So maybe the engine is okay, and its just overfueling due to the O2 sensor. Will check this out later

Thanks again Aaron!

When the O2 sensor in my 16V crapped out, it went from 500km / tank on the highway to just a hair over 400km. I ended up putting in a wideband sensor instead and fed the stock ecu a narrow band signal from that (LC1 has a narrow band output). The little 4A is pretty tough, I over heated mine a few times at Wakefield because I didn't bleed the coolant system correctly and it didn't pack in a head gasket or warp the head from those experience. You'll find a good service and it will probably be purring like a kitten for a fair while longer :)

Once you go black....you can never go back
http://s13.postimg.org/iwow6ralz/nov_08_006.jpg

 
 

Started playing arround with the megasquirt, have fuel but no spark, will have to look into it later when I have more time.

Have been really paranoid about this thing having a blown head gasket... It smells oily, dosnt blow smoke but after I run it and drive it for 5-10 mins, the inside of my oil cap looks like this:


 
It seems to develop a very fine, foamy, milky substance in it. Oil so far though has remained clean, and the water seems fine too. I can hear the car misfiring every now and then at idle.

I suppose all i can do is flush and bleed the cooling system, let it run for a fair while and watch the oil/water till I get a definitive result

Picked up all the spare engine parts too, hopefully sell them off so that I can afford to do the head gasket, if it needs doing :P



Have noticed the car has a high idle too, arround about 2000rpm, fluxuates +-200rpm though

At the end of today though I looked into my garage and admired the two mr2's briefly, before being told to get one of them out so my parents could use the garage two :P

 

Hi Eric,
 
High idle speed is a common response to broken thermostat, (staying open), however another concurrent symptom will be lowish water temp showing on gauge.
With mine I found in warmer weather, once temperature was up to normal, idle speed dropped back.
 
Redtarga on this forum has some literature about thermostat & cooling circuit.

That oil cap does suggest a HG issue.

Yes, alas I believe the head gasket has a fracture. When i took the rocker covers off, there was bits of milkyness in there. so off with its head!

I reallyyyyy dont want to pull the engine out, so hopefully I can do the head gasket in the car. 

In the mean time, Ive been painting....


 
Did crinkle red covers and metalic bronze insert piece thing... Looks pretty nice and makes the engine bay look heaps better! Not sure what to do the Intake manifold in though.... Would rather replace with ITB's ;)


Sdub has been getting some attention also. Im in the process of restoring to the factory interior. I love having a super nice interior :D More pics to come....

It's been mentioned before - if you've only one job to do, engine in situ, more than one, make like a flasher and "whip it out!"  
 
Seriously, it isn't that big a deal and you'll find the time spent removing it is well worth it.  Also gives you a chance to give the engine bay a birthday while it's empty . . .

Couple of things happened the past 5 or so days

I got some carpets, although it seemes the drivers side one is missing a MASSIVE chunk


 
The Sdub ticked over :((


 
Anyway got bored yesterday, and decided to tinker with the adub. The original plan was to slap a 20v head on the bigport block, but I wanted to check the bigport bottom end out before I did that. Didnt have a crane that day so pulled the head off

Danny (DVS_MR2) came round to help me with his 4age expertise


 
He then showed me how to remove the timing belt in one easy step


 
Im not sure how well you can see this but on the edge of the bend between the water and oil jackets, there is a split between the two. Guess I did have a head gasket problem haha.



Bores and pistons were okay for a 260,000km engine. there is a slight lip at the top of the bore that will need to be fixed and also a slight score mark in number two. oh and also realised it has hurricane extractors ^.^ 



Anyway engine should be out this weekend. and like dennis said, the engine bay will get a good scrubbing!

Plans at this stage (subject to change)

20v's are hard to find and have their own problems trying to get them to work, so for that reason Im going to just rebuild the engine. Block will be acid bathed, honed. new rings and bearings (still yet to inspect) 

Head will be refurb'd and I'll also be getting 1mm taking off the head. on top of that a trd 0.5mm head gasket, that should be an upgrade over the factory 1.2

Overall I'm hoping for a compression ratio of upwards of 10.2:1 - that should give it a bit more juice ;)



You can see my pesky tow strap here ;) Used to have it on my Sdub but I would get pulled over nearly every week when I had it on, once removed it suddenly stopped happening

Hopefully this weekend is even more productive!




 

Grab a set of small port pistons, they are 10.3:1 compression and you won't need to shave the head so much or run a super thin head gasket :)