Markstevieandmads Budget Turbo project : PART ONE

[thomp1983]

Good work mate having the bodywork back on always makes them look like you getting there

[craig]

Nice work. Must have restored the drive to carry on having got to that point.

[markstevieandmads]

Once i got going it wasnt too bad. While i was under there, the fuel tank didnt seem too hard to remove. But will leave the walboro pump for now. Im missing driving it so gonna get the chargecooler done and then just use it for a while till i get bored again.
Hopefully get a few hours tommorow to jack the rear up and get the pipes ran and pump in.
Although i borrowed some heavy duty jacks to get it up high, i havent got a jack that goes high enough so its a case of jacking it up a bit,stand it, then jacking up more etc....it takes a while.
Then once im under, my crawler is very handy but i get dizzy quite easily so it's a slow process.

And it was freezing today even in the sun!! Not sure what the forecast is tommorow....at least the front end is back on. Just got to find some longer bolts for the undertrays.

[androo007]

Yes man!!!!

[markstevieandmads]

MORE UPDATES:

As the front of the car was sort of done i decided to jack the back up and see if i could get the chargecooler pipes ran.
I kept the back of the car in the garage and used my little heater so was nice and cosy for a while.

So first up, back end in the air and secured:


That crawler is a god send!!

Pipework cable tied where necessary...





Also got the gt4 pump mounted up on the gearbox. Luckily it came with everything i needed bar a couple of bolts but ive got a box of spares so pinched some out of there. I also twisted the bracket round so the pump was higher so as not to catch on the floor and low enough to be gravity fed.







So we are at the point now that the pipework from rad to pump is ran and connected. The pipework from pump to core is now also ran.

Need to get the old intercooler off and sold and get the gt4 core mounted up and pipework connected then filled and bled. Also need to do the wiring to the pump and connect up my temp gauge ive invested in and we should be good to go.

Ive left the undertrays off for now so i can check for leaks. Ive also got to get some longer bolts to mount the trays back on.

I feel im back on track now....

[markstevieandmads]

ANOTHER UPDATE:

Ive been cracking on with this a bit at a time, spending about an hour every couple of days if i can.

Ive started stripping down the engine bay now with the crossbars,intercooler and afm removed.




I stripped down the throttle body assembly then realised I had actually bought a st205 throttle sock and not the st185 my rev 2 needed. Ebay came to the rescue that very night with a seller selling a st185 sock just 5mins down the road so went and picked that up.

Also started stripping off as much as the top end i need to get the turbo out. Ive decided to replace the turbo as there was a fair bit of oil in the intercooler pipes and there is certain amount of side to side play with my old turbo so might as well fit the hybrid i got and decat too.

I got stuck with the heat shield bolts as two of them had rounded. I read the irwin bolt extractors come in handy so went to order some from Screwfix but saw there was an alternative set for a third of the price of the irwins.
So i bought these and they are great! The two rounded bolts came out easily.

Ive now also stripped out the heat shields on the rear firewall. The exhaust manifold is now exposed. I can see a few fragmented bits which could be old exhaust manifold gasket. Problem is, i cant start the car now to see if the manifold is blowing so i am in two minds to take off the manifold now and renew that gasket too.

I need to take off the water pipes to the turbo and the oil filter and move the dipstick out the way and then i think im pretty much done up the top apart from either removing the manifold or the turbo to manifold bolts (depending on what i decide to do).

Anyway a few pics of where i am now:

[thomp1983]

Good work mark, see it hasn't taken so long when you commit some effort to it. And this is the difficult bit everything always goes back together quicker

[markstevieandmads]

I was gonna reuse alot of the more "reusuable" gaskets such as the turbo to manifold etc.
Ive got a new water gasket from tcb. Though it looks like you can buy a complete top end gasket kit or even a complete engine gaskit kit for around £100 so as i have quite a few leaks and the engine being nearly apart ,i might invest in new all around - though i am just making more work for myself i suppose.

I have always had the motto "do it once,do it right"

[markstevieandmads]

MORE UPDATES:

Got the bro in law round today to see if we could get a bit more done on the car.
Starting at 10am,we managed to strip out the cat,turbo and exhaust manifold.
What a pain of a job!!!

In the end we stripped the turbo in half to get to some bolts. We also only managed to snap one exhaust manifold stud and there is enough on there to stick two nuts on there and replace the stud.

