I have a spare set of those front erm strips that cover the toblerones If you'd like! Pm me haha

Looks like Steve reaaly did keep it in good nick Arthur :p looking forward to seeing the Gen 3 conversion done :)

Looks awesome mate, reminds me of my old mr2. for a second i thought it was :p
Hope the conversion goes good:)

Yeah Steve did a great job looking after it. Will keep the forum updated on progress as it moves along with the conversion.

The car is a project Steve and myself have taken on and it will become our weekend fun car and part time track warrior.

Some other info on the car:

Has lowered king springs
Electronic boost controler (16-18psi)
Made just over 140kw at the wheels on the last club dyno day running 15psi

We installed a water injection system into it years ago, using an Aquamist nozzle, high pressure irrigation pump using a fuel cut off solenoid controlled by a small electrical circuit taking the feed off the factory MAP sensor (adjustable, but set to come on at boost)

Also installed an intercooler spray using the same pump but a differnet nozzle and an Autospeed intelligent intercooler spray controller. This controller looks at injector duty cycle (to see how hard car is being driven), ambient air temp and intercooler core temp to decide when to spray the IC.

Car also has Gen3 lights and brakes including slotted discs.

Mmmm black sdub :) Looks very nice. Need to swap that stock exhaust for something a bit more beefy imo.

We do have another exhaust, basically comes off the stock dump/cat, goes under the crossmember and splits in 2 forming a "V" shape under the car, continuing with a hot dog each side forming the V and then to 4 inch tip per side. Its all straight through, looks great but is loud with a capital F.

This one has a nice note but is not performance orientated.

We have an Apexi GT exhaust for the Gen 3 conversion.

welcome to the forum, nice car amd it sounds like you know what your are doing with it

Ok, the fun has officially started. Tonight we dropped the motor out of the half cut!!! Woohoo!!

It was relatively straight forward really, much easier than i though it would be.. Basically followed a couple of guides on the net, but did a few things differently.

The axle nuts were &%$#@ tight (especially one of them) which was interesting as we couldn't use the handbrake etc to stop the hubs turning. Ended up bolting on some nuts on the studs, and using a crow bar through them to stop it from turning, supporting the hub and socket setup with jacks. Also, my 32mm socket wasnt deep enough to reach the nut, so used a 1 1/4 inch truck wheel nut bar, massive extension.

We removed both hubs complete with calipers, suspension arms etc (the struts were already gone on the half cut), and dropped the motor, gearbox, half shafts as one unit, using a frame above the car and a chain block. The hardest part was the motor wanted to twist slightly towards the front, causing the left and right engine mounts to bind. a bit of extra jacking from the bottom and rocking and all was sweet.


Motor down


Lifting setup

We will now strip the half cut of anything useful and throw the rest away. Then repeat the process on the actual car.

We didnt remove the air con compressor (the lines were cut anyway) and didnt remove the clutch slave for the same reason. Figured it would be easier to suss out how to unbolt it when we do the car by looking a t this one when its out of the car and you can actually see it.

Out of curiosity, most people on the net say to disconnect the clutch slave cylinder, leaving it connected to the car. Is this purely to save bleeding it later, or am i missing something here? Same with the air con compressor, it is usually removed and left connected to the car, is this purely to save regassing etc?

Will do more tinkering during the evenings and on the weekend, hopefully more good progress soon.

yes to clutch and aircon. Its also illegal to let the gas out of aircon. Will cause a hole in the ozone layer above your house. Could also destroy seals.
Also dont just cut the clutch fluid line with a knife :)

Also im sure you know but i when you go to put the eng back in the new car, dont put the jackstands on the rear like you have done for the halfie

Thanks for the tips. The clutch line has a join not far away, which is the one I undid. I will have a look once the motor is out in the open to suss out the clutch slave arrangement, but is bleeding the clutch more of a pain than trying to unblolt it? Both operations look to be a major pita.

I hope the Gen 2 air con compressor will fit the gen3 engine, can anyone confirm?

and yes re jackstands at rear, will support in front of the rear wheels. might need to get higher stands or sit them on something sturdy to lift the car high enough to drag motor from underneath.