Newbie from Fife-2 MR2s and a Corolla T-Sport

[dome]

Hello All.

I thought I'd better introduce myself having had 2 MR2s over the last year and have nosied around on here quite a lot but not actually said hello!

My friend and I decided to get ourselves a fun/track car so after a brief flirtation with a V6 Cougar ( I know, I know...) we found a cheap, broken MR2 for sale. We live close to Knockhill in Fife so it seemed rude not to.

I'm not sure whether to continue the story here or start a build thread? There is a Corolla T-Sport and another Mr2 involved and the conversion has just started.

[Davey P]

Welcome to the forum mate.  I'm new around here as well, but in my short time as a member everyone has been really helpful and friendly, so you've definitely come to the right place!

[shnazzle]

Welcome to the fold! Music to our ears "rescuing" a broken mr2. So you're right in the good books.
Enjoy!

[Topdownman]

Hi and welcome,

Sounds like you are going to need a build thread!

[Joesson]

I think the previous three threads leave little to add except another hello, welcome and enjoy.

[dome]

So, our MR2 story started in the wilds of Perthshire in November last year. Having sold the Cougar we began scouting around for a replacement and saw an advert for an MR2 for spares or repairs so decided to investigate.

The seller said the reason for spares or repairs was engine management light on and a ripped hood. What he neglected to mention was the knock from the engine which got worse as it warmed up. "Oh I've not driven it since it started doing  that" was his comment. Yet you never thought to mention it in the listing did you?

After rapid immersion therapy into the potential issues with these cars and with a blatant disregard for our sanity we decided to buy it anyway-the price was too good to pass up.

Here she is as found. Excuse the pic, it was getting dark and my phone struggled



After getting it home I drove it for a brief time to try and get to the bottom of the issues. I absolutely did not (well maybe a little bit) try and rag it so it would break and we'd have to fit a 2zz 😃

[dome]

After a quick wash it came up looking a lot better.





I could then get on with diagnosing the engine issue.

I went through a few things after looking online, aux belt and tensioner were ruled out as was cam chain tensioner. We even used this to listen to the engine, although it proved inconclusive.



Whilst underneath it nosing about I noticed how easily accessible the sump was and decided to whip it off and check out the bottom end. Good job I did! The big end bearings on numbers 1 and 4 had seen better days...

Number 4 wasn't too bad



Number 1 however!



As the crank itself was unmarked we decided to stick a set of shells in it to see if this would cure it. If not then minimal expenditure had occurred and we could fit a new engine.

It only ran as sweet as a nut after that! 

We treated it to a full service aswell as a new sump-the old one had gone porous. Of course we only discovered this after refitting the old one. Still, gave us an excuse to put fresh oil in it which can never be a bad thing.

We could then put some miles on it and sort out the other issues. A hardtop was found and purchased in the right colour for a good price, we then learned very quickly how expensive the fitting kits were!

[jonbill]

Nice work. Surprise that it was a main and #1.  My money would have been on rod #4.

[Ardent]

Hello and welcome

Great opening posts. Keep us updated.
Top marks for saving a 2.

[cptspaulding]

Shahoor, just braw!

As a Lang Toun exile, let me welcome another Fifer to the group. [emoji6]

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[Bernie]

Welcome along great to see a 2 getting some love rather than being broken for parts

[delhusband]

Hi, welcome! My Dad hailed from Kirkcaldy, and I've worked loads in Leven over the last 8 years.

Shahoorsir, just braw!

Fixed that for you neebs. You obvs. been gone too long!

[dome]

Cheers for the welcome guys, and good to see some Fifers onher. Although, i must confess I'm fromAyrshire originally...

[dome]

So, with the engine running well and two oil changes after replacing the shells i could get on with fettling and driving it.

The brakes were all stripped down, stuck sliders freed and new pads/discs fitted.
The precats were removed-this did seem to give it a bit ore in the mid range but more importantly gave us piece of mind(and a tenner back when I weighed in the material!)

A hoon with another friend on about the closest we'd had to a dry day since we got it gave me some more confidence in the wee car. It also was closer than I thought it would be to the wee 172 on the straights which was nice!



Our first track day was booked for March 2018 but the Beast from the East put paid to that.  In the meantime I bought an Auris with a fucked gearbox to fix and sell on so the MR2 got used by my mate who co-owns it. It did very well at being a car and enjoyed amongst other things a trip to Skye to a friends wedding where it performed admirably.

