Markstevieandmads Budget Turbo Project: PART TWO

[markstevieandmads]

PART ONE IS HERE
http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic. ... highlight=


So the blow was getting worse and with only a specialist in Cornwall offering his services for a decent price i decided the only way to sort the head out properly was to remove it and send it off to a machine shop to get fixed properly.
Which then got me thinking....

If the head is coming off its gonna need a new head gasket.....and the cam belt will need to be removed and as its an unknown this will need replacing.
And to remove the head i would need to remove the inlet manifold... and if im removing that and doing the rest then i might as well take out the engine....

So this happened...






and now the car looks like a 4x4!



So much easier to do with a 2 ton crane from ebay and ive got an engine stand off ebay too.

This took about 5hrs which considering ive never done a turbo before (i have helped on a v6 conversion) wasnt bad.

I dont think the engine has ever been out before and it needs a bloody good clean up. Ive ordered some recommended caustic truck cleaner for this.

While removing ive notcied a few things that need doing:
1x rear tie bar was slightly bent - im guessing this was caused by the car slipping off a stand/jack.

One of the gear linkages would not release off the lever (pics to follow). It looks like a previous owner has replaced the bearing on there and it would not come off, even with the weight of the engine on it and ended up bending the lever slightly which i have bent back into place. So in the end i had to cut the cable. Ive been told that one of the turbo gear linkage cables are different to the na. Luckily and kindly pbmr2 came to visit to buy a manual steering conversion kit off me and donated his old na cables so i am hoping the one damaged is the na size one and not the turbo size one.

More plans is to get the head off and send it off for repair and refurb then strip down the engine to give it a good clean.
Im gonna keep the standard pistons etc as the car ran great and i am not after big power.
All seals will be replaced along with all gaskets, water pump and cambelt kit and engine painted up.

Also gonna split the gearbox off (nice to see it has an lsd) and send that off for a refurb as there was an occasional slight crunch at high revs going from 3rd to 4th (makes sense while engine is out) and then new standard(ish) clutch fitted.

Id love to go full forged etc but we have just put a deposit down on our wedding for May 2019 so need to find £10k from somewhere lol.

I have a company car with free fuel and the missus's mini for a little bit of fun. Ive also got access to my dads rev1 na so wont miss out too much on the mr2 for now.

Time scale wise, i will be glad to have the car back together and reliable and clean in the new year possibly earlier. MOT isnt due until March 2018.

If monies allowed then completed by Christmas would be nice.

As you may have noticed from the '4x4' picture, i have removed the side skirts. I have also removed the front lip and these will be resprayed professionally along with the alloys and while the car is in bits i will be tidying up the underneath and painting and stone chipping where necessary for a bit of prevention.

Ive also got a side project in my dads na to be carrying on with too. Looks like the sills on his na will need doing along with a bit of paint work to sort some rust so will be busy with that one too!
Im real lucky as my turbo is mint underneath with no rust i can see!

So...if im not too hung over through the bank holiday weekend, i will be getting the engine cleaned up after i have sorted my garage and given myself a decent size area to work with.

[markstevieandmads]

SMALL UPDATE:

Tidied up the garage this weekend to make a bit of space for working on the engine strip down and rebuild.

The engine was absolutely caked in old oil and crap so got it back on the crane and dragged it outside.



I had bought some TFR caustic cleaner (or something like that) as recommended on this forum. Had to dilute 40:1 so got an old spray bottle and guessed a 40:1 (maybe it was a bit more than that) and sprayed this all over the engine (after covering all the wiring plugs and ways into the engine) and then used my dads jet wash to give it a good blast over.

Heres the results:

First pass:





and getting there:



It looks a lot better in person!

Now ive pulled the engine back into the garage and sat on a tyre so i can remove the starter motor, rear engine mount and get the gearbox off.
Plan is to then get the engine on the stand and start stripping off the head for repair...

Ive never done anything like this so I am armed with freezer bags, a sharpie for labelling and a camera so I know how it goes back together!

Ive treated myself to a brand new ryobi battery impact driver (rated at 400nm), 5ah battery and charger so this should hopefully help me out.


To Be Continued...

[androo007]

much better!!!!

