mr2-digest Sunday, June 21 1998 Volume 02 : Number 967 Re: MR2 functionality re: MR2 spark plug heat range Re: MR2 Functionality Re: MR2 Tripometer Virus! Quick-Someone call the CDC! MR2 Turbo - RMS exhaust passes NC emissions test with flying colors MR2 IMOC meeting June 27 in Orlando area Re: MR2 on getting manuals outside USA; Motorweek program Re: MR2 functionality Re: MR2 MKII coolant idiot light? MR2 celica mirrors..would they fit? MR2 Kickin' Guages - A tach for your turbo, plus... Re: MR2 interesting ad Re: MR2 Tripometer Virus! Quick-Someone call the CDC! MR2 collector cars RE: MR2 celica mirrors..would they fit? Re: MR2 celica mirrors..would they fit? MR2 mk1 exhaust questions Re: MR2 mk1 exhaust questions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 22:23:12 -0400 From: "Tommy Guttmann" Subject: Re: MR2 functionality Besides admitting to being so "soft" that I sometimes use my AC on the warm-up / cool-down laps, I also admit to frequently driving around with the T-Tops off and the AC on... I'm sure I'm not alone here...but before all the "purists" flame away, let it be known that I do also practice the opposite (heater w/out tops) in cold weather (learned long ago during "my" purist days)... Tommy Guttmann tools@tooltech.qc.ca Montreal, Canada 2 x MR2 SC ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 22:26:18 -0400 From: nu3y@CritPath.Org Subject: re: MR2 spark plug heat range Brian H. asks... >I've never understood what the "heat range" of a spark plug actually >is/does. Is there a FAQ someone can point me to, or can someone just >spell it out for me? :) > Brian, a spark plug converts an electrical current into a spark. An exremely efficient transfer of that energy (meaning losing as little energy as possible) means that the spark plug will remain relatively cool. The "colder" a sperkplug is, the more spark it will produce, all else being equal. Sounds like you want a cold spark plug, right? Wrong, in most cases, at least for the street. A cold spark plug will foul due to build-ups because it doesn't burn off deposits. On the other hand, if a plug is "hotter", slightly less spark will be available, but the plugs will stay clean much longer. This was much more significantly important back before modern computer-controlled electronic ignition systems. Not too many years ago, if you were running a cold plug, you would have to keep the revs up just to keep the plug clean enough to function. If you took a full-race prepared engine (which of course would have cold plugs) 15 years ago and just let the thing idle for 15 minutes (if it would!) you might not be able to get the car started again if you shut down, due to carbon deposits on the plug. - ----- Joe Pearlstein '91 Crimson Red MKII, Past owner of '86 Super Red MKI IMOC # 2NA000004 Philadelphia, PA mailto:nu3y@critpath.org ICQ# 3480202 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 22:32:06 -0400 From: John and Christine Peacock Subject: Re: MR2 Functionality I have just gotten an Integra that is black just like my MR2. The 2 has tint and the a/c is not functioning properly. The Integra has no tint and the a/c has been checked 3 times in the last 2 weeks by differant shops. It is functioning properly. The a/c in my MR2 freezes you out in a short time, the Integra takes over 20 miles to get cold in the heat of the day. I will be tinting the windows in the Integra on Monday. John Ian Gopez wrote: > John Peacock's complaints about the heat in Central Fl. are not > exaggerated but seriously, just drive 3+ hours northwest to Tallahassee, > Fl. and you will experience the worst heat in this here continent of > ours. I'm talking its been 105- 110 degrees and sunny all month!!! > Electric bills are soaring to record highs and I'm told it gets worst in > August. > > MR2 content. Is a tint worth investing $80 into. I got a/c and > I'm still dying here- however I am just a poor college student in an > apartment complex w/ no driveway. If I get a tint, whet are the ticket > and visibility implications? > > ______________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 09:54:21 -0700 From: "B. J. Buss" Subject: Re: MR2 Tripometer Virus! Quick-Someone call the CDC! I just had to put a new speed head in my 86' mr2 and that cost me $218. If any one needs the tripometer parts I have them, just e-mail me, first come first serve!! Thank You, B.J. John Wink wrote: > Allen, > > I have the same problem as you... my reset button is shot. The trip meter > LOOKS like it's trying to turn, but it never makes it. I head stripped > hears were common on the MKI trip meter... apparantly, replacement parts > are prohibitively expensive. > > John Wink > 85NA Red > Montreal, Canada > > Allen Sanders wrote: > ======================= > My reset button doesn't work, either. My tripometer is STUCK on about > 345 miles. Is everyone else's unable to be reset also? > > Allen > asanders@law.tulane.edu > '85 na silver > stuck on a 345 mile trip : ) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 22:49:53 -0400 From: Jamie Dennis Subject: