02 Black 1.8t 20v

[Ch33zy]

Not huge progress this weekend. The old engine and gearbox have gone to another home which is another job off the list. I managed to get the gear linkage fitted and connected to the gear cables. As part of the conversion you need to remove a linkage part from the original MR2 gear box. It has 2 arms on it and basically you have to remove one of the arms and weld a new arm on, which is supplied in the engine mount kit.
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One of the arms looks like it has a fixing on its face while the other arm has a smooth face, I took an angle grinder to the arm which looked like it had a fixing. The arm with the hole in it, you want to keep the arm with the stud for the cable. It took a while because I was being extra careful with the grinder but eventually the arm came off. The new arm is a nice snug fit over the stub that's left, this needs to welded into place. I was going to farm this out to an professional but I got bored and had a go with my trusty 25years old no gas mig. This worked a treat so it was ready to fit the Audi gearbox.
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As part of the engine mount kit there are a couple of bearing races that replace the rubber bushes on the end of the gear cables. When I attached them to the cables I used M8 washers to shim them where they attach to the gearbox. I assembled the cables and linkage without the washers first to work out the best position for the cable to keep the cables as inline as possible.
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There is a plate that is supplied that bolts to the top of the Audi gear box to enable the modified Toyota rocker arm linkage thingy be to attached. Once these two were bolted to the box there's a rose jointed rod that connects to the Audi gear selector and the modded rocker. There are 2 new brackets that hold the outer gear cable, one of these bolts to the engine mount and the other bolts to an existing threaded hole in the gearbox. The cable that goes to the modded linkage is for the backwards and forwards movement of the gear stick. The cable that goes to the engine mount mount is the one that does the side to side movement at the gear stick. I can now sit in the car and select the gears. They do seem a bit close together side to side but I plan to mod the gear lever at some point to improve this by giving it some more side to side throw. There is also no gate to stop you selecting reverse but I can't see this being a problem. If it is I'm sure I can come up with something.
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[puma2]

  fair play you going this a go with some fast input  
keep going and keep thread build  you aredoing a good job  

[Nomad]

Hi, any updates? I'm really invested 

[Ch33zy]

In fact I do have a few updates. I might have been quiet on here but definitely still making forward progress with the car.
With the new engine being drive by wire and the original set up using a conventional throttle cable something has to be done to convert the MR2 to drive by wire. I had saved the Audi throttle pedal when I scrapped the TT as I was aware it would be needed. The pedal itself has to be bent straight to work in the MR2. This was achieved by cutting a small bit of the throttle pedal, bending it into shape and then welding it back together. I bit of care is needed when welding it up not to get too much heat in the pedal and damaging the electronics, patients is required.
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The original pedal has to be removed and the new one fitted using an adaptor bracket as the MR2 has 2 fixing holes and the Audi has 3.
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 With the wiring loom conversion kit there is a wire supplied to connect the Audi throttle pedal to the wiring loom behind the passenger seat, this is best connected to the throttle pedal before it's fitted as space is tight once the pedal is fitted. I ran the cable above the pedals, under the centre console and onwards towards the compartment behind the passenger seat. I did have to cut a hole in the cross member behind the seat to route the wire, I used a 35mm hole saw. The hole had an appropriate grommet fitted to protect the wire from chaffing, 35mm being just big enough for the wires multiplug to pass through and plug into the Audi engine loom.

[Ch33zy]

Part of the conversion is to modify part of the gear lever. I don't think this is essential but is supposed to give you a bit more throw from side to side. The rocker part on the side of the lever assembly needs to be removed from the main body as it needs welding and plastic isn't a fan of intense heat.
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 Its pretty simple to disassemble but you with probably needs a new starlock washer to reassemble the lever. From memory it's a 10mm one that's required, I bought a tub of assorted sizes on ebay for a few quid. I then marked the rocker up as the idea was to remove approximately 12mm from it and then weld it back together.
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Once again I broke out he trusty no gas mig welder and got busy modifying the rocker arm.
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Once welded it was refitted to the lever assembly and the whole lot refitted to the car.
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[Ch33zy]

