Matt's 1990 JDM SW20 Turbo MR2

Hi Guys, heard a lot of good things about this forum lately, pretty keen to get into it all and learn more about my car seeing as my previous car was a Celica and I know very little about MR2's but we all have to start somewhere.
 
So here is my 1990 JDM Toyota MR2 Turbo. It was imported into Australia in 1999 and owned by an enthusiast in rural NSW  till about 2010. During this time he installed Rev 3 lights  and repainted the car in Super Red I'm pretty sure it was the 90's Crimson Red, I'll check the plate one day. In 2006 he crashed the car through a barbed wire fence doing damage to the front bar and bonnet. Shortly after this he cooked the gen1 motor and then it sat in a garage for 6 years untouched. Then my mates father buys it for next to nothing as his wife wanted a red sports car to take to work. He got it as a project and with my mate sourced a Gen 2 3SGTE then rebuilt it from the ground up, new bearings, rods, pistons, beams everything. They did not rebuilt the turbo or the gearbox. His wife drove it from work and back for 2 years and in this time only put 10,000k’s on the motor. The body has 220,000k’s with the engine replaced at 210,000k’s. Recently over dinner my mate heard they were thinking of selling so he persuaded them to give it to me for half its retail value as it only cost them 4K all together. They were extremely happy for me to have it but sad to see it go and its to date the best car purchase experience I’ve ever had.
 
The car in terms of mods doesn’t have much but it does have a full stainless steel exhaust system with a high flow cat worth more than a grand alone and just general maintenance mods. It also has a GPS head unit which is like an old 90’s computer but it’ll do till I get more money to put apple car play in there. The car does have some odd gold rims but they only purchased them because they were wrapped in Potenza RE001’s. They’re kind of growing on me but I definitely want wider rims on the rear with wider tyres. Allegedly these cars have a tendency to ‘snap oversteer’ but I’ve found it only misbehaves if you really provoke it or have ****ty tyres, I have a bad habit of snapping the throttle shut when the end steps out I need to learn to ease off. Will be taking it to a drift day for ****s and giggles on the wet skid pan but all of this plus mods requires so much money.
 
The bad points about the car, sunroof doesn’t work so it’s a sun-window, previous owner hacksawed the gear shifter so now nothing screws onto it, paint chips all over front bar, dash looks like its being lit by a candle and bonnet and tiny oil leak from tappet cover. Other than that the car is factory fresh all the JDM goodies work like the folding mirrors and AUTOMATIC climate control. This car is already more high tech than my 2000 celica despite the 10 year age gap. I do around 12.7/100km in terms of fuel consumption but I’ve been boosting everywhere lately because its that damn addictive. The car in the wet is dangerous and fun. You can’t exceed 3000rpm without the wheels slipping and the hips wriggling like it’s a latino dancer. But my god do I love this car, I liked the celica but didn’t realise what love was till the turbo spooled and made me laugh uncontrollably. 10/10 would recommend.
 
Photos edited, I took these shortly after buying the car but forgot to upload them.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

It's remarkably clean, always been garaged its entire life, now I have to fight for the garage with the Mrs Mazda3. The interior is pretty clean also but it does need a new steering wheel. I'm trying to find one cheap from a late JZA80. 

robk
Nice car Matt!

Ah the IMPSBL driver. Each year I go down to Toyotafest by Toymods I've been meaning to have a chat with you regarding that awesome car. Nice to see your the president and your keeping up with the newbies like myself. Hopefully I'll make it to an event at some point, maybe even the track day challenge and we can talk. You car seems to be where I want mine to be eventually. 

You should definitely come along to the Trackday Challenge. It's heaps of fun and get get plenty of time to catch up with a lot of knowledgeable people.

Nice ride
See you at MTC!   

Feeling the love guys.

Nik_Lee
Looks like a nice clean car. I saw your post in the Newcastle monthly meet post, it will be good to see it at one of our local meets when you make it.

I do have an intellectual property law assignment due in less than 24 hours but its kind of done so the chances of me turning up tonight are likely, but no guarantees haha.

So last weekend I took my car with some friends down to powercruise 2016 for some awesome camping and cars with mates as well as some track time for the MR2. It must be said that I had an epic time and the car felt quite at home on the track despite the stock suspension, would easily outcorner most of the bigger V8 cars they normally have at these events. 

Sadly its not all good news. While I was there I got a Dyno run and with a fresh rebuild I expected the power figure to be around 140Kw or thereabouts (not actually sure how much it should produce). Sadly the result was 107Kw and most people who have been in the car say that it feels faster than that, it could be the dyno but it ran reliable numbers for other cars so I think it may be a boost leak. I have ordered a JST Omori 45mm boost gauge to replace the stock gauge to see how much boost its actually producing and hopefully thats where my problem is. 


 
https://youtu.be/U-jU-YKaQAY
 
Also the clutch master cylinder failed on track and the clutch pedal wouldn't spring back up as it should. We looked closer and found out that it was leaking fluid through the firewall so I've got a new master cylinder and slave cylinder to be attached this weekend. I am not looking forward to bleeding it, any suggestions are most welcome. The temp also started climbing after the track session and drivers side radiator fan doesn't work, were able to force power to it so I know it works but I don't know whats broken in the circuit. Can anyone reccomend where I should get some new resistors for the fans? Finally the dump pipe has come loose and now the car sounds like a tractor so that also has to be fixed on the weekend.

Generally a good weekend the small faults with the car are easy fix's or at least appear to be so hopefully I'll have the car diagnosed and running properly in the near future. 

It is a bit disappointing but after I fix the other issues I can begin diagnosing to find the issue. Many people have said factory blow off valve can be the cause of a boost leak. Good to know it'll be way more powerful when I'm done though haha.

Well the fist repair (dump pipe) is a pain in the ass. First problem is I need a gasket from Japan and my car is a daily so I'm going to have to mooch of the missus car for 2 weeks while I wait for the part. It took me all day to actually get the dump pipe off because it kept hitting the housing of the oil cooler. Finally managed to separate it via taking of nearly the whole exhaust system, felt so good to finally do it. 
 
First Issue
 
 
Solved

 
Dump Pipe

 
what was left of the gasket

Other MR2 owners say I should do the Hose from Hell and the Hose from Hell on Earth while I have the oil cooler partially disassembled. I may do it while I'm waiting on the parts we'll have to see. I might get a start on the clutch master tomorrow.