HI, thanks for the welcome. First car i ever drove was a 1.3 starlet, then mazda 323 4x4 turbo. Me and these cars have a history, i'll tell you the story.
My brother owned a bog standard 1 back in about 1998, which he put in a ditch down a country lane, of course it was a write off. So the car sat in a friends back garden for the next year, untill i found one in a scrap yard. Which all i wanted was the shell which was in prtty good condition, but i got the bonus of an uprated straight through exhaust, hks blow off valve, uprated alloy intercooler and a few other gismos, 200. Got it home and fired it up, blown turbo, gearbox had it, along which i later found out the valve seals aswell. So started stripping down my brothers car, got the engine out ready for it to go in, stripped everything off of it, ended up a bare shell and then it got scrapped. And then i get banned from driving, so things sorta come to a stop, the car ended up stored in a garage, and the engine was stored in friends back garden, (big mistake) Anyway, 3 years go by, and when it comes round to putting the engine in, it had had it, the injectors wouldnt work, and the head gasket went straight after that. So had to make 1 engine outta the both of em. By this time, age was taking its toll on the car, wheel arches were rusting along with the sunroof. And when it finaly got up and running, that when i noticed the valve seals had gone, very smokey, had turbo checked out, was fine. So it sat outside my house for a year or so, showned a friend what it goes like, and he didnt shut the bonnet propaly, flew up doing 50mph, bonnet had it. So by now, i was thinking its just not my luck with these cars, so i sat and sat, for years, posted a few questions in forums saying im looking for a bonnet for one.
Up untill september this year, i get an e-mail off of someone saying they got a bog standard 323 4x4 turbo with a broken cam on it, pully snapped off of the end of it. 300 quid. I go and have a look at the car, and its nice, not a bit or rust on it, and a few sctatches, 2 owners from new, 68000miles, so i got it.
Anyway, i got it home, and sat about getting it up and running. Sorted out a head for it, put it on and fired it up. Now, s***, sounded like a desiel, turns out theres no oil getting to the top of engine, broken oil pump was first thought. Turns out there was and oil blockage in the bottom half of engine, hence thats why the cam sezied and the pully snapped off of the cam. So i unblock it and put it all back together and fired it up. That was about a month ago, ive done about 300 miles in it, and it runs fine, no problems whatsoever.
Im chuffed to bits, coz over here they are a very rare car, your could drive round the whole country and not see one. Just needs a bit of a tidy, mite get it resprayed when ive got the money.
Well thats my story, sorry to bore you.
