MR2sday update

"SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie" (sidewaysondirt) 03/29/2016 at 12:57 • Filed to: MR2sday, aw11, mr2, 4age, project car hell

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Well, what I hope are the final parts for Charlie’s engine swap from hell that would have been fairly quick and easy if the engine seller didn’t lie about the engine pictures being of the engine I was buying, but that’s another story. Either way, after tracking down some blacktop specific parts that are stupid hard to find (the clips that hold the injectors in took like two months before I gave up and bought an all new ITB setup just for those metal bits) and getting a very nice looking custom exhaust built specifically for 20V conversions from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (sorry, didn’t take pictures), it should just need to be filled with fluids and started now. Soooon..... In the mean time, I picked up Charlie’s original heart from the shop to start taking it apart and see if I can salvage it or at least learn how to rebuild a motor. (sorry for shitty pics)

Dirty as hell, but still in one piece .

Here’s the quick recap of Charlie’s history. Charlie is a very late-built ‘89 AW11. I bought him for under a grand in central Florida in running and driving condition but needing alot of work with 210k miles on the car. The car was almost all original. The timing belt was changed at 130k miles. That’s about it. The original struts were completely shot, bushings were dry-rotted, tires (with original wheels) were useless, and with a straight pipe attached to the engine buzzing behind me and a tiny resonating cabin amplifying the signal because I couldn’t roll the windows down, I started driving him home. He had a name by the first stop for gas.

Well that’s hideous.

The original goal was a quick and dirty LeMons build with the thought being that I can sell all of the trim pieces and bits I don’t need to make up some of the cost and maybe fix a few suspension bits before destroying it on track. That didn’t happen. Instead, I spent the next year and a half beating the shit out of it, completely taking it apart, and grinding out rust (might have been a feature in 80s Toyotas - not sure). Between bouts of service, it went to every track meet and autocross I could make it to in Florida. In that time, almost every piece of the car was removed and either upgraded or cleaned and reassembled. Everything other than the engine, obviously.

See those metal things between the injectors that look like they’re attached to a fuel rail (it’s not a fuel rail)? Want to guess how hard they were to find? Note that they’re attached to an ITB setup that’s not attached to an engi ne...

I don’t want to say that I knew the engine was bad when I got the car. I mean, at 210k miles of who knows what and an autozone fartcan poorly welded to a flex-pipe (seriously), I was surprised that I felt comfortable driving it three hours home right off the bat. I mean, it still screamed to 8000 and sang gloriously at the top. Down on power and burning a bit of oil? Whatever. What I wasn’t expecting was for it to hold up as long as it did.

Is that hole supposed to be there? Pretty sure that gasket’s supposed to hold fluid in or something...

It finally had enough in spectacular fashion at Palm Beach International Raceway. The engine hadn’t been running right and by the second heat, I knew that it wasn’t going to make it home. In the last few minutes of the last heat, it went completely. I coasted into the pit and back to the paddock in a massive cloud of smoke. This is the point where I call a tow-truck, wait til the last minute of the wait period, and get a tow across the state. Nope. That would be too easy. AAA can’t find a company willing to pick me up fifteen miles from Nowhereville Indiantown, Florida. I kept calling back in hopes that they’d have better luck, but they didn’t. It got to the point where the track was closing and it was looking like I’d be stuck outside of the gate with my broken racecar miles from anything. I got one of the people who worked at the track who had a gas-powered golf cart/utility thing to give me a tow out past the gate and started desperately trying to bump start it. I mean, the engine’s already fucked. What am I going to do? Break it? Somehow right as we got to the gate and with my foot buried in the pedal, Charlie sprang back to life one last time.

E ven the rust has rust!

I told the guy I was going to try to see how far I can get on it. He had no faith, but I knew Charlie wasn’t going to let me down now. He’s tried to kill me but he’s never left me stranded. With my foot in the pedal, the sounds no engine should ever make coming from behind my head, I steered north. Slowly I made my way to something approaching the speed limit, but only barely. The car couldn’t pull fourth gear and seemed to be losing power with every mile. Eventually I was going ten under with my foot all of the way down. Occasionally I’d see headlights obscured through the haze to remind me of just how fucked the engine is. As I approached Indiantown, people stopped passing me. The smoke was so thick behind me that it was unsafe to get close because of visibility. As I slowly topped the bridge leading into Indiantown over the St. Lucie River, I was relieved to see the lights of a gas station – the first I’ve seen since the racetrack. With that, Charlie decided that he’d done enough and stopped completely. I dropped it into neautral, coasted down the bridge, and came to a stop in the gas station. I popped the trunk lid to find that my exhaust was so hot that it had melted and set my distributor on fire. Luckily that was it as far as flames go. I still can’t help but feel that it should have been worse.

