GDII's SW20 MR2

[GDII]

Its pretty good on gravel with gravel tyres but road tyres make it slippery. Wet grass is almost impossible to get grip on but it loves dry grass.

 

[GDII]

I have worked out that everything that makes this car a car is broken.

Shocks are worn out.
Engine has worn rings and valve seals.
Gearbox is very noisy and hard to engage 1st 2nd and 3rd.
Clutch is shuddering, most likely to do with the flywheel needing to be machined.
Cooling system isn't too healthy. Rusted due to neglect.
Cam belt, water pump and thermostat need replaced. I have the thermostat but I won't install it yet until I get another daily driver.

Brakes are the only thing that seem to be OK on the car and even then they are not as good as I want them to be.
Steering is good but affected by the worn shocks.

Bank balance says no to all these things

 

[Anathema]

So... it's being sold, or something else? I love it, and would buy it if I could.

 

[GDII]

I'm too attached to it to sell. What else can I buy for it's sale price that is anywhere near as good to drive. It would only cost $2-2500 to fix it all anyway. Other commitments come first.

We will be getting a free EP81 Toyota Starlet with only 154,000km on the clock. I can slowly bring the MR2 back to life while I drive this.

 

[JrDarknes]

Bring it freaking back to life. Don't you dare sell it O_O.

 

[Sharky.]

On the bright side, you can take solace in the fact that your estimated repair bill is half of what it's costing me to just have my head gasket and front face gasket done!

 

[Punknoodle]

There is no way that is a 2.5k repair bill.. Lets look at it this way, the best way to approach this is to remove the engine from the car, so that the gearbox can also come out and everything is easy to work on. Open gearbox and replace worn synchros. While gearbox is apart replace bearings and seals. Separate head from block. Freshen up engine, this may require more than just rings and seals, it may need machining etc. Replace head bolts, gaskets, main seals. Inspect clutch, replace if necessary, machine flywheel, replace flywheel bolts. Replace water pump, thermostat, cam belt.

Now, engine is out so it would make sense to check things like engine mounts, replace any hard to reach items like oil pump.. If you are doing a job may as well do it properly.

Using OEM parts and gaskets and good quality fastenings like ARP it's gonna get expensive, especially if the head needs a bit of machining.

Then there is the cooling system, what's rusty? Coolant manifold? May need replaced. Along with the radiator.

Then the suspension, this won't be too expensive though. So yeah. Sorry but to do it properly will cost more than what you think.

 

[GDII]

Haha, if you put it that way, she's ******....

My calcs were:
$600 for new Bilstein shocks.
$500 max for good condition box. Would cost way too much to fix the existing one.
$200 New clutch + abit more for flywheel machining
$1000 to replace rings and valve seals.

The water pump and cam belt is general maintenance so not really included in the cost.

I haven't really looked at the engine rebuild costs but I can do most myself except for machining the head gasket surfaces. But if it's going to cost that much to fix it I will still be left with a slow car and a huge dent in my wallet.

If I sell it I'll get some money and the costs of running it (~$5000 per year) will disappear.

If I just use it as a weekend car it might be better worth keeping. Maybe Autocross it until it dies...

 

[Punknoodle]

3sgte

 

[GDII]

That or a BEAMS. It would be cheaper to buy a factory turbo car anyway.

 

[Sharky.]

I'll take it off your hands

 

[GDII]

You don't want to be a member of the Dead 3S society.

 

[Punknoodle]

No such thing as a dead 3s what are you talking about, strongest engine ever made.








Yeah I'm laughing too.

 

[Sly Guy]

Swap in a Caldina Gen4 3SGTE. That is gaining popularity fast here stateside.

I had the hardest time deciding between keeping my Gen2, or go Gen3 or Gen4.

I decided to keep my Gen2. I will strap a GT3071R to it though.

 

[Punknoodle]

Gen 4 is good as it has the crank angle sensor, COP ignition, side entry manifold and top feed fuel rail. The rods on them are weak though, the Gen 3 rods are much stronger. So in my opinion a Gen 3 is better if you want to make power on a stock engine but if you plan on rebuilding with upgraded internals then a Gen 4 is the way to go.

You will have to either source a Gen 3 manifold for it or have one made if you want to swap the turbo though as the manifold and turbo are one unit.