MR2 Turbo - RMS exhaust passes NC emissions test with flying colors Many people have asked me to update them when I had my state inspection (with emissions test) done on my car. As you may know, I have had one of the original Rebel Motorsports Dual Exit Straight Pipes, which removes the secondary cat, on my car since february of this year. Due to the removal of the second cat, there was some question whether it'd pass emissions (and visual inspection, for that matter). Anyway, I had gotten my state inspection right before installing the exhaust, on my birthday (1/13/98)... it was only good through this month, however (normally good for 1 year), since I was 8 months overdue at that point (lazy, plus various things such as tires, fog light burned out (???), etc). For the current test, I had brand new spark plugs (autolite 3924's - had newish 3934's last time - bought the wrong ones this time), installed right before the test - other than weather, everything else was the same, including the test machine. Here are the results: Gas Reading Standard Test 1/13/98 (stock exhaust) - engine at 855 rpms, 60115 miles on car HC (ppm) 001 220 CO (%) 0.00 1.20 CO2 (%) 15.8 Test 6/20/98 (rms desp) - engine at 909 rpms, 69905 miles on car (damn!) HC (ppm) 012 220 CO (%) 0.00 1.20 CO2 (%) 14.3 So, Hydrocarbons went up considerably, but I'm still so far under the standard, it's silly. CO was still non-existant, and CO2 went down a little... The inspection went pretty smooth. Pointed out the twc (primary cat) to the inspector (young guy - appreciated the car, but didn't know too much about it - said he used to have a Fiero Formula. I pretended to be impressed :-)... He commented that they are supposed to fail cars without mufflers, but suggested that I claim, if asked, that it has a flowmaster muffler, as they are pretty hard to tell if they are on there - minor bulge in the pipe. So, hope this helps people... I know some of you will welcome this news. It has me thinking more seriously about gutting the TWC! Of course, then I'll have to get a 50mpg TDI New Beetle to commute in, so I can feel environmentally friendly (flame away :-). - -Jamie '93 Turbo - http://www.ipass.net/~jdennis/JamieD.html for mods Oh, btw - anyone else used the Autolite 3924's before? Have any info on them? I compared them to the 3934's coming out (which went in with a .030 or so gap, came out with a .034 gap - which explains my recent missing in 3rd - 5th under boost) - the new ones appear to have a resistor, extend farther into the cylinder (which scared me at first, but I compared to some old bosch platinums, and they were the same), but otherwise looked the same. Anyway, I installed these, and tightened my throttle cable up a little, as there was a little slack in it (still is, but less now). These two things together seemed to greatly improve my throttle response. Comments? My missing problem also seems to be fixed. Sorry if my overuse of parentheses annoys you. :-) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 22:49:35 -0400 From: John and Christine Peacock Subject: MR2 IMOC meeting June 27 in Orlando area Ok, I allready have a bunch of confirmed MR2s. I would like to have some more. I am emailing to all the people and once more to the MR2 list. We will be meeting on Lake Mary Blvd, 1 mile from I-4 at Appleton's Cafe in Driftwood Plaza at 6:30PM. If you will be there please RSVP asap so I can let the restaurant know if they will need an extra waitress or not. If we go over 30 people we will need an extra. Thanks and hope to see you all there. John ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 22:59:27 -0400 From: bagdon@rust.net (S and K Bagdon) Subject: Re: MR2 on getting manuals outside USA; Motorweek program > yea I read about it in autoweek. I just can't imagine buying a car for >$1 million dollars. I could campaign a race car in a series for that kind of >cash. That's because you've never had a net-worth of $50mil, and had the assets to write a personal check for $1mil. If you did, you wouldn't be imagining how people do this, you'd be setting up a corporation to title the car under. As an example, let's say that for me buying a $10k car with cash would represent 1/10 of my yearly take-home pay. If I took home $1mil/year, can you imagine what kind of car I could lease? 'Mr. Baseball', as Tom Selleck is hitting golf balls with a baseball bat - 'same concept, different scale'. :) Steve B. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 22:22:48 -0500 From: "Steve Hoult" Subject: Re: MR2 functionality >Besides admitting to being so "soft" that I sometimes use my AC on the warm-up / >cool-down laps, I also admit to frequently driving around with the T-Tops off and the >AC on... I do this often since I live in Nashville where it starts to be in the 70's in February. July and August can stay in the mid to high 90's so the tops are out and the AC is on FULL!!!! >I'm sure I'm not alone here...but before all the "purists" flame away, let it be >known >that I do also practice the opposite (heater w/out tops) in cold weather (learned >long ago during "my" purist days)... I do this as well. November thru January is 40-50 and the heater with the windows up and the T-Tops out works just fine. My brother has been a sports car purist since the mid 60's. I can remember him in the middle of the Michigan winters with the top down and both heaters blasting away in his '67 MGB roadster, scarf trailing back in the breeze. To this day his MG's still have no tops installed, although now days his MG is closer to yard art then a useful car. Steve Hoult '89 SC ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 22:38:41 -0700 From: "David Hawkins" Subject: Re: MR2 MKII coolant idiot light? > Several weeks ago the coolant idiot light (lower right, red picture > of fan blowing onto engine) started coming on after 20 minutes of > driving (more or less, but it always comes on and stays on there- > after). It isn't the coolant level (topped off). that's the engine compartment fan failure light...it comes on when your engine compartment fan doesn't respond to signals from the temp sensor. Did your fan work when the light was on? If it did, THAT would be very perplexing. I've had mine come on twice since I replaced my stock fan with a SPAL and ditched the sensor, but it went away when I shut down the car and restarted it. As for it not being tied to the ECU, EVERYTHING is tied to the ECU.... this fan has it's own little control ECU in the trunk over by the power antenna. There's something in the how to install SPAL fans thing on mr2.com about fooling this ECU after you unhook the sensor...but I didn't bother since my light didn't come on. I know this didn't solve your problem, but hopefully it gave you more to tell the guy at the dealer should you go back. David Hawkins ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 00:36:23 EDT From: AkTiF8@aol.com Subject: MR2 celica mirrors..would they fit? okay, maybe this a stupid question, or it's been dealt with before...but.. would the cool racing style side view mirrors from a celica fit right on to a '2? feel free to flame if the wiring harnesses are completely different or such; i'm clueless on this one. also, randomly, is 100 bucks a good deal on a set of the aeroware intakes? how much should it cost to get these painted? thanks much, all... keith 91 na accessorized. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 01:30:53 -0700 From: Mark Sink Subject: MR2 Kickin' Guages - A tach for your turbo, plus... I became familiar with Omorimeter a few monmths ago, suggest CAP might want to become a distributor. I just ran across this: http://www.omorimeter.co.jp/JP/NEWS/news.htm Check it out. One gauge is a TACH for a turbo, another appears to be a boost gauge with built in digital EGT. WILD! Anyone know who carries this. They did tell me back when that I could order straight from them, but... - -- Mark Sink - ----------- http://toy4two.home.mindspring.com/ Modified '87 MR2 & Stroked 2.2L '93 MR2 Turbo ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 02:34:22 EDT From: BarnacleKB@aol.com Subject: Re: MR2 interesting ad In a message dated 6/20/98 12:05:28 PM Pacific Daylight Time, gseeley@island.net writes: << Gotta love those car dealers who know nothing about what they sell. Maroons. >> I think my favorite classified of all-time was for a "Volkswagen Cabrio Convertible" Barnacle ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 02:49:12 EDT From: BarnacleKB@aol.com Subject: Re: MR2 Tripometer Virus! Quick-Someone call the CDC! << My reset button doesn't work, either. My tripometer is STUCK on about 345 miles. Is everyone else's unable to be reset also? >> My '86 isn't stuck, quite yet. If I press the reset button, it resets to 888.8 miles. Not quite what I want, but sometimes, by cajoling the thing, it'll go back to zero. Barnacle ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 23:59:51 -0700 From: william brandt Subject: MR2 collector cars Well Brian - I am with you on driving. Now some collectors get rather anal about the subject - if car has original price sticker and no mileage so much the better. If it was owned by a movie star who farted on the seat and you can document it so much the better. Someone else on my other list who also has a Volvo (how's that for a run on sentence) - anyway a friend and some rare Volvo that won many rallies - and the guy took pride in the fact that the car had the original factory installed brake fluid of 30 years ago. Couldn't understand why people didn't want to ride with him. Best story on driving vs displaying - when Bill harrah was alive, who started the Harrah's casinos at Tahoe & Reno - he was a car collecting nut. For many years the public was invited to his warehouse in Sparks which had 1200 cars - including 15-20 Duesenbergs, 2 of the 6 made Bugatti Royals (which was $50,000 in 1933) - well, anyway one day Ferry Porsche visited him - and when Harrah apologized for not having a single Porsche in the collection, Dr Porsche said, 'That's OK, my cars were meant to be driven!" Incidently Harrah must