I needed another boost buggy - my '93 MR2 Turbo build

I ended up having to sell my Miata due to my disagreement with its ergonomics and decided I needed a bigger car to replace it. And if it wasn't bigger, it at least needed to be faster. Cue the usual 2-3 months of missed opportunities and overpriced heaps, until I spotted a low-mileage MR2 turbo on the local CL. For once I was the first person to actually show up, a deal was struck quickly and I found myself to be the owner of a 62k miles MR2 turbo that's just spent the past 9 years in storage.

The PO had had a fair amount of work done to the car already like a full fuel system overhaul at the main dealer, but it needed a new timing belt immediately, so I dropped it off at my trusted mechanic as soon as I picked it up.

At that point, we had the first indication that this build was not going to go smoothly. When we went to pick up the car, it was being pushed back into the shop - turned out after some investigation that some strands on the brand new timing belt had broken, wrapped themselves around an idle pulley or three and interrupted forward motion in a rather abrupt manner. Wonderful.

Fortunately the turbo is a non-interference engine so we weren't looking at expensive valve salad. The shop fitted another brand new timing belt, checked compression (which was still good, phew) and I was finally ready to pick it up. Well, after it decided to redecorate the parking lot at the local Summit Racing, or so I was told, but that's a different story.

First shakedown run ended a bit sooner than expected, too.

I had a choice between taking a rock between the wheels and hope that it didn't hole the oil pan, or risk running over it with the tires. Given the size of the rock and lack of manoeuvering room (someone was trying to overtake me at that time), I decided on the latter. That was probably smart, because it was a big rock. Anyway, the rear tire decided at that point it had had enough and blew at about 50mph. Oops. Remember I had mentioned the car had been in storage for nine years? Turns out the tires were manufactured in 2001...

After the remaining, uneventful trip home courtesy of AAA - even though the front tire is still holding air, I noticed it felt like it got damaged, so I wasn't going to risk driving home on a space saver and a potentially busted tire - I locked the car in the garage for a few days while I was trying to figure out what to do.

Turns out that OEM size tires aren't really available anymore in any sort of trackable compound. Pretty much the only OEM choice are Falken Ziex and those aren't exactly great on track. Currently I'm trying to figure out if I upsize the wheels for not much more choice, stick track tires on the OEM wheels and get a different set of wheels for road use, or just got a slightly smaller size for the back wheels (225/45/15 instead of 225/50/15) and just put Rivals on for now.

Other than that, it needs shocks as there are traces of oil seepage on the front passenger side ones, braided brake lines to replace the OEM rubber and possibly a bunch of head scratching to see if I can figure out how to fit the Recaro SPGs so I don't end up sitting higher than in the stock seats.

Mods wise I'm trying to keep it to bolt ons because it's hard to find a really nice MR2 turbo these days and I don't want to ruin a low-ish mileage one in good shape.

Looks really nice, hope you can get things sorted soon and start to enjoy it! Hope you're enjoying the magazines!

Love those cars. My dad had a very low mile '94 for a number of years. He sold it in '08 with only 36k on it to a guy who flew down from VT to FL and drove it home. Great car, huge PITA to work on. The timing belt wasn't too bad, although the dealer monkeys who had last changed it weren't too concerned with getting the timing right, tightening up the engine mounts, or breaking bits off the lower pulley with a gear puller. Sorry - a rant for another time. :)

To date, one of the most fun cars I've autocrossed was a turbo MR2 on all-season tires. Terrifically fun.

TRD springs ordered at the local Toyota dealer yesterday, I guess I better get my act together and order some Konis.

I feel like this was part of a different thread.

I officially suck at buying cars that I want to track.

Guess who didn't sit in the car with a helmet before buying, eyeballed the seating position thinking "that'll fit" and just found out that he doesn't fit in the car with a helmet?

That'll be this guy. berkeley.

Anybody want a very nice condition MR2 turbo that comes with TRD springs, yellow Konis, braided brake lines (not fitted), just had the timing belt and waterpump replaced and rolls on brand new BFG Rivals?

Looks like I'll finally just dig deep into the shallow pockets and go look for another aircooled 911. And this time, I'll take a helmet.

You won't even fit with a racing seat? Do you have an abnormally large torso? I knew a guy that was 6'5" north of 300lbs and fit in his with stock seats, had room for helmet.

I have almost 10" of space in one.

How much and how tall are you that u don't fit?

Well, I don't have to look down when talking to an NBA player, so I'm not that tall . Seriously, I'm only 5'11" but because of my knees (see Formula Vee thread), I have to have the seat just so and that requires me to have my seatback up fairly straight to get my seating position right and bang my helmet on the roof at the same time. Remember I complained that I couldn't get back far enough back in my Miata to get comfortable? This time I can, I just need a roof lift...

