02 Black 1.8t 20v

[Ch33zy]

Hi. I'm due to actually make a start on converting my 02 PFL MR2 to Audi 1.8t power this week.
Thought I'd start a build diary of the process.
First things first a couple of pics of her before I start the work. I've owned her around 18 months and done a couple of mods in that time. Shes got a Malian bumper exit back box with only one of the 2 outlets fitted, a 4 branch manifold and whiteline anti roll bars,front and rear.
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I've been busy in the garage refreshing a 1.8t engine from a 225 Audi TT, with a plan to fit it to the MR2 using one of the Zurawski conversion kits.
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Engine was completely stripped right down. New crank, thrust and main bearings fitted. Cylinders honed and new piston rings installed. A set of uprated conrods were fitted in case I want to go for more power in the future. The rods being a known weak point on these engines over a certain amount of torque. Cylinder head was fully stripped down, skimmed and then rebuilt with new valve stem oil seals and the original valves. The whole carnk assembly balanced. New single mass flywheel,clutch and slave cylinder. The turbo was fitted with a new CHRA with a uprated 360 bearing. The whole thing rebuilt using new gaskets and stretch bolt where required. New cam belt kit and water pump fitted.

[Ch33zy]

First part of doing the conversion required me getting hold of a suitable engine. I opted for buying a whole car, rather than an engine from a breakers or the internet, for a couple of reasons. One was so I had everything from the Audi that I might need and the second reason was that I could get to drive the car and prove it was running ok before I started.
After a bit of searching I found a 225 roadster for sale for sale on ebay that wasn't too far away from where I live. After a little day trip to Great Yarmouth I drove the TT home and then used it for the next month.
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 The next step of the plan was to remove the engine and gearbox which was done over the course of a weekend.
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Along with the engine and box I also removed all the wiring for the engine. The ecu has 2 plugs going to it. One of the plugs goes to the engine loom and is easily unplugged and all the connections to the engine left in place. The second plug goes to a couple of bits on the engine and to a bulk head plate which is just above the pedals inside the car. Undo this bulk head plate and there is a load of multi plugs under the plate. Undo all these plugs and you end up with both the wiring looms that go to the ecu. This wiring loom is required for the conversion. You also need to remove the entire throttle pedal assembly from inside the car, this is also required for the conversion.

[Ch33zy]

This is the basic engine mount kit from Zurawski motorsport, comes with the engine mount plates and the parts needed to use the MR2 gear shifter with the Audi gearbox.
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The conversion calls for the gearbox from a Quattro as one of the engine mounts uses the transfer box mounts.The transfer box is the big lump on the side of the diff housing and transmits power to the rear diff in a Quattro setup.
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Remove the drive flange by undoing the allen bolt deep inside the centre of the drive flange, the transfer box is then unboltable from the gearbox.
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The engine mount kit comes with a nice cnc'd peice of aluminium that bolts in place of the transfer box. This plate seals up the oil passages that let gearbox oil into the transfer box in the original set up. It also takes the drive flange oil seal and has threaded inserts on the rear of it to bolt the rear engine mount to. A different drive flange is required as the one that came with the Quattro setup will no longer work. A vw 02M409356A or 02M409356 will be needed instead. A new gearbox flange oil seal is also required 02M409189
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Mount bolted in place.
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Threaded inserts that the engine mount will bolt to.

[Ch33zy]

The engine mount on the cambelt end of the engine simply bolts in the place of the original mount.
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The gearbox end engine mount isn't quite as straight forward. There is a lump in the Audi parts of the mount that needs chopping off. This is pretty straight forward to do using an angle grinder and a file to clean up the cut.
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Lump removed to provide a nice flat surface for the other part of the mount to bolt to.
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The Zurawski conversion mount bolted in place. All the engine mounts are works of art, made from stainless steel using clever interlocking cnc design and some very nice TIG work.

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[Ardent]

All above my station, but I love this stuff.

I've had the VW 1.8T in a Golf IV, and a 1.9tdi 130 in the same, both happy smiley places to be.

I don't have the knowledge, skills or bollocks to do a conversion but admire those that do.

No idea how practical, but have always thought the the Alfa mito 1.4 cloverleaf (170) would be a great idea. (I also fully accept it might not) and or the 1750 (220) found in giulietta cloverleaf.

