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Tommy's AW11 1.5 Swap!
Still thrashing my wee 4AG, so decided against putting this in a specific forum as i dont know what lump i will go for when the time comes yet. Anyway, have neglected a write up so far on this forum, so will cut and paste my write up into here from my blog to get the progress up to date. Here it is from the start:
Heres my wee MR2 when I picked it up last year:
So whats been happening since I bought it?
...Well at that moment its the MR2 that was in the lockup. As per the plan I have pulled the Camaro to the 'rents for storage so I can get this wee puppy back to rude health. Initial fears were that the non antifreeze'd engine had ripped a headgasket or something during the winter freeze. Turns out the worst I had to deal with was replacing some weakened coolant pipework and hoses. New rubber lines installed and its holding unpressurized water in the back. Tried to start it but the battery is fairly flat. Tomorrow should see it running and hopefully the coolant holding!
Next up I had to address the exterior. First was getting the old 3 spokes off and something a bit more appeasing to the eyes:
Same size as before but a bit more universal than the dated 3 spokes. So thats the wheels sorted, next I had to deal with the dented bonnet which had came from a ton of compacted snow landing on it when I had parked it up and was working abroad: £20 from eBay:
off
on!
Sorted! Next I had to instal another little purchase I made, but cost a bit more than 20 quid. Scoop ahoy!
As you can see theres a charger on there too, battery seems to be failing to hold a charge... another expense on the list!
Moving on from mods, the window wipers were also a reasonably easy fix. The balljoints connecting the arms to the rods had failed so a second hand set were sourced and retrofitted. Wipers are fixed!
Engine coolant leaks were an easy fix too, transpired they were fractured metal pipes and perished rubber hoses. A wee bit of jiggery pokery had that sealed, and the collant topped up with antifreeze (fool me once...)
As we were half way through feb I saw no point in taxing the 2 and gifting governmental cnuts with free tax. The MR had gained a couple of weeks grace in the garage so I decided to niggle hunt and futureproof the perishable items to prevent further breakdowns. I also decided to chop the springs to improve the rideheight a bit... First the front:
Strut removed!
Strut split
Front end split. Everything seems ok on the suspension front on this side, only areas needing addressed are the ratty flexis, a flexi retaining clip which disintegrated on removal and some better discs. Once reassembled with one coil removed teh difference was substantial:
Not ridiculously low but a definite improvement on stance. Certainly low enough for me to have issues getting the jack out!! Now the rear: Much like the front in every sense as the suspension is independant in the back too. In fact, its pretty much a FWD clip flung in the rear of a car and the tie rods clamped! Biggest issue back here was the droplinks which had siezed threads. Simple solution:
Chop clean through the bolt with a thin angle discs and give it a chap. Bye bye nut!! Sadly the links themselves are dead, so 2 rear links are added to the shopping list! Another coil out the rear and that was the drivers side of the car appraised and dropped!
So half way there! Got new discs and front pads on the way, and rear droplinks are ordered. Still need to source braided brake lines and some new retaining clips for them, and that should do it for the MR2! Oh, and drop the passenger side!
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Put some finishing touches on the mk1 last night, culminating in a test run of the engine. Will cover that later on, but lets look at whats been done in that time!
For a start, I was not halfway there as claimed on my last post. The problem with overhauling a car is that its easy to get carried away. One such incident was this:
Found some heavily soaked carpet in the passenger footwell. Now, knowing that the car had previously burst hoses due to the lack of antifreeze, my assumption was that a tired heater matrix had burst causing leakage into the footwell. It wasnt till I was halfway through ripping out the dash that I thought to question this, and instead fire a heater in there to see if the problem continued.
2 Days of sauna-like conditions proved me wrong. I had gathered a full inch of water in the footwell from damp and condensation! Carpets removed, dried and the interior refitted, and now no more water. Back to the repairs!
When working on any old J-tin, always plan 1 day ahead so you can DRENCH any component to be removed with WD40. It saves a lot of wasted time in the long run:
This allows the removal of scrap metal with ease (although the coil was mostly due to an angle grinder)
Now on with the new parts!