After consulting my parts stash, I decided to see what happens if I put in one my Recaro SPGs into the passenger seat, as I had an appropriate seat rail at hand:

Turns out Nagisa wasn't kidding when they called their rails "super low". With the Recaro in it feels like I almost need a periscope to see out of the car and I have at least 1/2" space between my helmet and the roof. Keep in mind that's on the passenger side as the rail for the driver's side is still on a boat somewhere between Japan and LA. Guess I should have had it overnighted from Japan...

The seat is actually a really good fit, doesn't hit the door card or anything. Not having the driver's side rail will mean I'll have to sit out the next track day (again, grrr) but it makes the whole thing look more feasible if I can get used to the fact that I can't see anything below the bottom of the windshield.

nocones wrote: How much and how tall are you that u don't fit?

I've already answered the first question. Not that tall, but the issue is that I need a specific seating position.

Regarding the second one, you probably know how hard it is to find a really nice, rust free '93 MR2 Turbo with low miles that's not been "teenaged". I've got somewhere between 9k and 10k in the car right now, realistically I think it's worth around $8.5k-$9k based on MR2 turbos I've seen in person between here and the Bay Area that were in very similar condition but with twice the miles.

That's without the Recaro btw, that's going to stay with me .

BoxheadTim wrote: but it makes the whole thing look more feasible if I can get used to the fact that I can't see anything below the bottom of the windshield.

That is just good free training for your track driving. Nothing down there matters and you shouldn't be looking there anyway. It saves you the cost of the vinyl to cover the bottom third of the windshield. ;-)

Oh

For

berkeley's

Sake.

I really can't catch a break with this car. I had a mechanic who came highly recommended (and more than lived up to the recommendation) put in the Konis and TRD springs. While he was in there, he had a good mosey around for the oil leaks that had been bugging me after the previous mechanic fixed the main oil leak from the oil/water heat exchanger. I had asked said mechanic to have a look for other oil leaks, but he somehow never got around it.

Well, New Mechanic didn't take very long to find the leak - the transmission might as well have Exxon Valdez written on it. We didn't pull the trans but everything points to the input shaft seal not living up to its name. The transmission had clearly been "worked on" before - by the looks of it and the masses of RTV squeezing out of most joints, by "Cowboy Joey's Old Tyme Transmission Shoppe" - and it's also missing one of the smaller flywheel covers.

As there are a couple of other small-ish leaks that should be addressed at the same time and the way forward is likely to be dropping out engine and transmission, I'm probably just going to cut my losses and sell the thing. I've already got more than 50% of the purchase price of the car in the recent repairs, parts and upgrade work. Once I price in a good used transmission and the labor, I'm looking at dumping more than what I paid for the car into just to get it into a reasonable state. As I don't have my own workshop here that's big enough to do the work in and don't have the time to do it myself this century, this looks like the sensible option to me (:/).

Anybody want an unmolested MR2 Turbo, well, apart from the transmission? It's still drivable, but you need to keep an eye on the oil level and I probably wouldn't drive it across the country. I haven't quite figured out what the top-up interval is (looks to be 750-1000 miles until you need to add any fluid) but I wouldn't chance it.

Obviously the price would be adjusted to reflect this - PM me if interested.

That really sucks.

Meanwhile, I've had nothing but trouble-free miles in my Boxster that you passed on...

(okay, admittedly, that was a jerk move... You're welcome to drive it whenever you like, if that makes you feel better.)

Maroon92 wrote: That really sucks.

It does. Looks like that's mostly taken care of this year's track season, too, unfortunately. At least by the time I sold the Harley and the MR2. The other options are either to bite the bullet and end up with a $15k MR2 that's worth $8k, or borrow money to buy something else and pay it back when I sell the cars.

The other problem is "what to buy next". Most of the cars I really like, I can't necessarily justify on a cost basis (like a 911 or an NSX) and I can't find much else I like that doesn't appeal to berkeleytards. This MR2 took quite a while to find and I looked at some really shoddy ones...

Most of the other, cheaper stuff either requires scene tax or doriftoyo tax.

Maroon92 wrote: Meanwhile, I've had nothing but trouble-free miles in my Boxster that you passed on... (okay, admittedly, that was a jerk move... You're welcome to drive it whenever you like, if that makes you feel better.)

Thanks for the offer, I may have to take you up on that at one of the SCCA Auto-Xs. Actually I'm glad you bought it and it went to a good home. It is a good car and the seller is a good guy, but I'm just not that much of a Boxster person. I prefer my Porkers with the engine further back.

It gets better.

Drove it to work yesterday - hey, I've got at least one tow left from AAA this year, you know, in case the transmission falls out or something - and when I arrived at work, the car is stinking of burnt rubber. So bad, I was expecting the tires to burst into flames any second. A quick investigation during my lunch break showed the valve cover to have a nice dusting of rubber shavings on it. Nice.

Keep in mind that the first timing belt had been chewed up within less than a mile into a test drive by the shop, it looks like they didn't do that much better the second time around. Someone over on MR2OC suggests that people often forget to put a certain washer back under the tensioner, which results in an misaligned belt, which...

