Greetings from a new S12 adoptee

Hello fellow S12'ers. I was recently able to rescue an 87 XE from a date with the junkyard.

After some looking this seemed like the place to be to rehabilitate this poor little car and get it back up and running well.

Here is how she sat at the wrecking yard and a few shots of the engine bay once we got her tucked in the garage. Before I start pestering the tech boards with questions of "what the hell is this?" and "Where is this supposed to even connect?" Is there a good rundown available of what quirks I should be looking for on this little gem?

Thanks!

On to the pictures!









And a couple where the hell do these go images:

Welcome and you are to be commended for saving one in such a sad state! You will find on the stock motor there are a few/several connectors not in use - so they go nowhere on your application.
Looks stock - CA20  - does it run?
Look forward to seeing the resurrection!
Red

I was able to get her to eventually start after getting some gas in and a bit of cranking while holding down the throttle. That was about when I realized the PO had a smashed up and partially installed oil filter in place. Had to shut her down after noticing she was coughing out her oil supply.

But at least we know she's alive. Next item on the docket will be pulling the rad and front end items to un-pucker her nose.

To much surprise, for a car that rough she only has about 76k miles on the clock.

She looks just like the parts car I used to have but rougher except mine had a totally borked suspension system. How's the interior? I'm sitting on a clean dash here in north TX that I'd like to be rid of.

Welcome! You will find a wealth of info on this site, just spend some time digging. If you have unanswered questions, put them up and we will give you our input and ideas. Hope you can get her to where you are another happy S-12 owner!

thanks again for the welcomes!

As for the interior, it was actually in pretty good shape considering the exterior. Just had to bomb it with air fresheners since the poor thing had an open gas can sitting in it for who knows how long.

So far, the information on here has been pretty good! Makes for lots of temptation to do crazy things like engine swaps or swiping s13 parts to replace the damaged bumper.

If you spend much time with your S12 you will come to realize that engine swaps and adapting S13 parts is not crazy . . . its necessary.  S12 parts can be challenging to find so unless you have solid fabrication skills using parts from other more common cars with better aftermarket support is normal.  It's one of the main reasons our small enthusiast community is so close.  These cars require owners who enjoy upkeep and creative thinking when it comes to sourcing parts and making repairs.  As a result we end up being fairly like minded out of necessity.