Purple People Eaters 3vz Conversion

[Logan]

Goodies from twosrus arrived today. Have all the parts I need for conversion now, just need to put in (and find)the time.

[Logan]

The V6 made its first scream of mercy in the MR2 today, a good sign of progress. Now just to find out why it didn't turn off with the key and put the exhaust on. Looking good to get it all together for the next run

[Benckj]

Looks like you have your work cut out for you. Should tightned the car up a bit with the new bushes.

[Logan]

The shifter feels amazing all rebushed. It used to be so sloppy I remember on one run where Nick jumped in and checked to see if it was in gear and started it only to have it roll forward. Installed all the new bushes using a vice but it was bloody difficult and the nolathane engine mounts were about 15mm diameter too big so had to sit down and machine them to fit. Car seemed to start and run fine on saturday but come sunday after dealing with the clutch and getting the brake back on etc it seems to only run for 2 seconds and die. So a bit more diagnosing to go.

[Sinturion]

Fuel pump staying on? If not, check your afm and circuit opening relay wiring.

[Logan]

Problems solved today. Had a few wires attached that didn't need to be in the fusebox which meant the front fans would turn on when the key was turned to the off position and the fuel pump wasnt staying on. She is running sweet now so took it up the driveway for a quick test run and it sure feels different. A little bit of water leaking from one of the radiator pipes but other than that all that's left is a bit of tidy up work.

[Logan]

For the first time since I first got my drivers license I am back down to only 2 cars so I am slowly gaining inspiration and time to get back into my MR2 and sort it out.

The car has been off the road far too long so decided to put together a to do list and a list of mods to do afterwards.

Car was running ok late 2013 and was able to drive it on the road for a couple of weeks, however at this time the engine performance felt poor and would not rev over 4000rpm without what seemed to be cutting the fuel. At the time I did not have the fans wired up and got caught in traffic after a freak accident happened on the harbour bridge which resulted in the car overheating. I shut it down as soon as I noticed but had to tow it home as the rise in temperature caused a pipe to burst as the water turned to steam I presume (Thats about 3 pipes the car has burst so far).

Since then I removed the factory computer and installed a MegaSquirt MS2. The engine is feeling far more responsive when warmed up but as I didn't have a wideband installed I was not able to tune it. With its current tune the car will not idle on cold start so needs a helping hand for the first 2mins or so as it warms up. I have since installed a wideband and hooked this up to the MS2 but am yet to tune it, hopefully this will resolve that issue. Since the overheating I have also installed an aluminium radiator and wired the fans up to a switch. I have also given the car a quick repaint in an attempt to fix up some of the bodywork issues. It is not perfect but good enough, my aim now is not to build a show condition car, but something I can use, enjoy, and performs without compromise. Not particularly focused on the looks.

The engine bay has been almost completely deloomed when I installed the MS2 with just the basics left in there and there is a tonne of space to work and do things...pics to come.

To do list to get the car road worthy and reliable:

-Replace battery. The battery in it has collapsed over winter meaning it almost always needs to be jump started at the moment
-Front radiator hose is leaking. I am yet to pull this out and check if it is the hose but have bought T-bolt clamps to suit all of the radiator pipes for the whole car to replace the crappy worm hose clamps, several of which have failed since doing the conversion.
-I would ideally like to relook at the radiator hoses in the engine bay by installing some swaged pipes between the hoses as the straight pipes I have currently installed I feel may be another reason why these areas have failed before.
-Tidy up the wiring under the bonnet - install fused relays for the MS2 and radiator fans or utilise existing relays in the factory block. I would also like to install an isolator switch under here and use this to tidy up the extra wires going to the battery terminals for various things. I have bought 90% of the parts to do this but haven't got to it yet.
-Remove rear coilovers and install factory ones. The coilovers are too hard at the moment and the car feels skittish, probably partly due to it needing a wheel alignment also but would like a good baseline for it.
-Wheel alignment
-Sort out the cold start tune on the ECU
-Fix the damn steering wheel which I bolted back on in the wrong place (centred veers hard right)
-Fix the leaky boot, install grommets between boot and engine bay where needed and seal under the spoiler.
-Investigate why the clutch is back on the floor after adjusting it previously.
-Install an engine damper. Shifting is very harsh with the solid urethane mounts.

All this going well and after I have driven it for a bit and are willing to spend some more money on it I will look at doing the following:

-New Coilovers (probably BC Golds at this stage)
-Adjustable swaybars. Cars tendency is still to understeer
-Aftermarket seats
-Head-back exhaust system. I have started drawing this up in CAD but need to finalise with some dimensions and do some costing on it. The current one on it sounds like the muffler is getting tired and falling apart, plus still has the restrictive y-pipe.
-Cams, depending on whether I can source some, most likely I will grab some from pickapart or similar and get reground as I'm sure aftermarket cams would be too difficult to find.
-After the above 2 points - dyno tuned

[Logan]

Some additional minor things I missed:

-Repaint the intake manifold
-Attempt to put the outer door trim piece back on. ALl of my attempts have failed so far (3M VHB tape and all sorts of glues). Any suggestion on this would be appreciated. If I cant get it to work I will either use countersunk screws and wrap over them or take it to someone who knows the secrets of how to do it..
-Once I deem the car roadworthy again I will seek to renew club membership and come on some more runs

[Logan]

Couple pictures of the car as it's looking now below.