Did I mention that the shop that did the timing belt is out of business by now?

Looks like the car has just evolved from "for sale" to "winter project". Between that and several of the other problems found, it looks like I have to drop out the engine and gearbox myself, redo the timing belt, reseal the engine as it's still got some leaks, and fix the transmission leak while I'm at it.

No way I can make a case for paying someone to do the work, and of course with that sort of trouble the car isn't worth more than a few grand. Doesn't look like I can afford to piss away that much money, given how much I paid for the car and how much else I have in it.

Dang, sorry to hear it.

Give me a shout when you start the project. I'm not ASE certified by any means, but it's always nice to have a spare set of hands around the garage.

Besides, I can tell lots of stupid jokes, and my pop-culture knowledge is second to none.

Right, it was time to man up and start digging around the engine bay. As mentioned above, I had a suspicion about the condition of the timing belt but before I did anything rash I figured I should actually remove enough parts to be able to at least lift the top timing belt cover and peek underneath it to verify I wasn't imagining things.

Well, this is what I found, after several hours of wrenching in a garage that's 90F+. It's amazing how much crap you have to remove to get at things in this engine bay.

You can just about see that the belt has been slightly chamfered on the engine block side in this picture. Guess that explains where the rubber shavings and the smell were coming from.

You can also see that the belt sits far too close to the block - at least in my opinion - and thus result in the picture above.

Chuffed, I is.

Add to the fact that I found a fair number of bolts that were hand tight at best or just plain loose and I'm amazed that someone actually considered this a job well done enough (twice...) to charge money for that. I'd be berkeleying embarrassed to let a car leave my shop like this and charge money for it, and I'm not even a professional mechanic.

Oh, and while I have my tinfoil hat on - does that look like a belt that's got about about 300, maybe 400 on it?

Maroon92 wrote: Give me a shout when you start the project. I'm not ASE certified by any means, but it's always nice to have a spare set of hands around the garage. Besides, I can tell lots of stupid jokes, and my pop-culture knowledge is second to none.

Thank you, I'll keep that in mind. I haven't quite made up my mind yet if I call the recommended mechanic again and get a quote for timing belt change #3 and live with the trans, if I bail, or if I park the car until November.

You've got to be kidding me! I was hoping this update was going to be "I checked it out, and things look much better than expected!"

To answer your question, unless that belt has been left outside in the dusty desert for the past several years, I'd never guess it had 400 miles on it.

At this point, I think you're taking the right approach by digging into it yourself. Hang in there!

dj06482 wrote: You've got to be kidding me! I was hoping this update was going to be "I checked it out, and things look much better than expected!"

Yeah, me to. I can get overly excited/depressed about stuff like this so these days, I like to go back a couple of days later and have a close look before doing anything rash. Usually works out, this time it just confirmed what I suspected. Oh well.

dj06482 wrote: To answer your question, unless that belt has been left outside in the dusty desert for the past several years, I'd never guess it had 400 miles on it.

OK, so it's not only me then. I do live in a dusty climate, but this belt kinda looks like the belt I had to change on Miata #2 or #3, and that had a belt that was definitely due...

dj06482 wrote: At this point, I think you're taking the right approach by digging into it yourself. Hang in there!

Yeah, I'll be doing some more digging. I found a fair amount of oil in one of the intercooler hoses, so I'll try to pull off the intake pipe on the turbo tomorrow or on Sunday to check out the turbo and I guess then I'll button it up until I can find the time to work on it myself (or until the local mechanic who has never failed me gets around to opening his shop).

Well, I got the car back together, and don't appear to have any parts leftover. Heck, it even still runs.

Didn't get around to digging out the turbo yet, but none of the other pipes apart from one ic coupler had traces of oil in them, so I think I'm OK with that right now.

One thing that really made me mad again is that it was so very obvious that someone didn't even bother to take care when they worked on the car - bolts were either massively overtightened (like the engine mount bolts) or left loose. Oh, well, at least now everything's torqued to the right spec. Well, everything I touched - I can't tell if they had the cam cover off or not. The Toyota procedure calls for that, in which case I have to check the intake as well, but it does look fairly untouched.

If you are in the sf Bay Area check out Su at aggressive performance in San Jose. Su is the man when it comes to mr2/all trac repairs.

smog7, unfortunately it's a five hour drive to the Bay Area and I'm not sure the timing belt would last that long.

I was finally fed up enough with seeing it sit on the driveway and couldn't wait until winter, so dragged it down to the local Toyota dealer as my preferred (and highly trusted) mechanic is still working on opening his shop.

Just got "the call".

The shop that did the timing belt change (twice) put the wrong berkeleying water pump on the car. As the service writer pointed out, that wasn't going to work out too well no matter how often they would change the timing belt. They're going to order a new, correct water pump and are going to put it on, with belt #3 in about 500 miles.

Ah well, if anybody needs me I'm the guy in the corner who's banging his head against the wall.