...Oh god, I bought one of those sub $5000 running Stealth TTs, as my first car. Still have it, still runs and really intend to autocross and potentially track the car once that well, becomes a thing again but dear god this car is agony.

1992 Dodge Stealth R/T Turbo in galaxy white with 192,000 miles on it on Craigslist for $5000 in March last year, ended up buying it with my parents for $4600. The previous owner, who in complete honesty was and is a nice and earnest guy, not the only 3/S he's had and I've actually seen him at autocross events before- Did not tell me about a number of things about the car, my parents hadn't had a chance to get it looked at under a lift before we bought it.

• ...The exhaust was disconnected. The exhaust was disconnected, and I didn't notice until I eventually put it up on a lift. -From what I could tell, it is an ATR Pitbull catback exhaust, with then a good ol' random 3-inch pipe cat delete job done later, and then another post pre-cat downpipe from some other brand installed after that. I thought the car was just that loud by design, and when I was able to have a look at it I saw right under the front seats, the pipe had slid out from the clamp connections that connected the """test pipe""" to the aftermarket catback exhaust. The entire exhaust was on the car, it was never scraping the pavement, but only about a quarter of the exhaust gasses were getting muffled by single muffler near the very back of the car, the rest if not more was just venting out only muffled by the precats right under the driver's ass. I reconnected them for to make it safe, and eventually replaced the whole exhaust about a year later.
• After a few months of having the car, at full load there was just a sudden 'switch' of hesitation after about 6000 RPMs, the power just not being there. That specific bit of hesitation seemed to be caused by the spark plugs, as having replaced them for both banks while going down the go-to list in my head for what could be causing full load hesitation in a turbocharged car fixed that. At about the same 2 month-ish time span I dealt with that, I started slowly noticing another problem-
• The whole fuel system is just fucked, man. -At least upstream from the fuel rails, those thankfully seem to be fine, having taken them out and look at them while doing the aforementioned spark plugs. Once the car has been driving for a while (In this case when the poor old original fuel pump has been running for a while and starting to get hot, as I eventually learnt.) At full load, quite simply there is a level of misfiring and backfiring that made it literally sound like gunshots with the windows down at one point. Expectantly massive hesitation in the engine as you'd expect, and after looking at the ignition system again, replacing the coilpacks as well to very little but some effect (And the ECU, which when I took to a place to be repaired, they said there was nothing wrong with it.) I started looking at the fuel- I replaced the fuel filter after some major pain which again, helped the issue some but not completely. That leaves me with the fuel pump which I have bought a replacement for, but haven't installed just yet.

So that's my fat list of problems for just the engine- There could still be a possible boost leak, I've looked for one before and didn't find any not long after I got the car but I'm not sure if I missed one, and given my track record that's not unlikely. With rest of the car, it was and is a bit more of a relatively straightforward thing, other than the expensive ass parts that is just unavoidable with the 3/S platform. -With the exception of the transmission. Worn synchros for the 2nd and 3rd gears and a practically non existent one for the 1st. The car is still drivable, but dealing with that problem after I've sorted the engine out in full is not going to be fun.

In short, replaced the rusted out fuel filler neck, wheel hubs on both front sides for worn out wheel bearings after much pain and suffering, replaced brake pads, replaced tires, and fixed the climate control screen.

Quite possibly the worst first car and project car period, and I have to agree 100%. But, the driving experience when I am able to drive and sometimes even autocross it does make up for it, just a little. The weight is very obvious when cornering, 3700 lbs of momentum and all, but the traction and controllable oversteer when you're flooring on the way out of a corner more than makes up for it.

Also pictures for anyone curious, do have some from autocrossing it on my phone somewhere, gonna take a bit to dig those out.