Either way I was only half serious suggesting it, it would only be worth it if you were able to do a lot of fab work as you would need to do a lot to make it work properly, wiring, intercooling etc and you were going better than stock. If you were going wild I can't imagine it would matter if you started with an N/A or a turbo model as it would all be changing anyway, but if not then it would be easier and more cost effective to start with a turbo model.

 

[GDII]

I haven't done much on the car lately. Took me two weeks to change the thermostat. I drained some of the water out to change it but got stuck. To get the thermostat housing off I needed to get the oil filter off. That wouldn't budge so I gave up. Eventually I decided to stick a screwdriver through the filter. That came off fine. Swapped out the thermostat and put the housing back on. While reading the 3SGTE manual I noticed it said to take off the air con compressor to change the thermostat. Screw that. Way too much effort.

After that I bleed the cooling system, still adding water to it. That's normal for an MR2. Still haven't run it to full temperature yet but I'm sure it will be fine.

Today I drove it out of the garage and washed it. There has been an outdoor water ban here lately so haven't been able to for 3 months. It was almost black, very dirty. Finished that and drove it back into the garage.

I've been driving an EP81 Toyota Starlet lately. We got it given to us so no complaints here. Its actually not a bad car. Weighs 820kg with a 76hp 2E engine. Goes quite well once you get it up in the revs. The car is so simple it only has the necessary bits to make it a car. Engine has a manual choke and points ignition, suspension has no swaybars, no power anything. Light cars rule.

 

[Punknoodle]

Wow, the Celica bay is a breeze compared to that, I could probably change my thermostat in 10 mins, including drainage time!

Did you use a genuine one?

 

[GDII]

Yeah it was a genuine one.

If everything went fine I would have had it done in about an hour from:

Jacking up the car
Removing under tray
Drain coolant
Unbolt housing
Swap thermostat
Put car back on the ground
Remove radiator top cover panel
Connect bleed hoses to radiator and heater piping
Fill with coolant
Check levels
Close bleeder taps
Put radiator/filler cap onto stop one
Run car for 3mins
Check for leaks and top up coolant
Repeat running car until no more coolant can be added
Re-install undertray and radiator panel
Close radiator/filler cap completely
Drive car

Such a simple process.....

 

[GDII]

The MR2 has been relegated to weekend toy now. Suits me fine as the Starlet uses half the fuel and way less oil.

Been fixing something which has bugged me for some time. The black plastic stripes around the side of the car have faded turning patchy white. To fix this I covered them with black vinyl.

Excuse the terrible phone pics.

Also changed the wheels to the stock 15"s. First time I have used them since I painted them.

 

[nissanfanatic]

Snow tyres?!? Must be a dodgy ride on those lol

 

[GDII]

They are actually gravel tyres. I don't drive on them anymore as they are very loud and get slippery when hot. I just put them on today to change the look of the car. Back to my road tyres now. They are absolutely awesome on gravel roads, so much more grip because of the soft compound and they don't float on the gravel.

 

[GDII]

Took a random photo this morning

 

[nissanfanatic]

Nice one

 

[GDII]

Over the weekend a mate and I made some engine lid gas strut brackets. The brackets bolt to the engine lid hinge bolts and to the rear strut tower. The coolant overflow line gets in the way so it now passes through the bracket.

This is his car but they are identical.

 

[Punknoodle]

That is really neat man

 

[GDII]

Nice one

That is really neat man

Thanks guys.

The gas strut is one of the best mods I've done to the car. Makes getting to the engine so much easier. Just pull the lever to unlatch the lid and lift.

 

[GDII]

Took the MR2 for a WOF this morning, passed with flying colours and no notes for things that might fail next time.

Also added this to the fuel filler flap. Drawn up in CAD and traced onto the black vinyl.

This was a previous attempt with the CF vinyl. Hand drawn so it didn't come out too well.

 

[GDII]

Spent a couple of hours wrapping the engine bay cross bar in carbon vinyl. It was rusty under the where the engine lid has holes in it. Sanded it back and wrapped it. Should protect it for quite awhile.

 

[Thatman]

Fancy.

 

[GDII]

Thanks. Heavy weight carbon fibre strut brace. I thought it might get quite hot being directly above the exhaust manifold but it stayed relatively cool when driving today. Althought its not very warm outside. 130-140kph winds and heavy rain keeping temps down.