Out with the 1MZ-FE, and in with the 3S-GTE.

Out & About

Well, I haven’t posted to the blog in a year so now seemed like a good time. Winter has come to the land of Iowa again, so obviously I have more time to sit on my rear. I’ll try to recap what’s happened in that year.

Last winter I ended up MegaSquirting the ’93 1MZ car, and if you’re bored … there’s a long thread here: http://www.mr2.com/forums/mk-2-v6/To...egasquirt.html

I also did a bunch of cosmetic work to the car in the Spring.

The Summer of My Discontent

At some point during the summer I REALLY started getting bored with the 1MZ. Don’t get me wrong, I never swapped the car expecting a Porsche. I got the car on its last leg with a dead 5S, and got the 1MZ cheap. It just made sense at that time. I don’t really autocross, and I just like to drive around and have fun. So, I decided to do something about it.

I considered pulling out the V6 swap and selling it turn-key to finance a 3S swap, but decided that was more effort than I wanted to invest. I figured that somebody out there would love to have a V6 MR2 and listed it for sale/trade on the usual forums.

After a few unappealing offers, somebody in Wisconsin contacted me to see if I was interested in a trade. He had a Super Red 1994 NT w/75k miles on it, sounds pretty nice right? Well, the only downside was … it had been sprayed at some point. The car came out of Florida originally and I’d guess it had oxidized like mine had. Oh how I wish the person who painted it knew about polishing, but too late for spilt milk.

We met up halfway and both really liked what each other had. The repaint is actually not bad, just a little over spray here/there that I knew could be quickly fixed. What interested me the most was the interior being cherry, AC/PS working and all that jazz. Engine wise, it kinda ran like ass though … but I’ll get into that later. The car had obviously never seen a speck of salt, and I was very happy with what I saw.

After some discussion, we decided to swap keys and titles. All of this happened in late July.

Here are some pictures at the time of purchase:





Time for the 3S-GTE

SO, now I have a very nice chassis to work with… what to do? Well, tear it apart of course! I immediately ripped out the 5S-FE. I actually drove it around for a couple weeks, but not much more.

At first I was going to order a clip from a vendor, but in a stroke of luck one of my shop mates decided it was time to part out his ’91 Turbo. He’d just freshened up the motor (did everything but rod/main bearings really). It also had some mods/upgrades he threw in, which I’ll list in a bit. He let me have the entire swap for a good price. The price got even better when he decided he wanted to at least keep his car drivable, so we swapped the 5S+NT hubs+axles+blablablabla into his shell at the same time.

Now, earlier I said the 5S ran like ass. I never really cared enough to investigate, but my buddy was suddenly having hot start issues. After tracing darn near every wire we got bored and opened the ECU up. This ECU must've come from the SS Titanic, because it was 100% corroded/rusted/etc inside! It must've come from a junkyard at some point, no way it was original. Sooooooooo, we found him a 93+ NT ECU and he was good to go.

The only thing I really changed from his setup was the exhaust. He actually had made a pretty nice 3” exhaust, but it just wasn’t going to work with AC without major re-engineering. I ended up selling his exhaust for 400ish shipped and bought all Berk stuff in a group buy for not much more.

Due to work and some other life “hang-ups”, didn’t end up finishing the swap until late September.

Here is the full list of mods, it’s not a whole lot really:

• TTE head gasket
• ARP head studs
• ACT pressure plate + OEM Disc
• EMS Powered SMIC
• Home-brew charge pipes
• Home-brew intake
• GReddy Type-RS BOV
• JoeP Pro-Z MBC
• Speed Source motor mounts
• Speed Source braided clutch line
• AEM UEGO
• Berk 3” DP
• Berk 3” Exhaust

And I’m sure something stupid has been left off. Oh, I added an EMS Powered electronic boost gauge to replace the stock voltmeter.

Here are some pictures after the swap was finished:





Bedding It Down for the Winter

Ahhhhhhh, so of course the swap was finished just in time for Winter to hit. She’s now parked in the garage with the battery out and a cover on it. I really have no plans for it other than DRIVE it. I need to pay attention to my house this year, so that’s going to hamper the car hobby. It’s pretty fun to drive and sometimes that’s GOOD ENOUGH.

If you're still reading, thanks for taking the time!

Till NEXT time!