Long over-due build thread!!

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greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Long over-due build thread!!

Post by greasemonkey688 »

We'll first off let me introduce myself, I'm Rick and I'm the mechanic and engine builder at Sitech racing. I first got my rev 1 mr2 turbo about 2 and a half years ago. I bought it off two friends who I helped build their 450 bhp mr2 track car for only £800. Here it is when I bought it

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It was a non-runner and due to the state the engine bay was in (unfortunately I didn't take any pics) was going to be expensive to repair, hence the price. But after a new roter arm and dizzy cap it fired first time, result
:thumleft:

So having had a little drive and enjoying it very much, I decided to turn my attention to the engine bay. Every inch of the engine was covered in rusty old coolant stained which had come from "coolant" which I suspect was just water corroding the metal pipes on the underside of the car then spraying out at some point. So I decided to remove the engine and carry out a clean and a few upgrades in the process...

REBUILD 1

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So from standard I removed the engine and stripped it sending the block to my machine shop for cleaning, decking, re-honing, acl race bearings, skimmed head, re-ground crank and polished crank and cams. I rebuilt the engine myself with new water and oil pumps and rebuilt the head lapping in all valves to gain as good a starting point as possible.

I then removed the fuel tank and replaced the standard fuel pump with a Walbro 255. Then replaced the corroded metal coolant pipes above the tank with Dunlop 40mm hard wall pipe. Refitted the tank then replaced all hand brake cables and reconditioned all calipers with seal kits as needed. I fitted a phoenix power inter cooler and painted the heat shields, hard pipes and turbo cover and had the inlet manifold and standard cross brace powder coated and bought and fitted front and rear cusco strut braces. Also polished the rocker cover.

I then purchased a fidanza flywheel and excedy fast road clutch and fitted them along with the gearbox, the shocks were all corroded so I found a set of cusco racing coil-overs I imported from Japan and fitted them. And bought a blitz nur spec r.

It turns out the ecu I had on the car when I bought it was a mines ecu so I fitted an apexi avcr and upped the boost to 1 bar and had it dynoed at 266 fhp, not bad for a few mods
:D

Still not enough though so six month later...

REBUILD 2

I decided my tatty old seats were no good so purchased some better condition ones and some gauges and the like for the interior to try and tidy it up

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I also removed the air on this time around fitted new front fogs as they were broken and fitted a link g3ecu, my own custom air intake, ct20b turbo instead of the ct26 and a bored out rev 1 rail with 550cc rev 3 injectors, raised the boost to 1.1 bar which had me sitting at 288 I think at the fly

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I also bought these rays wheels I liked from my friends track car when I found a set for sale

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So after another few months and looking for more power lol...

Rebuild 3

This time I fitted a garret gt2861rs turbo and 850cc injectors and manual boost controller removing the avcr as I found it unreliable at holding steady boost, A few tweeks on the dyno and I made 334 fhp, I also fitted a cusco oil catch can as the engine was beginning to breathe quite heavily under the increased boost.

So this is where I currently am, having done nothing to the external look of my car except wheels which I have now taken off for painting the car looks like this

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And here are the painted wheels which came back last week

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And I've now purchased heat mat for the engine bay while the engine is out, carbon fibre phoenix power engine lid, border front bumper, vented wings, spoiler and the car is getting vinyl wrapped. I also have the new EMS EM70 ecu to fit and a wire tuck to do, side exit exhaust, hks cams and time permitting a bigger experimental turbo to fit with screamer pipe so I'll update as I get on with REBUILD 4
\:D/
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Last edited by greasemonkey688 on Sat Apr 26, 2014 7:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Update

Post by greasemonkey688 »

Got into work early today so took a few pics of the car stripped...

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And the wings I need to make fit as mine were dented

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And here is the holstet turbo I might fit, which used to be on a military tank
lol

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Side exit exhaust to modify to fit

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Pictures of my engine which looks rough after a winter in my garage as the roof has been leaking and was damp

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Some heat proof mat to line the engine bay

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A lot of work to be getting on with lol
greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Spoiler

Post by greasemonkey688 »

Tonight I had a few spare hours to tidy up the trim recesses with a pinstripe removal tool before the vinyl wrap gets underway

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I also used this tool to remove the bonding that held the skirts on

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I also removed the boot lid and fitted the new spoiler assembly


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greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Update

Post by greasemonkey688 »

Well today Josef from evolution customs started to vinyl wrap the car

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I also stayed back after work to complete the bumper and wing fitting and mock fitted the new front indicators and toblerone replacement repeaters which took ages turns out fibre-glass isn't the best thing to fit lol


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After a few hours grinding and stretching they fit quite well so wings and bumper have been removed again to be painted before getting wrapped

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Last edited by greasemonkey688 on Sat Apr 12, 2014 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Update

Post by greasemonkey688 »

My phoenix power carbon fibre engine lid came back from the painters after being re-lacquered, it really brings out the weave

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And the rear wings have had the original rev 1 three piece spoiler sides removed and the holes filled and primed ready for wrapping

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greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Update

Post by greasemonkey688 »

