OntarioTurbo

Looking at doing a tranny re-seal and re-fresh this spring. Markus Blaszak has an '87 turbo tranny he is rebuilding and has made it avaiable to me for a swap. My car is an '86 951.

My question is: Other than the cooler, are there any other differences between '86 and '87 transaxles? Also, since my car only sees 1 or 2 track days a year and the rest is street use, do you think the loss of the cooler is detrimental?

OntarioTurbo

OK, either there is no diference and you're all saying what a stupid question this was, or nobody knows. I'm sure somebody knows. Any takers?

M758

no difference in the box other than the cooler. The cooler was optional in 86, 87, and 88.

carlege

I was under the impression that the cooler was Standard on 86 then 87-88 it was optional.

I would go for the one with the cooler. Ive had good expericence with transmissions with coolers vs. ones without

OntarioTurbo

Thank you for your replies.

I have the original transaxle with cooler in my car, which is an '86. It has a leak at one of the seals and it crunchs slightly on the upshift to 2nd and the downshift to 2nd when cold. Once warm and you take your time, it shifts fine. It also crunched repeatedly downshifting into 2nd when warm at the track last year. Obviously synchros are worn. I don't want to cause more damage so I would like to have it fixed.

While talking to Markus Blaszak about it he said he had an '87 transaxle without cooler ready to go. This is what he had to do to this shelf tranny:

- New synchros for 1-2-3-4, 5th was fine.
- New ring and pinion
- new differential bearings
- New seals and gaskets
- Apparantly Pinion and shaft bearings are OK.

He wants $1260.00 Cnd. for the tranny. Is this a good buy?

Question is:
- Will my existing transaxle need the same amount of work once he gets it apart?
- Should I just opt for the '87 tranny he has ready to go and do a swap?
- Will it effect resale 10 years from now because it is not the original tranny?
- Should I worry about the loss of the cooler for mainly a street car?

M758

years ago I had my Turbo S box torn down and rebuild with new syncros for $700.

I was in the middle of clutch job so the tranny was out anyway. Figured I get it done while I was there. No reall issues in just preventative 100k miles wear check.

I would not worry about resale value or not having a cooler on mostly street car.

Oddjob

Very unusual that the ring and pinion gear were worn out enough that they required replacement, but the pinion and various other bearings were ok?

A new R/P set is about $1000-1200 by itself, and close to another $1000 in labor to setup the backlash, depth, and preload on the diff and pinion. Something doesnt sound right.

carlege

Sounds like an 87 Na might have been changed to a Turbo internals (used turbo internals?) and new synchros

User 52121

Ok maybe I'm about to ask a dumb question - but can't you just hook up the cooler from the '86 trans to the rebuilt '87?

samluke

Yes and no. If you have both, you can swap the parts over. You have to change side covers though and add the pump drive gear to the diff.

Oddjob

The Turbo trans case is machined differently than the N/A case, and the internals are not interchangeable, bearings, etc.