Bargain-bucket MR2

[The Arch Bishop]

Cheers K T M! That's a very nice sentiment and I appreciate it!

Plenty more to come I'm sure - just needed to kick my own backside into action. It's been a hectic couple of months with family and sick dogs etc, so it's not entirely my fault, but every now and then I need to re-motivate to get on with it!

Consider me 'up for it' again! 

[The Arch Bishop]

Oooop for it!!! Thought I'd start putting the big old mess I'd made back together. I'd bought a new intake manifold from Mr. Sloan so that was cleaned up ready for installation;



and a new gasket fitted;



The one thing I'm not entirely sure on is where the little metal bracket fits on the manifold. My guess is that it bolts to the MAF branch and then to the block half of the manifold to triangulate it for strength. Like this;



If this is wrong, can someone shout?! 

So, next is trying to get it back in. Now Andrew had removed this thing somehow (he'd make a good midwife), but getting it back in... After 20 mins of tickling, cajoling, swearing, grunting, beating and teasing it back into position, it was in.



Some manliness earned back and a great deal of relief.

Onward!

[The Arch Bishop]

Little bit more done today, mostly the tricky job of bolting the intake manifold back up to the head and making sure everything goes back in the right place! Luckily, I'd put everything removed back onto the spare manifold for reference;



Not much more to see as it's too tight to get any photos of worth, but the manifold is bolted back up, although it finished of the cheap 1/4 ratchet I'd bought for removing it - buy cheap, buy twice... I've ordered a decent quality replacement with some birthday vouchers as it was really handy during its brief life.

Most of the bolts I managed to torque correctly up to 22ft but the two that retain the injector wiring are just too awkward to get a torque wrench in, so I've done them up to what feels correct.

When it came to refitting the throttle body, I noticed that the rubber in the metal gasket wasn't looking fantastic;



I'm not sure whether replacements are easy to get or whether it's be worth trying to smear a little silicone around the scuffed bits. Or whether I'm being picky and should just slap it on and stop worrying!

[The Arch Bishop]

This evening I had a delivery waiting for me - Andrew had left me a set of bottom injector seals so I could finish putting the engine bay back together;



I'd had a bit of a head-scratcher with one of the injectors that was in the rail. Three of the four had little caps on the ends like this;



Where as the injector for cylinder 3 didn't have the cap;



Bit of a puzzler until I went back through the considerable service history and found that injector 3 had been replaced due to a fault with the original. When I went to fit the new bottom seals, I found that they were really loose on that injector and that a seal with a slightly smaller internal diameter had been fitted to that one so that it was tight. Very strange, but it used to work so not to worry. I reused the matching seal as it was still in good condition and fitted everything back up. I'm pretty sure that I got it together correctly, but this is my first time dabbling with injector rails (and you have to do it effectively blind), so I'll be looking very carefully for issues when I finally get to start the engine again!



So the engine bay is back together and ready to go?



Close, so close.... but I lost a lot of coolant getting the inlet off;



So there's some of Toyota's finest on its way. Then bleed the system and I'm ready to go. I just hope I've got everything plumbed back in properly.... 



Soon....

[Chilli Girl]

I've really enjoyed reading this along with the pics (I do like pics).  Well done for all your hard work, she looks great.  Here's to her breathing again soon, eh? 

[The Arch Bishop]

I've really enjoyed reading this along with the pics (I do like pics).  Well done for all your hard work, she looks great.  Here's to her breathing again soon, eh? 

I'll drink to that!

Just hoping it all works to some degree!

[The Arch Bishop]

Well, a few more small but important steps forward today after a false buggery start!

I was finally ready to hook the battery up and see if the old bucket exploded into a giant fireball. Battery was charged in readiness last week and was hooked up this morning. However, on turning the key, I was met with the car equivalent of passing out. All the lights went out on the dash, and a big fat nothing happened (not even the anticipated fireball).

Battery back off and hooked up to my Lidl battery charger/conditioner and the voltage is all over the place and it refuses to take a charge. Well of course it does. It's a bank holiday after all and if anything's going to break, it'll be on a bank holiday... 

So a quick scour of the internet provides the information that batteries are expensive from anywhere open on a bank holiday. So I did a tour of the local town. Halfords want £80 for one of their basic efforts (warrantied for 3 years and with a life expectancy of 3 years and 2 hours in my general experience). Euro Car Parts wanted £105 for an Exide one - well no thanks to that, but don't you have a Bank Holiday sale on at the mo? "Only online and collect sir."

Right-oh.

So que the game of sitting in their car park ordering on my phone at a very hefty discount and then waiting for 20 mins for the order to come through their system. Once that was done, I got the Exide battery for a more sensible £58... How very ludicrous...

So on it went;



And as if by some divine miracle, we had life!



So finally, just a bit of bleeding the coolant and topping up;





And we're done.

And the result? Well the problems are still there with it coughing at light to mid throttle openings, but at least we're back to where we started and there's no leaks or explosions. So I'm looking on the plus side!

With that all done, I started having a poke and a prod about starting at the beginning again. I swapped my old MAF in and tried that - it ran horribly misfiring on idle and barely revving at all. Just as a test, I pulled the MAF plug and started it again. It didn't want to run but once it was going settled into a slightly higher but smooth idle. Prodding the throttle I found that it was sharp with no stutter at all...well that's odd!

Swapped my replacement MAF back in and it idled smoothly again but with the cough at light/mid throttle. Whipped the plug out. No cough...