[puma2]

  that is some plans you got going on there  
fair play for haveing a go
good that your starting with build thread
keep posting on here how you get on  

[Gaz2405]

Great to see a 1.8t conversion thread going.

Im especially interested in the costs vs my boosted 2zz.

[105e]

What is the toothed wheel on the pulley for ?  i have actually watched most of their guides but i must have missed this...

[cptspaulding]

I'll likely never follow suit but I'll be watching your thread with interest. More power to your elbow!

[Ch33zy]

Thank you all for your positive input.
All the hard work has been done by Zurawski Motorsport. The parts are all available in separate chunks so you can either buy the parts for a particular part of the project or if you're resourceful you can come up with your own solutions. The costs of all parts are listed on their website. https://www.zurawskimotorsport.com  I've personally opted to buy all the parts of the conversion. Engine mounts, driveshafts, exhaust, charge cooler, deimmobilized Audi ecu (with cheeky little stage 1 tune), crank trigger wheel, fuel line conversion, coolant system conversion and conversion wiring loom.
They have also produced a series of 7 videos on youtube with step by step instructions on how to carry out each step.
The toothed wheel is to run the original rev counter in the MR2 instrument cluster. The crank sensor from the 1zz engine is used with a bracket that is part of the conversion kit for this purpose.
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Didn't get much done on the actual car today. I had to move everything to a friends garage so a lot of the day was spent loading and unloading all the parts and engine into the van and then into the new garage.
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I did manage to remove the rear lights and bumper before it got dark. The rear bumper bar is the one that came with the Malain exhaust. Due to the exhaust suffering from the 2 outlets not being level when fitted to the car I blanked one of the outlets off with a blanking plug fitted to the V band joint so it is totally reversible and can have the other tail pipe refitted. I went for having the outlet on the nearside because the exhaust requires the bumper trim cutting and the only available replacement on ebay at the time was the nearside one. Going to one outlet also quietened down the exhaust a little bit.
 I'm hoping to get the old engine out tomorrow.
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[Ch33zy]

Good progress today. Old engine has been removed and engine bay fully degreased and cleaned up. Removing the old engine was pretty straight forward but had fun cutting the drive shafts with my grinder. When I cut them, as they were nearly all the way through, they grabbed the grinding disc due to there still being forces transmitted through the drive shaft from the suspension components. 
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I removed the crank, oil pressure and temp sensor from the 1zz as these will be required for the Audi engine. The crank sensor to read the toothed aux pulley to provide a signal for the rev counter, the oil pressure sensor for the oil light on the instrument cluster and the coolant sensor to send a signal for the temperature gauge. The conversion runs two coolant temperature sensors, the 1zz one for the temp gauge and the Audi one for the engine ecu.
Now the engine bay is clear the next step will be to modify the fuel system to provide a return fuel line to the petrol tank. With the engine out of the way it provides much better access to install this extra fuel line. Been a long day so that's a job for tomorrow.
 

[Ch33zy]

Next job was to modify the fuel system. As standard the MR2 runs a 1 fuel pipe setup but the Audi engine requires an additional pipe adding for a fuel return to the fuel tank. Having the engine removed makes this job much easier. The fuel pump assembly requires removal for the fitment of the fuel return, access to this is under the plastic trim in the bottom of the drivers side cubby behind the seat.
 There's a metal cover that is stuck down with a putty like material, it can simply be levered up to uncover the top of the fuel tank and access to the fuel pump assembly.
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 Once the wiring plug is disconnected and the retaining screws removed the fuel pump assembly can be taken out of the tank. The top of the fuel pump assembly is unclipped and has a hole drilled and tapped in the top to take a 1/8" threaded elbow.
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Part of the conversion requires the removal of the toyota fuel pressure regulator and it being replaced with a blanking plug.
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 I also fitted a new upgraded Walbro  GSS342-KL, as the original one was 24 years old and not designed for the Audi engines thirst, it seemed to be the sensible thing to do. The pump is slightly taller than the original one so the end cap of the fuel pump assembly needed trimming to make it fit.
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 Once modified the assembly was refitted to the fuel tank and a rubber fuel hose passed through the hole in the engine bay, which houses all the pipes and cables, through to the access panel to the fuel pump. This was then connected to the new fuel tank inlet that was just installed.
In the engine bay the original fuel supply pipe has a quick release connection, the connection was disconnected and the fuel pipe cut off to reveal a barbed tail. This tail is then pushed into another rubber fuel hose and fastened with a fuel pipe clip. This fuel hose and the hose from the return are then cable tied to the steel pipe, the fuel tank vent, attached to the bulk head. That's the fuel system modded ready for the new engine.
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[Ch33zy]

