Newbie dilemma

[fritzo]

Hi this is my first post after having lurked for the last 3 months reading up on my fd that I brought without having a clue about â€" incidentally the site has been invaluable in terms of good information.
 
So I’ve owned my fd since feb, and being the first car I have driven in the last 3 years have really enjoyed it so far.
It’s a pretty much standard ’95 with only a set of 17” wheels and a blitz cat back and has done around 110k km, now I paid around 6k for it in feb and as you can imagine finding out that the engines have a habit of only lasting till around this point filled me with no end of joy, so to make sure I hadn’t brought a lemon I took to a well known rotary specialist which is where my dilemma now comes from
The car was compression tested and was found to have high 7’s all round however it had a blown inlet manifold gasket and a small leak on the rear main oil seal.
So I duly booked the car in to have the problems remedied and as is the nature of things ended up talking myself into having the engine rebuilt & ported, new ecu, down pipe and decat coming at a cost of more than I paid for the car 2 months previously
Recently I have heard of a few alarming things on these boards and on fduk regarding the company and now am unsure of whether I should either have the work carried out there, just have the seal and gasket changed or even go to a different company all together
Given the circumstances what would you guys do, I realize that this is one of these questions that is pretty much impossible to answer but any advise would be welcomed

[Jit]

if you havent got 100% confidence in the company, take the car back and take it to someone who you know you can trust! simple as. if you want my reccomendation for someone closer t you, i would go to super7autos in gatwick (//www.super7autos.co.uk) Its the only place my car goes for work now and Im more than happy with all aspects of the service.

[rx7veilside]

dont take a chance do a search on the company you are unsure off whoever it maybe
all i can say is have had a bad experience and wld now only trust carl hayward for my work as he is relativley close to me..dont have any experience of rx motors or wgt but they both have a good rep so they wld be a possibility
dont take a chance when u are spending this kind of money

[memski]

Or maybe just get the work done that you originally intended? Save the rebuild money for later (when you\'ve done some research you\'re older and wiser), may even get a better deal.

[johnf]

Hi

If I understand your post correctly you have your car booked in but the work is still to be done, right.

Well it\'s your money, you are either happy to proceed or not. If not cancell your booking.

I\'m afraid the choice will be yours.

We all have our own prefrred specialist and you will hear praise for them ALL on here.

I\'m not sure having the extra work done is something I would do so soon, were you talked into it?

I see the reasoning - while the engines out why don\'t you.....................

I would get the required work done for a little as pos then run it for a year and build up a realtionship with one of the tuners, I used four before making a choice based not only who I thought would do a good job but also who I thought I could get on with longterm.

As for advice - have you had more tham one quote for the proposed work?
Not fogetting any isurance premium implcations these mods may draw.

John

[RobMatthews]

i would just have your problems fixed and not have the engine rebuilt untill needbe,have the new ecu, down pipe and decat if you fancy a bit more power(good suporting mods for the future too) but if your unsure about the garage doing the work then drive away (keeping things friendly) then you can do some more research into other peoples experiance with the tuners around you when your engine dies you will have done the reseach needed to decide who you leave your car with then look into porting, uprated seals etc when having the engine done.

[skybusr34]

wait till it pops. get as many miles out of your block first

[noyzboy]

Get the minimum work done that you need.
Save up for what you want to spend with a vendor you have confidence in. Don\'t let anyone take your motor to bits if you dont have full confidence in them. You need that confidence to enjoy the car when it been rebuilt otherwise you will always be listening for something going wrong.
Go with Harris. Enjoy your car for as long as poss till it NEEDS a rebuild. 7s all round on compressions is good. Spend more on petrol and drive your baby more.

Martin H

[kev-yorks]

Quite simple really "IF IT AIN\'T BROKE DONT FIX IT"
Kevin

[FD3SNuttah]

aye theres nothing seriously wrong there, and wouldnt be too difficult for a specialist to fix, you would be mad to have it rebuilt with that good a compression already!!!

an ecu / decat / intercooler / bigger injectors and mapping is what i would spend the spare money on and then save for a rebuild - you have a quite a few years of engine life left.

[fritzo]

Thanks for the reply\'s I think i posted this for a reality check more than anything
just confirm a few points no one told me i needed the full rebuild
 
My reasoning was that if the engine was out and my plan for the future was to build a high horse power motor then i might as well have the base work done at the same time to cut down on labour costs in the future, also i figured that given as i was looking to boost the output of the motor it would probbaly be better to start with a fresh engine as i didnt what the thing to throw a tip just after i had just had the a load of work done and have it cost me the turbo pack for example
 
As people have said i think i need to build a relationship with a tuner as i\'m sure they all have customers who have had both positive and negative experiences
 
therefore i think i am just going to have the problems fixed and have the ecu and exhaust works done after i have shopped around for a couple of quotes
 
again thanks for bringing some sense to the situation