New flexi pipes from HEL installed
New front discs and ferodo fast road pads
New rear droplinks (to replace the chopped old ones)
A closer look at the rear discs. In a word - pumped. Time to replace those too!
Replaced! Fired some Mintex pads on the back while I was at it, they were on special offer anyway (eBay)
New battery fitted, as the old one had decided not to hold a charge
Rear flexis fitted, and system bled. Bricks for brakes now!
Now for some basic servicing. After the antifreeze disaster I was taking nothing the previous owner told me to be true. Off comes the timing belt for a swap over.
While I was at it I fired in some new plugs, cap and rotor arm in a bid to eliminate the mild "miss" I was experiencing at higher RPM. As it turns out, I was quite right to do so:
Slightly worn! Whilst waiting for parts to arrive I became a bit bored. Cue a new steering wheel, Titanium gearknob and snap-off wheel boss:
and the cam covers being whipped off for a paint:
The results of this will be shown shortly! As of writing this I am still awaiting front droplinks arriving. They were the only component I didnt deem neccesary to replace during my refurb. Turns out I was wrong as I jacked the car up to do the TB and heard an almighty twang from the front.
More worrying was the first start I mentioned earlier. Had her running for a warm up last night... lots of white oil-smoke! I'm hoping thats due to being sat up for weeks on end, will try it again today and see if there are any improvements. The other worry was the total lack of oil pressure on the gauge, but I had a full fresh sump of oil, no rattles or noises to suggest lack of pressure (I think these have hydraulic valvetrains too, so if there was no pressure there would be a fairly loud ticking on idle) and no loss of oil. As I think about it I did have a large rubber mallet on about the crank pulley to do the timing belt, and the oil pressure sender is right around the corner from there. Will have a check today.......
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Got the '2 taxed and on the road again. First drives helped identify a few problem areas...These were as follows:
1. Handbrake weak. In all likelyness brakes need bedded in. To be re-appraised.
2. Minor oil drips. Could be from undertorqued oil filter.
3. Head unit still pumped. Sound only comes on after a bump in the road. I forgot about this one!
4. Dash light on fuel gauge side flickering
5. Metallic skimming noise coming from O/S whilst moving. Suspected dustguard bent out of shape.
6. Car was a joke for handling. Darting all over the road and heavy to steer. Front ARB to be refitted ASAP and tracking to be reset.
So how did it fare once I pulled it back in? Well the first hitch was simple. Took the rear wheels off and clocked the witness marks on the rear discs were negligble. A week later and the rear pads have bedded in better. Got the car holding on Montrose street in the city centre, and on one click too!!
Oil drips. My first concern was I had maybe clattered the oil filter when wrestling with the timing belt change. Not even that! I had forgot to torque down the cam covers after repainting! Easy to find that fault too, just looked for the highest traces of oil...
Dash light has been a one off fault. No more flickering so if its not coming back i'm going to resist ripping the dash binnacle out!
Metallic skimming noise was indeed a dust gaurd. The O/S/F brake dust gaurd has deteriorated and split, with the bottom half contacting the disk. Again, simple fix... bent the cover back.
Handling. Now without the front ARB droplinks I was unabe to do much. Well, theu finally arrived yesterday so I popped them back on along with another cheeky mod I acquired while waiting for it to arrive: A rear SW20 (mk2 mr2) ARB. Much stiffer, at 1.5mm thicker. Definite improvement in handling too, with the car having that pinpoint go-kart like precision!
Head Unit. Not quite an easy fix. Electrical stuff is never my strong suit, so Having sound cutting out could be anything. In the end a dodgy rear speaker turned out to be the culprit. Headunit was replaced with a modern iPod compatible unit, and some Kicker components installed up front. Rears remain disconnected for now, but I may install replacements in a different location....
Outside of the snagging list I had a few modifications. First: JDM lights:
You may notice a lack of spoiler. No, not for a despoilered rear...There have been a few changes made to it.
First, shifted the spoiler back a mounting hole...
Cut off the excess parts that don't blend in, and fill the open gaps with expandy foam!
...and fill in the gaps then smooth! Here it is in place where it will now sit:
Much more purposeful angle!