I took the opportunity to degrease, wash, polish and wax the engine bay while the engine was out. There are a couple of studs on the near side of the engine bulkhead, one of them hold a guide bracket for the throttle cable.
I cut both of these off to give a bit more room when it comes to fitting the charge cooler, I also gentle massaged the middle of the engine bay bulk head with a hammer and a bit of wood. It bulges outwards into the engine bay so I basically popped it the other way towards the inside of the car to give a tiny bit more clearance between the inlet manifold and the bulk head. With that done the engine bay prep was done.
There are two bolts that hold brackets with the clutch hard line to the bulk head. I undid the top one of these bolts and bent the pipe gentle over around 50mm towards the drivers side, this gives clearance for the oil filter when the engine is in place.
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Next step was to actually fit the engine into the car. I jacked the car up just higher than the top of the engine which was sitting on a wooden board on the ground. This step would be a lot easier if you removed the rear cross member, this gives much more room to get the engine in place with out having to jack the car up so high. I did it with the cross member in place.

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 With the help of a friend we pushed the engine along the wooden board and roughly into position within the engine bay area. I the attached the engine hoist to the rear cross member using a heavy duty engine lifting bracket but I would recommend using a lift strap instead as it would be a bit kinder on the paint of the cross member.
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 Using the crane I slowly lowered the car over the top of then engine until the car was back on the ground. I then unattached the engine hoist from the crossmember and attached it to the engine. The engine was then raised up into position and the 2 side engine mounts attached. The engine was now basically able to hold itself in the car so the engine hoist was removed. I then fitted the front and rear engine mounts. These were treated to Powerflex black inserts, these fill the voids in the factory rubber mounts to make the whole mount much stiffer in an effort to reduce engine rock backwards and forwards. The engine is now actually fitted to the car.
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[Ch33zy]

With the engine fitted I turned my attention to the fitting of all the other parts required. First off the exhaust. This is another part from Zurawski Motorsport and is hand made for the conversion. It's 3" stainless steel straight from the turbo and is a work of art. They offer a few different tail pipes to suit different tastes, personally I went for the through the bumper exit version. I also bought a discreet tail pipe which exits downwards behind the rear bumper, this one has a cat incorporated into it for mot time. A new front pipe to turbo gasket was used and a new lambda sensor fitted. I used a genuine bosch 0258007351, this comes with around 1.5m of cable and plugs straight into the wiring loom.
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The exhaust is pretty straight forward to fit and is held together with v bands, it came with new blue exhaust hangers. Where the exhaust passes under the diagonal part of the body attention must be paid to the clearance there and if necessary the metal of the body work bent out of the way. In the long run I intend to wrap the exhaust but main priority is getting he car up and running first, then fine tune things.
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[Ch33zy]

I've made decent progress so far but still have plenty to do.

Jobs still to do:
Finish wiring.
Fit Audi throttle pedal.
Install drive shafts.
Battery tray install behind passenger seat.
Install 150A circuit breaker.
Get gear linkage bit welded.
Install gear linkage and cables.
Move tab on gear lever.
Bend clutch hard line from gear box.
Clutch pedal adjustment.
Bleed clutch.
Grommet for wiring into cabin from engine bay.
Coolant hoses.
Move fuel hoses-cable tie below vent pipe instead of on top of, hits alternator.
Mount n75 valve and pipe up.
Crank case breather and catch tank install.
Air filter and maf meter install in rear quarter.
Boost hose install.
Charge cooler install.
Charge cooler hose install.
Charge cooler rad install.
Charge cooler water pump install.

[Ch33zy]

The first thing to sort out once the engine is fitted is the wiring. I purchased a wiring conversion loom which makes this a pretty straight forward job. These looms are professionally made and are all tested on an engine rig before being sold. Most of the action takes place behind the passenger seat. The Audi engine loom is passed through the hole where the wiring went for the original engine. I started with the biggest plugs, the ones for the ecu, first. The Audi ecu is used in conjunction with the toyota ecu, I think the toyota ecu is used to send signals to the instrument cluster for revs temp and oil light ect. The conversion wiring loom has genuine plugs that plug into the toyota ecu, Audi Wiring loom, throttle pedal and the toyota sensors that were fitted to the engine before it was fitted. The whole loom is pretty much self contained, it has a live feed that bolts to a post in the fuse box, an earth which bolts to an existing earth point and 3 wires which need soldering into the toyota loom at the wiring to the ecu.
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Also a couple of pics of the crank sensor and trigger wheel set up.
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[Joesson]

@Ch33zy
Impressed with your progress and reporting and even more so that this work is being done Al Fresco.

