1986 Toyota AW11 MR2 - Turbo Time.

[ToolsnTrack]

OK, Easter Sunday, time to clear a space and attack the 3S!

So, in the end i decided to disassemble the entire water pump assembly, mount in a vice, and drill that useless screw out. It worked, with no damage to the casing threads:



and cleaned up reasonably well...



Some pitting was found here. This shouldn't cause issues though i wouldn't think?



...and the new one went on with no dramas. Well, i say no dramas with the actual fitting, but i have found this bolt to be missing:



...and this one



Which means it matches this gearbox plate mount, which has EVERY bolt missing:



The fun doesn't stop there. I deduced that i could put the timing belt on and throw those bolts in at a later point in time once i obtain them. Ha, nice try, but no:



This is the supplied tensioner, which I'm sure is meant to be an idler. Tits, that will be the wrong timing belt kit then...

[ToolsnTrack]

Ah, it seems I can get a replacement tensioner for about 25 quid outside of the TB kit. Easy fix. Just need to line the belt up against the old one and be sure its a match and we should be good to go on that front.

I didn't sit in the doledrums all night though. Got some more brackets painted, including the Celica alternator bracket!

[ToolsnTrack]

Progress! Mad traffic on the way home last night, so I only got an hour in the man cave. In that time, amidst some tidying, I managed to get the timing assembly put back together and timed. Just need to work out the tensioner and we are good to go!

[ToolsnTrack]

Last night was a good night. Some painting happened...



and the belt got finished...



...and covered...



...then some nicely painted bracketry went back on...



....including the nice new Celica alternator bracket...



Can just about make out the substantial quantity of heat wrap that has gone onto the "hose from hell" too. All ready for the turbo to go back on next!

[MightyMork]

This is going to be excellent. I really fancied doing this to mine but it just never happened. Keep going the end is in sight!

[ToolsnTrack]

Sweet lord, this has been a long neglected thread. To be honest, very little has happened since the last time i was here.

The welding on the boot has been stripped back, i plan on pulling this in a bit as it was a touch overkill for boot intrusion. Nothing was welded though.

Other than that, i bought this:



A Fiat Cinquecento front radiator. This should squeeze in nicely to work as a charge cooler radiator, and cost the princely sum of £13. Score.

[ToolsnTrack]

Right, back to the '2! I feel i may have subconsciously lost mojo on this following the abortion of a job i did on the firewall. It was just too messy, and frankly, bodged. Not my best work, and with the time and thought going into this MR2, it bloody should be. This week will be focused on making that right. To start with, i got handy with the angle grinder and chopped all the old offending metal out. I did consider taking the full original panel out and starting again, but i like the idea of keeping the extension as "organic" as possible, as if Toyota designed it. Maybe i just like to procrastinate. Anyway, i decided to take some of the top panel out this time too, so there is a clear gap on the top that the original panel will blend into, whilst retaining as minimal a protrusion into the rear trunk as possible. Like this:



Once lined up, i made up a side plate for the N/S, and tacked it into place. This will be stitch welded and blended in rather than overlap and spot weld which i tried before.



Looks neater (or it will once ground back) but takes a lot longer due to the time to spot in each weld. the original trunk wall is crazy thin, and far too easy to blow holes in. The top done too:



Which was as far as i got. You can roughly see what I'm aiming for here..



I'll get some detailed pics of the inside and hopefully more progress tonight.

[paulvandenton]

Ill just leave these here:)

[ToolsnTrack]

Oh yes, I've seen that one before. Bit too many bolt-ons for my taste, but yes, i do like!

So more progress last night. I got the side plates all welded up again, just a bit of trimming to do around a captive nut on the inner side...



...but the outer side is done...



The pic above gives some indication of the running edge work for the top plate. I mated it at 90 degrees and stitch welded it to the original weather seal part. Then it was ground back, and looks a lot better. To be honest, I also measured up the weather seal edge to make it at the very edge of the drop into the engine bay. Should look neat when the strip goes back on! You can just about make it out in the picture below as well, although i think my phone is dying as the focus is garbage...



On the other side, the top panel comes down and attaches to the side panels and the original firewall here:



Still a bit of grinding back needed on those welds. I got as far as this last night:



The cuts into the top panel are to all the panel to flex and bent to meet all the ribs on the original panel. These will be filled in again with welds once the 2 panels are attached.

So that will be this weekends task. Get that all stitched up, ground back, then paint the lot including the engine bay.

After that... the engine goes in for good.

[ToolsnTrack]

Soooo.... Great plans for the weekend, shame it got shat in the face. Let me explain.

Saturday. Got cracked into it hard, starting with the inner wheel arches. The new engine mounts partly join onto these along with the chassis rails. Bearing in mind the rails are about 3mm thick and the arch liners are made from paper, there was bound to be a few welding blow holes when I attached them. On the nearside, they looked a bit like this:



on the front mount, and this...