Could it be that I've got two duff MAFs, dodgy wiring or another component is causing the issue and forcing the engine to run at a base map circumnavigates the problem.

A step forward?

[The Arch Bishop]

I had a nice new shiny MAF arrive yesterday from Opie Oils.



Yes a proper Denso one - no expense spared for the bucket.

This was bought in desperation after over three months of cocking around trying to cure the stuttering and the loss of what felt like a lot of gee-gees.

After work, I bolted out to the garage to get it fitted and give it a test. Have to say that the non-Toyota stamped ones look like cheap copies with their sticker in the top rather than it being pressed into the plastic housing, but it was a genuine one so all good.



And the result?

No stutter, all of the horses corralled back under the bonnet (well, engine bay) and the fuel trims all returning to normal levels.

So an entire Summer wasted due to having replaced a dodgy MAF (it was the first part I replaced) with another dodgy MAF. The guy I bought it from I trust and he assured me it was working when it was taken off, so it basically died at, for me at least, the most inopportune moment causing 3 months of unnecessary work and invasive MR2 surgery. That and the loss of an entire Summer's worth of open top motoering. Double arse and cack.

I'd be more angry if I wasn't so very relieved! 

So I'll chalk it up as a very important lesson and move on, zen-like, pushing forward into a MR2-filled nirvana of future adventures of a car with no boot. Or something like that.

It's just as well that the bucket has pulled its socks up too as this will be coming to live with me in a week or two;



MR2x2

[Call the midlife!]

It looks very happy about it too![emoji23]


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[The Arch Bishop]

It looks very happy about it too![emoji23]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Got to love a MKIII goofy face!

[jonbill]

Hooray!

[The Arch Bishop]

After three months of Summer slumber, the now fully-fit bucket was looking a bit dishevelled. During this time the spiders had house-hunted, done a deal at the arachnid estate agents, completed on their new residence and had very much moved in. In fact, they'd already bought soft furnishings and changed the curtains... 







But being a most motivated landlord, it was time to evict them.

First the interior was de-webbed and hoovered (I don't think I'd ever actually got around to hoovering it since I'd bought it);



Then the exterior was given a sluice down. Amazingly the paintwork was still smooth as silk underneath and the wax was still doing its thing, so it went from a big job to a quick one very quickly! Quick dry off and as good as new save for the headlights and the third brake light which had discoloured again. Some T-cut metallic to remove the discolouration and a wax followed by some plastic renovator (it has a UV protect element to it) and those were looking good again.



The back now sporting a Petrol Blog sticker in the rear window - if you're into the left-field, slightly naff or eccentric side of motoring, give it a look - brilliantly written.



That's it really. Gave it a look-around in readiness for the MOT that I'm going to try and get sorted next week.

Oh, and found that the much-loved original dual CD/cassette head-unit appears to be dying. Volume is knackered but occasionally kicks back into life briefly for a fraction of a second every now and then.  Bit gutted about that!

[K T M Rider]

BRILLIANT you've sorted it, although MR2s appear to be worryingly similar to buses round your  way 

[The Arch Bishop]

BRILLIANT you've sorted it, although MR2s appear to be worryingly similar to buses round your  way 

Ha! Funnily enough exactly what my wife said yesterday! 

[The Arch Bishop]

MOT booked for tomorrow at 1pm..... I hate going for the MOT. It reminds me of getting exam results, except you have to sit in the waiting room watching the examiners poking and prodding the fruits of your labour with nothing but a 6 year old copy of EVO magazine for distraction. Rubbish.

I think I'll reset the ECU properly tomorrow morning and give the handbrake a tweak as well.

Fingers well and truly crossed.

[The Arch Bishop]

MOT passed! No advisories this year either which is a bonus! 

Proper chuffed after the rigmarole of the summer.

Phew!

[Chilli Girl]

Well done Lee, all that hard work paid off.  Have a beer tonight or two?

[The Arch Bishop]

I think I just might!

[1979scotte]

I think I just might!

No need I've had a couple for you

[The Arch Bishop]

I think I just might!

No need I've had a couple for you

Damn! So have I! Might have to stop - work tomorrow! 

[1979scotte]

I think I just might!

No need I've had a couple for you

Damn! So have I! Might have to stop - work tomorrow! 

If you sober up you may realise it is time to ditch the stock head unit.

[The Arch Bishop]

I think I just might!

No need I've had a couple for you

Damn! So have I! Might have to stop - work tomorrow! 

If you sober up you may realise it is time to ditch the stock head unit.

NEVER!!!!!

[The Arch Bishop]

Soggy weather be damned! I've waited months to drive the bucket, so it went with me to work this morning where it had a final (not so much of a) surprise for me;



I knew what it was before I read the codes to be honest;



When Shnazzle had sent me some bits to try, there were a couple of O2 sensors that had suspected broken heater circuits in them (ideal for testing but would through a code), but after extensive testing with one of them in, no codes were thrown, so I packed the spares including my O2 sensor up and posted them back.

Luckily, it chose to bring on the light just a few miles after the MOT test!

Made me chuckle a little!

Anyway, I can't be bothered mucking around with resistors so I'll get a new one on order soon.

On the flipside, my stereo started working again. I'm expecting it to crap out again, but you never know...

[The Arch Bishop]

We have a new arrival....

[Chilli Girl]

Dad's car Lee?  I also do like a yellow 2.