Wish I could have got more done this weekend but had a few things happened yesterday so couldn't get to the car. Small progress today, pulled the radiator out and investigated the leaks. The hoses look very good with no damage whatsoever So re-used these, replaced clips with new stainless T-bolt style hose clamps. Also when I popped my head under saw the radiator drain plug was leaking, removing this found the o-ring had a big tear in it, replaced this and hope it will seal better now. Reinstalled radiator before the rain set in and fingers crossed. Since the hoses weren't damaged I wonder if the system will need a good flush with some pressure to see if there is any build up of gunk in the hard lines. Although the water still looks mostly good and green from the coolant, there was a few gritty brown pieces in there.

Thinking I will setup my isolator switch and relays on a panel under the dash as there is no room really under the bonnet to do so while maintaining the spare wheel, abs etc. Will draw up some quick diagrams for this over the week and source some new terminals and heavy gauge wires.

[mickeyduck]

...my aim now is not to build a show condition car, but something I can use, enjoy, and performs without compromise. Not particularly focused on the looks.

Good man. A sensible approach. I'm looking forward to seeing the purple people eater back in the mix Logan.

In fact, I'm looking forward to seeing my own MR2's back in the mix too...!

I wonder if it'll be you or me gets back out on a run first...?

Sounds like it might be you.

We'll see...

[Logan]

...my aim now is not to build a show condition car, but something I can use, enjoy, and performs without compromise. Not particularly focused on the looks.

Good man. A sensible approach. I'm looking forward to seeing the purple people eater back in the mix Logan.

In fact, I'm looking forward to seeing my own MR2's back in the mix too...!

I wonder if it'll be you or me gets back out on a run first...?

Sounds like it might be you.

We'll see...

I'm looking forward to getting back on a run too Charlie!
At this stage I hope you could get one of your fleet all well and good before me. The car is still at my parents place and with the sun disappearing so early at the moment I only really get a chance to look at it on weekends. Hopefully that will change when daylight savings kicks in though.

[Logan]

Got quite a bit done this weekend I think, and nothing has gone wrong since I started writing these posts again so it must be the key to heading forward. (As opposed to fixing 1 thing and finding two more problems...)
Replaced the rear coilovers with standard struts from a wrecked car we have sitting around..Grabbed quite a bit from it this weekend actually. The springs on them are fairly light and the rear end actually moves again when you lean on the car..should ride a bit better.
Noticed that one of the coilovers was leaking also.
After this made the decision to strip the interior and begin rewiring. Pics below and sorry for some of them being a bit blurry, shaky hands and bad camera.

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Pulled all the seats out as well as all the dash and rear carpet, under the seats was filthy even though it was vacuumed regularly when I drove it. Under the dash is a huge mess with an alarm installed by previous owner strapped loosely to the ignition barrel as well as wires here there and everywhere, pulled these all out and untangled them. Hoping to remove some here by changing where the components are located as discussed below and tie the rest up out of the way.

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Removed some of the wires that were strung along by the shifter cables, still have the big fat loom from the wideband to deal with, not sure what to do with this, maybe reattempt to poke it through the grommet now that the USB cable from the ECU in the boot has been removed.
Also you can see I have pulled the entire loom through from the boot to tidy up.

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Decided to move the ECU and redo the wiring (again)...I guess it has all been a learning curve in what to do and what not to do, however no rush this time and have all the components in place and buying new wires to run so it should all be alot tidier this time around. Removed the premium sound subwoofer (I think thats the right terminology for it?) and can see that it should all fit nicely in there with some fuses and fused relays. Also found some water had leaked in here from an empty bolt hole (I think the standard water pipes bolted through here) which was just sitting there, so wiped that up and plugged the hole. Plan is to trim the standard loom here, this should allow room to fit extra wires to the engine through the same size grommet. And tidy up the spaghetti that was in the boot. Unfortunately the grommet tore when trying to remove it from the loom so will need to source a new one.

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Dummied up position for the isolator switch. Think this location will work ok but still need to test to see if the wires will work ok on the rear. The factory cable to the starter has enough length and can safely route to here. Will probably run another lead to a terminal by where the ECU is to power all of that setup.

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All that is left in the boot. Moved the coil into here, seems to be very moist in the engine bay, all of the bolts and aluminium is going scaley, not sure how to get rid of this or prevent it from reoccurring, Has anyone had similar experiences? Recovered the grommet for the left hole ok but will need a new one for where the HT lead goes through. I noticed that the boot has been dry lately even through the weather, so not sure how it was getting so wet in there before, still suspect the spoiler. Hopefully doing all this will mean I don't need to spend much time in the boot as the sagging boot stay makes it rather painful to do so! The boot barely stays open now.

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Picture of the premium sound sub box with the factory speaker still in it. Free to a good home if anyone wants to use it for their sound system? Maybe it could be retrofitted onto the drivers side if some one was so inclined.

Hoping to get wiring diagrams sorted this week and probably another trip to the shops for heatshrink and wires. Probably a lot of soldering next weekend to tidy it all up.

[Logan]

This weekends progress: Finished terminating wires for the engine. Managed to get it to start and run after a lot of winding over. Sounds like a totally different beast without all the sound deadening in the cabin.

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To finish off the wiring next weekends plan is to:
-Check all tail lights incl high stop light, I noticed the wire to this was appeared to be cut, same as the rear demister. So want to check and make sure these are all functioning.
-Fix the broken wire to the oil pressure sensor
-Run wires for the VSV valves into the cabin as I would like to hook up the ACIS system again at some point and control it using an arduino which will mount in the same area as the megasquirt.
-Then I can tape and cover the loom and secure into place.
-Need to move around some earth wires to make sure everything is earthed properly.

Then I will be on to the water system. Still have all the clamps but am going to look at where I can mount some hard piping instead of all the flexible hoses.

[Logan]

Car made it into the garage yesterday for the first time since I've owned it. So time to get serious about getting it back on the road

[stag]

Any new updates available at this stage? Keen to see this on the road soon.