1986 Toyota MR2 - We didn’t see it… Right?

[georgeb]

Aug 14, 2015 21:47:34 GMT Sweetpea said:

In my last post it may have appeared that the car was more complete than it actually is. I'd hate to unintentionally mislead you all. Intentionally misleading you is just fine but I don't want to do it by accident.

James

Still, progress is, as they say, progress.

Is it just me that's just reading your changed title as "A massage from the Archbishop"? Yes?..Okay then.

[Sweetpea]

I'll just leave this here...

[georgeb]

What can I say?

[ToolsnTrack]

Tremedous update!! Get in there!

[MK2VR6]

I love a 'phoenix from the ashes' startup video - huge congrats. Even wifey seemed really excited!

[Phil H]

Nothing better than a running engine to boost the mojo!

[oukie]

Where are the clapping emoticons, well done.

[Clement]

Congrats on the rebirth!!!

Somehow, I can't help chuckling when reading your posts so keep it up, and please get another piece of errrr ancient automobile dereliction when this one's done

[Sweetpea]

Thanks folks. It is good that it's running again.

Aug 18, 2015 11:17:00 GMT MK2VR6 said:

Even wifey seemed really excited!

I think she was more surprised that it started. Then there was the puff of burning oil to upset her delicate nose. (I've been coating the cylinders since I took the head off.)

I drove it 6 feet up and down the drive yesterday too. No more pushing the poxy thing! It took me a moment to find reverse. I've owned automatics and one 6 speed for years now and had forgotten where reverse was.

It's left me with a few new problems to keep it away from the MOT station.

The leaking thermostat housing.
The alternator isn't alternating.
And the cold idle is bouncing between 2000 and 3000 revs.

James

[ToolsnTrack]

Cold idle is a wax thermostat switch and they are prone to sticking. I think there are numerous threads on it, and most folk replace it with an electric solenoid for cold / hot running.

[Sweetpea]

Aug 19, 2015 8:28:33 GMT ToolsnTrack said:

Cold idle is a wax thermostat switch and they are prone to sticking. I think there are numerous threads on it, and most folk replace it with an electric solenoid for cold / hot running.

I wondered about that but the revs are going up and down regularly every few seconds and I don't think the wax thing can respond that quickly. Besides which it's leaking water so I haven't run it for more than 30 or 40 seconds so it can't have got warm enough to activate it.
I haven't set the Throttle Position Sensor yet. It's just 'in the middle somewhere'. I suspect it might be confusing the computer.

James

[ToolsnTrack]

Check the vac hoses then, make sure they are in the correct ports. Sounds like a confused ICV...

[oukie]

The wax stat will cause it to raise and for pretty quick, the problem is, it know the revs need to drop and trys but because the wax stat is fubared it can't drop so it bounces back up, hence the urrrrrm burrrrrm burrrrrm burrrrrm effect.

Or it could be air in the coolant, these cars have a good cooling system but needs to be leak free and bleed correctly in the correct order, in your video when you used the hose pipe I was a bit concerned, don't run it for long like that as the cooling system is compromised, HG will fail eventually.

Or it could be a vac hose.

Fun times.

[Sweetpea]

Just been pondering over it and spotted one vac hose I'd forgotten.

The plain water is just to get it flushed out. The cooling system really suffered from standing half full of coolant. Once it's stirred the mud up it'll get drained, the new radiator fitted and some proper coolant. Besides there was a good chance it'd leak horribly somewhere and it's not let me down!

Clement Bonjour monsieur! I missed your post for a moment. Sorry. I'll have to live a very long time before this car is finished so there is no danger there. I don't work that fast you see...

James

[Sweetpea]

Not much to report I'm afraid. I keep tinkering but other things get in the way.

I made a badge for the cam belt cover.




Yes, I know that badges on the cam belts cover aren't strictly an MOT fail but I'd done all the time consuming bit ages ago and I fancied making one.




I have to be honest I'm not totally happy with it so I need to try again. I'll document exactly how I made it then.

When Toyota made the engines they used chrome dome heads to bolt down the cam covers and hex headed bolts on the black trim over the plug valley.




These are all stainless replacements not Toyota's originals. Anyway, I thought it'd look nicer with dome heads everywhere.
So I did...




