Destroying my bank

[GodofRichy]

After a long waited arrival of doing this, I finally manned up, got a trailer, and bought a $800 84 turbo. I got it home finally and drove it for a little while, but it seemed to have this tick. Even with the tick, it still had all of its power. The only problem was excessive white smoke which made me believe either oil is leaking somewhere. Found out the car had one quart of oil and after I calmed down, changed the oil to a synthetic blend of castrol. Still ticking, but i read somewhere (on i think it was hybridz) that the lifters are known for getting stuck often, so someone reccomended adding ATF to the oil.
Questions:
1. I don't want to put ATF into the oil cause I've never heard of that being done before, but the turbo regardless still has its power with the ticking(tracking down vacuum leaks).

2. I already read around to make sure this is clear, but for the 84 turbo transmission I found out that any short throw for a Mustang would work with the 90a. I just wanted to make sure of this before i order the wrong thing because the previous owner did some s*** to the shift lever so theres barely ANY threads to tighten the shift knob.

3. Car has 225k miles on it, so I'm planning on inspecting timing belt, flushing all the radiator fluid, transmission fluid, and clutch cylinder fluid. Oil was already changed by me once I got the car home, but is there anything crucial I'm missing?

4. Would a severe vacuum leak cause the car not to idle correctly? Just wanted to make sure cause before we took the valve covers off it would run ok except for it would overheat(thermostat in the car needed to die a peaceful grave)

5. Am I a retard for trying spend all my money on keeping these cars alive, or am I just trying to keep the dream alive?

[evildky]

1.This isn't a question. I have a lifter tick I can never seem to find, mine clears up with rmp, if yours does not I'd suggest some cleaner, rislone, sea foam etc. see if it clears up. If not grab a handful of lifters at the junkyard and start trying to narrow down the suspected lifter.

2.Yes the mustang T 5 shifter is a direct fit (except the shift knob)

3. Timing belt, tensioner, tensioner stud, cam and crank seals, waterpump thermostat all wise items to replace unless they've been done "recently". Also not a bad idea to flush the brake system with fresh fluid.

4.Yup, you sure the thermostat is the problem? The radiators sit low and at an angle and collect sediment and often are the cause of cooling issues.

5. Yup, welcome to the club. We all dump far more money and time into these cars than they are worth, it's a sickness and you are in good company.

6. You didn't ask but you said large amounts of smoke, that's generally a headgasket issue which could also cause your poor idle. I would recomend a compression test and to pressure test the cooling system.

[GodofRichy]

1. Alright my bad for not stating it as a question, seemed like one in my head.

2. I'll look for a short throw because of the shift lever issue(looks terrible, should have a picture up soon)

3. Will inspect/invest in all of those off rockauto/local parts store.

4. Yup, it still of course smokes horrible, but now it won't overheat. the thermostat i put in was the old one from my 86 N/A before I changed to a newer one.

5. Glad I'm not the only one.

6. The cooling system fluid looks terrible, almost like that stop leak stuff in the parts store. THAT BAD. I'll flush it while I do head gaskets and also have a compression test done. The idle issue was caused from the EGR piping not being properly tightened on. Made a huge difference, but now im still tracking some other lines cause it feels like im losing boost.

7. I know you said 10W-30 oil would be fine for my 84 turbo, but would 10-40 be too much? It's starting to get into the high 90s-low 100s so i just wanted to make sure.

Side note: I saw a 84 N/A on craigslist today if anyone is interested. I think its in the northern/central part of Alabama, but I'll double check. They want 800$ cause apparently they need it gone. Just thought I'd post it on here.

[evildky]

So you are doing the head gaskets? If you are getting large plume of smoke it's generally a HG issue. If the car has had stop leak garbage use din it that radiator will likely be an issue soon if it's not already.

Yes 10-40 is fine, in the winter the 10-30 would be the better choice, for summer the 10-40 has a higher operating temp.

[GodofRichy]

Yup, planning on doing them this weekend along with a tune up. and I'll keep in mind about the oil. Another issue I'm having is it's going through oil too fast o_o. I think it's one of the turbo seals, but from what i saw the passenger valve cover hose that goes to the intake plenum has a crack in it, and the driver side valve cover that goes to the turbo has a clamp thats about halfway down the hose.
(also planning on getting new valve cover gaskets) would it be wise to assume that if I replace those hoses on the car and the issue persists that its coming from the turbo?

[evildky]

Have you checked your hotpipe for oil? Have you felt the cold side fo the turbo for play? Generally if the turbo is burning oikl you'll find a track of oil coming out of the turbo and or freeplay in the wheel.

[GodofRichy]

Well sorry for the late reply. We took the heads off the turbo and found that the gasket was fine, but the ring on #6 was cracked and there was grooves in the wall around the piston. I'll post a photo of it later, but I haven't driven it since then. I put the t5 transmission in my 86 N/A to drive that around. Now I'm debating on taking the turbo components out of the 84T and doing a N/A2T swap. My plan for the 84 is to do a vg33et swap, but I might get a relocation pipe for that turbo. I'll create a thread on how that's going, but I have a question.
I cracked one of the inside heater core hoses two nights ago and I think that it's time to replace the WHOLE system. Since I read somewhere on Z31performance that the radiator on an N/A is a single core while the turbo is a double, should I install the turbo radiator on the 86? I'm going to get a NEW rad cap(destroyed three in the winter from advance) from the dealer.
Should I be fine with a thermostat from the parts store, or should I get a factory one too?

[GodofRichy]

So, I'm in between a rock and a hard place. Two Z's that look the exact same(except for hood scoop). The 84 has a cracked piston ring and grooves in the cylinder wall(hope that's all). 86 N/A has some idling difficulties, but I'm running the codes this weekend to check the main problem. The 84T was smoking terribly and I found out about the cams being bad and the damage to/around the piston. I miss driving that turbo, but I don't want to blow the motor up driving it.
Should I run the 84T till the motor dies, or take all the turbo equipment off, put it on the N/A, and overtime reassemble the 84T by doing an VG33ET swap with the 71C trans?

[G-E]

Kill it and get a vg33