I am going to see a ZX Turbo Automatic with 105K miles on it. It is rusty so I don't care about the body. I really just want the Motor. I am a long time N/A Z owner/fanatic/shade-tree-mechanic. What in particular should I be wary of when inspecting a ZX Turbo Motor.

Thanks,
Dave C.

 

I drove the car and did a visual and sound inspection. Here is what I observed.

The car started right up, no smoke or funny smells in the exhaust. Just a small leak in the exhaust manifold gasket. Overall the car idled very well and made no strange sounds. When I rev'd it, it felt like it had a misfire. I shut down and checked the plug wires. The cap, wires, and spark plugs looked old. The motor itslef was very clean and dry outside. The oil was there but it was pretty dark. Looking into the oil cap, the cam and surrounding area looked pretty clean. I restarted the car and drove it. The Turbo sounded healthy and built boost just shy of the red zone on the gauge. The firing miss was still apparent. I was satisfied with the way the car ran but definately wanted to dismiss serious causes for the miss by doing a compression test. One by one the cylinders produced (dry)135psi on the compression tester. The platinum plugs looked OLD. They had a dry carbon coating and white crusty deposits all over them. I took that as a GOOD sign telling me that it was not running lean or burning lots of oil. I am blaming the miss on a poor state of tune and/or dirty or bad injector. Both problems are easily resolved. The coolant was also clean with no traces of oil. So I made the deal and I am receiving the car next week. $530 - I can't go wrong!

 

Sounds like a good deal to me. When you get it check the connectors on the fuel injectors. Sometimes those don't always get a good connection, which can cause your stumbling you mentioned.