[Mk2] [Turbo] New mods - A work in progress (Picture Heavy!)

[Moo]

Was toying with the idea of upgrading my turbo and management for most of last year then spotted Ashman's old GT3037s turbo up for grabs in the for sale section and couldn't resist Spent the next couple of months putting together the rest of the parts needed for this build including Power FC and Commander, 800cc injectors, lightened flywheel, stage 1 clutch and upgraded fuel pump.

Took the car to Pacific Works in early February with the intention of just having the new bits fitted, get it mapped then job done. Another 50 horses or so for the summer and welcome to the screamer club

As the turbo is top mounted my charge cooler needed modifying to make it line up and we decided it would be easiest to have the engine out to get this done. While the engine was out I wanted to get the engine cleaned up and painted and also degrease the engine bay. Things kind of evolved from there

We decided to really go to town on the engine bay by doing a wire tuck mod, engine bay shave and go for a totally different theme from before.

Engine bay as it was, never to be seen like this again. All the green pipe work is now surplus to requirements if anybody wants it



The strip down begins.





Bye bye interior.











A quick test fit.



Back end on stilts



Nothing special....yet



Spaghetti nightmare!



Engine loom modifications complete.



Inlet manifold gets the chop. Amazing job!







Some shiney bits to go back on, more to follow.





Sub manifolds for the vaccum piping.



The engine bay theme is going to be lots of mirror polished parts and some black painted parts. Should look pretty good.

The interior is going to be fully soundproofed with dynamat while it's stripped in an effort to damp down some of the drone from my Mongoose exhaust.

The head is also being rebuilt while the engine is out. Unfortunately the budget couldn't stretch to a forged build at this time.

This is still a work in progress and there's lots left to do so there will be plenty of updates to come over the next few weeks

[Vampire]

really lookin forward to seein this progress!

its my next big mod so ill be interested in how you go about it all

[Moo]

I'm not doing the work myself but from what Luke tells me this is going to be a wire tuck taken to the next level and there's not going to be that much left in the engine bay when it's done. It's certainly being taken a lot further than most of the other MR2 wire tucks that have been done.

[jimGTS]

jeeezz you spend alot of dosh on labour dude, lol.......

when you going to get stuck in yourself


im not sure i understand the reasoning behind the inlet manifold shaving if you then have to add adapters.....

[Moo]

You're not wrong, lol. Think I've contributed heavily to Luke's retirement fund over the last few years

Joking aside, I'm not a spanners man and don't have the time, tools, space, patience or motivation to get stuck in myself. Plus being an IT Manager I don't like to get my hands dirty I'd rather pay somebody else to do it and with Luke I know I will get a first rate job I find he isn't that expensive at the end of the day considering the work he's done for me in the past.

The shaved manifold looks nice and I don't think there will be a need for any adapters in the forseeable future but if there is I'll just use another manifold.

The engine bay work is all about looks as you'll see when it's done

[jimGTS]

The shaved manifold looks nice and I don't think there will be a need for any adapters in the forseeable future but if there is I'll just use another manifold.

i ment why shave the thing then use these "sub manifolds"

ps, ive no dout luke is awsome, just thought by now youd save yourself some time/money by tackling these things yourself
tho am sure lukes retirement fund needs topping up, so ill shut up

[Moo]

Ah got you.

As I understand it the sub manifolds are so we can take just one vacuum feed from the engine to these sub manifolds (which will be located in the boot) then feed anything that needs a vacuum from there. That keeps the piping in the engine bay to a minimum.

I'm sure Luke will correct me if I'm wrong!

[Moo]

ps, ive no dout luke is awsome, just thought by now youd save yourself some time/money by tackling these things yourself
tho am sure lukes retirement fund needs topping up, so ill shut up

Appreciate what you're saying mate but as I say, I've got zero interest in attempting anything myself. I used to do limited stuff to my cars back in the day but my memories are full of skinned knuckles and snapped bolts etc. Think that has put me off home mechanics for life

Fair play to all those that do all the work themselves, such as yourself, I have a great respect for you all. It's just not for me though.

[jimGTS]

Ah got you.

As I understand it the sub manifolds are so we can take just one vacuum feed from the engine to these sub manifolds (which will be located in the boot) then feed anything that needs a vacuum from there. That keeps the piping in the engine bay to a minimum.

I'm sure Luke will correct me if I'm wrong!

ok fair do's....

are you sure 1 large (i asume the back one) line is ok to supply countless lines?

to rephrase it, is it not like trying to fill 10 coke cans up with only 1 straw at the same time. instead of using 10 straws to fill up 10 cans? (i know were dealling with pressure and not liquid, so is different)

there are very few needed lines off the manifold once you go removing items anyway...i wouldnt have thought this sub manifold is needed really.

[Moo]

Errm, pass I'll point Luke in this direction, he's better able to answer that than me.