It is evident the hose from hell has been leaking slightly as its wet down there and i can't see any other place where oil is leaking apart from the turbo so its seems a good idea that the whole lot came off. I have a new hfh to replace it and it is now easily accessible with the manifold off. God knows how people do this with the turbo and manifold on!




I am gonna get some gunk and clean down the whole engine while its apart.

Its payday friday so new gaskets and studs will be ordered where necessary and the manifold will be rethreaded etc where necessary ready for everything to be put together on the bench ready to go back in the car.

The eagle-eyed among you may have also noticed we removed the air con compressor as its no longer needed and the pipework disconnected where needed. It gives a bit more space in the engine bay.

The bits and pieces removed weigh a lot so a bit of weight saving there too.



I am probably gonna do the charcoal canister removal and remove some unwanted brackets too to clean up the bay.

Also while the fuel pipes are easily accessible, the next major hurdle is removing the fuel tank and replacing the fuel pump for the walboro i acquired some time ago. At the same time, the fuel filter will be replaced as it looks like its never been done!

Slow progress but i am glad that major work is out of the way.

[markstevieandmads]

BIG UPDATE:

My bro in law appeared at 8.45am this morning at my door so what better opportunity than to crack on with the car.

We removed the fuel filter and installed a new one with new washers. I suspect the old one was the original when out the factory lol - it looked ancient!

While this was off and all the other turbo bits was off we thought we would attempt the fuel pump swap.
Now this has been known to take approx 8hrs so we was prepared. The under trays was already off and the turbo and exhaust manifold is off so we had a bit of a head start.
By 12pm (started at 10am) the fuel tank was on the floor out of the car.




Pleased to say the car is pretty much mint underneath. Only a few brackets with rust on. Unfortuantely i forgot to take some pics of the underside as was so excited we got the tank out lol.

Out came the old pump and i put 12v to it to see how it pumped out. It was a good steady flow but i wouldnt say it flew out.

Anyway, old pump out and new walboro in...




The wires were cut to length, soldered and heat shrinked then insulation taped and then cable tied for good measure. That wiring isnt going anywhere!
Before we put the tank in, we put 12v to the standard loom on the tank and the new walboro fired into life. You can definitely tell the difference of flow.

While the tank was out,it made sense to remove all the air con pipework as this isnt needed anymore and remount my chargecooler pipes so there is now plenty of room under there.

Then the tank was put back in. Im glad there was two of us and only god knows how one person can do this (JimGTS - i was thinking of you!)

We had my 7yr old nephew inside to guide the wires and it pretty much went in ok......until we realised he didnt actually have the wires - they were trapped between the tank. In the excitement of getting it back in, i had also got the fuel lines trapped and couldnt be moved....so back out the tank went!!
In the end we got it all in and pipework reconnected.



Celebrating, we got on with removing the stud from the exhaust manifold. An old bolt and some welding and on the third attempt it came out nice and easily.

Just one broken stud left to remove from the head......and this was the start of the problems. We tried 5 different nuts and 5 times welding it. We tried shocking it, getting it scolding hot with the welder then cool it drastically and still it wouldnt budge. I had some bolt remover sockets so tried this and it ended up just chewing it away.
In the end, as time was getting on, we gave it one last nut with one last weld and left it overnight. If this doesnt do the trick then i will invest in one of those clamping laser impact stud removers to see if that will do it or im gonna have to grind it flat and drill and helicoil it.

Once this stud is sorted then the Hose from hell and the other hose is to be replaced while everything is out and then its build it back up time.

Ive ordered 15m of exhaust wrap for the decat and ive bought£170 worth of genuine gaskets,studs,nuts and god knows what else to finish it all off.
I am also gonna paint up the heat shields before they go back on.

So all in, i am getting there!!

[mrhappy62]

Looking good Mate . I too did the tank out and new pump in alone and on a cold and wet drive in November ! at least you have a garage.

[markstevieandmads]

UPDATE:

Onwards and upwards....hopefully

It was my birthday on Thursday so i had booked off Thursday and Friday and the plan was to get on with the car.

I went to machine mart and bought one of those laser clamping style stud extractors and went to work on the broken stud as the last weld didnt even penetrate.
Joy! It started turning it.....then snapped the stud off right in the head.