[Ch33zy]

Thank you Joesson. Yeah the whole job is being done on my friends gravel drive way with the use of his half length garage as a workshop. Luck has been with me this week as far as the weather is concerned but I do have a motorbike rain suit in case of rainy days. I have a 3 ton trolley jack, axle stands and an engine hoist, so no specialist gear used to get the engine in place. For the most part I've also been using my trusty Halfords socket set and breaker bar. I think if you had access to a proper workshop with a lift this conversion could be done in super quick time, a couple of days for 2 people.
I didn't get a huge amount done today. The clutch hose needed connecting so that was done first. The Audi gear box has a concentric slave cylinder inside the bell housing with the pipe for the fluid coming out of a hole near the starter motor. This pipe has a bleed nipple in a housing and the goes to a short length of steel hydraulic pipe that then screws into the flexi house. The original MR2 flexi hose has the same thread size as the rigid pipe from the Audi gearbox but the problem is that when connected straight to the gearbox the flexi pipe is really tight. In order to make the fit better the rigid pipe from the slave cylinder needs the be bent roughly 45°. I removed the plastic bleed nipple housing along with the rigid pipe. My friend happened to have a suitable bender for the diameter of the rigid pipe so I used this to bend the pipe to the required angle. The whole lot was refitted to the gear box and then the flexi pipe was fitted.
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The only jobs left to do with the clutch is to adjust the pedal so it sits as high as it can go and then bleed it through with new fluid.
I also got pics of the the front and rear engine mounts fully assembled on the car. The front mount needs the Toyota part of the mount notching slightly with an angle grinder to clear a strengthening web on the Zurawski mount.
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[Ch33zy]

Something to take note of for anyone else doing this conversion is a small problem I had with the off side engine mount. The bolt that goes into the Toyota mount kept binding up before it was tightened down. Upon removing it to investigate I realised the bolt wasn't treaded all the way down its length. The problem was that the original mount is much thicker that the new Zurawski mount and the bolt was running out of thread before it was tightened. Easily remedied by putting a couple of thick washers under the bolt.
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[Ch33zy]

The other thing I got sorted today was to fit the drive shafts. The shafts are custom made for and supplied by Zurawski motor sport. The have a Toyota end for the hubs and an Audi end for the gearbox. They are supplied as just the shafts so I had to buy suitable cv joints to go on the ends. The conversion uses Rav4 outer cv joints as they are much beefier than the MR2 ones but still fit in the original hubs plus the abs rings are in the correct place.
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The inner CV joints are from an Audi tt quattro. I purchased these from J&R CV joints, the inner are part no jr24 and the outers part no jr141. They are pretty straight forward to assemble, I can highly recommend getting a pair of cv gaiter pliers to help with this job. One thing to look out for with the inner gaiters is not to get the join part of the cv gaiter band in the way of any of the bolt holes that bolt the cv to the gearbox drive flange.
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Feeling very smug that I had cracked them off before doing any thing else with the car I undid the hub nuts. This was done with the back of the car in the air and all weight off the rear wheels. The cvs were then hammered out and thrown on the scrap pile. The new drive shafts were then fitted. The new cvs were passed through the hubs and the nuts done up hand tight. The inner cvs were then wiggled into position and bolted up into place. Due to the bolt on arrangement it made the job very easy and none of the suspension needs to disassembled to make room also not a drop of gearbox oil in sight. The hub nuts will be tightened up to spec once the wheels are back on the ground.
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[Joesson]

Good to have a friend with tools such as that tidy pipe bender.
As for CV gaiter pliers those that came with the gaiter clips I bought were made of chocolate, fortunately my neighbour had the proper job.
Hope the weather stays dry for you.
Keep up the good work.

[Ardent]

+1

[cptspaulding]

Wow! You're not hanging about!

I'd still be congratulating myself on having bought all the bits 

[Nomad]

I've changed the parking brake cables on the weekend and was proud of it.. Your work is insane!!