hi guys,
ive been a long time member browsing builds during my lunch breaks. With quite a few of my friends posting threads i figured it was time i contributed to the forum.
The story of the car starts with me getting a new job a few years ago, a few weeks into said job i got chatting to a new colleague about interests and hobbys and cars popped up. He said he had an old turbo toyota in storage (a wet field with knee high grass) if i wanted it for FREE.
Well the word "turbo" peaked my interest and i asked to go see it. he later told me that he had been contracting 6+ years back and his engine had overheated so he had parked it up and bought a mk4 supra to build. This meant the MR2 started rotting away on his drive and then 2 years later got put into said "storage" in the field.
I went expecting an absolute shed, she it didnt dissapoint, however the interior looked fine to me, and i could see the potential in this car.
Heres how she looked when i got to the storage:
Well i had to have it didnt i :-) So i arranged transport a few weekends later:
Got it home and gave it a good clean, She ended up coming up much better than id thought she would:
I started prodding around and this was the result:
Well it was turning out to be a great time to learn to weld, with the help of my friend steve we started making some CAD templates and i ordered some full length outer sills and got to work:
i flattened the welds then fillered and smoothed the joins:
gave it a lick of paint and reinstalled the door trim:
i then pulled the dash apart and found lots of wiring, looked to be alarm and turbo timer wiring:
I then decided to tackle the fubar engine, which looked like headgasket had failed and the head was full of coolant, which then in turn ended up turning the oil into milkshake, the engine was fit for scrap:
got the cam cover off which confirmed my thoughts:
I then searched long and far and found a turbo engine in Scotland, miles and miles away. luckily a friend was visiting family nearby (talk about luck hey) and he offered to collect it:
whilst waiting for my friend to bring the engine down to the midlands for me i decided to start on old engine removal.
well i got the wheels/rear suspension off and lifted the car with a crane i had borrowed off a friend i also then borrowed a friends dolly to drop the engine/gearbox combo onto (easier to drop engine out bottom of mr2's than the top)
which them promptly failed, me not realising the 3sgte was heavy.......
i made a new dolly and added some sheet steel for strength:
and success, to the amazement of my neighbours id removed the engine without dying:
dragging it down the side of my house was a task in itself, it weighed an absolute ton.
i then had a special delivery and started swapping parts from my dead engine onto my new one, adding all new belts/gaskets etc.
and here she is reinstalled:
I also put in a new alloy radiator to try and avoid the overheating issue again:
whilst looking around the car i noticed the rear subframe needed restorying and some of the arms looked a bit iffy i also needed a few other bits like hoses etc:
" alt="https://i.imgur.com/M7jyyPg.jpg]"]
i also poly bushes all the arms on the car front and rear:
ended up washing the car once it was all back together as i wanted to get it MOTd
and she passed!!
after driving her for an evening after its MOT my fuel pump was getting louder and louder...... the car started jolting all over the place.
i pulled the fuel filter and could see a lot of flakes floating around and the fuel didnt look good.
i ended up replacing the entire fuel system, but the issue wasnt solved.
so i pulled the tank:
it didnt look good inside.....
i ended up buying a po15 tank sealer kit and its done a great job:
whilst doing that i also bought and installed an AEM 320LPH fuel pump.
whilst the por15 kit was drying i sprayed my intercooler pipework:
once again took my car out, and unforunately she still had running issues. i ended up finding out my ECU had blown caps. i replaced them myself and the issue was still there. so instead of just fixing it, i took the decision to buy a megasquirt and get building (again with the help of my friend steve).
this ecu meant i could have launch control/2 step/flat foot shift, very race car:
So i installed a clutch switch
Luckily moving to megasquirt resolved my running issues and she was driving great, However my IATs were much higher than id liked:
the bottom graph shows IAT, 20 at top of 1st gear, 40 top of 2nd gear and 70c top of 3rd... not good at all.
Now this problem is self inflicted, i had removed the airbox entirely whilst trying to fix another issue. well i was getting hot engine bay temps rather than cool air from the side scoops.
a bit of alloy pipe and a filter installed it was time to test the efficiency.... i also plan to make an alloy surround for this.
well heres where ive hit another snag. my alternator gave up on me whilst taking the car up the road. I'm currently sourcing a new one.
whilst thats being sorted out ive started buying kit for the engine:
shes a td05-16g which has had a billet compressor wheel fitted by owen developments
got some ARP head studs off a friend:
ordered some ACL race bearings:
so I'm just planning on ordering forged pistons soon (stock rods do 700hp) and ill be aiming for 350 wheel if possible. may need a slightly larger turbo. the cars currently on stock boost at 225hp. I've also got some Apex lowering springs to be installed.
heres some pictures/video of how she is now:
the video below is me being followed in a friends rx7fb
ive been a long time member browsing builds during my lunch breaks. With quite a few of my friends posting threads i figured it was time i contributed to the forum.
