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!

[Ch33zy]

It is a case of removing the rear quarter to access the filter but it only takes a few minutes to pop off.

Next job to tackle was the final wiring connections. I'd already trial fitted the loom to work out where everything needed to go but hadn't fitted a grommet where it goes through the bulkhead or soldered the wires that need to be joined to the Toyota loom. I reused the grommet from the Toyota loom and got all the multiplugs through it, which was quite a squeeze but I got there in the end. All the various plugs were reconnected, there are 3 wires that need to be soldered to the MR2 loom near the ecu, that was the wiring completed. The conversion loom made it a very easy job.
The cooling system was next. I had a set of Mishimoto red silicone hoses for the MR2 that I'd bought when I first got the car but hadn't got around to fitting so now was a perfect time to do so. I bought the cooling system conversion kit which came with a silicone hose to go from the thermostat housing on the front of the block to the one of the metal pipes under the car to the front.
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There's a metal pipe on the front of the engine block that comes from the back of the thermostat housing, this is connected to a t piece. The branch from the tee goes to the lower feed on the expansion tank and the other outlet goes to the metal pipe nearest the passenger side under the car.
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The Final metal pipe from under the car is connected to a cast aluminium 45° housing. The original mr2 coolant pipe is used but cut in 2 just after the first elbow from the engine. Also coming from this housing is an outlet to the temp sensor housing on the head and a couple of smaller pipes. One of these goes to the coolant feed to the turbo, the pipes are 2 different sizes so are adapted using a barbed brass adaptor. The final pipe goes to the top of the coolant expansion tank, again these are 2 different sizes so I used a brass adaptor.
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With the coolant system all reconnected I decided it would be a good idea to buy a tester kit to check my work rather than find out on the maiden voyage. I filled the system with water first in case there was leak and pressurised it to 1.5 bar for 30 minutes. The radiator cap is rated to let by at roughly 1 bar so the coolant system should never see this sort of pressure. Everything held up so the system was drained and then refilled with coolant.
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[Ch33zy]

Final part of the puzzle is the charge cooler kit. This places the charge cooler in the engine bay where the battery was. First up was fitting the mounting bracket which bolts to the engine mount using the existing mounts for the battery tray. Once this was in place the cooler itself could be fitted along with the new map sensor housing and connecting hoses. I'm planning on running a gauge that measures the intake air temperature of both the inlet and outlet on the cooler so the sensors for these were fitted but drilling and tapping the cooler in the appropriate places.
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The cooler is a snug fit but uses all the space available. Although the water side of the cooler hadn't been fitted the car was in a position to be started. So the engine was filled with Millers competition running in oil. The fuel pump disconnected electrically and the same with the coil packs the key was turned......a click from the starter but no turning of the starter motor!
A quick look around the car revealed I hadn't tightened up the earth cable between the gear box and the body. With this tightened up the ignition was once again tried and the starer worked this time. I cranked the engine over until the oil pressure light went out. Coil packs and fuel pump reconnected the car was turned over and burst into life settling to a nice idle with everything sounding like it should. I let the car warm up and check the throttle works, which it did.   The main job left now is to plumb in the water side of the charge cooler.

[Ch33zy]

Last major job was to mount a radiator and water pump for the charge cooler. I purchased an AVS 12v water pump and a 24" x 7" twin pass radiator from chargecooler.co.uk. The radiator was to be mounted at the front of the car in front of the engine radiator. I used some 2"x1" aluminium rectangular box section and knocked up a couple of brackets to mount the radiator to the car. These had holes holesawn into them to aid air flow and were then given a coat of black stone chip before being bolted into place and having the radiator mounted to them.
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The water pump was mounted to a support bracket for the front trunk liner and wired to the live feed for the power steering pump via a 5amp inline fuse. This means the pump is on whenever the ignition is on.
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The header tank for the system was stuck to the top of the charge cooler using some tiger seal to keep to keep it in place.
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The pipework from front to back was tucked up above existing hoses under the car from the cooler and fed through to the front.
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With the chargecooler system filled up with coolant it was time to go for a test drive. The maiden voyage was just a quick lap of the village where I did the work on the car. It had been a long time since I had decided I was going to build a 1.8t 20v MR2, around 3 years, and now I was actually getting to drive it. Needless to say I came back from the initial drive grinning from ear to ear.
I had done most of the actual engine swap at a friends house about 45 mins drive from where I live so the next step was to get the car home. With a boot full of tools, jacks and general breakdown tools my friend followed me home. Fortunately none of it was needed as the car performed perfectly on the way home. I'm having to run the engine in after it's rebuild but I can already tell it's so much more powerful than the original engine and makes all the right noises from the turbo. First and reverse are very close to each other but I'm sure I'll get used to it and it pulls away in second gear with no issues if needed. It cruises at 70 at less rpm than it did with the original 5 speed Toyota set up and is much quieter at that speed than it was before with the Malian exhaust. It seems to have really good road manners at normal driving rpm and speed, it needs running in before I can explore its full capabilities. There's still a few little jobs to do, ie wire up the charge cooler AIT gauge, fit a boost gauge but it's mostly done and just needs running in and driving now.

[Topdownman]

Great progress as usual!

Everything seems to be going perfectly so lets hope that continues and we see lots of pictures of you out enjoying the car after all your hard work.