Some pics from Skye

[dome]

So apart from a set of Tein springs getting fitted and a

Brakes were refreshed and new suspension fitted (Tein springs and KYB shocks)  and it was ready for its first track day. This it coped with fine, although it was a steep learning curve being our first mid engine car.



Here it is with a mates MX-5-it's brilliantly set up and he can really pedal. And the Civic Type R I bought broken and fixed up when I should have been doing more MR2 stuff!



Another track day followed and as we had a period in the summer where a big orange thing was in the sky I had an enjoyable couple of weeks commuting and hooning in the MR2 with the roof down. An underbody brace was picked up but not fitted but apart from that the best track day mod was putting a 10kg back of gravel in the front. No, really!


As good as the car was with the now healthy 1zz we couldn't get the idea out of our heads to get a 2zz into it. After missing a few potential donors I took a train up beyond Inverness last July and set off on another mission...

[dome]

Actuall LOL at this forum changing the name of those funny little Mazdas 

So I'd been browsing the classifieds for a suitable donor for the MR2 and after selling the Type T I had a spare insurance policey. A suitable victim was found and a train ticket purchased,  off i went to just outside Inverness and came home with this.



96k miles, full history and owned by the same family from new. It was very cheap as the MOT ran out the next day-I put it in for a test and it sailed through! As we weren't starting the conversion til winter this meant I could use the car for a while and make sure the engine was healthy. The only issue was that the first time I tried to give it the beans I was rewarded with no lift, a 7k rev limit and a selection of warning lights on the dash ☹



Once home and MOT'd (after resetting the EML they stayed out unless you tried to engage lift so not an MOT issue) I set about checking it out. A new set of lift bolts were ordered and the filter for the solenoid was cleaned out-this was caked solid. It would appear it hadn't been in lift for a very long time! The lift bolts were worn but thankfully intact-it was a slightly nerve-racking moment as I pulled them out of the head!

Lift solenoid cleaned-previously you couldn't see through it!



And the lift bolts. Bullet dodged.




Back together and out for a test drive and lift was restored! It pulled very well all the way to the red line and in the wet would light up it's tyres when lift kicked in! Although this may have more to do with the tyres to be fair.. The oil was changed and that was it for the Corolla-it became my occasional daily driver while it awaited its fate

[dome]

Being fairly handy and with lots of coverage online the only part of the conversion that scared me was the LSD swap into the Corollas gearbox. My thinking was that if we could find a used MR2 gearbox then I could use it as a guinea pig to learn how to strip and remove the LSD. This would also mean I wouldn't potentially have 2 dead cars lying around whilst I looked at scary bits of gearboxes wondering what where I'd gone wrong.



The flaw in this plan was that the only gearboxes we could find were either miles away or too damned expensive for our poor Scottish wallets.



Mission creep set in, why spend ££ on a gearbox when for a few ££ more we could get a full car?

[dome]

Enter the next contender, in red which as everyone knows the fastest colour. It was very cheap as the engine was smokey but this suited us perfectly.



The plan initially was (kinda) simple-remove the dead engine and box from the red car and strip down the box to get the LSD out then remove the engine and box from the Corolla and get everything ready to go into the black car. Then, swap the good 1zz into the red car to be sold on and the 2zz into the black car. Are you keeping up?

The slight flaw in the plan(apart from questionable logistics and logic) was just how good the red one was, bar the engine issue. It hadn't moved in about 3 years after getting loads of money spent on the wrong parts of the engine in an attempt to cure the oil burning. The head was changed as was the timing chain, also it had a new exhaust and Toyosports manifold as well as 2 calipers and discs/pads etc.










We decided to stick it in for an MOT to see the results. We knew the emissions would fail as we struggled to see the car through the smoke when it was running but wanted to see what if we'd missed anything. The results were reassuring.






This helped make the decision for us-we would take the suspension and hardtop off the black car, swap the red cars roof and other nicer bits onto the black one and sell it and 2zz the red one!

The handbrake we will look at in due course when I give the thing a full going over, it has 2 new calipers on the back so I'm guessing they've not been fitted/set up properly.

Our fleet together awaiting their fate

[shnazzle]

Love your logic on just buying another 2

[paulj]

No such thing as two many twos!  Keep going until you have filled the whole driveway.

Many of us have a stash of parts we probably wont use, I like the style of keeping all yours in formation and on the wheels.....

[Ardent]

Brilliant.
i am ovwr the moon for you.
Sad and annoyed on behalf of the prev owner. In the sense of being ripped off by shyster garages.
Head work and timing chains. FFS.
Probably the least two things that give problems on a 2.

Tossers.