Mk1 MR2 Choices

[excalibur1814]

Been thinking over the last few weeks if I should carry on with the Mk1 Mr2 as my previous engine rebuild went very wrong recently.

1 Other cars. The Honda Prelude 2.2 vtec, Nissan 200sx and finally the Mazda MX5. All nice cars and reasonable speeds but apart from the MX5 (Slowest car) none of the others seemed to have a T-top option. It’s not ‘that’ important but that’s what I want. Undecided I moved onto…

2 The MR2 Turbo. Stunningly fast car, turbo with all it’s nice noises and dump valves, looks that chicks dig and comfort. The only negative side comes along with the back end slide. As we all know, the rear end can be lethal on the 2, and I managed to grab a test drive from a K reg Mk2 G-Limited. The 2.0l engine is nice but did not leave me feeling happy and the slide around corners is something to be desired. (This could be because the tyres were very wide and simply glide over tarmac??) I understand that the Turbo model comes with different stock suspension?

A friend did own an MR2 Turbo years back and he simply states that they are lethal. He has since upgraded to a Honda S2000. Woow

3 The Mk1 Turbo conversion requires far too much work if you ask me so this only leaves one last option:

4 The Supercharger conversion. We all know about this option.

I have arranged to buy the SC engine and car from ‘unsupercharged’. In the end, due to money already spent on my Mk1, this seemed like the most logical outcome which is really a compromise.

I hope it all goes well as I did have a hard time deciding what to do and the cars I looked at are quite good. I would also love a Mk2 Turbo but the £3k mark would only get me a booted version.

If possible I would like to ask the group for help over the next few weeks as I would love this to go smoothly. Will put pics up on my web page asap and hopefully bring together anything learnt during the transplant.

Thanks all,
Damian

[Lauren]

I have done a few SC transplants. Its pretty straightforward actually.

plenty of info on my website:

http://www.trackdayqueen.com/

[tonigmr2]

Go for it - no doubt Paul will pop up shortly saying you've made the wrong choice but a levin engine will give you a lot of fun.
T

[Lauren]

Also thought it worth mentioning, if you go for a big pulley upgrade you must buy a rising rate fuel press regulator as otherwise it'll run weak under acceleration and you;ll never get more than 157ish bhp. Which is what they run as standard.

This will need to be setup on a rolling road too.

[Chris \'aka rustboy\' Amm]

go for it! sounds cool!

i had a ride in a supercharger, far more scary than any turbo MKII i can tell you

i love my MR2 turbo, i'm seriously considering another MK1 in the future though, stupidly fun cars for little cash! not fun in the same way as the turbo is, it's a whole load of different fun

[Speedy]

Gah, I was looking at that last night and thinking about it as well.. oh well, you snooze, you lose!

Good luck with it all anyway

i had a ride in a supercharger, far more scary than any turbo MKII i can tell you

I had a ride in a tubby at Anglesey, and an SC at Donny.. I know which one was more scary, although it *might* have been down to the driver [-o<

[PW@Woodsport]

3 The Mk1 Turbo conversion requires far too much work if you ask me so this only leaves one last option:

nope,we mounted megatrons 3s-gte into the mk1 bay in one day,hung on all four mounts....sure its a lot of work but what engine conversion isnt? This is the way i see it....
SC highly tuned 190-200bhp £5k+ invested by the time its tuned
3s-gte 245bhp rev 3 with no mods £2k invested,tune that with another £1k to well over 300bhp.

At the end of the day all comes down to how badly you want it as to wether or not you are prepared to put in the work....as ive said many times the turbo swap is no big deal,but the rewards will give you a car that will leave any SC standing.

[excalibur1814]

Thanks all for the replies!

I do have an EFI boost valve ready and waiting. 'unsupercharged' states that the engine is the 190bhp but I seriously doubt it as when asked he does not recall a different pulley being with it all. Soon find out! Will also be taking the car straight to the same guy who put the other engine through its paces asap! When I was there the last time he said that he tuned a Mk1 SC years back but did not find it at all impressive. (Auto box on it)

Paul.... Tell you what.... If I have a lot of fun with the SC and feel like a change in one year, I might get the money together and search for a cracking engine going at that time. I 'did' really think about it but even though my Stepfather is a mechanic, he is nearing 57 and I did not wish to give him lots of stress and welding work to do.... even though he loves it. (One day to put the engine in etc.... Blimey!)