As Charlie’s heart sits now.

This time I was able to get a tow. After a couple of hours in the sketchiest tow truck I’ve ever seen, Charlie was back home and ready for a swap and I’m ready to start learning how to rebuild an engine. Luckily the crank still spins freely. Every gasket is blown, many more are melted, and so are a ton of plastics. Hopefully my next update will be from the car on the road, but for now I’m glad to be able to work on it again in some way and hopefully I’ll have a backup engine for when my blacktop blows. I picked up a storage unit to do some work and to store Charlie because I’m running out of space. When sitting in the corner taking a break, I accidentally opened my camera and took a picture that makes me feel like Sven Nykvist possessed my phone for a minute. Sven Nykvist totally needs to be an Instagram filter.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/29/2016 at 13:04

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Can we see a picture of the car?

Die-Trying > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 03/29/2016 at 13:06

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its a toyota

Nonster > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/29/2016 at 13:58

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That sucks that it was such a pain to get those injector retainer plates. At least the swap is almost done.

Hmm with how hot it got, that cylinder head might be pretty badly warped. You should see if you can find a smallport head. Combine that with some good cams and bump the compression ratio up to something like the blacktop’s at 11:1 and it’ll be a good little motor....or just turbo it

nerd_racing > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/29/2016 at 14:00

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Awesome read! I like hearing longterm car stories.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 03/29/2016 at 15:16

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I’ve posted most of these pictures so many times it kind of felt like it would be weird and pointless spamming, but ask and ye shall receive!

First bits of service after getting him home. IIRC, it was attempting to get the hood to close right. Still doesn’t.

After his first (and only) wash since I’ve had him. This was me learning how to buff correctly. As you can see, I took paint off. Most of the hood paint loss was already there from the Florida sun, but I made it a bit worse. Everything else cleaned up shockingly nicely.

I hear that all of the kids are doing colored brake calipers these days. My (at the time) two year old niece did this. She has a bright future ahead of her in the car modding scene.

Sticky tires, lighter wheels, one piece seat, stripped interior. Still have the fuel lid taped shut.

In between, I taught myself how to weld. Sort of...

Safety precautions are usually a pretty good idea. Ask me how I know.

I ran out of gas once. The tank is very small and Florida’s very long.

...aaaand Charlie posing one last time before blowing his engine on the back straight. It’s just so composed in the corners. :)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/29/2016 at 15:46

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Fun. Thank you. The vast majority of what folks post here float past on the river so quickly that few people actually see the content. I need to take up welding soon. I have a MIG welder that someone gave me, but I think the wire feed needs to be repaired. I need to take up TIG welding in particular, so I can fabricate a pedal-powered vehicle out of aluminum. www.kineticgrandchampionship.com

On those injector retainer clips, couldn’t you fabricate something? Cut, bend, file... It’s my favorite thing!

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 03/29/2016 at 16:05

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I wanted the real thing because it also seals the back of the injector. The last thing I need is gas shooting out of the engine back there.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/29/2016 at 20:48

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I couldn’t see it clearly in the picture.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/30/2016 at 09:02

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!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

With most of the parts attached to the outside of the engine gone, I was finally ably to peer inside that beautiful, beautiful Yamaha designed DOHC head that makes the 4AGE something special and start assessing damage.

This one is not as beautiful.

I’m fairly certain that the internals are all original. At the very least, I know that the timing belt has been untouched since 1996 and over 100k miles ago. I know this because I found the note about when it was taped on over the timing belt cover that would have had to be broken to get near it.

Hmm... Not terrible.

I’m assuming that the valve cover gasket was changed at some point because I’m seeing evidence of it seeping into the spark plug valley at some point, but it was long enough ago for the grease outside to be consistently thick without looking like it had been opened before. Either way, there was nothing seeping out of them when I pulled them off. Also, they were a bitch and a half to remove with a hammer and chisel even though the gasket itself is just rubber. What surprised me though is how clean the inside is. I was expecting massive buildup of gunk, signs of wear, and who knows what else.

Looking good. I should note that the black gunky looking stuff is actually just the finish of the cams because they are cast. That’s how they’re supposed to look. The gear at one end is for the dizzy.

