Newbe w/V6 swap in progress

JoelMomma · 06-27-2006, 08:51 PM

Hey all, some may rememember me form autocross a while ago (just shy of 2 years now) when I was out a Bremerton in my 91 NA and almost threw a rod. This started me thinking about a engine swap. Now as many of you know whe you start somthing like this, you do some homework, find Brad Bedells site ask a few more questions, convince your wife that this is a good idea, and start it. Little did I know that my Mechanic of 12 or so years was not capable of this task, eventhough he said with confidience that he could.

Now there is alot more to this story, and if any of you are interested then feel free to ask. Some some funny and others just rediculous.

Anyhoo, I look forward to meeting more of you.

Regard,

Joel Pearcy

Brad Bedell · 06-27-2006, 08:54 PM

Hey Joel,

Welcome! We'd love to hear more.

There is a forum dedicated to the V6 section. It can be found here: http://www.mr2board.com/forums/mk-2-v6/

-B

Gairloch · 06-28-2006, 12:18 AM

Welcome, Joel.

Which v6 you swapping in?

mr2rider91 · 06-28-2006, 12:47 AM

contact weasy2k he can hook you up

wagonis · 06-28-2006, 03:17 PM

Hello Joel,

Welcome to the boards, I'm new here too. Before I came here, I didn't know a V6 swap was even possible, so I am thinking about this now too.

Oteck · 06-28-2006, 07:52 PM

do more research before you jump overboard theres more to it than that. This is a true DIY swap, unless you got deep pockets.

wagonis · 06-28-2006, 08:29 PM

Oh hell yeah I'll do the research first...and a whole bunch of homework too. I work from home, so I have all the time that I need. I have a Civic EG hatch I was going to drop a B18 into, but I got this MR2 for only $800 and doing a V6 swap seems like a lot more fun.

Oteck · 06-28-2006, 09:51 PM

lemme guess MKI? that will be a tight squeeze

wagonis · 06-28-2006, 10:19 PM

Nah man MKII, just happened to be a good friend moving out of the country and just wanted to rid of it. (see my garage for pics).

The engine is only 156K miles young, but I got the Civic to run around in so I can play with the MR2 and do a swap.

Oteck · 06-29-2006, 01:10 AM

wicked deal, if you can do the car stuff yourself your almost good. it's just the electrical stuff thats gonna hold you down for abit

Weasy2k · 06-29-2006, 01:15 AM

Welcome to the board

Good luck on the V6 swap! Search and post in the v6 forum if yea got any questions.

Its the little things that drive you nuts about these swaps...besides the wiring of course...

JoelMomma · 07-07-2006, 12:13 PM

Sorry for the delay in getting back with you all, Its been kind of hectic around the 4th, and being out of town.

So here is my attempt at my first novel, titled the little MR2 that could.

As previously explained I decided to put in the V6 from the Camry/Solara. Now keep in mind that I am not actually doing the work so some of the details are foggy, and I’m working on clearing the fog now.

When I asked my mechanic if he could do the work he said with confidence that he could, and convinced me that this was going to be easy. His price was going to cost me about 3K for everything. Not bad. I gave the go ahead and work commenced right away. He said it should only take him about 3 weeks to do this. Once the motor was pulled he started figuring out the placement of everything. It seemed that everything was going smoothly.

He locked in some “guy” that was going to do all of the welding of the exhaust and make a support bar that would bolt to the underside of the car for the new motor mount. This ended up taking several months since this special “Guy” got thown in jail (Which I found out much later.) Oh and the whole time my mechanic is telling me “Almost done, a couple more day/Few/next week/Why you trust me” ok the last one I threw in. The whole time I did trust him, did I have a choice?

Finally after a few months the exhaust is done and the support bar is finished and installed. It looks awesome! Really great work. Only one year later. Electrical is next.

Somewhere in the all of this time he managed to leave my car unlocked and some kids broke in and stole my radio and sub. In the process they broke my dash. Oh and the T-Tops leak a little so there is now mold growing in my car. But I digress.

