Jabeo's 1992 MR2 GT

[4CylinderSpecial]

Looks damn nice!

[Jabeo]

Looks damn nice!

Thanks! really want to get the wing painted and holes filled, and to lower car and ill be super happy with how it is

[Jabeo]

So its been a while since ive updated my thread here so im not too sure where to begin as a lot has happened and been done since my last update.

I guess one of the main things that happened was that my girlfriends father decided to turn their old barn shed into a proper garage for working on cars and all manner of practical things. This involved removing everything out of the shed, leveling the dirt ground and laying down some concrete along with all new lighting, insulation and walls/roofing. Along with this came the installation of a 2 post lift which has been extremely useful for working at eye level and making more difficult tasks so much easier. I will do an update on this later on

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Over the last few months ive been buying and doing lots of things to the car, mostly maintenance things but also stocking up on the odd performance modification. I got my hands on an SW boot mat from japan for a really good price, which i went ahead and cleaned up. it looks really nice and clean in the boot. I also went for a WOF a few weeks ago and failed on ball joint play on all 4 corners, as well as sway bar link play (i had my coilovers out of the car for this) so i had to replace those.

Got under the car and noticed that the right hand inner CV was blown wide open so that was another thing to add to the list. It was not overly difficult to remove the axle, i just undid the 6 8mm hex heads from the stub and dropped it out. removed the circlip, and popped the CV joint off and cleaned up the shaft and bearings. reassembled with a new CV boot kit, a subaru one in fact as recommended by tom as they are more heavy duty, good on lowered cars and have more stretch to them. packed with grease, tightened it all up and reinstalled. It was easy enough to reinstall, i cleaned up the bolts and installed with blue threadlocker and torqued to spec using a screwdriver in the brake rotor to stop spinning

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Next up was the ball joints, which i tell you was a bloody nightmare as its like they have never been changed in the cars life, they were seized in there so badly. an extractor tool made quick work of the rear ball joints and i was able to get those swapped easily enough and reinstalled. The fronts however were a new kind of frustrating, i had to remove the lower control arm for both sides ad the extractor wouldnt work. No amount of bashing, extracting or heating the metal would work until i got some help to hold the arm while i used a ball joint pry bar and bashed it with a small sledge hammer and it popped off. That didnt work on the right side at all for hours and hours until the next day when i positioned the arm and prybar on the ground in an upwards V shape on some wood and brought out the big sledge hammer and slammed down on the castle nut, and hey presto out it came! Upon reinstallation of the front ball joints, luck strikes again when i snap the bolt head of the final bolt to hold it to the hub (trying to torque to spec), which brought my mood down dramatically as i had loctited the bolt before putting it in. i sat there with a dremel and a drill bit installed drilling away for an hour to create enough of a hole to get an extractor bit in there, and was able to get enough thread visible for me to clamp down with the vice grips and pull it out. Needless to say, i was glad it wasnt too bad, and the rest of the reinstallation was a breeze. did the sway bar links easy enough too

Now on to a few of the performance bolt ons i have acquired but are yet to put on (aside from the bov ) I have purchased coilovers, installed and used them and they were amazing when i was on track at toyota fest this year, the handling was improved greatly and the dampening adjustability is great for switching to street/track configurations. However they are currently not installed again till i go to certify them. I met a nice fellow in auckland through trade me when i managed to pick up an ATS racing billet CT20b turbo (ct21 "blackjack")off of him for a good deal. the turbo is stamped by ATS, and has also been rebuilt last year by them, with receipts included.

The turbo has been ported bigger and had a bigger billet wheel fitted so that it can flow better, hold/take higher boost levels with out breaking and is more durable. It is covered under warranty too by ATS which is always good. Along with this i also got a ceramic coated berk 3inch down pipe (made before berk went a bit shit) from the same person, in really good condition with no damage whatsoever complete with a spare o2 sensor and the bracket to support it. I also picked up and oem turbo hotpipe that had been fitted with a GFB deceptor blow off valve, so i disassembled it, cleaned it all out and installed and it sounds amazing! love the sound it makes and i have the option of adjusting the vent and re circulation as well as volume, so i can tune it to my liking.

I also got a full turbo gasket kit from toyota as well as the hoses from hell as well as some other gaskets that need to be replaced when i decide to install my new gear. With Carl deciding to pull the trigger on his 5sgte build he had no need for his gen 2 stainless charge piping and intercooler so i picked those up off him as well as a gen 2 MAF compatible TCS racing stainless steel 3inch intake kit. the charge pipes are of high quality and are 2.5 inch from the turbo to throttle, with a huge intercooler and shroud with a fan which should help with keeping temps down a LOT. I still need to get a bov adaptor, some coupler reducers and some t bolts to get this installed. I have also picked up an ebay spec exhaust from the turbo guy, with a mid pipe which i will do at the same time as the downpipe. I have been spending the last few days cleaning it up and its coming along nicely.