I mean, it’s no looker, but everything on this cam that’s supposed to be smooth still is and it looks like the oil has never had an issue flowing through here. This is good news. Being on top and because of the way I blew the engine, I started my inspection on the exhaust side. This is the side that got so hot that it set my distributor cap on fire, so I was expecting it to be a wreck.

Umm... I take it all back?

Being pleasantly surprised with the exhaust side, I moved on to the intake side. This scared me a bit. As you can see in the above image, it appears that the tip of the cam is ground off. It could be an optical illusion because of the way the cam is cut, but the cam area’s dramatically dirtier and has gunky buildup that may or may not include solid objects. I’ll have to look into that first.

That cut. Is it normal?

I’m hoping that that appears to be flattened lobes on the intake side is just an optical illusion. When I look at the cam from straight up, it looks like they all have some sort of offset notch in them. It also doesn’t look like it’s flattened there. The light reflection doesn’t get wider at the top like I’d expect if it had an increased radius there. I’ll have to look at that some more once I get the cams out, but it doesn’t matter either way because it’s getting upgraded along the way. In the mean time, I have just about every bolt and hole coated in PB Blaster so hopefully I’ll stop breaking off 26 year old bolt heads. I’ll probably take the head and intake manifold off tonight and mount the block to my engine stand. Hopefully I’ll have better updates next time.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/30/2016 at 09:21

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Tomorrow I will have the cash for this: http://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/5502928497…

The temptation is strong.

Nonster > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/30/2016 at 09:34

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Yeah there’s no doubt that its had some miles put on it. I’m curious to see what the cam journals look like.

The previous owner of my AW11 had clearly had the head rebuilt or replaced because mine looked like this:

But it was clearly a shitty job because the journals were f’d

The picture doesn’t do it justice, there was deep scoring on all the the journals.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 03/30/2016 at 09:49

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I wish they had better pics of the engine bay, but that looks like a steal. Seriously, if it runs, it’s worth every penny. It also might have the rear sway bar attachments depending on when in that model year it was built.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/30/2016 at 09:53

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I’m going to test drive a new Camaro sounds tomorrow, and if I’m smitten I’ll probably wait it out and get that. If I’m not, I’ll call the guy. I don’t really want a car payment, but I also don’t really want to depend on a 20 year old and 30 year old Toyota.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Nonster 03/30/2016 at 10:12

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Didn’t get that far yet, but there will be pictures when I do. I don’t want to start taking the head apart until it’s off of the engine so I can organize everything when doing so.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 03/30/2016 at 10:18

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What are the chances of two golden-era ‘Yotas being broken down at the same time? In my opinion, if I bought Charlie and just dailied it without touching anything, he’d still be running fine. The guy who owned it before me bought it as a cheap beater to daily for a couple of years and kept going for five. I was expecting to blow the motor in a few months and it kept going for a year and a half. These things are hardy as shit.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/30/2016 at 10:22

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Yeah, but my current Yota is the black sheep of the golden ages, though it’s still been perfectly reliable. But I’m in the market because it’s worn out. Pretty much everything needs replaced. Plus, I really want some creature comforts.

nerd_racing > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/30/2016 at 10:44

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this is so interesting because I’m about to pop the cams out of my bluetop as well. side note... I need a better camera.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 03/30/2016 at 12:27

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Creature comforts? The MR2 has them in spades! What could be more comfortable than going into a corner unsure of shich way you’ll be facing on the other side?

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > nerd_racing 03/30/2016 at 12:38

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Wow! Your insides look way better than mine! I might have some more pictures later on tonight if I get far enough to start taking the head apart tonight, but I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing so the work has been slow so far. I mean, I get how an engine works and I’m pretty great at diagnosing issues for friends of mine, but I’ve never even opened a valve cover before, let alone attempted to rebuild the entire thing! I helped a friend replace his starter once and I’ve replaced things attached to the engine like the cooling system, and things like that, but engines always terrified me and if it was running, I knew there was too good of a chance of it not running if I tried something, so this isn’t exactly unplanned. Everything ended up kcosting way more than I was expecting, but I was planning pretty much from day one to blow the motor and attempt a rebuild with zero fucks given. My goal right now is just to get it running again mostly stock. If I succeed, I’ll rebuild it again as a performance engine, but this is my “My First Engine Rebuild” kit. I have every intention of saving it, but I’m not worried if I don’t. I’ll just try again.

nerd_racing > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/30/2016 at 13:09

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I hear you there. I did my first internal components rebuild on a corolla engine with a co worker a few years ago. I’ve done head gaskets before and they were pretty decent to do, but Mazda B series cars you don’t have to remove the cams. This is me solo so I’m going slow too. Are these engines interference?