...on the rear. I wire-wheeled the scabby underseal back, chopped out some metal tabs to go over them, then welded them in.





Following a wee blast with the flapper disc, I replaced the underseal with a firm slap of Tetroseal, and it looked good as new!



Sadly, that used up the last of my argon, and happened at roughly 9.30 on the Saturday. Oh well, that knackered my weldathon plans. Not wanting to let the weekend go to waste, I decided to start hitting all the fiddly jobs I have been putting off due to "needing to weld"... Things like competing the 3S rebuild that has been hampered by the engine sitting in a corner and being inaccessible. Cue the hoist..



Turbo and support bracketry back on! I have a few other bits and bobs to do here, including some hose replacement (some of the hoses really don't look to clever, and ... silicone hoses guys!)

Couldn't finish welding the back of the engine bay, but I could prep and paint the other 3 sides.



This was a job I had put off due to the time consuming and downright footery nature of removing all the fuel line and coolant gubbins from the firewall.



Much better. I look forward to scratching it all again when i pull the engine back in (groan).

No welding gas, but I could still prepare the reinforcing plates for the front and rear torque mounts in readiness for welding in place. This was the rear one:



This picture gives a much better view of the painted bay too. There will be some severe welding to attach this to the chassis rail once the gas is back!



This is the front torque mount reinforcing bracket. There is a bit more measuring to do on this one as the chassis rail has some protrusions which mean the bracket doesn't quite fit flush once attached to the car. The brackets will be seam welded together along the join line, but...



As you can see, a gap had to be cut. On the plus side, I can run welds along this gap too which will provide better support to the gusset.

While I was at it with the grinder, I started using the offcuts to make webbing for just about anything I could find that needed beefing up! For example, the rear torque mount:



Last up, I had removed the rear suspension sub-frame half way back when I had to put the engine in for a trail fit. I had left it off as I had always promised myself I would do some tidying up of it "when I had time". Well, I do now! Fetch the wire brush:



Clean off the dust, then paint!





Much nicer, although it now means I will need to do the same on the O/S sub-frame. Sigh...

[ToolsnTrack]

So, couple of hours last night. My welding gas arrived, so I hit an easy win with the rear torque mount. Welded the top edge, sides...



and the bottom sides. I will chop that lip at the front at a slight angle, then weld that edge too. If I do that right it should give me a nice flush mating face with minimal flappy disc action.



That was it for the underside of the car, following a nice deluge of welding slag down my neck. I decided to do some more upright welding, and finished the rear firewall...



...which is satisfying. That's not the final coat, just a blow over to let me visualise it and keep the rust out. I still have the internal join within the engine bay to weld, but that's it.

Following the front torque mount gusset getting welded on, I will have no excuses not to throw the engine in.

[ToolsnTrack]

Managed to squeeze in an hour last night. Welding mode properly engaged, I finished of the rear torque mount strengthener with a seam weld along the engine bay face...



Just needs a bit of paint now. Then I moved onto the front torque mount...



Both plates joined together...



...and seam welded to the front..



I'll trial fit the mount onto this soon and see how intrusive the wings are. they may end up trimmed back a bit...



Following that I started the unpleasant process of welding the underneath into place, stitch welds first. I hate welding slag down my neck! While I was at it i found this though:





Right in front of the rear lower suspension arm mount. I would guess this will take some pretty tough abuse with the 3S in, so some thought will have to go into repairing / strengthening this part... Sigh.

[ToolsnTrack]

Decided to give my lungs a break last night from the welding and grinding.

Instead, I started the slow but satisfying process of upgrading the old, tatty and perished hoses with shiny silicone ones...

[ToolsnTrack]

Got some substantial progress yesterday on a cheeky Monday off work. The most substantial part was as follows:



Knock knock...



Boom! In for good! (I hope...) Yup, final instal complete. Also, pretty chuffed that i managed to get the full lump, turbo and all, in the bay without a single scratch to the new paint. Got to be a first for me!!

So now it's in it will be time to knock a few fiddly jobs off the list. First up, the torque mounts will need finalised, so I completed the strengthening of the rear mount...



Then I gave the front plate a paint up to keep the rust at bay...



This picture leads me to my first question! As you can see, the front mount bracket and clutch slave assembly are fitted now too, but it looks like the stock SW20 hose is a bit on the tight side. Will the AW11 hose be longer and a direct fit?

Next up, i finished painting the rear strengthener and refitted the N/S suspension subframe:




Yea, and the anti roll bar brackets. Next up, connecting up more gubbins. I popped the gear linkage clips in as I am famous for losing these!



So, question 2! Looks like I do not have the banjo bolt for the shiny new SW20 fuel filter, on the side that goes to the engine (old AW11 one doesn't fit).

[ToolsnTrack]

No substantial leaps this weekend, mostly because Mrs Tommytank and myself have been married 2 years. Turns out ladies like it when you notice those things... Who knew.