The story of the car starts with me getting a new job a few years ago, a few weeks into said job i got chatting to a new colleague about interests and hobbys and cars popped up. He said he had an old turbo toyota in storage (a wet field with knee high grass) if i wanted it for FREE.
Well the word "turbo" peaked my interest and i asked to go see it. he later told me that he had been contracting 6+ years back and his engine had overheated so he had parked it up and bought a mk4 supra to build. This meant the MR2 started rotting away on his drive and then 2 years later got put into said "storage" in the field.
I went expecting an absolute shed, she it didnt dissapoint, however the interior looked fine to me, and i could see the potential in this car.
Heres how she looked when i got to the storage:
Well i had to have it didnt i :-) So i arranged transport a few weekends later:
Got it home and gave it a good clean, She ended up coming up much better than id thought she would:
I started prodding around and this was the result:
Well it was turning out to be a great time to learn to weld, with the help of my friend steve we started making some CAD templates and i ordered some full length outer sills and got to work:
i flattened the welds then fillered and smoothed the joins:
gave it a lick of paint and reinstalled the door trim:
i then pulled the dash apart and found lots of wiring, looked to be alarm and turbo timer wiring:
I then decided to tackle the fubar engine, which looked like headgasket had failed and the head was full of coolant, which then in turn ended up turning the oil into milkshake, the engine was fit for scrap:
got the cam cover off which confirmed my thoughts:
I then searched long and far and found a turbo engine in Scotland, miles and miles away. luckily a friend was visiting family nearby (talk about luck hey) and he offered to collect it:
whilst waiting for my friend to bring the engine down to the midlands for me i decided to start on old engine removal.
well i got the wheels/rear suspension off and lifted the car with a crane i had borrowed off a friend i also then borrowed a friends dolly to drop the engine/gearbox combo onto (easier to drop engine out bottom of mr2's than the top)
which them promptly failed, me not realising the 3sgte was heavy.......
i made a new dolly and added some sheet steel for strength:
and success, to the amazement of my neighbours id removed the engine without dying:
dragging it down the side of my house was a task in itself, it weighed an absolute ton.
i then had a special delivery and started swapping parts from my dead engine onto my new one, adding all new belts/gaskets etc.
and here she is reinstalled:
I also put in a new alloy radiator to try and avoid the overheating issue again:
whilst looking around the car i noticed the rear subframe needed restorying and some of the arms looked a bit iffy i also needed a few other bits like hoses etc:
" alt="https://i.imgur.com/M7jyyPg.jpg]"]i also poly bushes all the arms on the car front and rear:
ended up washing the car once it was all back together as i wanted to get it MOTd
and she passed!!
after driving her for an evening after its MOT my fuel pump was getting louder and louder...... the car started jolting all over the place.
i pulled the fuel filter and could see a lot of flakes floating around and the fuel didnt look good.
i ended up replacing the entire fuel system, but the issue wasnt solved.
so i pulled the tank:
it didnt look good inside.....
i ended up buying a po15 tank sealer kit and its done a great job:
whilst doing that i also bought and installed an AEM 320LPH fuel pump.
whilst the por15 kit was drying i sprayed my intercooler pipework:
once again took my car out, and unforunately she still had running issues. i ended up finding out my ECU had blown caps. i replaced them myself and the issue was still there. so instead of just fixing it, i took the decision to buy a megasquirt and get building (again with the help of my friend steve).
this ecu meant i could have launch control/2 step/flat foot shift, very race car:
So i installed a clutch switch
Luckily moving to megasquirt resolved my running issues and she was driving great, However my IATs were much higher than id liked:
the bottom graph shows IAT, 20 at top of 1st gear, 40 top of 2nd gear and 70c top of 3rd... not good at all.
Now this problem is self inflicted, i had removed the airbox entirely whilst trying to fix another issue. well i was getting hot engine bay temps rather than cool air from the side scoops.
a bit of alloy pipe and a filter installed it was time to test the efficiency.... i also plan to make an alloy surround for this.
well heres where ive hit another snag. my alternator gave up on me whilst taking the car up the road. I'm currently sourcing a new one.
whilst thats being sorted out ive started buying kit for the engine:
shes a td05-16g which has had a billet compressor wheel fitted by owen developments
got some ARP head studs off a friend:
ordered some ACL race bearings:
so I'm just planning on ordering forged pistons soon (stock rods do 700hp) and ill be aiming for 350 wheel if possible. may need a slightly larger turbo. the cars currently on stock boost at 225hp. I've also got some Apex lowering springs to be installed.
heres some pictures/video of how she is now:
the video below is me being followed in a friends rx7fb
http://instagram.com/p/B0oSRPQnwPV
i know... what a sorry state she was in.