Those battery impact drivers are amazing. I got a Makita one and it's absolutely brill.

Good shout on labelling up. I bought a 306 when i was 18, heater matrix went so i stripped the dashboard down.... well.... it never went back together because everything was chucked in the boot

[craig]

Nice work, must be quite satisfying!

[markstevieandmads]

ANOTHER SMALL UPDATE:

So cracking on with a spare hour, i removed the front and rear engine mounts,starter motor, slave cylinder and undone all the bolts for the gearbox i could find.

Its so much easier with my new impact gun!

And the gearbox was off!



I am going to clean this up more and then send it off to get it checked over. I occasionally had a slight crunch when going from third to fourth so will get that sorted too. I do wonder if its been apart before as the sealant around it looks quite fresh.

Also got the clutch off. Dont think it looks that bad, and it never slipped though i will be replacing it for a new one.












The clutch plate also looks like its got a chip off it somehow though it ran fine.
This will be replaced anyway.



Which leaves me with the flywheel to remove or i cant get the engine on the stand.



Unfortuantely my impact gun wouldnt get these off so will have to get these off the old fashioned way with a big breaker bar. Im also gonna have to make some sort of tool to stop it from rotating while getting it off.

With lack of time, this project is crawling along.....

[androo007]

That clutch friction plate looks quite new, no?

Many kudos points for cracking on!

I <3 an ugga dugga gun

[markstevieandmads]

That clutch friction plate looks quite new, no?

Many kudos points for cracking on!

I <3 an ugga dugga gun

Well ive owned the car for over 4yrs and thought i havent done many miles considering, ive never changed the clutch and never had a receipt for one either.

[markstevieandmads]

ANOTHER UPDATE:

After next to no work on it, i feel like im getting an hour or so on it everyday now so onwards.....

So, i got the flywheel off by jamming a jimmy bar in the grooves and wedging against a bolt and using my breaker bar to loosen and the impact driver to remove the bolts.
The crank seal (is this what it is) doesnt seem too bad but it will be replaced.



Loads of oil though round this area.

Next was mounting the stand to the engine which i did by removing the black plate from the stand and mounting to the engine by the two gearbox threads and two threads on the block.



Then it was just a case of sliding the black mounting plate on to the stand and securing with a bolt....lovely!




Even though i gave the engine a good jet wash with truck cleaner, its still filthy so will be going at it again with a wire brush and the truck cleaner again.








Family time tommorow and then have some of Sunday to have a go at it and continue stripping it down while the wife-to-be is going to wedding fairs and stuff with her mother and mother in law to be!

Now ive printed off quite a bit of the BGB for the engine, i should be able to get the head off soon to send off for repair which was the whole reason this is all happening anyway lol!

[markstevieandmads]

MORE UPDATES:

So with the wife to be and my daughter gone for the morning i cracked on stripping down the engine.

Looking at the what i had left i decided to get the alternator off first.



Very dirty alternator and the bearing on it is slightly noisy so will get it refurbed or replaced.

Took loads of pics as i went round the engine undoing first and removing parts so i can remove the head. Wont post them all as they are just oily pipes and connectors lol.

Undone all the inlet manifold but couldnt remove it until i realised a pipe was stuck and eventually snapped off on the inside. This pipe goes from the fuel rail.



Is this gonna be easy to replace?

Got the inlet manifold off anyway.




Anyway carried on undoing and removing and bagging and labelling etc etc

Got to removing the rocker/cam cover which was easy as i had already replaced the bolts and gaskets on this.



Id also removed the distributor which im not sure was a good idea? I was gonna mark it up until i noticed it had a notch on the distributor and notch that corresponded to it on the cam it connects to.


So basically now apart from the cambelt, the head is ready to be undone.




And now im stuck a bit. I turned the crank until the two cam pulleys with an s on them lined up at the top. I also put a screwdriver in cylinder 1 (which i guess is nearest to the cambelt end) and it was at its highest point (TDC?) so i just need to mark up the cam pulleys to the back of the cam cover as i cant see any other marks.




I thought i need to align the bottom crank pulley too but reading up it seems i mark up the top two, undo the tensioner, remove the belt and then undo the crank pulley bolt and remove crank pulley to remove the bottom cover???
Can someone confirm this to me?