What I did do was trail fit the rear torquemount, mostly because in a blind fit of panic I realised the reinforcing plate would probably have thrown the alignment out. Not well represented in this picture, but it is ok...



Albeit ticht. Couldn't fully fit it as i have no suitable bolt, with the old AW one being too short, and not having a 3S one. I'll just order a new one for the front and rear i think...

[georgeb]

Aug 11, 2014 6:39:25 GMT ToolsnTrack said:

No substantial leaps this weekend, mostly because Mrs Tommytank and myself have been married 2 years. Turns out ladies like it when you notice those things... Who knew.

Good work and lots more to come given the fleet!

An old boy once told me that the best way to remember a wedding anniversary was to forget one. He was dead right!

[Sweetpea]

Mrs Sweetpea organised our wedding to be on her birthday so I could forget both at the same time. She's very thoughtful like that.

Nice work by the way, I'd missed a few updates.

James

[ToolsnTrack]

So in between daily hack maintenance, I managed to take another proper look at the 2 this weekend. Decided that as the engine is now in for good I could start final fitting a lot of bits that I have been tripping over. Starter went on, along with a proper solution to the clutch slave bracket..



Can't really see from here but those are studs and nuts...



I also threw some proper clams on the coolant lines.



Now, clearly the large radiator hose here will need rethought as its a bit of a stretch, but I started throwing hoses on to suss out the coolant configuration. See the outlet below where the rad hose is, is that for the heater matrix? Inlet or outlet?



Pull a chair by the way, I have more questions....

So next up was the engine loom. I've been irritated by the sight of it lying on my drivers seat for months, taunting me. Well, a full Sunday remained, and it was time to nail this one. I started clearing a gap around the inlet, then ran it (with much swearing) until i made realisation #1... The throttle position sensor lead had been cut. Baws...



Back out it came. Luckily i have 2 looms (rev1 and rev2, just in case) so i had spare connectors. I lopped off the spare TPS lead and soldered it on.



As I had gone to the grief of removing it again, I decided to be a clever boy and relocate the alternator wiring to work in the Celica position...



Happy days. I didn't run the big main lives through here as they simply wont fit in the cam valley holder. I'll run leads outwith the stock loom to solve this at a later date.

Last fault i could see (after some thorough examination) was a missing AFM plug.



Soldered. Sorted. OK, back in it went again. This time, i had everything on the block plugged in, and i was squinting under the TB when i found another plug there. I am guessing there must be an electric ICV on the Rev1/2? Well, there is something missing a plug from the loom, and it took a LOT of gymnastics to suss out i had another chopped casualty. In my defense, it was this:



Its between injector 1 and injector 2. Also, that's me pulled it out a bit, so you can see why i didnt clock it the first (or second... sigh time around. Yup, loom out AGAIN.

So, third time's a charm. The good news is that the loom is now in, fully plumbed, and as such i can start fitting things that obstruct it. Things like this:



Oooh, sexy. that said, It's starting to get REALLY crowded in there.

[ToolsnTrack]

OK, went out to re-appraise the MR2 with some fresh eyes. It was all getting a bit overwhelming with the loom in so I took a bit of a step back for perspective. I still like the idea of this thread being a belt and braces build, so the forthcoming posts are probably going to seem menial, almost pointless. Let me tell you, the thought behind them has been substantial. For example, this is the radiator hose to the water pump. Not a simple connection as there is no off the shelf pipe for it. Instead, a lot if eyeballing, double checking and guesswork went into bodging a hose to run to this kink free. I re-used the original MR2 hose, rotated and reversed with a section cut out...



...which seems to work. Next up, connecting the gear linkages. Again, not simply a case of drop on and forget. I converted the original box to use bearings instead of bushes. No slack changes! Unfortunately the new box linkage lugs were pretty corroded, a fact I just sussed out now the engine is in. Cue convoluted emery paper action, and re shimming the offset to ensure the cables are pulling straight. Just need some split pins on here and its good to go. another job off the list!



This also allows me to move onto extending the cable to get the gearstick to sit central, so one job off the list and another on!

Small steps done right are better than a rushed job to be fair, so time to accept that having the loom in wont necessarily mean a running engine if I want it done right.

[ToolsnTrack]

Alrighty, more bits and bobs have arrived. First up, I did consider extending the clutch line, but that's a bit dull. Instead i got a custom made S20 line with an extra 3 inches to it...



Seems to have done the trick! I started to gravity bleed the system last night, but after an hour it was no further forward. Bearing in mind the system is probably bone dry this may take a while! I'll carry on with that again tonight. In other news, I have started to tidy that riot of an engine bay up. First on the list, and an easy win, was the diagnostics plug:



...followed by what I'm guessing is the T-VIS module or something?



Regardless, it's mounted now! Other than that, I finalised the throttle body heater pipes. I have yet ANOTHER query though... the large bore vac ipe in the middle of where the 2 heater hoses go into the throttle body... i cant see any location that this feeds to in the diagrams. Any ideas?