pbaron's new ride / build

[pbaron]

Hi all,

I have been lurking here for some time and have recently taken the plunge into mr2 ownership. I picked up a 92 NA auto with a bad water pump a month or so back to test the waters, replacing the water pump and doing the cambelt while I was in there got it running again but it was a bit of a slug. I did find it nice to drive though (better than my z32 300zx that I managed to sell after a year on trademe) so began looking for a cheap turbo one. I scored a 90 turbo with the motor out and in parts after overheating and took a trip up north to Thames with the trusty previa and car trailer to pick it up two weekends back.

I am in the process of swapping the mr2 engine bits to a celica motor that came with the car and then dropping this into place. It will keep me busy for the next month or so. If anyone is keen to drop by and say hi after making a trip out to pickapart I am only a couple of minutes away in naenae and would welcome visitors, txt 021 120 4379 for address.

I will flesh this topic out with pics soon.

Cheers
Pierre

[*84vvt]

Nice
If you get stuck look me up as I'm not far from Naenae.
Colin

[JasonFriday13]

Sounds like the same car I was looking at a while back, it's red with no targa tops?

I've done a gen 3 celica turbo swap into my car, so help is available if you get stuck.

[pbaron]

Here are some pics of the car after getting it home, I took the camera with me when I went to pickup the car but it was all business getting it loaded before the rain came down and I did not get around to taking any.

[pbaron]

A couple of pics of some rims I got for it

[pbaron]

I am now in need of a new rear centre panel and boot lock, the rod from the lock to the catch had come off and I could not get the boot to open which was bad as it had half the bits for the old motor in the boot.

I first drilled out the lock as I did not have a key that worked in it in the hope I could get it to rotate and open the boot. Well I got it to rotate alright but the boot would not release.

I then carried out some exploratory drilling trying to get access to the rod to release the catch, in the end had get right up to the catch to get it to release. All of the drilling was done through the rear panel which has butchered it.

If you have a spare panel and or boot lock in the Wellington region or willing to post flick me a pm.

[pbaron]

Quick update, the Gen1 3SGTE I got with the car was going to take too much to get it fitted. In the end I got the car running with a 3SGE that I purchased cheap as from Alex in Palmy and picked up from Wayne in Levin, this allowed me to take the car in for a WOF and see if I had purchased a lemon or not. Got a WOF and only had to sort out some tyres for it to pass as I took it in on the old 14's.

Went to a few club runs like this and then purchased a wrecked Caldina GT-T for the Gen4 motor and fitted this.

Quite a difference with a turbo motor fitted. This conversion was completed a few months back now and I have travelled about 5000ks in it since then without problem.

[pbaron]

Few pics from a run just completed.

[DravidDavid]

These cars are pretty savage with the Caldina motor in the back. They were pretty quick in the station wagon already, but go much better with a 200kg haircut! Just watch the boost. They like to boost creep and have been known to bend rods on anything higher than 15psi

Instant face-lift with the new wheels by the way! Where did you source your gen3 lights and center panel? My center is scratched to hell and does not clip in properly. Probably need to replace the lights soon too. They seem pretty tough to come by.

[Benckj]

Nice work. Was wondering how your project was coming on as haven't seen many updates. You must have a few parts stacking up with all those wreaks purchased.