That is one option but Olivia would rather the 2J and she doesent like the looks of the chaser or crown's.
Seeing as the IS300 already comes with a 2J there is no increase in engine capacity and no dramas with converting to a different engine type when it comes to the engineering side of things, also it is not hard to convert the IS300 to use the V160 gearbox.

So I had a busy couple of days over the weekend, I had been doing some work on the MR2 a week or so ago and when I moved the car I noticed a few drops of coolant on the ground under the car so I went looking to find where it was coming from and tracked it back to coolant leaking from the weep hole on the water pump, great....
So I ordered in a new pump but I ordered the updated water pump from the ST205 part number 16100 79236 which has a different impeller wheel than that of a regular 3SGTE pump that is supposed to reduce pump capitation at higher RPM even though mine does not see a lot of time spent at high RPM I figured if I am replacing it I may as well get the update pump anyway.
 
So what a fun job changing the water pump on a SW20 is.... almost one whole day to get the old pump out then another day to get everything back together, wow I will put that down as an experience but at least I now know what it takes to do it or also what is involved in doing a timing belt whilst in chassis. 
 
here is a couple of images of the impeller differences between the ST205 pump vs the regular 3SGTE pump. The regular 3SGTE pump is on the left and has a pressed metal impeller, The ST205 3SGTE pump is on the right and has a cast impeller.
 
Inside the new pump you can just see the updated impeller.
 
 
And the fun I had 
 

Good to see you getting your hands dirty save your self some coin.
 

Yeah I tend to always do all my own work unless it involves something I just don't have the equipment to do it, partly because I then know it will be done properly because I know of far to many people who have had problems when relying on other people to work on their cars and also because I cant stand paying someone to do something I can do myself.

Impressive that you tackled the job on your own. Did you change the timing belt while you were @ it or was it already done recently.

The timing belt was done by the previous owner just before I bought it so it has only done 30,000km, I just inspected it whilst I had it off to make sure it was not showing any signs of defects and it was ok so I left it.

Engine top end gizzards look pretty clean too :-D

Yeah from all the oil tests I have run on the engine since owning it every sample has come back very clean, all in all everything has pointed to a very healthy engine so I have been very happy. :-)

So I had been wanting to update the seats in my MR2 ever since I bought it as that was one of the things I had on my list of things I wanted to do and I had always been keeping an eye out for a nice clean set of Recaro SR5's I also wanted them in black with red stitching so that kept me searching for a bit longer.
A few weeks back a nice clean set came up for sale and Olivia got them for me for an early birthday present  
I then ordered a set of Bride RO rails from Japan and the other day got a chance to fit them up.
 
I love the look of them and they are nice and comfy although I am not completely happy with how they fit up on the rails as I feel they could do with sitting about 20mm closer to the center arm rest and I would have liked if it had a little bit more rearward adjustment, so when I have some more time I will probably remove them and adjust the rails a bit to get them sitting better, for now I am very happy to have them in the car.
 

You got to be happy with that birthday present :-) looks real sporty