[Lauren]

Thanks all for the replies!

I do have an EFI boost valve ready and waiting. 'unsupercharged' states that the engine is the 190bhp but I seriously doubt it as when asked he does not recall a different pulley being with it all. Soon find out! Will also be taking the car straight to the same guy who put the other engine through its paces asap! When I was there the last time he said that he tuned a Mk1 SC years back but did not find it at all impressive. (Auto box on it)

Paul.... Tell you what.... If I have a lot of fun with the SC and feel like a change in one year, I might get the money together and search for a cracking engine going at that time. I 'did' really think about it but even though my Stepfather is a mechanic, he is nearing 57 and I did not wish to give him lots of stress and welding work to do.... even though he loves it. (One day to put the engine in etc.... Blimey!)

A stock levin engine will produce 157-ish bhp. He is talking rubbish saying it will produce 190bhp. Even with a big pulley you will only see in the low 180s and nowhere near 190bhp. It just doesn't happen.

[MegatronUK]

I've been reading the same on the US mr2oc forums... the SC seems to just be a limiting factor anywhere above 175-180bhp. Still, thats a lot of poke from a relatively small, and light, 4 cylinder.

About the turbo conversion; yep its a lot of work, but I'd say, from what we've done and have left to do, it's no harder than the SC swap and has far fewer niggles than the 20V conversion. As Paul said, we got the engine in yesterday, in a day, and today it was almost fully hooked up - only really some custom wiring to do to actually getting it running now.

Thinking about it.. it was much more of a job to fit the Vauxhall Calibra engine in my mk1 Escort.. that seemed to be much more hassle!

I'm really hoping to get my mk1 finished within a month or so... and the UK mk1.5 club wants to attend some shows.. so hopefully other MR2 owners will get to see these converted cars along with the SC variants.

[Chris \'aka rustboy\' Amm]

after feeling the supercharger i really do prefere turbo charges over super chargers. they sound and feel better IMO

[excalibur1814]

Money has yet to change hands!

I would imagine the 190bhp comes from the Fensport web page that thinks that 190brake is what you can expect with the extra pulley and engine. 'unsupercharged' did buy the engine one year ago so it might have the pulley and it might not.

I used to own a Renault 5 GT Turbo and it was a manic car. I simply loved the sound of the airfilter sucking in air and then the dump valve tsss. Fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu tssss to each gear. Wonderful.

If anything goes wrong from now until money changes hands I will think again about the Turbo engine. Only other problem is getting the bits together !

The insurance company are gonna love me either way.

[excalibur1814]

Money has now changed hands and I am expecting an MR2 and SC engine to be delivered tomorrow sometime. Cool. Looking forward to it but in a 'I feel dread' way. Hopefully this will not take one year. It would be nice to have it in and nearly done by next Monday night but I would not expect that at all. (Woohoo, I can now replace the broken cog within the electric window assembly)

Turbo. I sat here all day thinking about the Turbo engine. Damn it would be so scary to have that amount of power!! As I said before, I will give it one year and then maybe go for it.

Thanks all!!!! Pictures soon

[Chris \'aka rustboy\' Amm]

well turbo or supercharger, both are good choices IMO

can't wait for pics!

[stevenb]

I've had a prelude 2.2 vtec JDM.......had 205bhp through the front wheels,...damn scary in the wet....cool motors with all the toys to match....i'd still rather have a sweet mk1 though.

[excalibur1814]

Pics



<a href="http://www.baconlove.co.uk/Pictures/Gal ... htm">Click me Now</a>

[Chris \'aka rustboy\' Amm]

cool cheers will keep checking that site out now and then for updates

[Lauren]

Thats got a stock pulley so 157bhp not 190bhp.

The levin SC pulley is smaller than the AW11 one so you get an extra one or two psi.

May as well try out the aftermarket manifold providing it is in good condition.

Not sure about the ECU, they always seem to have a designation on them eg: 4AGZ etc with a toyota part number.

If you have a MAP sensor, DLI and twin coil pack igniters then its a levin engine basically. From your pic of the cam covers it looks like a levin engine.

Pic of my old levin engine:



This is your igniter pack for the DLI setup: