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bailion
bailion New Reader
11/27/23 1:33 p.m.

Hey everyone! Just wanted to introduce myself and my hope for getting into this years 2k challenge. For the base of my build I have a 1987 MR2, in the hard to find hardtop spec, that I picked up for only $1000 bucks! It needs a complete head and a whole bunch more, but I have a lead on one locally for only $150. Still need to completely go over the rules and start my build log, but I have just been trying to dig into what all I have first. Still a little fuzzy on how the parts I had saved from a previous mr2  I owned would factor in, but I need to inventory everything first. If anyone on the forum is around Atlanta, has spare mr2 parts, or any advice on the challenge feel free to spark up a conversation. Hopefully I will see y'all on the track! 

wae
wae PowerDork
11/27/23 1:41 p.m.

How dare you, sir!  A teaser like that without a single picture!?  =) 

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter)
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
11/27/23 2:34 p.m.

in for updates.  welcome!

bailion
bailion New Reader
11/27/23 2:36 p.m.

 

Had to figure out uploading here first ;)  this was getting her loaded up on the trailer 

 

 

Came with a spare drivers door that actually had a window, so I had to hastily throw on while things were dry as shes no longer stuck in a garage, but facing the cold wet winter in my backyard 

 

 

came with three cans of the same paint the rest of the car is in, so either I sand and spray this door or further lighten the original one and throw it on for the competition. Maybe can even sell the good spare door as well if I can find another window. 

wae
wae PowerDork
11/27/23 2:52 p.m.

Can't wait to see it in Gainesville in a few months!  I've always loved those little wedges.  That flat olive drab actually works on it - it's not a bad-looking car at all!

bailion
bailion New Reader
11/27/23 3:09 p.m.

The green color and surface rust are actually big reasons I wanted this project, more on that down the road. Always loved them too, I had a black 86 sunroof car that I really enjoyed but always was after a hard top. Sold it for a nice chunk of change, and held on to some parts as I knew I'd eventually buy another. 

Captdownshift (Forum Supporter)
Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
11/28/23 10:32 p.m.

This is totally getting supercharged in the hotel parking lot.

 

 

Alexa, play Bob Marley Redemption Song. 

 

Alexa, how do you swap atomic energy into an AW11. 

bailion
bailion New Reader
11/29/23 9:52 a.m.

In reply to Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

Supposedly has a built bottom end, guess I will find out after pulling it to get everything buttoned up. Would love to get it boosted, but honestly never messed with forced induction. Did the 4agze have different heads or just the supercharger bolted on and the different rods and pistons? 

bailion
bailion New Reader
11/29/23 10:01 a.m.

In case anyone is curious what kind of mess I got myself into. 

 

wae
wae PowerDork
11/29/23 10:17 a.m.

...at least the plugs are still in so the cylinders didn't fill with water?  I've never messed around with one of those before, but that looks like there's no room to do a damned thing in there!

bailion
bailion New Reader
11/29/23 11:57 a.m.

Yeah, looking forward to pulling the head and seeing whats happening in the block. Definitely an awkward position to work in, but better than a boxster at least. Got another project in my shop space but hopefully I can move it up there soon enough to use the lift and get the car a more stripped down.  

Mrfurzzy
Mrfurzzy Reader
12/4/23 5:08 p.m.

Working on them isn't too bad once you get used to it. Too bad you are all the way in atlanta. I have a bunch of random aw11 parts and like helping when I can. I'm all the way up near milwaukee though

bailion
bailion New Reader
12/5/23 1:18 p.m.

In reply to Mrfurzzy :

If you are coming down for the event and need a spot to crash in atlanta just let me know. 

Robbie (Forum Supporter)
Robbie (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
12/5/23 3:42 p.m.
bailion said:

In reply to Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

Supposedly has a built bottom end, guess I will find out after pulling it to get everything buttoned up. Would love to get it boosted, but honestly never messed with forced induction. Did the 4agze have different heads or just the supercharger bolted on and the different rods and pistons? 

IIRC many many many things you wouldnt think are different are different. Like the wiring to and inside the distributors and igniters. Capt is probably referencing when we attempted this swap in the parking lot, then came back 5 years later to try and finish the job. 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/2018-challenge-parking-lot-build-aw11-mr2-supercha/142277/page1/

Welcome to the challenge! I love the paint and those wheels on yours. 

bailion
bailion New Reader
12/6/23 9:01 a.m.

Ahh thanks for the link, and yes I do really dig the look. Going to add some personal flare to it as well. I have been hunting to figure out what these wheels are with no luck. I need to just pull one off and check the back already, but they are bbs with huge center caps, 15in with 4x100 and 4x114.3 patterns. 

tb
tb Dork
2/13/24 12:48 a.m.

I don't know much about those cars other than they are cool but I can barely squeeze inside...

 

I do know that if you get it to Gainesville we will do what we can to get the car through the event and guide you in the process.

 

Wouldn't be hard to scrape together a nitrous kit and avoid last place in the drags! I also love the wheels, looks good!

bailion
bailion New Reader
2/13/24 3:38 p.m.

In reply to tb :

That was honestly part of my plan, gather all the parts I can in the budget and send it to gainesville parking lot. Also just got a trade offer for this beauty, a running but higher mile and kinda rusty na sw20. He would let me keep the wheels which I agree is pretty sweet. Keeping some of my parts and the wheels has me into a running mr2 for very very cheap. Pretty hard decision to make because I love the aw11 so much and this hardtop is pretty locally famous. I guess the question to everyone that will help me make a decision, is buying a car for 1K and trading it for something that is likely worth more still within the rule of the competetion? 

Scott M
Scott M New Reader
2/13/24 9:39 p.m.
bailion said:

Going to add some XpersonalX fender flare to it as well. 

^ Fixed it for you.

Also, +1 for the Mighty Car Mods Maaaaad sticker.  Chopped!

bailion
bailion New Reader
2/14/24 7:33 a.m.

In reply to Scott M :

Oh yeah its a little mid engine Corolla nugget, I have some recycled smartwasher sinks I plan to chop up into some flares haha 

bailion
bailion New Reader
3/22/24 12:44 p.m.

Well I finally got to chat with the original owner of this car, and he had wayyy too much to convey in this fourm but this car was once making in the 400hp range, and he built the bottom end this has to be able to handle well into the 500 range. Of course that is all with a turbo, which I have none of the parts or budget for. Sadly its been very difficult to find a head that is worth buying to put on this car. It was also running a megasquirt, so not exactly sure how getting it going with the stock ecu I have laying around would go. I am really tempted to trailer it down for the event just to attempt a parking lot challenge, but I would definitely need hands and parts from a fellow GRM MR2 guru. 

bailion
bailion New Reader
5/6/24 8:46 a.m.

well... turns out I was late for the challenge, but this project was not forgotten! 

Finally linked up with John from garage zero and my buddy Chase to get this done. With three incomplete heads, couple intakes, and a lot of random things that had gone missing and luckily could pull out of both of their parts piles and the spare junk motor this car came with we got it all together and fired up for the first time in many years! 

 

 

got it towed to chases garage and we got cracking. Pulled the head that had been sitting and thankfully keeping water out of the fresh built bottom end. To our suprise everything looked almost brand new in there. The head was actually also in pretty decent shape, but missing too many parts to use. I brought my CRC benchtop and gave it a scrub down anyway to hold onto. 

 

 

The head that John was supposed to bring for this ended up being locked away, so we had to dive into Chases stash. He had a GZE head that he pulled off sitting in a box and we got to getting that cleaned up as well as I could, only to find that it had one totally burned out exhaust valve. Swapped one from my incomplete head, and went to getting everything put back on. Somehow had too many washers and not enough bolts for the ARP studs that was in the car, but chase came to the rescue again. 

 

 

 

 

 

Our cheap torque wrench and not checking that the studs had been torqued properly made this a bit sketchy, but we got it all buttoned up and ready to add oil! Except the oil filter plug had gone missing, another thing I had to borrow from Chase's stash. Forgot to stuff the distributor I also had to borrow in and poured oil straight on the ground, oops. Once it had oil we figured out the stupidly all same color battery leads and tried to turn her over. After john did some magic with the fuse pannel she was spinning freely, sounded like great compression and we called it a day. 

 

The next morning John went ahead and did most of the intake and getting some things plugged in, I worked on getting the rest of the cooling stuff routed, and grabbed some more spare parts I had laying around like lightly used plugs and leads I had for an old Honda. I tried to make the aftermarket seat at least have a bolt in it, bled some of the clutch and we worked on getting it timed and ready to go. After a couple attempts and the fun of dealing with distributors on MR2's and my annoying want to get it first starting up on video and bam she lit off! Still needs a good bit of work to get it actually happy and idle, but with at least some confidence I got to drive it around the neighborhood. 

Now trying to track all of this on the budget, that will be tricky. I know I spent $40 on the oil and filter. I gave John the crusty spare motor for the fresh head, but that will end up going to Chase for all his parts we used. We stole the alternator off it and probably more I am forgetting. Once I get a new exhaust, track down a couple other missing bits, a battery, and whatever else I am sure that will come out to around 500 bucks. I spent 400 on some used but still seemed brand new tires. That leaves about 60 bucks left in the budget.  If I can get this to a somewhat usable car with 60 left, that would be sweet... but this car is just asking for another parts bin special turbo kit. Maybe I can find one on ebay for that cheap :) 

Lof8 - Andy
Lof8 - Andy GRM+ Memberand UltraDork
5/6/24 9:10 a.m.

one set of tires are budget exempt!

bailion
bailion New Reader
5/6/24 11:33 a.m.

Yes I do remember reading that, I am just trying to see if its even possible to keep it that cheap. So i guess I need to get a full turbo kit together for 460 

Mrfurzzy
Mrfurzzy Reader
5/6/24 4:00 p.m.

In reply to bailion :

Do you know anyone with a welder? It's possible to make a budget turbo setup for that price. I know someone on GRM made a trunk mounted turbo that worked well

bailion
bailion New Reader
5/9/24 7:55 a.m.

Yeah I have a friend or two that can weld, and we have discussed using even more of their spare parts to get this turbo'd like it should be. I am going to tackle getting an exhaust and having it run at least somewhat confidently first. So I still need to buy the turbo, fix the trunk which somehow locked us out at the very last minute before taking it on a drive. I have since gotten it home, bled more things and tried to get it idle at least somewhat more freely. Had to mess with the fairly impromptu throttle cable bracket we put on, still don't have the propter tmps or have it locked down right, and plenty more I have to address before taking this on any kind of real drive. 

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