2005 Silver :)

[thetyrant]

Not a great deal to report on this ive just been enjoying it

Ive done a sprint event at Cadwell as part of the Japanese sprint series run by Javelin as per my other thread, im at Croft for the all makes Javelin series on Sunday 12th May and hopefully all going to plan will be at 3sisters circuit near Wigan on the 18th May for next round of Japanese series, a tight circuit which should be more suited for the MR2.

Mods wise ive just fitted the Markiii intake pipe at the weekend, its been kicking about the spare room since i bought the car and couldnt be bothered to advertise it so fitted it onto car, havent driven it much since but dont expect much difference however at least it can get a good gulp of air now, fitment was good and easy which a bonus

[thetyrant]

Another Sprint event done at Croft last sunday and car was faultless, balance and handling with this tyre/suspension setup is good despite the relatively soft Tein springs, also drive over to circuit on 1/4 turn from full soft and rides really well soaking up road bumps, tweak to 1 full turn for track and car is brilliant, i even went another 90deg firmer on front as new surface at croft is very smooth and grip was good, didnt play any further as being a sprint event laps are limited so didnt want to change to much and concentrated on learning car and getting good lines to improve my times, went in a little hot a couple of times and front started to push slightly but a little lift off on accell and rear starts to come around to get back on line then back on power, brillant controllable fun

Markiii intake pipe has made intake sound a bit nicer at full chat, possibly a little more mid/top end power but hard to say for sure, no downsides though.

Need to work on my exhaust soon as still got a slight leak under load at low revs which im sure is the flexi on cat pipe, picking up a good used cat and rear silencer this weekend hopefully so i can pull everything off and sort that swapping parts as needed, im at another sprint on Saturday at 3sisters circuit near Wigan so just want it to last for that and then ican dig in.  Plan is to use spare silencer to make a free flow sports silencer and spare cat pipe to possibly build a sports cat, which is another project

Pic of me enjoying Croft below...

[thetyrant]

Few updates on the car this past couple of weeks so time for a short update.

First I wanted to improve body control and reduce pitch/roll on track without compromising the road manners/comfort too much, im on the Koni sport dampers with Tein springs which while a nice setup for road but springs are soft for track when you fit decent tyres, it handles well enough just car get pitched to a fair angle on very hard cornering so I wanted to work on this, ideally I would increase spring rates first but as im on stock damper cases with koni inserts there isn't much choice better than what I have without going custom, in future I plan to address this but for now I went for the Whiteline adjustable Anti Roll bar upgrade both front and rear.

I got a good deal on these from guys at Coordsport/part-box who had probably last set in stock in uk, installation was straight forward just a couple of stubborn fixings getting old bars off (which you can read about in separate thread I did on this if you wish), once fitted along with new front drop links I set them to front full stiff and rear 2nd up from softest after much research as to a good starting point, this gives a much stiffer front end and rear is still a good bit firmer than stock on this setting, ive only used on road so far but car feels much more planted and less pitch/roll in hard cornering and just all feels very hunkered down, I was worried it would upset the excellent balance these cars have but on current setting it hasn't with just a touch more lift off oversteer if provoked but easily controllable even in the wet, will use like this for now and adjust rear bar in future to see how that goes, very happy with the mod though as its done as I wanted with improvement in body control and very little impact on ride quality so would fully recommend it as a mod

Pic below of both stock and Whiteline bars to compare.



Next was just some maintenance really, exhaust has been blowing very slightly at low revs for past few months but not obvious where from! I changed the 3 amigo gaskets for genuine toyota as that's usual suspect and it helped a touch but not totally, so i left it for awhile and used car some more to try and make it worse so i could identify where its leaking but it hasn't changed much!  best guess was the flexi's in cat pipe so I picked up a good used cat pipe and a rear silencer from member on here couple of weeks ago and swapped them all over yesterday with new gaskets and its a lot better, I still think I can hear a slight blow but might just be me listening too hard!  ive been round exhaust as much as a can with a piece of tissue in pliers looking for leaks but nothing showing, only thing I can think is maybe the manifold to head has very tiny leak but its hard to say and could be something and nothing!, I was told a new Toyota gasket was fitted there when manifold was fitted so should be ok and will see how it develops over time, its certainly a lot quieter than it was before I changed exhaust so something ive done has helped

Pic below of rear in disassembled state to get access, not a bad job really and was good to get in there and see how much space as I plan to build a freeflow rear silencer in near future.

[thetyrant]

Just realised its been over a year since i updated this! so below do a quick summary...

Enjoyed the car on road and track for 2019 but the yearn for more power never went away, this was satisfied autumn/winter 2019 as a SP240 Turbo kit with extras like Link G4 ecu was sourced and fitted, things didnt quite work out as engine wasnt happy and see following link for that story - https://www.mr2roc.org/forum/index.php?topic=68357.0

Subsequent to removing the turbo kit i chose to fit another used 1zz motor in its place as finding a good 2zz (which was another option) just didnt pan out, after speaking to MR2 breaker Mr Sloan who is local to me a 76k mile non-burning motor was sourced which im in process of fitting as i type this, hopefully this sorts the smoking/oil usage and i can start again on next plan, not sure which direction to go with it next but sure there will be something

[kwnelson]

Come on Ian,  Give us a hint regarding what happens next?  Keith

[thetyrant]

Haha no clue really, i may yet build another turbo kit as i shouldnt of really sold the last one as it was so close to what i wanted from it just needing a few finishing tweaks! it was an impulse decision at the time as wasnt sure what to do with engine and didnt really expect to find a buyer so soon!, also did think i would go 2zz but the minefield of used engines and also un-tested rebuilt ones was too much to gamble on.

Another option is supercharging with a twin screw rather than rotrex, but as others have found (seen C and others threads on here) space is a problem which is a shame but its one to explore maybe we will see, i need to prove the engine is good before i do anything though so 1 step at a time

I do intend to pull my original motor apart to see what is going on, if its just gummed up oil rings then sorting that and maybe forged rods to better handle boost etc and a general freshen up but, we will see.

[thetyrant]

Ok quick update, used motor i got from DS didnt work and was also burning oil at higher revs , was ok lower down but who drives an MR2 at low revs haha....got some of my money back from DS and decided to pull the original engine apart to inspect/refresh it and there is a post on here about that, basically though stripped it down then cleaned up/measured etc, honed bores, modified pistons, fitted new rings and gaskets etc then popped it back in car

Now got just over 900 miles on it including a sprint event last Saturday at 3sisters where it ran like a dream, managed to  beat several Celica 190's and couple of Mazda MX in my class to get 2nd in class , never burned a drop of oil on the blast up and down motorway and the event so all good with oil still nice and golden

Now time for new tyres before next time on track end which unless i sneak a trackday in will be next Javelin Sprint at end of September at Croft, so thats current project researching tyres which i will do a separate post on, also  going to start getting together parts for turbo'ing again so i have something to do over winter

I still have the engine i got from DS so im going to pull that apart see what it needs, might just refresh same as i did mine to sell it to someone needing one, or maybe fit some stronger rods/pistons  etc to make a stronger engine for boost, we will see!