Another Noob's MR2 journey

[voxson]

After lots of searching, I went with "redlinevip" on trademe who is just redline performance. $40 per bottle. You need 3 of them. Shipping was $9. Same price as their website https://www.redlineperformance.co.nz/c/ ... dline-oils but it was easy just to use the paynow feature of trademe than sign up to another website I will only use once every 5 years.

As you know you will need a hose to pour it into the filler. It is an 18mm bolt so get the largest tube that will easily fit (about 2-3 feet) and a funnel. I only had a small tube and it took ages to fill. If you want to borrow my 24mm 6 sided socket you are welcome to. I had it made after rounding the transmission fill bolt on my celica many years ago.

Thanks man.

[voxson]

(partial) rust sorted!
First tackled the early stages under the car, then tackled the little bubbles in the roof/pillar, and the nasty on the passengers door.

Now - I'm probably as far removed from being a panel beater there is. I'm more at home building PC's and tacking memory subtimings & overclocks, than making magic with body filler and paint. Anyone that does know what they are doing, probably don't read any more...

Not having an angle grinder that I trust, I used a baby flat head screw driver to have a little explore of the rust. The roof had a tiny hole I filled, but also a huge slab of filler across the top of the passengers door arch, with lots of rust spotting.

Same was for the door - It just kept coming off! I decided that I would go as far as the paint / filler was easy to come off, thinking that if it came off easy, it was already compromised underneath. I put on rust converter before I started the filler - that is the goopy film in 2nd pic, so hopefully that will help in the years ahead.

Bogged, sanded, bogged, sanded, etc and it turned out pretty bad! Actually, I'm actually quite stoked with it, and while it definitely still needs a good cut, I feel pretty proud.

Just like the rest of the car, it looks nice from about 10 meters

This was all done after work for the ~1 hour before sun down, and when it wasn't raining. I tarped the car over night, but it wasn't at all weather tight.

Of course, it was very exposed to dust and crap blowing around, and the painting tonight really got bad - I'm not too fussed about this was just a needed rust repair and because I'll spend some proper time doing the whole car in summer.

I should have taken more photos as well.

[Benckj]

Good on ya for giving it a crack. At the very least you have preserved the body and learned a new skill. Maybe when it comes to summer you will tart up some of the sins that aggregate you the most. Sunlight can be a huge eye opener.

[voxson]

Good on ya for giving it a crack. At the very least you have preserved the body and learned a new skill. Maybe when it comes to summer you will tart up some of the sins that aggregate you the most. Sunlight can be a huge eye opener.

Thank you. I think I will be re-learning this a great many times moving forward.

Ha, I think the last time I did body work was on my Rx7 oooo about 20 years ago, but that was just a rolling body that never went anywhere while I had it.

The fails on this were the cold, particle exposure (dust & dirt), my bog mixing & spreading, my nonability to feather paint - but all still a good learning experience!

The bog was actually the most annoying part. I kept finding little holes/divots in the bog while sanding, and I don't know if this was my mixing, or the weather or something else

[Benckj]

Try using spot puddy to fill in little holes. Can use straight from tube without any hardner and it’s really fine so easy to spread & cover imperfections. Can even use over prime coat when wet sanding.

[voxson]

Try using spot puddy to fill in little holes. Can use straight from tube without any hardner and it’s really fine so easy to spread & cover imperfections. Can even use over prime coat when wet sanding.

Thank you - good idea for when I eventually do the whole car later on.

[voxson]

Welp.

Well something decided to poop itself over the past week.

There is now a very significant oil leak (~500ml since last check, which was after doing the rocker cover / distributor gaskets). It looks like it is dripping off the engine somewhere under or near the power steering pump.

To my eye it doesn't look like it is coming from my work, as its still clean around what I can see from the gaskets, and given slant and side of the leak it doesn't seem likely.

The weather is garbage and I don't really have a weatherproof area to try and figure it out.
I'll try to check later on after work, or on the weekend, and de-grease the crap out of the underside to see where it is coming from.

Am I right in thinking it could be oil pan, or maybe crank/cam seal(s), oil pump seal, oil filter, dipstick holder... what else is there on that corner to check?

[GDII]

Welp.

Well something decided to poop itself over the past week.

There is now a very significant oil leak (~500ml since last check, which was after doing the rocker cover / distributor gaskets). It looks like it is dripping off the engine somewhere under or near the power steering pump.

To my eye it doesn't look like it is coming from my work, as its still clean around what I can see from the gaskets, and given slant and side of the leak it doesn't seem likely.

The weather is garbage and I don't really have a weatherproof area to try and figure it out.
I'll try to check later on after work, or on the weekend, and de-grease the crap out of the underside to see where it is coming from.

Am I right in thinking it could be oil pan, or maybe crank/cam seal(s), oil pump seal, oil filter, dipstick holder... what else is there on that corner to check?

