1MZ-FE into my MR2, Building a 3SGTE these days. Options

[JoshuaM]

He walked away and came back in a couple of minutes. "Well... if that damage was there beforehand we would have noted it on the intake paperwork, and it wasn't. We don't do steering wheel wraps/repairs here, but I have a mobile guy who can take care of it. It'll be a couple of days though".

So that is where we stand now. Either repair the leather on the wheel, or re-wrap it in nice black leather with red stitch.

What do you mean? They were the only shop in the area that does reupholstering, and while the seats are great they scuffed the leather on the wheel.

I'll have the wheel refinished by my detail shop.

I just wanted to see if the shop fixed it up for you as they indicated that they would, or if they damaged it and left you in the cold which it now looks like they did

[95CelicaST]

Ah. Yes, they had their "mobile guy" tend to it, which was just sanding down the leather until it was smooth and then hitting it with a bit of dye/paint to color it back to the rest of the wheel.


I cleaned the wheel when I got it home from the shop and all of the black crap they applied to the wheel came off with some leather cleaner.

So the leather on the 9 o'clock position is a matte finish, while the rest of the wheel has the glossy look from the years of hands on it. I suspect the entire wheel could use a good buffing - carbon fiber and all, so I will take the wheel in to my detail shop and let them go to town on it.

[95CelicaST]

Small update:


Gutted the doors and swapped in all of the power window components. Making the harness to power the windows this weekend. For now the power mirrors work without modification, but the plug on the body harness for power windows was absent. Got my hands on the OEM body plugs, so now just need to wire it up.

Ordered the following bits:

Brand new 94+ tail lights, black center panel, reverse lights, new lock cylinder.


Brand new clear corners


Brand new solid moldings (turn signal delete)


Used 91 Turbo center console and Storage Box. No picture.

Used crimson red turbo engine lid

EGR block off plate for the 1MZ


I'm working on relocating the fuse block from the engine bay into the trunk, as well as relocate the coolant overflow tank to the passenger side of the car where the coolant neck is. Thinking about the charcoal canister as well, and plumb the vent down through a body plug. Pictures to follow.

[95CelicaST]

Oh my.

Pay no attention to the trunk lid gap on the sides. It was more or less crudely thrown in place. It'll come back off for paint.

[95CelicaST]

Surprise! Almost 1 year update!


Didn't paint the car... yet. I decided to buy a motorcycle instead.


Although recently I stumbled upon someone selling the same wheels I have on the MR2, but in GT-R spec (18x9 +24)... So I bought those up and set out to make a double stagger setup for Mister Two.


Left is the condition of them when I got them. The one on the right is after a quick 400,600,1000,2000,polish.



I tore down all of the wheels and polished the lips (400,600,1000,2000,2500,3000,polish) and all 160 bolts from the perimeter of the wheels, and sent the faces off to powder coating. I had them done in Heavy Charcoal topped with Clear Vision. I slapped the 17x8's from the back of the car onto the front in a 205/40-17 RE760 and a pair of the 18x9 +24 on the rear with a 245/35-18 in the same RE760. This is the result after all was said and done.

Sorry for cell phone quality.




So hey, if you or someone you know want a double stagger set of uber rare 5x114 Sterns for $1200 (completely refinished) you let me know!

17x7 +24 front
18x9 +24 rear
Freshly polished lips
Brand new chrome wheel bolts all around
Fresh silver paint on the faces

[JDUB]

love it

[95CelicaST]

Mild bummer found today.


I have been noticing the car has been misfiring recently. I changed out plugs because I might as well, but basically I found I could unplug one injector and have it not impact my idle at all. I swapped coils around and the problem stayed at the original spot. So I hooked a spare injector to the harness in that cylinder's spot and got nothing. Hooked it into another cylinder's injector plug just to confirm, and the injector started ticking like normal.

So either a driver died in my Link ECU, or the wiring between the two for that injector has broken. Either way it sucks a lot.


But I got refinished wheels, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

[Bitter]

Use a noid light to make sure it's the injector not being fired and not some awful mechanical issue!

[95CelicaST]

Any injector that I have plugged into that socket does not fire.

[Bitter]

Ok, got it. I must not have read well enough. Carry on! Next step is noid light at the computer harness, then figure if you're missing pulsed ground or power.

[95CelicaST]

Fixed the injector firing issue last week. Pulsed ground wire was loose in the jumper harness that adapts the Link to the factory Toyota harness. Since it was all hot glued in place after solder I had no choice but to cut the wire on both sides of the connector and splice them together. Suddenly the car runs fantastic once more.

Pics, just because.

Wire cut


And spliced.



Drift-Office's schedule is packed until SEMA, so the car will head back down there in November and I'll probably have the jumper harness taken out - just wire it straight in. I don't see myself going back to an OEM ECU ever, so there really is no need.


In other news, I plasti-dipped the other set of wheel centers that I have, since they had some scratches and stuff. We'll see how they turn out once they dry fully and are reassembled.

[95CelicaST]

Finally stopped being lazy and started finishing the refinish on the extra set.

[Malek]

Lookin real clean! Makes me want to eat off that dish..aayyy

That pitbull stand though Used one for all of my bikes

[Warapparel]

this thread makes me think back to my old 91 hardtop na-t. i need to reevaluate my life now

[95CelicaST]

I've been putting off doing the brakes for almost the whole time I have owned my MR2. I have braided lines, slotted rotors, and new pads ready to go on in the next couple of weeks.

[95CelicaST]

Ding dong.



Did you forget about me? Did you miss me? I hope not. Look what just showed up at my place.


Gasp!




I have been looking into replacing the transmission in the car for a while now. Finding a MR2 turbo trans with LSD will run you about $2,000 online, so I thought why not try out the 3SGTE as well? I got this 94 MR2 GT halfcut from Canada for a tiny bit more than the cost of a transmission, but I didn't know if it had LSD or not. So when it got here I checked inside the trans and saw the bar running through the center (not conclusive, but a good sign), and the axle stubs have the long splines on them... boys, we got LSD! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I'll be tearing down the engine (when I can get it off of my driveway and into my garage and up onto my engine stand) and getting pieces made nice and pretty. There are a few items I still need to order, but most everything is already on the way. Later I will send the CT20b out to be rebuilt with a billet CHRA to put it on par roughly with a GT3071R, set the boost to about 1 bar, and drive the piss out of it.




So hi. Another engine build chronicle to come. Grab a seat.

[njccmd2002]

Now sell engine. Get 2gr.

[Bitter]

Then sell 2GR and figure out 1GZ-FE swap.

[njccmd2002]

That will be going backwards

[Box]

Throw in a 2UR-GSE, get that mini Ferrari vibe on.