I guess my ignorance is another reason for not doing the work myself

[jimGTS]

im not for one second saying it wrong or right, itll look sweet as either way!
just wondered why is all....

[Moo]

Just to mention I am getting involved in this project to a certain extent, albeit in a very minor way

[Moo]

im not for one second saying it wrong or right, itll look sweet as either way!
just wondered why is all....

It's a good question. I'd like to know the answer too

[Moo]

Some more parts back from the metal polisher.



Mirror finish on the Arc box

[RyanRs]

Are they all chrome plated ? i assume so as iirc that bit of alternator casing is tin. If it is, would you mind me ask how much it cost to have done? (the lot that is!)

Will look shitzen hot when its finished! But i reckon i can compete with you on the wire tuck detail ;D

[craig]

Awesome mate, that's some work going into that! Must be costing £££

Looks fantastic though

[greeny]

are you sure 1 large (i asume the back one) line is ok to supply countless lines?

to rephrase it, is it not like trying to fill 10 coke cans up with only 1 straw at the same time. instead of using 10 straws to fill up 10 cans? .

You're only dealing with pressure, not flow. So in short you're not really filling any coke cans

Looking good

[Moo]

Are they all chrome plated ? i assume so as iirc that bit of alternator casing is tin. If it is, would you mind me ask how much it cost to have done? (the lot that is!)

Will look shitzen hot when its finished! But i reckon i can compete with you on the wire tuck detail ;D

Nothing is chrome plated, all just polished. Not sure what the alternator casing bit is made of but it polished up ok. The first batch of polishing cost me £240 and that was for the Arc box, dump valve, little bit of the alternator casing, bottom part of the water housing, turbo compressor housing, distributor, thermostat housing, front and rear Cusco strut braces, engine bay fan kit shroud and a few assorted little bits like part of the fuel rail and some brackets. Still to be polished is the inlet manifold, throttle body, chargecooler core and the top part of the water housing. Guessing the final bits will cost the same again to be polished if not more. Pretty expensive just for polishing but it only has to be done just the once and will really set off the engine bay. The challenge then is to keep it all clean!

Your wire tuck, is that a work in progress, completed already or still to be done? Will be interesting to see how you go about yours

Awesome mate, that's some work going into that! Must be costing £££

Looks fantastic though

Thanks

Yes, there's a ton of work going into this and it won't be cheap. For the whole project, including fitting the new turbo etc., probably won't see much change from 5k with parts, labour and all the extra little jobs I've thrown at Luke along the way. It sounds a lot (it is a lot!) but this car is my passion and hobby and I will never sell it so I see all the money I pump into it as a long term investment. My ultimate goal is to get it up to show car standards and make it as clean as it possibly can be. Doing the work myself would save massively on labour costs but I just don't have the skills or creative genius to be able to pull something like this off, aside from the other reasons I've listed earlier in this thread.

I can't take any of the credit when it's done but Luke assures me the tuck he is doing will be far beyond what anybody else has done on an MR2 (with the possible exception of RyanRs ) so this should be pretty spectacular.

No pressure Luke

Looking good

Thanks

[RyanRs]

Thats a very good price for all them bits mate!! i was quoted £250 to do my plenum -which is a lot less complex and therefore requires less labour, my coolant neck and cam cover, all of which was already polished just not to the best of standards!! So basically they just needed finishing off. That end plate on the alternator, iirc its tin so you will need to coat it else it will rust. However, im not 100% sure that it is tin so be worth checking, try a magnet on it.

The wire tuck is in progress, i have 9 sensors (4 of which are COPS) and a total of 27 wires all plugged in so far with barely no trace of them. What i done tho was strip the engine harness completely, remove all the un needed wires back to there pins at the ecu connector -lambda,knock,egt, engine bay air temp, the whole diagnostics port!! then sleeve all the remaining wires in that Chinese 'finger-trap' style sleeving which involved re-pinning almost every connector plug inc the ECU and then drill new holes in the boot firewall to pass the 'grouped wires about more discretely. Engine bay wise I only got the alternator and injector wires to go which should be quite easy as the plenum runners hides it all quite nicely, then in the boot i just need a big fat piece of convoluted conduit to case everything up and hide it behind the BMIC tray!! Tbh tho, its a nightmare and i wish i never started it!! lol

[Driftlimits Performance]

hey people!

It was all quite upsetting pulling apart the green machine to start off with. But now we're going for a 'Clean machine'. I'm confident it will be the tidiest engine bay in the country. Not trying to upset you Ryan! Yours does sound pretty extensive tidy work.

I imagine there will be more pics as we go along.

Oh and yes, manifolds for tidy install, and makes future work/adding extras easier. This won't just be a tidy engine and junk chucked in the boot I can assure you.

This isn't just an engine bay tuck and shave, it's an M&S, super slinky lovely shiney engine bay tuck and shave.