A few months ago I picked up my first MR2. 1997 with about 220000kms on it when I bought it.
Temperature Spiked up to red and coolant was boiling over. Turned out to be a partially blown head-gasket causing problems with exhaust gasses getting into the coolant.
Lesson learned: Take cars for more than a 5 minute test drive if possible.
I decided to go for a new engine so I could re-do the timing kit, oil seals, some gaskets, timing kit and water pump, while still having a semi-drivable car to get to work and tech, and to limit car down time.
Fast forward a few weeks, a lot or work, and a few questions on the forum, I got the new engine in the car and got it working again!
Except the engine was leaking oil like a sieve. Turns out using RTV gasket maker in lieu of a proper gasket wasn't a good idea as it was leaking from where the oil pump housing meets with the block.
Another lesson learned: Don't cheap out on car parts.
A good thing about doing all this work is that I am now reasonably good at working on SW20s now. I have a timing belt change down to half to 3 quarters of a day and i'm reasonably confident with most jobs on it now.
So far that's where my MR2s story is at. Still to do is:
- Fix the damned oil leak
- Tidy up the interior
- Get new shifter surround and shift boot
- Get new drivers seat (or fix rip in current one)
- Fix water leak in passenger side window
- Fix deteriorated paint (haven't decided exactly how I am going to do this yet)
- Refill A/C refrigerant
- Get 94+ tail lights (previous owner replaced the originals with pre-94 tail lights
I started cleaning up the interior today, mostly focusing on the roof liner, which the previous owner had gotten grease, oil and whatever else onto.
It Started out like this:
So there was a huge improvement on that. I'm looking forward to getting this car back up to scratch and hopefully having a reasonably tidy example of an MR2 at the end!