It was a couple of mill proud of the head surface inside so I ordered the correct helicoil kit from Amazon. I did actually have an M10 helicoil kit already from when i did my rover coupe ehaust manifold but the threads was 1.5 so ordered a 1.25 kit which came the next day.

So, on my birthday I got to work. And got nowhere! The bit that came with the kit was useless and my drill bits wasnt any better


So went to the local tool station and bought a set of Cobalt drill set which went straight through the stud like butter.
Unfortuantely it was pretty hard to get it central with the smaller bits so did a little nick to the casting which shouldnt cause any throuble.




Next step was to tap it with the useless kit i had bought and then fit the new stud which went in nice and snug.


However, because of the awkward angle i had to drill it, the stud is sitting a bit bent to the others.





I offered up the manifold to see how far out it was and surprisingly it was only a few mill out.




Luckily as it waasnt far out i used a socket over the stud with an extension bar and bent it until the manifold fitted. A little tap with the hammer and it will be fine (fingers cross). If not then i will just remove and redrill so no biggy hopefully.




As you can see from this pic it is now straight like the other studs.

You may also notice the new HFH in this pic. As the stud was more or less done i cracked on with the HFH as it didnt look its best so removed the old one. The heat shielding literally disintegrated though the rubber part was actually in good condition.






And with a little bit of fairy liquid, the new HFH slipped on pretty well.



The new HFH comes with all the clamps needed and the pinch clamps came locked open which helps so much. All you need to do is remove the little pinch clamp holders and they snap into place. So HFH done!!

I removed the thermostat housing to check the HFHOE as i had bought a new one of these but it looked in real good condition. No brittleness and it felt exactly the same as the new one. The clamps looked new too so my guess is it was done not long before i bought the car. I also thought it would be easier to remove the oil cooler to fit this, but i havent got any new seals and as it looked in such good condition i thought i would leave this. I dont think it would be too hard to replace if needed at a later date as you would just need to remove the thermostat housing and the oil cooler to reach it.

A new thermostat was ordered from the local ECP with seal so i can now put this back together.

I gave the manifold to head surface a good going over with same sandpaper and ive also given the exhaust manifold surface a good rub down with my air compressor grinder thingy so thats nice and flat now too.



This took me to about 1pm (started at 9am) and then i had a phone call that my grandad had been rushed to hospital so thats where the car now sits.

New thermostat to be put back on and housing put on and then time to build up the turbo,decat and exhaust manifold.
The heat wrap has turned up so will be wrapping the manifold and decat. I also need to get hold of some VHT silver paint to redo the heat shields.

Im not too sure if i should build up the turbo,decat and manifold on the bench and then put the whole lot in the car. If i do this, i can check the wastegate isnt fouling on the decat and think it will be easier than doing all the nuts and bolts up and building it up on the car.
However, it will weigh an absolute ton!!! So not sure if i can manage this.

Also i think i may have to "persuade" the exhaust manifold to fit back on with the new stud which will be harder with the turbo and decat on.

I can see a lot of building and undoing to get this all back on!!

[thomp1983]

Good work mark nearly there. I'd build it up on a bench and get some spare hands to lift it in but first I'd dry fit just the manifold without gasket to get the stud in the final position

[markstevieandmads]

ANOTHER UPDATE:

As the weather was nice and i had finished work early due to starting early, i pulled the car out the garage and carried on.
Firstly i dry fitted the manifold until it fit correctly on the new stud.

Next up was to replace the thermostat and seal and get that all bolted up too.

I then started building up the turbo,decat and exhaust manifold...




A pair of genuine exhaust manifold gaskets was fitted...



I removed the old turbo bracket. Damn, that was really tight!!! A ratchet,17mm socket and my handle from my jack that i slid over the top to extend the handle and lots of brute strength got it free.



A new stud to replace the missing one on the new turbo (guessing it was from a rev 3) and a new genuine gasket was fitted.



Decat was then fitted to turbo with new nuts. Also checked to make sure the wastegate wont foul on the decat and all is well with plenty of room.








Then another new genuine gasket was used and the manifold mounted to the turbo with all new studs and nuts.




New genuine oil and water gaskets also to be fitted.





I sat on the engine and lifted the whole lot up and managed to get it mounted up to the manifold.





Im going to have to get the car in the air so i can line up the oil supply to the turbo. Its literally sat on the studs so need a minimal amount of movement underneath to get it lined up. Thats silly heavy with everything mounted and only one person doing this. The gasket kept getting caught so hopefully will get a helping hand to finish this bit off.