I’m glad it looks a little better, I’m hoping I can soak the head in dawn power dissolver to clean it up some.

nerd_racing > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/30/2016 at 13:10

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I also just finished rebuild an internal regulator alternator on my own. I’ve never done that but man for $34 in parts and a few hours it was worth it.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > nerd_racing 03/30/2016 at 14:07

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Haha! Electrics I can do all day erry day if I have the patience to chase down the wires. A good automatic digital multimeter makes a world of difference. My brother has a KZ400 that had all sorts of issues with the harness being dryrotted and shorting and since he already had almost everything chopped off of it because Cafe Racer, I was able to do a custom color-coded point-to point job on it in an afternoon. I also build my own audio equipment and built most of the analog frontend for my 48 track recording studio by hand. It’s like legos for adults. Having tons of fun with this so far, and just taking everything apart has made the idea of a rebuild or doing future engine work way less daunting.

nerd_racing > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/30/2016 at 14:27

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I love my multi-meter. Rewired a few engine bays in my day for engine swaps. KLDE V6 aspire comes to mind, along with the 2.5L Turbo Caravan engine into my 90 Dodge Shadow. Had to basically trace and re-pin the harness. Also did a few custom harnesses for Mazda BP engines into aspires too. (same as the miata engine).

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > nerd_racing 03/30/2016 at 14:39

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K engine in an Aspire? That sounds AMAZING. The K8 has always been one of the things I’ve always wanted to play with. I know it’s not as well supported as it’s bit brothers, but something about the idea of a 1.8L V6 with a 2:1 rod ratio and a crank that can take 9000 makes me really, really hard.

nerd_racing > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/30/2016 at 14:42

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The K8 is the same physical size as the 2.5L KLDE and the KLZE. The aspire was really tight to make it fit and you couldn’t really use anything less than 3rd gear without wheel spin and hop. But man it sounded awesome. I really wanted to do an Mfactory LSD from a Capri XR2 inside the 626 trans housing but I didn’t have the cash. I might do a mid rear engine Aspire with either a KL or a Duratec V6 someday.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > nerd_racing 03/30/2016 at 14:44

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Yeah, it’s basically just a debored/destroked version. The good thing about that though is that you can overbore it like crazy and keep the revs and rod ratio.

nerd_racing > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/30/2016 at 15:14

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You should put that in the MR2.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > nerd_racing 03/30/2016 at 15:33

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Haha, maybe. We’ll have to see how my 350 whp twin-charged Group B inspired 4A comes out first.

nerd_racing > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/30/2016 at 15:43

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pfft, zoom zoom or bust!

I may have looked into an SW20 trans and an adapter to run a Mazda 1.8L in my MR2 if the 4AGE is shot...

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > nerd_racing 03/31/2016 at 08:06

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If you’re engineering your own parts, why not AllTrac? ;) I may or may not be thinking about finding an E5xF to take apart to see if it can be done. They mounted to 3S’s and 4As, so it might be possible with enough fab work and the gas tank moved.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > nerd_racing 03/31/2016 at 08:16

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Speaking of which...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TOYOTA-CAL…

nerd_racing > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 03/31/2016 at 08:24

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wouldn’t the transfer case point the wrong way? Could use corolla front knuckles and maybe an alltrac rear diff for the front is what you are saying?

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > nerd_racing 03/31/2016 at 08:37

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Yes it would. Buuuut, it looks to me like it’s an add-on solution. Being that it attaches to the longer axle side and using that to drive it, i’m wondering if it will fit under the oil pan if the exhaust is rerouted. At that point it (depending on which transfer case you get because some share oil with the transmission) may just be a matter of drilling new holes and flipping it upside down. After that, yup. Alltrac front hubs, custom driveshaft/front axles which are cheaper than you think (SC axles should work on the rear because E-trans), and some way to reverse wither the rotation of the now-front diff or the driveshaft before it gets there.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > nerd_racing 04/06/2016 at 12:28

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Got to the guts :)

MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 04/19/2016 at 15:46

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Man that 4A looks right dickered. These things can take so much abuse, I’m surprised yours let you down. It must have had a rough life with non-caring previous owners.