All in all, there will be some massive breathing increases for my engine coming soon, and i expect that i will notice a huge difference in power and response. This is not to say that i will be neglecting any precautionary measures first however. i will be adding a wideband o2 sensor and gauge first as well as pulling boost down and adjusting accordingly with my fuel cut. I dont plan to go balls to the walls with these mods, and will do my best to not put the engine within an inch of its life.

[Mr-Paulio]

Glad to see you had a smooth run of the CV boot swap and enjoyed it. Unlike my previous experience!

Good job!

[Benckj]

Good work completing some tough and not very enjoyable jobs. Certainly makes life easier when you have a roof over your head and lift to boot!

Keep us posted on your progress.

[mknz]

reassembled with a new CV boot kit, a subaru one in fact as recommended by tom as they are more heavy duty, good on lowered cars and have more stretch to them.

Got a part number there or car and trim level it's used on?

Am I the only one crawling underneath still?

[Benckj]

I crawl in the dirt as well. Don’t even have a roof to work under yet.

[Mr-Paulio]

Am I the only one crawling underneath still?

Haha, they make you lazy! I need to do a bunch of things to the SW but tell myself I can't because the AW is on the hoist, and it will have to wait. Truth is I'm bloody spoilt now & don't want too!!

[mknz]

Am I the only one crawling underneath still?

Haha, they make you lazy! I need to do a bunch of things to the SW but tell myself I can't because the AW is on the hoist, and it will have to wait. Truth is I'm bloody spoilt now & don't want too!!

The laziness is there regardless of whether or not you have a hoist, it just allows you to justify buying one

[Jabeo]

Good work completing some tough and not very enjoyable jobs. Certainly makes life easier when you have a roof over your head and lift to boot!

Keep us posted on your progress.

Hahaha, thanks, though it seems like theres some more un enjoyable tasks coming up. but hey thats part of the joys of owning an old car and keeping up with the maintenance right

Glad to see you had a smooth run of the CV boot swap and enjoyed it. Unlike my previous experience!

Good job!

Yeah it wasnt too bad, a bit messy but it was pretty painless and made sure to keep my patience in check during disassembly and re installation, though i wont jump at the chance to do it again

reassembled with a new CV boot kit, a subaru one in fact as recommended by tom as they are more heavy duty, good on lowered cars and have more stretch to them.

Got a part number there or car and trim level it's used on?

So i used a subaru inner CV that i got through BNT, part number: BT53591
it fit well and felt durable and tom said it worked well on cars that were pretty low. just tightened up the metal ties real well

Ill do a bit of a shed update while im here, i currently live with my girlfriend in a sleep out unit on her parents property, that had a big barn shed on it. If you look back in mythread you might see some old photos of my car in the shed, it was pretty dusty and musty to work in there. No concrete, dirt ground and no doors of any sort. My girl friends dad is a an ex rally driver and used to race rotarys, namely an RX and a 323 hatch. He always wanted his own big shed instead of a garage, and a lift so he pulled the trigger. over the last few months ive been helping him set it all up inbetween all the contracting stuff thats been done as well. He did all the electrical and wiring himself and has 3 lights above the main work bench, and 5 down each half of the roof bays. Heres some pics of how it looks now

This is what will eventually a metal working type of bench with grinders, linishers and a welder nearby, (thats my tool box on top) and the other is the main work bench where a lot of tools and things are kept

Here is some of the storage we have got going on, as well as some boxes of my spare parts and the wheeley bench which is remarkably useful for putting tools on and having them next to you

[Jabeo]

So if you havent seen or heard already, there have been some major developments in following on my previous thread about my leaky engine (https://mr2.org.nz/forum/viewtopic.php? ... 49#p148649). Following on from this i picked a full engine gasket kit (ex japan) full timing kit, water pump assembly, and oil pump seals, all through mark at Manawatu Toyota for a really good price that couldnt even compare to aftermarket sites. Cant thank him enough for helping me out with these. This is everything i have for the engine below, some of this i already had prior but havent installed just yet.

