Forever Uncleeeeeeaaaannnnn
Ok, time for heart surgery.
Like I said, the new car ran, but not well. You could tell at least one cylinder was low on compression. It also blew some really cool smoke rings out the tailpipes.
The last time this car will move with it's original motor. Kind of sad, and kind of exciting. I parked in the garage to give myself as much room as possible. The garage is already all knees and elbows, when you add two drivetrains, engine stand, engine hoist, tools, I start tripping over my empty beer cans pretty quick. With the car like this I cannot fully close the garage door, but I can live with it. Anyways, get the car on jackstands, pull battery, and let's start disconnecting the topside of the motor.
Tom, Tom, Tom, I thought you did things by the book. This menagerie of vacuum lines cobbled together with zip ties tells me a different story. I know, it's just a stupid vacuum line, but still... ten connections when it only needed to be four?! Oh well, it's all going. Up next IC lines and intake.
Oh boy. Oil.
All over my newly finished plywood floor! This is why we can't have semi-nice things.
There was quite a bit of oil in the IC piping, which means there was a lot of blow by on those rings!
KO Racing exhaust came out pretty easily. In fact it's already sold and going to a good home tomorrow. You also see all the IC piping, if someone wants a greddy style IC kit, contact me for a great deal!
Let's drain the transmission. Which apparently was being lubed by Predator blood. Good to know Tom was a certified badass for killing the Ultimate Hunter and draining his blood to use in his LSD e153! It probably helps with thermal imaging and making super weird screeching noises, exactly what you want out of your transmission.
After the tranny was drained I got one axle out, the other preferred to stay in for the entire ride. Up next the 93 crossmember. The 93 crossmember is different than the 91 I had in my old car. It is supposedly easier to drive, and gives you more warning when you're driving the car at it's limits before loosing traction and spinning. The 91 is a bit more... aggressive, and is preferred by most really good drivers. Since we all know I'm not yet a really good driver (see 1st post), I'm going to keep this and see how it performs this summer. If I like it, I'll keep it, otherwise I will pick up a 91-92 when I start casting spells in the black magic of suspension tuning.
We're getting close to dropping the motor, I've skipped over the boring stuff like shift cables, slave lines, front and rear motor mounts, coolant draining, blah blah blah. Pulling the motor from a "new" project car sucks. Everything is filthy, and every bolt hasn't been touched in 23 years. A lot of colorful language was drowned out by Neil Young on the stereo, and beer was frequently needed for mechanic lubrication. The breaker bar made an appearance for the duration of the extraction, and the always recognizable aroma of PB blaster followed me into the house every night. Not exactly man-perfume like diesel or two stroke. It wasn't that much fun, but progress was being made.
When I got to pulling the electronics, I made another weird discovery. The engine harness was cut on one wire and ran into the bay...
To an aftermarket knock sensor? Weird, but ok? Doesn't really affect anything, just noting it. I shoulder shrugged and pulled it.
Now we begin the full on motor drop! Dun Dun Dunnnn! If you haven't before, dropping the motor in a MR2 in a tiny garage without a lift is... interesting. By interesting I mean sketchy. But, this ain't my first rodeo. First, lower the motor/tranny onto your pick of furniture dollies or skateboards, and then reset the engine hoist to pick the chassis from the subframe bolts. Oh yeah, also forget to remove a few sensor connetions and almost break them when lowering the motor.
Then, raise the car ridiculously high into the air to scoot the drivetrain out! I had the front wheels off the ground, so the chassis couldn't roll on me. And obviously, I never got under the car. I pulled the motor/tranny out sideways. Lets put the motor aside and asses the bay.
...About as clean as a turd sandwich. 160k, leaky motor, leaky axle boots, leaky everything. It was gross. I pulled the intercooler, heat shields, cruise control, and basically everything I won't be needing. Let's roll this thing out for some fresh air!
BOOTY BOOTY BOOTY ROCKIN' EVERYWHERE. I forgot to mention I had to loosely re-install the subframe to get the wheels back on and roll it out.
Time to hose this thing down with degreaser (over half a bottle worth), and then scrub it down with soap and water.
Oh yeah, let's drag out my transmission and get that thing cleaned up too.
It doesn't look that bad on camera... but it had a lot of road grime.
Ahhhh. Better. But you know what, that motor mount is bugging me. See that flat piece coming off it?
Yeah, that dumb mount piece. It's not needed for 95% of MR2 owners. It holds a strut rod connecting to the transmission. Apparently for dampening tranny vibrations. I'm all for tranny vibes though. In my last car, I removed the dampener and never felt a difference. So I'm doing the same with this car, and now I'm going to clean up this mount. Plus it gives me an excuse to bring out the angle grinder. (insert chainsaw noise... )
Sparks were flying. I was in love. Nothing better that cutting metal.
After I cleaned it up with a flapper disc. Time for paint.
Like it was never there. Kind of makes you feel sorry for the 80's Toyota engineer who probably spent 2 months working on sorting out the pretty much nonexistant tranny vibes with a pretty inventive little system. But nah, I don't feel sorry, the sound the dampener made when it hit the trash can was music to my ears. And weight reduction bro, never forget about weight reduction, bro.
Where were we? Oh yeah! The engine bay! Well I cleaned the oil/grease/oil/grease/grime/roadkill pretty thoroughly. Then, I went full hog wild and even waxed the bay. I know.. why?! It's a racecar Mike, no one cares. Well friend, there's a wise saying in the automotive world, "not every show car is a racecar, but every racecar is a show car." Have better words ever been spoken? Probably, but I'm going all out with cleaning.
I also want to clean up the wiring where possible. Like I said, the cruise control is making it's exit with this swap. So is the air conditioning. I am keeping the power steering and ABS though, so not going full stupid weight reduction bro. Not yet at least. Since the cruise is not returning and the actuators and throttle cable system are already gone, I wanted to get rid of the CC wiring harness. All those connectors aren't doing anything any more.
Let's pull that harness apart.
We're only keeping that grey sheathed wire, that's the ABS sensor for the rear right wheel. The rest gets the axe.
Wire reduction bro!
I re-sheathed the ABS sensor wiring and re-attached the plug. Looks pretty good! I think this has given me the confidence to try something I've always wanted, a full wire tuck. They're actually pretty straight forward on MR2s, you can route the main loom through the chassis and run the fuse box in the trunk. Not much, if any, re-wiring is needed. I also plan to go with an aftermarket coolant overflow and oil catch can.
Check out the cleaned up engine bay with new ABS wiring!
I'll be able to sleep now. Coming up next we will attempt the wire tuck, and get this gen3 3sgte in!