Also need to find a way to lock it in place so i can remove the crank pulley bolt as my impact gun is not undoing it at the mo.


So, i took a break...came on in and posted this hoping for a bit of encouragement and help to finally get the belt off and undo the head bolts to remove the head.

I now have a big pile of bagged parts and labels...god knows how this will get back together lol

This is how i left it with a bag over it to cover it for now...

[markstevieandmads]

UPDATE:

After a couple of weeks of not touching the engine i did a bit of research and wrote down the correct way of undoing the head bolts and now the head is off.




Ive took some pics of the bores. A couple of them had a bit of water marks on them but soon rubbed away with a cloth. What do you think of the bores?







Strangely there seems to be some sort of heavy sealant between the head and block and it has also been off before as it seemed some of the water ways in the head gasket (which is metal so possibly rev 3?)was also filled with this heavy sealant.







Im no expert but it looks like to me that the valves need to a major decoking!!











And i reckon the pistons could do with a good clean up!













So it looks like some major cleaning is needed! Whats best for this?

Also gonna get the head sent off for repair and see how much they will also charge to clean up the head and decoke it all too.

Garage is now full of parts ,mostly bagged and labelled, but i still dont know how to put it all back together lol.

Good news is the cam belt looks like new - no cracks or anything so im guessing that and (if it is) a rev 3 gasket was fitted at some point before my owner ship.
I suppose its good practise to replace it anyway.

[markstevieandmads]

NOT MUCH OF AN UPDATE:

Bit bored so was going to update this but ,to be honest, not much has happened.

Took the head around to several local engineering firms that either wanted £600+ to repair the exhaust stud and a light skim or point blank refused to do it.

Finally found a place next to my local mot garage that took a look and said no problem. I was so confident in them that i also asked a quote to completely rehaul and rebuild the head including decoke,relap the valves, repair the exhaust stud and light skim if needed.
After waiting 5 days just for the quote they came back with a quote for around £300 for the lot (me supplying uprated valve stem seals) which i didnt think was too bad - but with a wedding and xmas coming up i decided to save a few pennies and just get them to repair the exhaust stud and light skim if needed for £110.
Ive bought the uprated stem seals and i am confident after watching vids on youtube i can refurb the head myself so bought myself a valve grinding kit for £10 and some Mister Muscle. I may even attempt a bit of porting and polishing.

Unfortunately, several promises later and im still awaiting my head back from the repair shop. I should have known considering it took 5 days just for a quote.
However, to be honest, im in no rush at the moment to get it back. Lack of funds is slowing this project down quite a bit. Ive got a full engine gasket kit to buy (TCBParts have quoted me but have also had a quote a fiver more from the local toyota dealer - I am getting friendly with this guy and he knocked off £50 off the usual price), clean and paint up the engine and buy new head bolts and rev 3 head gasket.
Im also contemplating new water pump,oil pump,cambelt kit,sump and basically everything i can do to refresh the engine before putting it back in. The coil also had a few cracks as well so this will need replacing though its also possible i could upgrade to rev 3 management while its out and get a rev 3 coil at the same time.

If i decide to go for this then its gonna take me until at least next summer to acquire all the parts (due to funds).

And if the car is off the road for this long then i may underseal the shell, strip out the broken viper alarm and install the toad alarm i have.
Ive then got someone lined up to respray the bodykit and alloys professionally next year too so after that, a mop and polish and we should be good to go lol.
Not much then!!

I have contemplated a few different options to go instead including breaking it, and v6ing it. The problem is, when the car is in this sort of state, it gets a bit boring and i start wanting something i can just drive.
However, after weighing up the options - theres no way i could get something for the money i make that could give me the smiles and feeling that this car has given me. Plus when its done it will be pretty new and should last for a good few more years.
Also if i buy another car, it might need just as much work eventually so its probably better the devil you know!

So thats enough of me waffling and putting thoughts to paper (or screen) and i suspect there wont be many updates now until the new year.

[androo007]

Don't mess with the head chap, The rev 3 head flows just fine. If anything even professional can reduce flow rates. Unless it's on a flow bench leave it well alone.

