Learn me 91 toyota MR2 Turbos

Long story short, I have a buddy looking for a project. We have a truck that will be in the atlanta area that can bring the car back to the great white north.

For $3300, it's toyota mr2 turbo. 180000 miles.

The bad is listed as

craigslist said: -Blown heade gasket I belive. White smoke on start up. Still runs fine. I turned it off immediately after noticing the temp gauge going up. -Care could use paint -Leaking boost when boosting more than ~8lbs. I believe it's a cracked manifold but havent had the time to check. -T-tops leak.

The cosmetic stuff isn't a big deal. Competent mechanic, with access to plenty of other folks that know their way around race/rally cars, but no toyota or MR2 aficionados around.

The main question is, are the parts available? are they reasonably in terms of price? Is this a common failing of these cars? Again he is looking for a project that he can pick up on the cheap. Tinker with it, maybe autocross or hillclimb it. Generally flog it without worrying too much about what is invested in the car.

What does the GRM collective think.

The price is way too high unless the car is very clean.

If you do buy it, plan on an engine-out complete overhaul. It's not very practical to pull the head with the engine in the car.

I would probably buy a JDM engine and swap it rather that diagnose and fix rhe multiple issues that car has. You really just need the engine and not he harnesses, axles, etc, so you can buy one of the cheaper gen2 3SGTEs that were cut out rather than a half cut.

For reference, I have bought several MR2s that need this kind of work and were in excellent condition otherwise for $750-$1200.

fyi, that was the asking price, he doesn't intend to offer that. Thank you for a better idea of the going value.

Price is ridiculously high.

Parts are readily available.

Head gasket isn't really a common "problem" with them, but has been known to happen when badly modified or not taken care of.

I don't know that it's TRULY the "cheap platform" he's looking for, but overall i feel they're a huge performance bargain. They get fast in a hurry.

The platform is very overbuilt -- they're heavy for the size. The engines are very stout, but after 23 years of abuse, most of them I see now are just tired ajd have multiple issues

This issue around here (Vermont) is rust. So he's looking for something that is a cheap project. Something with mechanical flaws is fine, body need not be perfect, but rust is a deal breaker. He's pretty much surfing the atlanta area craigslist for something fun in the rear or awd variety. He wants something to tinker with, and something decent for hobby motorsports. Something that if it gets wadded up into a ball of junk, he doesn't have to lose sleep over it. The MR2 caught his eye, as there are not very many up here.

The price is way high, if the car were clean and no mechanical issues the price would be about right. I'm not fan of "low miles JDM engines" I had 1 out of 3 that was ok after I replaced all the missing bits. The packaging of that gen 2 3SGTE makes it difficult to work on even on a bench, the SW20 engine bay is fairly spacious but I'd still drop it out to do the HG on that gen2. The SW20 chassis isn't much heavier than the AW11 contrary to popular belief but is a much nicer more spacious car with usable trunk space at both ends.

i bought mine when they were new and drove it for 7 years, including autocross and track days. not common for head gaskets but hoses can be that lead to it, plus poor maintenance and too much boost. i ended up rebuilding mine when the hose from hell failed. they're not the cheapest motor to build but they are very stout. do it right and it'll last for years without many issues...do it wrong and you'll be constantly messing with it.

agreed on price being a bit high. prices on these have actually been falling, except for the nicest stock examples. i still have a set of stock wheels i'd give away for free if someone wanted to pick them up.

Gees, I'll sell you my no rust, always in Austin, TX car with under 90K miles for $6800 and the T-Belt is done and AC fully overhauled.

That is crack smoker prices.

Well, I'll tell him. We'll be at the x games in June, with room in a hauler to tow it back.

IMO they are the worst MR2 however they are still great.

If you want to do an engine swap and want something unique/different swap do in a 3SGE n/a engine. They had some with something around 200hp (called BEAMS) with room to build on which would be very fun in that car.

If I were doing any serious MR2 build I would go 1st or 3rd gen. If I wanted reliability I would go 1st and 3rd gen. If I wanted cheap I would go 1st and 3rd gen. If I wanted an extremely serious build with a built engine and turbo I would go 1st and 3rd gen. (2ZZGE >>>>>>>>>> 3SGE)

You can pick up a clean MK1 for around $2000. You can get MS PNP, pick up a 4AGZE, GT28Rs (or GT2871/74) turbo, manifold/downpipe on matrix garage, air-water intercooler setup from frozenboost, download the base tune from mspnp's site, drive it to tuner, get it tuned for a VERY easymode build to get ~300whp. This can be done+cost of car and if you get a take off turbo from like a pulsar gtir or silva for ~$5000. New turbo would be more.

If you don't want a build you can pick up a MK3 (which weighs ~300-400 lbs less than MK1 and has 30 more hp) for ~$5000 or a 2ZZ 180-190hp car for ~6000-8000. Swapped cars are ridiculously common. If you want a turbo build numerous turbo kits are made for this car. For the 2ZZ a supercharger kit exists on the spyderchat forums for sale that produces around 300whp. If you go for a built 2zz you can get anything you want within reason really, it flows ridiculously well all you need is lower compression forged pistons. Really with just a inexpensive 2ZZ swaped car you have a $6000 lotus elise fighter and that's all he would really want right there. I would go that route.

This is all assuming he doesn't have fabrication skills and just wants to buy E36 M3 already made.

I can give more details on MK2, i mean it's turbo already, typically abused, can put in a CT26+piggyback for cheap.... but why? If you want a clean car it's going to be more than either of the other two, probably triple the cost of a MK1 at which point with the price difference you can do a mega build. If you buy a cheap car it will be unreliable garbage and a PITA. AW11 and W30 are better handling lighter chassis.

I don't see at all the point of going MK2. It's like going DSM when cheap WRXs exist. No point. Serious build, MK1. Plug and play track car, MK3.

Avoid an AW11 Mr2 Supercharged. No easy ecu solution. NLA rear axles. Unique transmission. Only get that car if you are keeping it stock or can build your own megasquirt. You would also need to transfer over a bunch of stuff from a NA car to the SC in order to do a turbo install. The supercharger has 0 room for upgrade and is also NLA. The only upgrade is a previa supercharger with offers little improvement and requires fabrication. At that point your better off going for a turbo.

Another thing with a NA MK1 is you can use a WIDE variety of transmissions from FWD cars in it including some 6 speeds. The car is like legos with near infinite easy options for a build.