Electrical work has begun. He has waited months again to try and find the right wire harness or so he says, and then started cutting wires, and labeling them. This is when most of the time sitting happened. He cut it up and could not figure out how to tie it back together. Did he ever admit this to me? No. He gave me the same answers as mention above. I am showing up up when I can now, and trying to surprise him since he stopped taking my calls. Some time he would be on never ending test drives (I waited). Finally one day my wife and I had lost it. We went there to fight. My wife played bad got and laid into him so good that his hands were shaking at the end. He said a few more days, and it will be finished. (Some of you may be saying why didn’t you just tow it out of there at that point. I honestly thought it was almost done and he was just not working on it.) so begins the, I don’t believe anything you are saying to me, thought process. I showed up not that long ago now and his non English speaking partner said “he in bathroom” I waited. I waited some more, 30 min go by. Still waiting. A customer comes in and asks for him, his partner said the same thing to her, and takes her outside to her car to look it over. I am alone in the shop now. I walk over to the bathroom and say Jong! Are you in there? No answer. A little louder. Still no answer. I look under the door to see if there is any light, and see none. I say his name again and wiggle the handle. It is locked. I see a screw driver next to the door jam it in the door turn it and kick it open to find him sitting in the dark on the toilet hiding from me. (Seriously I can make this stuff up) I look at him as say Jong what the @#$# are you doing! He says, I hiding from you , I’m scared. I explain that I will have the car towed next week and that I want every thing cleaned up and ready. He agreed and as it turned out I got him to pay for the towing. He owes me a new set of locking lug nuts and regular lugs. I now need to have the carpet replaced and seats. Not too upset about this since they were worn anyway.

Now my car is sitting front of my work next door to the new shop that has agreed to take this on. They are all master mechanics and come highly recommended.

I have already send a bunch of info to the electrician at this shop that can help him and explained that he should probably sign up on this web site for any questions that he may have. He thought that was a good idea, so you may hear from him in a bout a month when they fit it into their schedule.

I will try and keep you all posted on the progress going forward. Sometimes it is hard to get to a computer so bear with me I’m here.

Thanks, and I look forward to all of the support from a great forum.

Regards,

Joel Pearcy
91 Mid engine Rear wheel Drive 2 Door (MR2 V-VI)

wagonis · 07-07-2006, 03:49 PM

Wow dude, and I thought I had patience, you got me beat by a mile. Sounds like it started as a mess, but now you are on to a good start in resolving this. Good luck and post up the results.

Brad Bedell · 07-07-2006, 05:34 PM

Wow, what a mess.

3k is a heck of a deal. He didn't know what he was getting into. I've done a few of these now, I currently have most of my other projects done so that I could finish it reasonably quickly. Of course, I'm in TX, so add shipping to it. If your shop doesn't work out, I'll make a good backup plan.

-B

JoelMomma · 07-07-2006, 06:33 PM

Thanks Brad, All in all it probably would be more simple to do that even with the shipping. They seem to be into it, and competent, so I'll give them a try since they are next door to me, literally.

Brad Bedell · 07-07-2006, 07:15 PM

Indeed, having someone excited about it really helps. For someone to just jump in without doing this type of work before is actually a pretty big challenge. Good luck with it. The v6 forum is here if you need specific answers to complete the swap.

I presume you've seen the faq and other threads in there correct?

Seth W · 07-07-2006, 08:51 PM

glad to hear their is another V6 in the NW

Brad Bedell · 07-08-2006, 01:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seth W

glad to hear their is another V6 in the NW

I'm jealous.. we don't have enough any currently TX...

Seth W · 07-08-2006, 02:34 AM

come to portland you'll be number 3 of the shop group.

06-27-2006, 08:51 PM	#1 (permalink)
JoelMomma Average skills Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Washington Posts: 9 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader Rating: (0/0% )	Newbe w/V6 swap in progress Hey all, some may rememember me form autocross a while ago (just shy of 2 years now) when I was out a Bremerton in my 91 NA and almost threw a rod. This started me thinking about a engine swap. Now as many of you know whe you start somthing like this, you do some homework, find Brad Bedells site ask a few more questions, convince your wife that this is a good idea, and start it. Little did I know that my Mechanic of 12 or so years was not capable of this task, eventhough he said with confidience that he could. Now there is alot more to this story, and if any of you are interested then feel free to ask. Some some funny and others just rediculous. Anyhoo, I look forward to meeting more of you. Regard, Joel Pearcy

06-28-2006, 12:18 AM	#3 (permalink)
Gairloch Dreaming of apexes Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 4,472 Thanks: 115 Thanked 222 Times in 195 Posts My Google Map iTrader Rating: (7/100% )	Welcome, Joel. Which v6 you swapping in? __________________ "Inside the car, the world beyond the driver's immediate horizon ceases to exist. Alone with the solitude of his desire, survival sense numbed by the speed, he's outrun the mediocrity of the outside world, slipped the shackles it tries to clamp on us all. He is running free, chased only by a fear of failure, for failure is to risk ejection into the real world." ~Mark Hughes

