been about a month... figgured id let you all in on whats been keeping me busy
I got sick and tired of driving the minivan around so i went out and bought a piece of junk MR2 to get me around town till the supra was done enough...
well little did i know that it was actually a piece of junk!!
here was the car when i bought it;
Kid tried to start it in the middle of winter and couldnt get it to fire, and let it sit. When i went to pick it up, it started right up (after i talked him down to $700 from the $1400 he wanted; and he kept his rims, seats, steering wheel, and battery).
What i knew was wrong with it when i bought it;
- lower radiator core support was busted off
-200k on the car, 150k on the engine he put in it
- new bushings and suspension all the way around
- seats he gave me were ripped up and nasty
- needed body work like crazy
- part of the exhaust was missing
- timing belt was frayed
- idle would not settle down to 800rpm (stayed at 1200)
- passingers mirror was busted
- radio was missing
- shifter boot was missing
- wheels were comically bad
- drivers door panel was bad
- upper timing cover was missing
What i discovered while loading it on the trailer;
- none of the drivers door/window controles were working
- you had to push the clutch peddle to the floor to get it to dissengauge and after holding it there for a while it would slowly start to re-engauge
- all the bolts were snapped off in the engine hatch
- e brake didnt work
So far this car has had a snow ball effect in repairing it; one thing leads to another, leads to another ect....
The lower core support was broken off and twisted like it had been run into a curb;
- replace the core support
- radiator turned out to be bad
- radiator fans were missing (just gone, no trace of them)
- lower radiator isolator rubbers were bad
E brake cables were snapped;
- replace cables
- all the brackets/clips/pins were missing from the rear calipers
passingers side pop-up headlight was bad
- had to remove front bumper cover to access it
- had to cut the front pumper off destroying it ferther
- had to distroy front turn signals and trim bits
*this one is my fave*
trouble shoot the fast idle
- discover the coolant temp probe was bad
didnt fix issue
- decided the egr valve was bad, removed egr system.
- in the process of removing the egr system i had to undo a fitting next to the distributer wire connector, paranoid that i might damage the connector i attempted to remove it from distributor. As i wiggled the connector i realized that the whole distributor was rotating (the bolt was never fully tightened)
- looked for timing marks on lower timing belt cover and found out
#1 the lower belt cover was also missing
#2 the bolt holding the crank pulley on was backed out about 1"
#3 alternator belt was chewed up
- removed crank pulley bolt and discovered why it was backed out 1" (cross threaded)
- attempted to remove crank pulley (stuck on there so hard i snapped off 3 of the grooves on it and dislodged it from the rubber center isolator) I had to devise a pully puller to get it off.
- discovered the reasion the timing belt was chewed ( the aligment washer that goes between the timing belt cog and pully was bent and twisted)
- discovered why the alt belt was chewed up (alternator was locked up solid, casing was shattered)
- checked all the timing belt pullies, 1 was extreamly bad, another one had 1/8" of in and out play. The one with in and out play turned out to be the oil pump! :32:
- oil pump is intigrated into the front housing of engine, which attaches to the oil pan
- had to remove the new headder i just got done installing, get a new oil pan gasket
- found out why i had to rebend the header i bought for the car (was hitting the oil pan); turns out the engine the kid used was from a celica and featured a crank shaft counter ballance to lessen engine noise and vibration. This required a deeper oil pan to accomidate, thus the fitment issue.
- counter ballance was promptly removed, and oil port plugged.
All the new bits are arriving little by little and hopefully after this weekend she will be moving under her own power again.
Dont think its all a massive sob story,
i have been having fun when ordering parts;
- only oem replacement radiator I could find was $500, so i went with an aluminum unit for $200
- all the body repair panels i would need came up to $1000, so i went with a full widebody kit
for $700 shipped and a local set of good doors for $100
- decided to throw my old corbeau racing seats in the car with brand new micro suede seat covers
for $400 *including the seat brackets and sliders*
as apposed to a set of good stock seats for $300
- naturally going with a ricer steering wheel insted of keeping the massive air bag steering wheel that was in there!
- Ive also been having fun with the sterio; installing my touch screen dvd player, 6.5" componets on all four corners, 4 channel amp, 1 channel amp powering a pair of 8" subs, and a making behind the seat boxes to house the rear speakers and subs
well, seeing how there is an end in sight for the MR2 build i started braking off a chunk of the mad fat gov-ment refund cash for supra bits;
- KVR brake pads i ordered about 3 months ago are finally shipping soon!
- dash board that i bought 5 months ago is finaly shipping
- bought the flywheel, clutch, pilot bearing and all the hardwear from
www.Quantum-Auto.com
- ordered the howe 82870 throw out bearing from summitracing.com
- ordered the howe 8287 remote bleeder kit from summitracing.com
- ordered another quart of por-15 semigloss black from summitracing.com
and after the MR2 is out of the garage the supra is going right back in for more work..
As for schedules slipping, just need to make sure it is done for the June show. My plans were to get mine done by April as well...it finally made it on to the road in July/August. Hang in there! If I weren't on the opposite side of the state I'd come help wrench/wire.
