose and it needs the water pump. i also forgot to mention the turbos were rebuilt at 75k miles. i judt dont want to spend all this money getting the 60k mile tune up and then realize the engine is shot or something or the tranny needs syncros. it's defininitely a risk

Well go and inspect the car. Use the search button "what to look for" and you will find a list that i posted. Review that. If possible test drive the car.. if not do as much as you can... but at least start it at the very least

i cant start it cuz the belt is loose and the tensioner or wutever that gets changed with the 60k mile get wont tighten it enough. so without a new belt it's not gonna get started

Thats bullshit.... the car will start. It tensions when it boilds hydraulic pressure..(when its running)

so the tensioner will apply tension if the car is running? will it correct almost an eighth of an inch in looseness. i think the belt will come off and ruin parts of the engine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sebba

Thats bullshit.... the car will start. It tensions when it boilds hydraulic pressure..(when its running)

 
The belt is loose enough to change cam timing when the car is off. Somehow I think this is an unacceptable amount of looseness (haha). Even if hydrulic pressure is applied when the car is started, it seems that it wont happen instantly, and the the crank with rotate before the cam its loose on (btw the looseness is all contained around the exhaust cam on the front bank. It makes contact on the very bottom of the gear, but then not around the rest of the gear.
 
BTW, I know 3000GTman and have seen the car if you cant guess. Im just not a modern car techology person.

i hnonestly dont think the car should be started because i dont want the belt to come off and ruin internals. i'm gonna bring $500 cash rite to his door step and say unless he starts the car for me then this is all he gets. i mean if i got it for that much and put on the timing belt and found some other bad problems with the engine, i could at least sell it for parts if it came down to that or sell it as a project car until i recovered my losses.

I agree... if its loose enough that you can change the timing without removign the belt.. thats too f-ing loose.
 
Personally, i wouldnt buy anything unless i see it run..

if he accepted $500 i'd take it in a heart beat. it's still a twin turbo awd car that just hit 100k miles and if it only needs the belt to run then i got the bargain of the century. it's a risk i'm willing to take for $500 and i can get that back by selling the whole car or parts of the car thru ebay or something easily.

^^^ Well it sounds like youve done made your decision...Good luck!...