Just get the stud done, oem seals if your old ones are done (are they even in need of replacement?) and get it back on the road to enjoy.

[markstevieandmads]

Don't mess with the head chap, The rev 3 head flows just fine. If anything even professional can reduce flow rates. Unless it's on a flow bench leave it well alone.

Just get the stud done, oem seals if your old ones are done (are they even in need of replacement?) and get it back on the road to enjoy.

I dont think they need replacing but have read its a good idea to replace while the head is off? Ive bought them now so may as well change them.
Maybe the porting and polishing is too far and may just give it a good clean and decoke.
BTW Its a rev 2 head not a rev 3.

I just keep thinking while the engine is out, then refresh this, and do that... its never ending lol

The car ran fine before the exhaust stud went. In theory i could just replace the hg for a rev 3 version and head bolts and stick it all back together again.
The cambelt actually looks ok with no cracks (though ive read the tensior needs replacing because of the "grenade" pin?), the clutch looks fine and didnt slip either.
BUT
while its out is it worth replacing these including the old oil seals and gaskets etc? Most of the head / turbo gaskets were replaced with oem toyota items when i replaced the turbo anyway and i replaced the hose from hell at the same time of doing the turbo.

[markstevieandmads]

UPDATE....(ish)....


So a new year and the car is exactly the same! It hasnt moved and to be honest neither has the engine.
Ive been busy buying parts though so there has been some progress!

Ive managed to buy the following:

Secondhand sump - i think mine is cross threaded as i had a slight weep, and i also wanted to renew the sealant (no gasket apparently from factory)anyway.

Set of secondhand turbo gear linkages

Brand new toyota oem full gasket kit (ebay bargain- i had 20% off any ebay item so got a good deal....and it is an original toyota kit too bought from a known company)

Rev 3 metal headgasket (ive been promised toyota oem and unused)

Payen head bolts (same as what tcbparts recommend)

And on the way from tcbparts....

Brand new oil pump (tcbparts had ran out of the rev 2 turbo oil pump so have sent me a 5sfe one which is apparently uprated to the standard pump)

Water pump

Full timing belt kit with toyota oem belt

I think that is about it. I have a garage full of parts all still in boxes so need to open these up and check everything.

The head has been back for a while now repaired. It was ali welded and a new toyota stud installed so now factory fresh again. It was also checked to see if it needed a skim and it didnt.

Now the big news and hopefully a big step forward...

Thanks to the recommendations from a forum member who has recently had a new engine fitted, i have commissioned work to be done by a mr2 specialist to carry out the following:

Refurbish the head, relap the valves, decoke and fit new supplied valve stem oil seals.

Clean up the engine block, fit the new parts above and remount the head.

This will then leave the long block that i can paint myself, refit all the ancillaries (and replace where needed) ,fit a new clutch and refit the engine myself.

Im hoping to have a bit more cash so i can invest in some new hoses to make it look nice and refresh the factory original tired hoses.
I also will look to renew such things as the alternator,clutch,coil pack etc.

I will also be tidying up the wiring and giving the engine bay a good clean.

I would carry out the rebuild and refurb myself but find that i just dont have enough time to get it all done for this summer. Plus at least i know it will be done by someone who does this for a living so know its correct lol!

So i will be dropping off everything needed to the specialist hopefully in a few weeks (hes about 90mins away from me) and that would be a major step forward once done.

Plan is to then get the bodykit possibly hydrodipped carbon or maybe even a fancy design...we will see...

[androo007]

Good to see you're still going ahead! Good shout on the oil pump.

Who is doing the work?

[markstevieandmads]

Good to see you're still going ahead! Good shout on the oil pump.

Who is doing the work?

John French (JPF).

I was amazed the amount of mr2 specialists i emailed and messaged (on facebook and via mobile on both personal and work place numbers) and didnt get any response. Makes me wonder how they make a living.
John has been very helpful, isnt too far from me, has had good recommendations and actually put a quote in writing as well talking through everything planned.

[androo007]

Cool, good luck!

[markstevieandmads]

So...

Ive arranged to drop all the engine parts and the engine off to JPF on monday.