have been a character - he had a Jeep Wagoneer and was dissatisfied with the power - so had a Ferrari V12 installed in it... What's really neat is to go to these historic car races - I've seen among other things a Porsche Speedster - original owner - 400,000 miles - and looks not concours but very good. And raced. I suspect that my MR2 mk 1 will be some day an oddity on the street - and still in good shape because of good maintainence. In the case of the 1975 9purchase date of 1967) Corvette owner he too was a bit on the crazy side - I mean if I had a 550 hp Stingray I'd be on the road a bit! As to MR2's well, my white one is doing just fine. Full of "Bofur" from my white spitz but every 4 weeks is SOP to pull the seats and scrape the hair. Ken your shift boot is great. Was wondering today how car would run if I could slip the modified 4A-GE from Formula Atlantic into this car - it's probably tear clutch and transaxle apart... Bill > Has 11 miles on the odometer Some guy owned the thing since 1975 and it only has 11 miles on the odometer? What the heck? Did he drive the car to the post office...ONCE?!?! The only reason I respond to this (sorry no real MR2 content) was because my brother and I had this same conversation today. Why would someone buy a car (especially one like that) and never drive it? It seems silly to me. Even as a collector's item...a car's only real value is in driving it around... :-/ Oh well, to each their own. Brian H. '91T '87NA (MR2 content: both have over 90k miles on them...) ;) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 02:41:54 -0500 From: Brad Bedell Subject: RE: MR2 celica mirrors..would they fit? Celica mirrors will fit, but they require some modification. Drilling and filling the back side of the mirror. The mounts are different sizes and the window has a different angle. They do look pretty decent on the car I may have a picture on www.mr2.com under TX and owners. However I am not sure. Wiring harness is about 6" too short, but identical otherwise. 100bux is a decent deal on the side intakes. Paint will be anywhere from 50.00 to 200 per for the pair. Brad Check out my home page: www.flash.net/~bbedell E-Mail: bbedell@flash.net ICQ# 3612682 - -----Original Message----- From: AkTiF8@aol.com [SMTP:AkTiF8@aol.com] Sent: Saturday, June 20, 1998 11:36 PM To: mr2-digest@mr2.com Subject: MR2 celica mirrors..would they fit? okay, maybe this a stupid question, or it's been dealt with before...but.. would the cool racing style side view mirrors from a celica fit right on to a '2? feel free to flame if the wiring harnesses are completely different or such; i'm clueless on this one. also, randomly, is 100 bucks a good deal on a set of the aeroware intakes? how much should it cost to get these painted? thanks much, all... keith 91 na accessorized. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 09:33:12 EDT From: MR2914me@aol.com Subject: Re: MR2 celica mirrors..would they fit? In a message dated 6/21/98 4:38:41 AM, AkTiF8@aol.com wrote: <> What year Celica and what year MR2?? Rob na w/cage blue 2598 lbs ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 10:08:23 -0500 From: "The O'Malley's" Subject: MR2 mk1 exhaust questions Help, my 88na just failed it's annual safety inspection due to a rusting exhaust system. I checked the muffler summary on mr2.com in my quest for a new exhaust and have also heard that the 89 SC muffler will fit with some possible improvement in performance. I called my local toy dealer and they did not know if the SC unit would work. I then called TRD and they did not know either. They said they use the HKS unit. My question is, is the SC unit a bolt on swap and if so, what is the part number of the SC muffler? Also, what options are there here in the US? I called a local speed shop that quoted me $390 for an HKS unit shipped to their local store. Is this a good price? What is a good price for the toyota SC unit? Has anyone used the MR2 PP custom unit? I do not want it too much louder, but a little more is OK. Thanks, Chris O. Austin, Texas omalley@texas.net ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 11:59:17 -0500 From: "Steve Hoult" Subject: Re: MR2 mk1 exhaust questions >My question is, is the SC unit a bolt on swap and if so, what is the part number of the SC muffler? >Also, what options are there here in the US? I called a local speed shop that quoted me $390 for an >HKS unit shipped to their local store. Is this a good price? What is a good price for the toyota SC >unit? Has anyone used the MR2 PP custom unit? I do not want it too much louder, but a little more is >OK. A previous list member has used the SC unit on his NA with no problem. Part numbers (from the CD-ROM) are; 17430 Pipe Assy, Tail 17448 Baffle, Tail Pipe It looks like the first number is the exhaust pipe/muffler and the second number are the tips. You might also try 91651-60610 **Std Part Which looks like it might be the combination of the two numbers above. Hope it helps Steve Hoult '89 SC ------------------------------ End of mr2-digest V2 #967