The MR2 Owner's Club of New Zealand

Long weekend was a great excuse to take the 94 Red car for a good run. A few minutes driving and you fall in love with these cars all over again. The Yellow GT is progressing slowly - I managed to get a front lip and engine undertray so these have been cleaned up in preparation for fitting. A box of small plastic bits arrived from Amayama on Saturday so these got fitted. Still need a few more bits but it's nearly there.

I'd decided I really didn't need any more SW20s until this little blue number appeared on Trade Me looking for a new home. It has a blown headgasket and is an auto but damn that colour is good. It arrived in our driveway on Friday. It has done 165km and apparently never quite got into the red on the temp gauge. The 64 million dollar question is do I just do the head gasket or replace the motor? Appreciate any thoughts or advice. Either way a cambelt kit will be required.

Replace the head gasket if it's able to be done. A GEN2 3SGE with that low KMs is rare and also it's a version 2 which is rarer and then the car colour itself is extremely rare! Good save! Being a REV2 from 92-93 it's not common.

Thanks Phill. Yeah I can't lose anything by taking the head off and getting it checked. It would be nice to keep the original engine in it too. According to Carjam, it did very few kms for about 12 years so a good clean of the cooling system will help. I've spoken to Richard at Manawatu Toyota and he has a cambelt kit including waterpump sorted for me ($286 inc GST). And that blue really is stunning.

So it's been a while between updates (and I read a recent comment about keeping this site alive - and I don't want it to disappear as it is my go-to for information).

The yellow GT is crawling closer to the day when I can get it de-cert'd and road legal. I was underneath it the other day fitting the undertrays and discovered the front sway bar wasn't there - you think you'd notice something that big but when you buy a jigsaw puzzle, it is easy to miss the big bits. The rear one is there but with no sway bar links. It does run and looks the part though!

The Sonic got a birthday with some shiny Rev4 wheels fitted to replace the SSRs that it came with. I'd struggled with the look of the SSRs for a while. Other than that it is running like a dream.

The 93 metallic blue auto is road legal after having C'Jay work his magic on it. After pulling the engine and getting the head machined, he discovered the block was too pitted to use, so a replacement engine was sourced (thanks Pierre). Replacement block with recond head along with new waterpump and cambelt and it was fit to drive the 2 and a half hours back to the Hawke's Bay. I took it for a warrant (it passed) though the local mechanic pointed out some water staining on the back of the fuel tank - closer inspection and yes, the copper heater pipe was leaking above the fuel tank (potentially the leak that lead to the headgasket blowing?). I was starting to fall out of love with this car. Over Christmas I put it up on axle stands and started pulling the undertrays and interior out. Once that was out I decided this wasn't going to be a fun job after all - especially being stuck under the car in the dirt trying to wrestle the tank out. Trip back to the local mechanic where it was put on the hoist and the tank dropped - apparently it fought him every step of the way too. We decided to replace the copper pipes completely with heater hose front to back and he did a nice job of fitting it securely. Back home and the undertrays and interior have been refitted. There is still a small amount of air in the system so I'm working to get that out with small drives and small top ups. The engine purrs though and the colour is incredible! Next item on the list is a good polish.

The Sonic got a birthday with some shiny Rev4 wheels fitted to replace the SSRs that it came with. I'd struggled with the look of the SSRs for a while. Other than that it is running like a dream

Glad Sonic is going well for you as it’s a great car. I like the new wheels as well!

Jim - it is a dream. I sometimes even forget it is an MR2 as it is just a "jump in and drive" kind of car

The SSRs might end up on the GT - they'd set it off nicely I'm thinking. I will need to grab some SSR center caps - Aliexpress potentially.

Trotbags wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 08, 2023 10:49 am

Jim - it is a dream. I sometimes even forget it is an MR2 as it is just a "jump in and drive" kind of car

The SSRs might end up on the GT - they'd set it off nicely I'm thinking. I will need to grab some SSR center caps - Aliexpress potentially.

Happy someone like yourself is making use of it. Really only sold it as I didn't want to stack the km's up on my turbo and wanted to get my wife a 4wd sports car for a DD winter driver. Our Audi TT fills that void.

I didn't mind the SSR's but using 15" tyres were a downside. Believe the Rev4's are 15" as well which has limited choices.

If you ever need any maintenance info on the car let me know as I kept a spreadsheet on what was done. Always ran full synthetic oil/filter and changed every year. Trans was done as well including internal filter.