Again, it's not on my MOT Critical Path Analysis for some reason. Can't imagine why not - it seems important to me.

This is though. As you will recall from my little startup video it was leaking water from the thermostat housing faster than I could fill it up. I thought this was because I'd forgotten to tighten the air bleed doofer but I was wrong. It was corrosion on the gasket sealing surfaces that meant the rubber ring round the stat wouldn't seal up.







I could resurface the flat bit with the old 'sandpaper glued to glass' trick but not the recessed bit and that's where the worst of the problem was.

So I filled it with JB Weld epoxy and sanded that off before it had properly set.




Hopefully that'll do the trick. I might find out later today.

James

[Sweetpea]

Houston we have an annoying niggle.

I put the thermostat back on and it's now holding water.
Putting the 'idle up' hose on (oops, I missed that!) and setting the Throttle Position Sensor has fixed the bouncing cold idle.
I've been able to warm it up which is nice.

So the next problem is that the warm idle is too fast and I can't slow it down. It's sitting at about 1500 revs.
Well that's obviously the crappy waxstat cold idle doohickey that's stuck open. No it's not.

There are 2 ports in the side of the throttle body. One feeds the notorious cold idle waxstat thing. The other feeds the hot idle bleed screw.
With the engine warm if I block the waxstat port the revs drop marginally. A couple of hundred revs maybe. So the waxstat is closed or very close to being closed.
If I block the hot idle bleed screw port the revs drop to about 400 and it almost stalls. That's with the hot idle screwed hard down.
If I block both ports it stalls so there are no other air leaks.

So even with the hot idle screwed down it's passing too much air to get a sensible idle speed. Hmmm.

I don't remember removing the idle screw and I don't recall what it looks like inside so I'm not sure if it should block the air bleed completely. I can't see where the idle bleed drillings in the throttle body go at the moment either.

The only clue I have is that the manual says there is rubber ring gasket between the waxstat and the throttle body and I don't remember fitting one. If the hot idle circuit passes through the waxstat housing and I've missed the rubber ring off I might have accidentally bypassed the idle screw.

Hmmm.

[Sweetpea]

I went in search of my fast idling problem today. To make life easy I took off the throttle body and returned to the safety of the garage.

I thought I'd left an O ring off the cold idle waxstat doofer and sure enough I had.




It should be on the left hand port and clearly isn't there.
I also thought that missing it off might have caused an air leak round the hot idle screw. Well the O ring is round a coolant pipe so the answer to that question is 'no'. Moreover the hot idle air bleed doesn't go near the cold idle waxstat oojamaflip.

So it must just be that the idle screw isn't seating properly. So I poked it out and cleaned it and the drillings.



Clearly I hadn't had this out before. And there was a fair amount of crud came out of the body too.

So now I have a nice 800 revs warm idle. Whoopee! I can still foresee some sort of 'manual choke' in my crystal ball but for the time being I have a working engine.
Well, to qualify that, I have a pile of warning lights to deal with and I still have to set the ignition timing although when I looked the other day it wasn't more than a few degrees off.

James

[georgeb]

Slowlee, slowlee, catchee monkey.

Nice work, James. You're getting there surely.

[Sweetpea]

Aug 23, 2015 21:51:45 GMT georgeb said:

Slowlee, slowlee, catchee monkey.

That's what Project Manager Portia the cat says. Although when she says 'monkey' I think she means me.

[Sweetpea]

It was, I believe, Johann Sebastian Bach who commented "Holy bumper bars, Batman!"

Yes, I've been working on it again.

Firstly I POR15'd the bolt strips that hold the nose cone on.




And then I POR 15'd the inside of the main bumper structure.




Rust now yer git! Shouldn't say that 'cos it will. Anyway, you'll notice that I've painted the flanges where I'll have to plug weld it together. So next I held the two parts together and sprayed some primer through the plug holes.




That leaves me a load of paint spots that I ground back to the metal for welding. It got a coat of weld through first. So most of the seam is painted.
Next I started the job of plug welding it together. Yes it's nearly in one piece! The only thing that stopped me was when the passing thunder storm…




…knocked the power out. There is always tomorrow.