Next up is the air filter. The idea is to mount the filter under the passenger side rear quarter and connect it to the engine using silicone ducting. The rear quarter was removed and the factory air pipe pulled out along with a plastic duct thingy. There's a metal flap that is in the way so this was cut off with a grinder.
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I used an adaptor from Creation Motorsport that clamps to the inlet of the turbo and smoothly takes the 51mm inlet of the turbo out to 80mm. From this adaptor I used a 45° silicone elbow to an aluminium tube which in turn is connected to the silicone ducting that goes out of the engine bay, behind the rear light and along the rear quarter. The ducting is supported with a couple of stainless steel rubber lined P clips.
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The last clamp needs to have a hole drilled in the body work to mount it. This needs to be done with great care as the engine wiring loom is on the other side. Ideally the hole would have been drilled before the wiring loom was fitted but I did it after I'd fitted the loom. To be safe I used an nice thick bit of stainless steel sheet behind where the drill bit was going to come through. This did a great job of protecting the wires. I used a bolt that was longer than needed but with a nut wound all the way along it. This way I could get the bracket where I wanted it and use the nut to lock the bolt into position, giving it a bit of adjustability.
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The mass air flow meter was connected to the ducting at one end and a K&N air filter fitted to the other, this was then clamped into the clamp. The wiring for the mass air flow meter cone through from the engine bay and plugs straight in.
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[Ch33zy]

Next up was to cut the bumper bar to accommodate for the exhaust wanting to occupy the same space. I needed to find the center of the exhaust pipe in relation to the bumper bar. Guessing the center of the hole was one option but I wanted a decent job doing so decided to use lasers.
I used a 3" stainless disc and marked the center of it using a pair of compasses. This was then taped into the end of the tail pipe. I then used a builders cross line laser and set it up so the lines crossed on the mark on the metal disc.
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 The tail pipe was then removed from the exhaust and the bumper bar fitted, the laser was then used to show where the centre of the exhaust was, as this wasn't on the bumper I had to strap a block of wood to the bumper bar. This was the centre for the hole saw I then used to cut the clearance hole in the bumper.
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Once the hole was cut I could then fit the bumper bar. This will do for the moment but I will be revisiting it and welding some material back into the bumper to close off the cut. I need to be sure the exhaust clears it when the cars driven first though.
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[Ch33zy]

Next up is the oil catch cans. I had originally intended to run a tee piece to join the crank case breather to the breather on the cam cover and then on to an oil catch can. After watching Thomas talking about the subject on one of the Zurawski instruction videos I decided against running the 2 19mm diameter hose into one 19mm hose. I decided to fit an additional oil catch can to give the breathers room to work. I used the bracket from the charcoal filter thingy that connects to the fuel tank breather and modified it so the 2 catch cans could be fitted to it. I intend to get some more 19mm pipe so I can run the outlets of the catch cans to behind the back light and I will fit filters to the ends of the pipes. I also have fitted so silicone hose to the fuel tank breather pipe and run it to behind the rear light to route the fumes away from the engine bay.
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[Ch33zy]

The battery had to find a new home because the charge cooler needed the space. I decided to relocate it to the compartment behind the passenger seat. I used some long nuts to get a fixing to the body to mount the battery to. These were shimmed using washers to get them level.
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 Next up I got a 20x30cm sheet of 5mm aluminium and drilled countersunk holes in it to match the position of the 3 long nuts fitted to the car. The sheet was then screwed down with countersunk screws to provide a flat base for a battery tray and clamp. I had purchased a resettable 150 amp circuit breaker that I wanted to fit so I made a bracket for this using some aluminium angle. I used some 25mm2 cable and suitable crimps to make a new positive cable that runs through the bulk head into the engine bay and to the live feed threaded post in the fuse box. The other end of this cable go to the the circuit breaker and onwards to the battery terminal. A new 25mm2 battery earth cable was made and run to a factory earth point near the seat belt reel. Both the new battery cables were covered in tough nylon over braiding, and the ends finished with heat shrink tubing, to offer some mechanical protection. I am aware that I will need to get a sealed battery at some point because it's in the cabin but the one I've got will do for the moment.
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[Ardent]

Great work.

[Joesson]

@Ch33zy
Meticulous comes to mind.
But one question: How will you access the air filter?

[shnazzle]

@Ch33zy
Meticulous comes to mind.
But one question: How will you access the air filter?

Given the size of that thing it's not a worry.
As they say in Russia; you don't access the air filter, that air filter accesses you

[Topdownman]

Fantastic work, I look forward to hearing about the test drive, cant be long now!