So that now needs repainting, along with a couple of holes welded up in the bootlid. For now though, its back in rude health!!!
Last edited by Tommytank; 13-01-2012 at 20:38.
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Its been a bit radio silence from me for the past month or so. Been stuck in Mozambique earning the pennies for the Camaro (next project), but I found some last minute pics I threw on flickr before I left, so will pop them up and update!
First up, I doubled the cars horsepower. An often overlooked modification, just be careful to purchase the green one as the red one just makes your car impossible to park:
On to more pressing matters, I found that I was getting a constant puddle in the footwell. It caused some alarm to be honest as I had suspicions it was due to a leaking heater matrix and really didnt fancy hauling the dash out to fix it. An afternoon cleaning her after vax'ing out the puddle and I found the puddle grown again! We have a leak! Carpet back and it was sourced to above the throttle pedal. Baws. Needless to say its probably a very inacesable bit of rust, so the solution for now is ductape over the vents below the window wipers. Crude but effective!
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No big changes for this in a while. Had a pulley shear in half, but a wee glue session seems to be holding up. Heres some pics from the shake-down drive I took to test it on:
The Dukes Pass
First pit stop, at a quaint garage for juice
And by juice, I meant Irn Bru, not overpriced petrol!
Second pit stop, Duck Bay
On the banks of Loch Lomond
Last stop, Helensburgh for a chippie
Good route, took the Drymen road, then wound a left for Balloch, and cut through to Duck Bay. From there we jumped up the Helensburgh Military road, and down into Helensburgh for food. Last leg was the Clyde coast to Glasgow. Good times!
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So i'm offshore at the moment, and as those who know me will confirm, that means money gets spent on cars. First case in point is the wee AW11. Been a while since I last spend anything on her... the last modification was really the exhaust, and since then its been basic maintenance. New rear bearing, handbrake cables and other niggles have been addressed. Since then though, there has been a car re-shuffle. The daily plugger Merc 180 has gone, the cursed "modern reliable" BMW has been traded in and a nice sensible Fiat 500 acquired for the other half. As a result the dinky 2 seater I bought for her can now come back into my hands....
Again, those who know me will know what that means. If I am the sole driver of a car, I can put up with much more than most in the interests of having a well modified car. See previous threads on the twin-plate clutch equipped Supra for example. Naturally, the wee MR2 can now become the car it always should have been, modified to the standard I always wanted. Of course, the Camaro is still taking up the garage time, and frankly, most of the garage funds. However, most of the work outstanding on the camaro is fairly labour intensive rather than cost wise, so I can afford to venture my wallet onto other pastures. Right, enough background excuses and explaining. Heres what i've bought:
...a set of Image split rims. 6 spoke, 16 inch (IMO perfect rolling rad for the aw11). They are coming with rubber, but jury will be out as to whether it will work on my current ride height. Oh, and most crucial point, those above rims are for the front, measuring 16x8. The rears look a little like this:
16x9. Nice and staggered, giving the wee MR2 the stance and poise its been lacking on the concentric 15s its on at the moment.
Another point worth noting is the offset of these.
Zero.
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Its all a bit Carlos Fandango at the moment though...
Fronts look ok fron this angle, but there is a good inch and a half of outwards poke here, and the rubber catches the arches with the slightest of steering turn. I might get away with changing to stretched rubber here... I hope. The other option is going to be coilovers to set the rideheight bang on. See here:
Not legal. Oh, and thats the good end. Heres the back:
Will need some wide arches here, as thats 2 inches of outward poke:
I have some rivet on goodness up my sleeve for this solution, but it will need to wait. The rear tie bars are absolutely destroyed at the moment, giving me the fear over every bump in the road. Need the inner bushes AND the outer balljoints changed. Currently concocting something better than the 200+ quid toyota only option, and it will look better too. Other advances in this are:
...clear side repeaters, and...
...clear front repeaters, and...
...a bloody good scrub. That white stripe has been painted proper since the pic, I just primered it to keep the winter rust out.
Still to come, more suspension upgrades!
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240Z arches! It's a must.
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