Starting to learn mechanical stuff and dip my toe into the automotive world. I've got a '92 Mercury Topaz GS as my sort of rip around town car. I wanted to know if this would be a good car to play around with and learn or would I be better off switching it out for a newer vehicle? Looking to learn how to take engine pieces apart and put them back together again. New parts, cleaning, wiring, stuff to slowly spruce it up and looking to get right down to the pistons to clean any crud off of them and such if needed. Is this a good idea or would I end up probably breaking the poor thing due to it's age? Engine seems nice and straight forward, but it's also been in the family for a long time, so I'd hate to scrap heap it like flushing an old transmission that's never been serviced much.
This car would be good for learning how to do oil changes, coolant changes and such. Tearing the engine down with no mechanical experience isn't a good idea at all, though. Even "professional" rebuilders in garages don't always rebuild them correctly, even the most basic of engines. The clearance tolerance on those moving parts are so small, they're almost impossible to see with the naked eye. If your car's not excessively burning oil or losing antifreeze with no obvious leak, then there's no real reason to rebuild the engine. The pistons in that engine will be coated in "crud". They've been in a filthy environment for 29 years, but it's not going to hurt them. If the heads are carboned up, you might have higher compression, which would require higher octane gas, but you'd know if that were happening -the engine will knock.
Your car doesn't have OBDII, so practically no modern scan tool will work with it, and you'll be forced to figure out problems like in the old days, by reasoning based on symptoms with no computer aid. If the car runs good, I'd just drive it! Check vacuum hoses and coolant hoses for dry rotting and cracking, replace them if they're doing so.
If you really want something that needs constant tinkering to keep running it's hard to beat a British Leyland product. Some of them can even be fun when they're actually running.
It would be good to learn basic maintenance on, but an engine teardown will likely make you a pedestrian. Don't go that far with it.
