Stampie said:I just wanted to point out the Challenge moto of "It only has to last 6 autocross runs and a few 1/4 miles."
That's sort of the magic of this despite being way simpler than the previous parking lot MR2 attempt- it violates the motto completely and has to come away sorted and ready for endurance racing. I think it can be done and should sell pretty well as a concours story too.
Yes, this car's primary mission is endurance racing. I plan to use the challenge as its first shakedown. It's first race will be in December at Road atlanta. Let me know if there is anything I could or should do with the car before we bring it down there.
In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :
Is it exactly "as run" other than the engine? It's going to be very important to take inventory of everything that will need to be changed in the parking lot and have those parts/fluids on hand ahead of time.
The other thing worth noting will be whether there are any modifications that will make this different from an engine swap in a stock MR2, or quick fixes which will need to be made better for future reliability.
Head gaskets are known to be a weak point in the 4age, particularly at 120k+. I probably blew mine at NJMP, but definitely blew it at Pocono. Luckily this is when JDM motors were cheap.
Aside from that, I'd do the timing belt and water pump while the engine is out. You can do it while the engine's installed, but it was a pain.
I will get clarification, but to my knowledge the car is "as run". The crank cracked at the last race, causing a bad vibration and a leak from the front seal. They loaded it onto the trailer and brought it home. Since we're yanking that motor, no need to change that oil now (unless we're putting it back in the car). Maybe a quick bleed of the brakes. I will also ask about any modifications done at all to the engine, etc...so we know ahead of time. I'll get more pictures of the car when I get home. Right now I'm in the middle-of-nowhere Virginia for my younger sons' lacrosse tournament.
We endurance raced these for years.
1. The 4age is good for 30-40 hours of racing and then it needs rings.
2. Swap the oil pump to a new updated one from Toyota. All new ones from Toyota are high volume pumps from the forced induction cars.
3. The key to making these not brake like the one in the car is to have the entire rotating assembly balanced including the clutch assembly and the flywheel.
4. If you do #3 the only major maintenance is refreshing the rings as needed. This can be done with the motor in the car. The head comes off. It is important to use factory rings. They are softer than the block and are the ware item. Go aftermarket and you run a good chance of waring the block out. There are some tricks to doing this but once you know them the job is easily done in 6-8 hours.
Looking at the photo I am wondering if the shims for the crank were not put in or somehow failed.
Like I said we raced these cars in SCCA and EMRA endurance series and will gladly share what we learned. I loved driving these on track!! There were two schools of thaught on the suspensions in these cars. There was the soft setup with a fair amount of travel and slightly smaller tires and the tight setup with barley any travel and larger tires. Both worked. We ran three cars one set up each way and one was completely stock due to the class it ran in.
Oh look at the rear trailing arms. If they have not been beefed up make sure to get that done. Easy to do by either sleeving them or adding angle iron to them and stitch welding it on.
In reply to dean1484 :
Dean, two questions:
1) If your goal was to do a quick and cheap refresh of two motors in the hotel parking lot over a 48-72hr period how would you do it?
2) Are you willing to come down and help do it? 
I love how deep the MR2 knowledge is on this board. Warms my cockles.
dean1484 - I'd be interested to hear more about those suspension & tire setups. If you're game I'll start a separate thread.
Thanks dean!!! Do the new Toyota oil pumps fit onto an old 4AGE? When I get home I will add a bunch of pictures of the car, including suspension. There will be noobs driving the car at Road Atlanta, so I'd like the set up to be neutral to slight push. Yeah, I know...snap oversteer. I've owned 3 AW11s before and autox'd them, just never ran one in Lemons. I want to set it up to still be highly amusing but make it "safe" as can be for noobs.
New oil pumps do fit into older 4AGEs, mine has one.
Matt B (fs) said:I love how deep the MR2 knowledge is on this board. Warms my cockles.
dean1484 - I'd be interested to hear more about those suspension & tire setups. If you're game I'll start a separate thread.
Matt,
Have a great time on vacation! Let's get together when you return. If there's anything we can do to the car pre-challenge I'd love to work with you and get my hands dirty. And just pick your brain about it, along with everyone else here.
I'm getting more excited by the day! As the time gets closer, I'm going to get a menu from you guys. I very much want to get my hands dirty, but I also want to make sure everyone is well fed and hydrated. My wife is a chef, my 15 year old daughter bakes...and I'm also totally cool with just buying pizza, beer, whatever....
You're quickly developing an all star cast for a parking lot build. I'd like to be there too but likely not.
Not to discourage your wife to cook but there are a lot of challenge traditions and a few are Five Star Pizza and Hogan's Deli for Hogan's Heros!
In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :
Thanks man! While my challenge attendance is undetermined, I'm looking forward to helping locally. There's always plenty of prep work before a race I can lend a hand with.
I live here in Gainesville and my son and I are building a car for the Challenge this year. I would be happy to be an advanced staging location for you, if there are things you'd like to ship ahead of the event/build.
In reply to dyintorace :
So just how much room do you have? 
The car and all the parts were delivered to a local shop, but I need to move it out of there. I plan to drag it home and put it in my garage...I live in a typical HOA subdivision and have a typical two car garage. Not a ton of room for parts though...the other bay has my wife's 996 and it's her prize possession. If you have any space for parts that would be fabulous!!! I"d also love to come see your build. Matt and I can also start working on prep work before the challenge.
The previous owner told me the engine was a bone stock rebuild. The brakes are also stock. I'm waiting to get confirmation on the suspension. When I get home from bumble-berkeley, I will have my wife make a YouTube full walk around of the car so everything can be seen. I'll also photo and inventory what spares I have.
From my time as a '88 MR2 SC owner I am reminded, so I'll just drop the info here...
If you have a high speed front end "wobble" that you can't trace down to any other front end parts, it is worn bushings inside the steering rack. When I had mine, I had some new, v-tread Kumhos that brought out the front wobble. The wheels/tires fit on my Miata that I owned at the time as well. No problem with the v-treads on the Miata but miserable on the MR2. I switched the MR2 to a more standard tire tread and all was fine and no wobble.
SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) said:In reply to dyintorace :
So just how much room do you have?
The previous owner told me the engine was a bone stock rebuild. The brakes are also stock. I'm waiting to get confirmation on the suspension. When I get home from bumble-berkeley, I will have my wife make a YouTube full walk around of the car so everything can be seen. I'll also photo and inventory what spares I have.
Depending on how much/many parts, I could store a reasonable amount in advance of the event.
I'm registered. I have a trailer supplier that is supposed to call me soon with good news. I will strap down the MR2 and engine hoist and have my travel tools (read cheap tools).
Here is the car in all of its glory, waiting for a new heart
So, 2 important questions.
In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :
Hey I've been there!
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