Well progress has been slow this week as we have loads of big power focus Rs builds in but I've managed to remove the old t-bar seals, door handles, mirrors, high level brake light surround and clean everything up

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And the new tbar and tbar glass seals arrived today from mr2 Ben, aswell as the doors being wrapped


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greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Update

Post by greasemonkey688 »

My polished rocker cover is looking pretty rough so I'm getting it painted while I fit the hks cams

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Need to remove the baffles and clean off the silicone first though as it will be getting sand blasted

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Now to remove the old cams

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And fit the new ones

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Here are the shim over bucket lifters, I had an idea to fit some shim less ones from a ford sigma engine as they are the same diameter and put the shims underneath them

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Sigma shim less buckets


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As you can see the coolant and oil pumps are still mint as only really done about 1500 miles since the last build lol

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Return I also removed the wiring from the engine bay and started to strip the wiring from the fuse box to make up my own harness for the em70 ecu


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slipping clutch
Posts: 1844
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2005 1:22 pm

Re: Long over-due build thread!!

Post by slipping clutch »

Need to remove the baffles and clean off the silicone first though as it will be getting sand blasted

Please don't do that - there have been a lot of threads started about having the cam cover sand blasted and then ending in disaster as grains of the medium used to sandblast it get ingested by your motor. I am sure someone will be along to advise you on a different method of doing this but sandblasting = a No No. [-X
greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Grit

Post by greasemonkey688 »

Cheers for the reply mate. I'm head mechanic at Sitech racing and I've seen the issue you speak of before, the reason it happens is people don't remove the baffle plates that I show removed and the sand blasting grit gets caught behind them, but as I have removed them there won't be any grit left behind, when I get the rocker cover back it will be properly cleaned before reassembly :thumleft:
Lee8ballauto
Posts: 237
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 1:17 pm

Re: Long over-due build thread!!

Post by Lee8ballauto »

how are you finding wrapping the 2? i like the colour you have picked!
slipping clutch
Posts: 1844
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2005 1:22 pm

Re: Grit

Post by slipping clutch »

greasemonkey688 wrote:Cheers for the reply mate. I'm head mechanic at Sitech racing and I've seen the issue you speak of before, the reason it happens is people don't remove the baffle plates that I show removed and the sand blasting grit gets caught behind them, but as I have removed them there won't be any grit left behind, when I get the rocker cover back it will be properly cleaned before reassembly :thumleft:


Thats a relief - I didn't want to read another thread about a ruined motor because of sandblasting. :thumleft:
greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Wrapping

Post by greasemonkey688 »

Hey mate, the wrapping hasn't been to bad to be honest Josef has been doing it for me when he is free and everything has been fairly easy so far, but quite a lot of stripping involved! The main issue is going to be the front bumper as it's going to be pretty hard to wrap as there are a lot of contours. It should be getting done next week so I'll have more pics then. I love this colour as we'll, can't wait to see it in the sun as it kinda shines with a cadburies purple lol. I'm going to do the roof between the t-bars and mirrors satin black as we'll I think
greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Update

Post by greasemonkey688 »

I had a spare few hours on Sunday so took some pics of the rear quarters that have been wrapped and the satin black roof

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I also finished relocating the fuse box and relays from the engine compartment to the cubby box behind the passenger seat

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Now that the far side of the engine bay is free of clutter I can start cleaning everything in there before heat wrapping the engine bay with aluminium heat mat, plenty room now at the passenger side for my boot mount boost pipe
:thumleft:
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Lee8ballauto
Posts: 237
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 1:17 pm

Re: Long over-due build thread!!

Post by Lee8ballauto »

that wrap colour looks great! best idea doing the roof a diff colour as its prob a waste of wrap to do the whole rear section in one piece
greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Roof

Post by greasemonkey688 »

Cheers man, that's what I thought, plus with the roof being a t-bar most of it is either black seals or glass so keeping it satin should look better when the glasses are out. It was a bit of a try and see moment but I really like it now :)

Rick
Lee8ballauto
Posts: 237
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 1:17 pm

Re: Long over-due build thread!!

Post by Lee8ballauto »

Yeah their defo a car that suits the black roof!
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Scott Barton
IMOC Committee
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Re: Long over-due build thread!!

Post by Scott Barton »

Great project update. Keeping an eye on the outcome of this one. :thumleft:
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greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Update

Post by greasemonkey688 »

Cheers hopefully won't take too much longer as one to get some use for the summer lol

Rear bumper arrived yesterday just needs fitting and wrapped

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Here's the beginnings of my custom inlet manifold for the boot mount

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greasemonkey688
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:02 am
Location: Dunfermline

Rocker cover

Post by greasemonkey688 »

My rocker cover came back today here's some pics of the process and the end result

Sanded

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Primered

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Coloured

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Lacquered

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The skirts have been wrapped

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The vinyl was going to be over stretched in these black bits so we have cut it and are going to add in gold overlay in the final design to cover these sections

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Wings wrapped

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killerferret666
Posts: 659
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Re: Long over-due build thread!!

Post by killerferret666 »

what do you think of the wrapping quality overall. I suspect i will get my kitcar wrapped for the first year and just wondered how you felt it looked?
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