In taking receivership of all these parts, i suppose it was time to get cracking on some work and get the engine out. I spent both Thursday and friday doing the more simple finnicky stuff such as draining the fluids, disconnecting hoses and plugs and pulling the LH axle out. I then enlisted the help of my boy Tony from Auckland to drive down on saturday and give me a hand and put this lift to work getting the engine out. For the most part i followed these 2 guides to the T, with some added help from the bgb to top it off.

https://midshiprunabout.org/mk2/engine-drop-prep/
https://midshiprunabout.org/mk2/engine-drop/

I was lucky enough to be able to separate the oem downpipe and exhaust from each other without a nut or stud breaking on me which was awesome. I wasnt able to get the RH axle and carrier out with out dropping the subframe, and 2 of the exhaust bolts were rusted to the exhaust badly. tony and i unbolted the trans mount from the underside (3bolts) and dropped the whole exhaust and subframe as one unit, and slid the exhaust out like that. After that we test fit my replacement exhaust which is full 3inch with 4 inch tips and i must say that it looks pretty badass

Next up we took a look at the AC unit and how we could get at the bolts. got the bottom 2 undone and went at the top 2, but 1 was missing I have never really ever used the AC since ive owned the car, but my gf has and she complained that it doesnt blow cold. so tony and I took a gamble and cracked the AC lines, and low and behold it hissed for a few seconds and there was no more gas. With that confirmed, i have decided that i will delete the AC compressor from the engine, as it will make the engine much simpler, less to fail and more room to work on things, with an added weight saving bonus! With the subframe out we were able to easily to unbolt the carrier bearing from the block, slide it off the dowels and pop the RH axle out of the transmission. Next up we tackled the slave, undid the 2 top bolts, removed the through bolt which was enough to pull engine back to undo the bottom 2, but there was an issue to come...

We went to loosen the 4 bolts holding the front mount to the fire wall, 3 came free fine but the 4th.. oh boy it loosened a little, then some more and then tightened and it just felt weird. gave it some crc and tried again, and crack! the bolt was loose, however i think it also took the nut it was threaded into on the inside of the chassis rail with it. I think it broke the weld or something, so not sure what to do there. its loose but cant be removed so just floating in the hole. if i cut the head off, the remainder will roll around inside the rail

next up the passenger and drivers mounts, so we let the crane take some weight, and undid the 2 bottom nuts on the RH mount and the 3 bolts on top, then the braces and through bolt on the LH mount. started lowering the engine and slowly but surely it started coming free from its mounts! however the turbo compressor housing was catching on the front engine mount attached to the firewall. turns out there was just enough clearance for the engine to lean itself back and make its way out on its own. ENGINE IS OUT!

Had a nice long lunch and break, shouted tony a box of beers, and then we took the transmission off as it would be easier with 2 people. and suprise suprise 2 bolts were missing from the transmission, holding it to the block, and it actually slid off incredibly easily, which makes me think its been off before at some time in its life. the output shaft even had some grease still on it. So proud of ourselves being able to do this, and for it to go relatively painless. anyways, its very late, im tired and i have a lot of work ahead of me so ill keep you guys updated

[mknz]

Mate, you have heaps of space there. Too easy

Yeah, mine was missing all but four bolts if you ever plan to get a cert you'll need lock washers or OE bolts as I have found out.

I took the exhaust and subframe out together as well. It's a lot easier if you have a helper to get them mounted again because you'll need to wiggle the subframe around to get all four bolts back in without cross-threading. I would recommend mounting exhaust first, but I see you have a new exhaust on anyway.

[Jabeo]

Ive decided that i will probably start looking into new clutch options, maybe something a bit mroe heavy duty, along with a lightened flywheel of sorts. However deciding on a clutch and flywheel and sourcing them seem to be a bit more of a challenge than i thought. The car has an OEM replacement exedy clutch on it currently, but i have heard mixed responses on the exedy HD clutches. can anyone offer an insight on the clutch set they are running if not stock?

[4CylinderSpecial]

Ive decided that i will probably start looking into new clutch options, maybe something a bit mroe heavy duty, along with a lightened flywheel of sorts. However deciding on a clutch and flywheel and sourcing them seem to be a bit more of a challenge than i thought. The car has an OEM replacement exedy clutch on it currently, but i have heard mixed responses on the exedy HD clutches. can anyone offer an insight on the clutch set they are running if not stock?

I'm about to put in a HD Exceedy one so let's see It did include an OEM TOB which is nice at least.

[Jabeo]

Hi all, after pulling the 3sgte out of my car for some work ive decided to start documenting the work ill be doing on the engine and the car, as i feel like there is not enough 3sgte specific content out there on Youtube. Check out my channel and video if you want, and let me know what you think! Hit us with a sub if you would be keen to see some more work on my engine i was a bit nervous in the video but if i keep it up i might be able to help some people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjcjWZd4boY&t=3s