Hes going to be doing it inbetween jobs as hes so busy. As its only a days work im hoping it isnt going to be too long so i can enjoy the car for the shows this year.

I started off by putting the shims and cams back on to the head and tightened the bolts finger tight just to keep everything together.



I also finished stripping off the water and fuel hoses from the main block.




I finally got around to opening all the parcels i have bought over the last 6 months or so and thankfully everything was there.



I also sorted out all the little baggies of bolts and bits and pieces that John will need. I marked everything up so should be a lot easier to put back together again.

While John has the main engine to sort,
ive got a clutch to order,
a gearbox to clean and paint,
new gear linkages to fit,
the engine bay to clean,
the ancillaries to clean and sort,
the exhaust to polish,
the turbo and exhaust to heat wrap,
the side skirts, front lip and rear spats to repair and either get resprayed or hydro dipped
AND
the car put back together and clean.

Ive also got a flat tyre which ive had a slow puncture for years so looks like im gonna need new front tyres and as the car hasnt moved in 6 months i would place a bet my brakes are seized....

Not much to do then...

[markstevieandmads]

BIG UPDATE:

So it didnt go quite to plan....
JPF couldnt guarantee that he could get it done before the summer and that wasnt good enough for me - i didnt want my engine stuck in the corner awaiting work on it and still be charging the same if it was a priority so after a few phone calls I spoke to Simon at Predator Performance. Within a few minutes of me confirming what i wanted to be done, I had a quote and a time frame of a couple of weeks so off I went to Southampton to drop it all off.

Within a week i had photos sent via email from Simon explaining what had been done and this week i picked up the engine which is now happily sat on my stand.

We had a little issue when it came to fitting the new oil pump. TCBParts didnt have a genuine 3sgte oil pump but agreed, for the same price, to send me a oem 5sfe one which is classed as a bit of an upgraded version as it pushes more oil than a 3sgte one. I was told it was a direct fit but we found it had a small lug on the top which stopped part of the pump fitting flush with the block.
We was going to file it down so it was flush but Simon wasnt happy to do this in case it put the belt out of alignment and not true so as the part sticking out was a "dry" part of the system we decided to leave it.
I asked TCBParts their opinion on it and they hadnt seen this problem before and didnt really suggest any other option.



So what did Simon do....

Cleaned up the block and resurfaced the head

Before...



After


While the head was cleaned up, the valves were relapped and cleaned up and the stem seals replaced with "upgraded" versions.


Installed new 5sfe oil pump and water pump








All new oem toyota seals and gaskets installed along with crank seals.



New hose from hell installed along with new hose from hell on earth.





New sump installed with new sealant.





Head reinstalled with rev 3 turbo oem gasket and new cambelt kit (no pics of this) and all timed up with distributor reinstalled along with cam belt covers and rocker (cam) cover.





So this left me to put the engine back on my own stand after collecting it and give the block a good coat of silver paint.





Ive also installed a genuine oil sump plug washer and genuine oem plug.

So basically the main block has been checked and cleaned up and the head refurbed, installed and timed up so its basically nice and new now.

Next step is to clean up the ancillaries and paint where necessary and reinstall to the block.
I think this is going to be hard as even though i bagged and labelled stuff its going to be like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

But i am looking forward to tidying bits and pieces up and making it look nice before reinstalling.

However before reinstalling ive got to replace the gear linkages with the ones i now have and replace the clutch for new. I may also get the flywheel resurfaced to make sure all is good.

So its getting there....slowly....

[markstevieandmads]

AND THE UPDATES CONTINUE....

So i got the angle grinder out and got the old bearing off the gear linkage.



Ive noticed the rubber cover that can be seen in the above pic is perished so i got to order a new one as soon as i find the part number.


I started cleaning up the inside of the gearbox and took out the spring and old clutch bearing as ive now ordered a genuine new one and new exedy clutch kit.






I also got the tvis and inlet manifold back on and got the inlet manifold painted silver. All new genuine gaskets also fitted.








Also got the new cold start injector hose that i originally had snapped on as well. All injectors are plugged back in and the wiring is being cleaned and tidied up too.


Ive also painted the water trees etc and just got the cam cover to do which will be silver with black writing.


So its slowly coming together....