Ive bolted most of the nuts up (not fully tight) to the exhaust manifold just so there isnt no heavy pressure pushing on the oil line.


So its in and nearly there....then on to the charge cooler install....

[aussieGT]

UPDATE:

Good ol' Aldi - part of every good (and not so good) home build!

[markstevieandmads]

UPDATE:

Image Replaced With URL For Quote [url]http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr266/notroubleclubber/MR2%20Turbo/New%20MR2/8F2A9690-F0D1-4821-AFB6-745597764D0E.jpg[/URL]

Good ol' Aldi - part of every good (and not so good) home build!

Most of my tools from aldi lol. The compressor isnt too bad and once setup correctly has enough torque to undo wheel nuts but thats about it ...just wish it was 50l instead of 24.

[markstevieandmads]

SMALL UPDATE:

Managed to get the rest of the turbo back together so now oil lines and water lines,along with new genuine gaskets, are all fitted.
The turbo bracket is also now bolted back to the block and the dip stick tube is mounted. I couldnt find the right size bolt for this so used a smaller bolt that goes through the hole and used a nut on the end.

So turbo ,decat and manifold are now all bolted up and ready to go.
I didnt fit the heat wrap for the decat in the end as read a lot of things why not to and seemed like a better idea to leave it off.

Got to refurbish the heat shields and refit them (after drilling out one of the broken bolts) then the chargecooler can be fitted. Pump and rad and pipe work is done for this so got to fit the new throttle sock etc and get the pipework connected up to the core and wire up the pump.

Then the usual oil and coolant change and we should be good to go....fingers crossed.

Hoping to borrow a local kwik fit ramp (friend of a friend) so i can refit the undertrays. I am going to leave them off for now so i can check for leaks.

Once the under trays are back on then mot time and hopefully have a bit of time this year to enjoy it!

[markstevieandmads]

MORE UPDATES:

Ive been buying the odds and sods to finish this all off.
30A relay with 30amp wiring,fuse holder and 25amp fuse all for the pump have been bought.

Also the coolant and oil have been ordered for collection.

I also bought some silver VHT paint so i gave the heat shields a rub down and sprayed these so they are a bit neater now and not so rusty looking!

I had noticed that a sensor had broken by the water tree. I traced this to be the coolant temp thermo switch. I phoned tcbparts and apparently its a well known sensor to break and they didnt have any. Toyota was quoting £160 to replace but i managed to find one secondhand for £25 posted so i have fitted that.
Just after fitting this sensor,the sensor next to it snapped off. Luckily this one is just the coolant temp switch and easily available so ordered a oem one from ecp for £15 to collect tommorow.

While the weather was nice i removed the charcoal canister and replaced the bottom and top hoses for one long piece.




I fitted the newly painted heat shields and the new genuine oil filter and offered up the gt4 core to see how it will mate up with everything else.




One problem i noticed was the throttle sock (st185) will no way in a million years stretch on to the gt4 core. Im not sure how people get this to fit as im sure it will just rip. So ive managed to couple together an old boost hose that will fit on the core and this will clamp onto the throttle sock itself hopefully sealing the join with a usual boost clamp.

I modded the bottom hoses from the core so they were not catching on anything and im pretty sure ive got it pretty much lined up ok.




The afm and filter were installed back on the turbo and plugged back in.

I am not too sure what im doing about the bov take off on the core. Ive heard people have managed to retro fit the standard bov to the core but cant see how this is done. Ive got a hks bov that came with the car but again it mounts the same way as the standard bov to the hard pipe so not sure how i will mount this up to the core.
For now i think i will just go bovless and plug up the hoses for now and keep an eye out for another bov that i could fit.
I cant carry on fitting the core as im awaiting new spark plugs i ordered.

So my list is decreasing and ive got little odds and sods to complete before starting up which includes:

Fit new coolant temp switch
Install relay and wiring for the pump
Finish the core mounting and tighten up all the jubilee clips and clamps.
Fill and bleed coolant in chargecooler and main engine coolant.
Drain and replace oil.
Fit new spark plugs.

Think thats about it before priming the new turbo and fingers cross we might have ignition lol.

Then mot and hopefully might get to a few shows this year.

[pistol pete]

Doing a top job had good read... keep up the good work and hope your gramdad is ok

[androo007]

Hurry up