Working on MR2's sucks, All finished! Options

[95CelicaST]

Let me preface this entire thread with this:

I love my MR2. It's a total blast to drive, iconic image with a cult following, and on the off-chance that it isn't raining in the pacific north west it is nice to cruise with the tops off.


However, working on anything in the engine bay is a nightmare.

A couple weeks ago I was coming home from work and I noticed a strange sound coming from the engine bay. It was RPM dependent, but went away after ~ 3000 RPM's. It sounded similar to a wheel rubbing on a fender liner, but I wasn't moving. I got out and checked for smoke or leaks and found nothing, so I babied it home (roughly a mile from work). I pulled it into my garage and shut it off.... and immediately found the problem. I had coolant pouring out from the plastic timing belt cover. The noise I was hearing was the bearing in the water pump failing... and then fail completely.


So I ordered up a new water pump, timing belt, accessory belts, pulleys, valve cover and spark plug tube gaskets, etc. as well as new cap, rotor, wires, plugs and a new clutch kit.

This is where the problem is - there is about an inch between the timing cover and the frame. It's virtually impossible to get in there and replace everything. So after researching it seems the popular - and easier method of doing this work is to drop the motor, so I enlisted the help of a friend from school who also owns a MR2 and we tore into it this weekend. The BGB says the motor will come out the top of the car, but I say nay. After scratching our heads we tossed the BGB and dropped the cross member and lowered the motor to the ground, lifted the body up, and slid the motor out on a creeper.


So this week I will be stripping the motor down and cleaning everything up. I've got to drop the flywheel off for resurfacing and drop my injectors off at Witch Hunter to be cleaned and flowcharted. With any luck I'll get it all reinstalled on Friday.

I just moved and don't have internet yet, so I'm tethered to my cellphone.... which is not an effective way to upload photos. Here are a couple pictures. Hopefully I have internet by the end of the week and can post more pictures.

MR2 with my scoob







And in it's prime...



This post has been edited by 95CelicaST: Jun 20, 2010 - 10:24 PM

[95CelicaST]

ooookay. Today's update - worst. day. ever.


So we wake up around 10:00 (went to bed at 3am) and went outside to find that SURPRISE! The Pacific North West has decided to end the dry weather and start a downpour.

No worries. I'm a seasoned PNW Blue Tarp Camper. I did what I do best in these situations - cover what I'm doing with a mammoth sized tarp.



Started the day with installing the crossmember and rear motor mount. Easy as pie. Then came the exhaust.... and we realized we needed another exhaust gasket for the b-pipe to the muffler. I already had a belt I needed to take back because it was too big, so we load up into the WRX and head to town. We get back and continue working. Exhaust gets bolted up fine and while my friend was taking care of undercarriage misc things I went to clamp the heater hoses.... where I ran into another problem. We only had one hose clamp. We searched the garage and found nothing... soooooo back to town we go.. to get one clamp.


Get back, continue on. We popped the axles out of the hubs and re-greased the splines. Axles were installed, and then the knuckle was fitted up along with my Twos R Us solid rear endlinks. It was then that we ran into the problem that ended up stopping us for the night.
I threw a rotor on the rear passenger side and started lining up the caliper when I noticed some odd wear. One side of the outer pad was gone. When I popped the pads out I noticed that the piston was turned 90 degrees and the pad never sat down in the piston properly. So new pads were in order. The only problem is the auto parts stores in the area didn't have them. We ended up driving about 30 miles to a store that had them. We got those back and this is where I ran into another problem. Last night in my friend's attempt to check the gas pedal after attaching the throttle cable he hit the brakes, which blew the pistons out. Now I need a tool to reach down there and twist the piston back into place, which is where I ended up stopping because it was getting dark.

No real pictures, because nothing eventful happened. I'll be back on it in the morning.