Saw's Dreams for his Little MR2

Well I've been quite active well lurking in these forums for awhile now. I owned an White Mr2 1985 model I believe and pretty much fell in love with its handle and its character. But alas I (like all my cars i tend to own) I Broke it. Blew the gasket between 2nd and 3rd, with out checking it proper and being very poor at the time as well as inexperience with cars I sold it off to my work and brought a reasonable car under request of family members and friends. But the hunger always lingered for another one even the skyline I owned couldn't feel that hole. I Finally convince myself that no matter what I'm getting another MR2 so the hunt was on for a cheap one. yep worse idea ever my advice now unless you have time to fix it don't go cheap it gets nasty quick. So after purchase of my Devil of an MR2 I found it had quite the history and that changing it from Auto to Manual is harder then it looks... Alot harder. I also quickly found out that all the bushes under the car and shocks where absolutely rooted so driving anything over 100kms it became very unstable but hey that didn't stop me from doing 180. so first started the hunt for parts and such requiring parts for it which worked out to be harder then i thought and expensive. Long story short after driving it around in its rough and very dangerous state which required me to focus intensively on what i was doing if driving over 100. Hence the nickname the Devil MR2. Scariest car ever driven and owned. But enough of that I decided pulling it apart and starting the manual conversion... well that was a year ago and now I'm putting it back together well starting too. This is my backyard now and the process I've started with about last week. The Exhaust gearbox and clutch as well as flywheel Back end of car i have no good photos of it before it was pulled apart The very sad state of my interior due to the fact i left the window down and it being powered i couldn't be bothered getting it back up so for a whole year its been down and year The old Auto gearbox got abit rough with it and it was leaking Poor old rental backyard Getting there slowly. The Auto shifter has been removed Engine now with Auto Flywheel removed and the part i don't need but need the manual version of And my Poor little datto that has tried to fill in my need for speed and handling... Yea its not doing such a good job. Hopefully all these images work if not i shall try to redo it.

So trying to get more done on the MR2 but i need to wait for parts really so all i can do now is swap out bushes and hoses right now. that being said im being a bit lazy and trying to put that aside for now. but today i did manage to pull apart the front of the engine abit but damn is it hot out there no relief when i go inside either makes me work slow.


So managed to strip some of the front timing cover off waiting for the timing belt kit and all that to come. But before I could do more ran into a problem with my rattle gun.

Poor thing wouldn't work. so need to sort that out.(PS I don't have compressed air that's why it doesn't work :D)
Did get a photo of the front before putting cover back on and yes number plate is bent hitting a magpie and 150kms does that apparently. But man feathers went everywhere.

Poor thing looks very tired and such cant wait to get her going again got some big plans for her... like a turbo...and some body mods...

Unless your air compressor is heavy duty, a rattle gun ain't going to make light work of the crank bolt.
 
You might find yourself putting the flywheel back on, wedging a bolt in there, then cracking the crank bolt with a breaker bar; that's what I had to do with mine.
 
Also just another tidbit. They estimate only around 900 Red AW11's made it to Australia. Considering the amount that have rusted away or been scrapped, your red one is probably a lot rarer than even my JDM Auto GZE. Being a hardtop it's also one of the lightest chassis models (your old white one being the only one lighter since it was an earlier year) so with the GZE conversion and increased boost, will be a very fun thing to drive.

If you think water pump removal is a pain, try doing it in the car.. I did!
 
Don't forget to pull off the oil dipstick, gives you more wiggle room with the water pump. Just remember to check the O-ring at the end of the dipstick tube because it's known to perish and allow oil to leak out. Might even be worth replacing it as a preventative measure.
Keep the pics coming. We all need to keep spurring on each other :)

So got a little abit done today... well not really decide to finally stop ****ing around and replace all my hoses but left it to the last minute to go into town and pick up some hose clamps so all shops where closed so that's a tomorrow job now. Wasted some time there, decided to pull out my dash because either way I want to replace the back lights or replace the whole unit. Also got an email saying that my parts will not be posted till about another 3weeks so delay there. I've decided to take measures against that so rather then sitting around with my finger up my bum I'm ordering in a gasket set getting here by December so not really happy about that but hey at least this way I can bolt the engine in when I re-gasket everything and such. Then I'll just need to wait to the final things are in place then shes ready to go hopefully that's the plan but we all know that something is gonna **** up or go missing or break or ill break something, miss something or **** it up some how... other news here's some pictures on what I've done since the last update. Yep I know sweet **** all.

Cluster removed, and yea steering wheel has seen better days.

That scared the **** out of me when i turned around and saw that... but spraying half a can of bug spray on it and finding no bugs coming out of it or anything i decided it was safe.

Found this on the net pretty kewl wouldn't mind one myself.


take one guess as to where i got this idea from :D.

and how the engine sits now... yep water pump is still on there. I noticed there was a pipe behind it connecting to it... I now feel like and idiot but hey it will come off once I take off the super charger and such, to get to it.

So in other words not much done and worst is that I need to put the engine back onto the trailer cover it back up pack everything away so when they come around to inspect the place they don't go ape **** at us then pretty much after they leave it will come off the trailer and I can start back up on it. Oh joy...

I now have a certain goal in mind and I hope I can achieve this goal early next year and that is... *pause for a dramatic suspense...* going to Wakefield Park to race at the MR2 track day. Why? because its kinda been a dream to race on different tracks and I thought this would be a good time and well why not so my goal now is to get this ready and get everything ready for this little trip which I'm pretty excited about this. Will be something new and dangerous and full of romance...

PS: goggled mapped it... its not little trip. its 38hour straight up trip 3,784kms not including stops and such so ummm its gonna be a long one.

maj
Wow very ambitious! I'm aiming for the following year given my rate of progress :P Definitely going to take time to come down and spectate this year.

Yea just a tad I know but I'm concerned. I'm wanting to apply now but unsure on what license i need to drive on the track or if i can just rock up and then fill out necessary paper work and such to have it happened. hmmm haven't raced on a track yet so don't know. and you should diffidently tag along come watch me win. :D woot

Highlander
You can get a track licence on the day ($50 for 12 months). If you make it, I am sure we will be able to find a trophy for the person who has travelled the longest distance to get there. Steve, I will even pay for the trophy as I will probably be the one with the shortest journey to get there.

Ahh so it is possible good good one less thing to worry about now. hehe that would be kewl if i can get one. but I'm not fussed really im just hoping i can make it at all i think the experience alone will be enough for me im just hoping the parts im ordering can come in time and i can get everything else set up for it still alittle more work to do. i shall write a list of all the things i need to do. and then i shall see if its possible.