It will be the alternator rather than the power steering pump.

As the engine leans over oil will show up on the back of the engine from any one of these going from top to bottom

Oil filler where the user has split it while filling
Valve cover gasket
Cam shaft seals
Head gasket
Oil pump gasket to block
Oil pump o ring (more a spaghetti looking thing)
Oil pump shaft seal
Sump to block/oil pump
Drain plug

Quite often the oil pump o ring and/or shaft seal is the thing leaks. Or the sump to block but less often.
To replace these seals the cam belt needs to come off. If you do find it is these seals best do all the seals on the front of the engine and the idler bearings and water pump.

To find an oil pump leak you almost need to half remove everything for a cam belt replacement as you need to remove the crank pulley to get the lower plastic cover off to see anything.

The best thing to do is clean up the engine the best you can and observe where the leak is coming from. This is your plan anyway.

[tw2]

Unfortunately need to take the engine mount out to replace most of that stuff including timing belt. For inspection take the timing belt covers off and have a look. Front main seal is also on the list.

Power steering pump is electric and in the frunk.

[voxson]

Unfortunately need to take the engine mount out to replace most of that stuff including timing belt. For inspection take the timing belt covers off and have a look. Front main seal is also on the list.

Power steering pump is electric and in the frunk.

What do I need to do to take out the cam end engine mount? Just unbolt all the connecting bits?
Should I / Do I need to jack up the engine at all?

I degreased and scrubbed as much as I could reach from under the car and the oil is looking to be coming out from somewhere at the mount location - coming from the join site from the top cam cover? dunno, have to keep digging.

Ran out of light before I could figure out how to even get the cam cover off - got 4 bolts out, but I need to find whatever is holding it in on the power steering pump side.

From peering inside, the belt looks pretty new, and there is definitely some muck around cam gears, but this doesn't look like wet oil, just old build up stuff.

Time to study up on the engine manual

[tw2]

I seem to remember there is another bolt hidden in the middle which is hard to get to so should be 5 bolts in total for the upper timing belt cover. Do you have a PDF of the BGB?

The side mounts hold the majority of the engine weight so yes you will want a piece of wood and a jack under the oil pan to move the engine up and down a bit as needed. Other than that it is a couple of large bolts/nuts at each end of the mount.

[voxson]

I seem to remember there is another bolt hidden in the middle which is hard to get to so should be 5 bolts in total for the upper timing belt cover. Do you have a PDF of the BGB?

The side mounts hold the majority of the engine weight so yes you will want a piece of wood and a jack under the oil pan to move the engine up and down a bit as needed. Other than that it is a couple of large bolts/nuts at each end of the mount.

Got the bgb from the members section, and the '93 3sge workshop manual.

Going to try to reorganise my tiny garage, which is basically just storage, to see if I can sqeeze car in to keep trying to sort the leak. Back up is getting Grey St Motors to do it, but I really want to avoid that if I can.

Reality is that if the mechanic price is close to me buying all the parts and needed tools + time spent.. my CC might have to suck it up and just get it done there.

Looking through the manuals, there are a few SST's for removing the crank pulley, cam gears etc, which I dont have.

Do you think it is worthwhile investing in an impact wrench to get these off?

I need to price up the seals/pumps/tensioners/belts too... figure out if I am eating instant noodles this month :/

[Benckj]

No real SST's required for cam belt replacement. Getting the crank bolt off is probably the hardest part which could require a way to secure pulley & break bolt free. I used the old drive belt to secure pulley and an impact gun to remove bolt.

As indicated above, the engine has to be dropped low enough to get crank pulley off. this requires the removal of the front mount and lowering chassis brace down a few cm's. Helps to have a floor jack under engine to control this and push back up when required. After new belt & cover installed and pulley back on you can raise engine for better access to install WP, idler and tensioner.

[tw2]

I haven't used any SST's ever. I used to use the starter trick for the crank bolt but I couldn't actually recommend for someone else to do it. Cams easiest way is to remove the valve cover and chuck a wrench on them to take the bolts out of the gears. The timing notches are in there too.

[voxson]

I haven't used any SST's ever. I used to use the starter trick for the crank bolt but I couldn't actually recommend for someone else to do it. Cams easiest way is to remove the valve cover and chuck a wrench on them to take the bolts out of the gears. The timing notches are in there too.

Looks like I would need a harmonic balancer puller to get the crank pulley off?

I emailed toyota to see what the damage would be for parts, and for lols also asked for a quote on them doing it

So, cams seals, idler pulley, tensioner, cam belt, water pump, water pump seals, oil pump seals, crank seal = $548.99 ex gst for parts, $870 ex gst labour to do the work ($1634 all up inc gst).

Those timing belt cover gaskets... $$$ (35 & 94).

Ive got to do some diagnosing first though, head gasket will oc be a little different.

Maybe time for a spanner day submission!