06-29-2006, 01:15 AM	#11 (permalink)
Weasy2k 3.4L 10K RPM In the works Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Vancouver, BC Posts: 8,886 Thanks: 34 Thanked 76 Times in 65 Posts iTrader Rating: (6/100% )	Welcome to the board Good luck on the V6 swap! Search and post in the v6 forum if yea got any questions. Its the little things that drive you nuts about these swaps...besides the wiring of course... __________________ -Johnny @ Sea2Sky Tuning - www.sea2skytuning.com http://www.mr2.com/forums/sea2sky-tu...-out-sale.html

07-07-2006, 12:13 PM	#12 (permalink)
JoelMomma Average skills Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Washington Posts: 9 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader Rating: (0/0% )	V-VI Saga Sorry for the delay in getting back with you all, Its been kind of hectic around the 4th, and being out of town. So here is my attempt at my first novel, titled the little MR2 that could. As previously explained I decided to put in the V6 from the Camry/Solara. Now keep in mind that I am not actually doing the work so some of the details are foggy, and I’m working on clearing the fog now. When I asked my mechanic if he could do the work he said with confidence that he could, and convinced me that this was going to be easy. His price was going to cost me about 3K for everything. Not bad. I gave the go ahead and work commenced right away. He said it should only take him about 3 weeks to do this. Once the motor was pulled he started figuring out the placement of everything. It seemed that everything was going smoothly. He locked in some “guy” that was going to do all of the welding of the exhaust and make a support bar that would bolt to the underside of the car for the new motor mount. This ended up taking several months since this special “Guy” got thown in jail (Which I found out much later.) Oh and the whole time my mechanic is telling me “Almost done, a couple more day/Few/next week/Why you trust me” ok the last one I threw in. The whole time I did trust him, did I have a choice? Finally after a few months the exhaust is done and the support bar is finished and installed. It looks awesome! Really great work. Only one year later. Electrical is next. Somewhere in the all of this time he managed to leave my car unlocked and some kids broke in and stole my radio and sub. In the process they broke my dash. Oh and the T-Tops leak a little so there is now mold growing in my car. But I digress. Electrical work has begun. He has waited months again to try and find the right wire harness or so he says, and then started cutting wires, and labeling them. This is when most of the time sitting happened. He cut it up and could not figure out how to tie it back together. Did he ever admit this to me? No. He gave me the same answers as mention above. I am showing up up when I can now, and trying to surprise him since he stopped taking my calls. Some time he would be on never ending test drives (I waited). Finally one day my wife and I had lost it. We went there to fight. My wife played bad got and laid into him so good that his hands were shaking at the end. He said a few more days, and it will be finished. (Some of you may be saying why didn’t you just tow it out of there at that point. I honestly thought it was almost done and he was just not working on it.) so begins the, I don’t believe anything you are saying to me, thought process. I showed up not that long ago now and his non English speaking partner said “he in bathroom” I waited. I waited some more, 30 min go by. Still waiting. A customer comes in and asks for him, his partner said the same thing to her, and takes her outside to her car to look it over. I am alone in the shop now. I walk over to the bathroom and say Jong! Are you in there? No answer. A little louder. Still no answer. I look under the door to see if there is any light, and see none. I say his name again and wiggle the handle. It is locked. I see a screw driver next to the door jam it in the door turn it and kick it open to find him sitting in the dark on the toilet hiding from me. (Seriously I can make this stuff up) I look at him as say Jong what the @#$# are you doing! He says, I hiding from you , I’m scared. I explain that I will have the car towed next week and that I want every thing cleaned up and ready. He agreed and as it turned out I got him to pay for the towing. He owes me a new set of locking lug nuts and regular lugs. I now need to have the carpet replaced and seats. Not too upset about this since they were worn anyway. Now my car is sitting front of my work next door to the new shop that has agreed to take this on. They are all master mechanics and come highly recommended. I have already send a bunch of info to the electrician at this shop that can help him and explained that he should probably sign up on this web site for any questions that he may have. He thought that was a good idea, so you may hear from him in a bout a month when they fit it into their schedule. I will try and keep you all posted on the progress going forward. Sometimes it is hard to get to a computer so bear with me I’m here. Thanks, and I look forward to all of the support from a great forum. Regards, Joel Pearcy 91 Mid engine Rear wheel Drive 2 Door (MR2 V-VI)

06-27-2006, 08:54 PM	#2 (permalink)
Brad Bedell V6 MR2 Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 324 Thanks: 0 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts iTrader Rating: (14/100% )	Hey Joel, Welcome! We'd love to hear more. There is a forum dedicated to the V6 section. It can be found here: http://www.mr2board.com/forums/mk-2-v6/ -B

06-28-2006, 12:47 AM	#4 (permalink)
mr2rider91 No Skills Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Buckley, WA Posts: 33 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader Rating: (0/0% )	contact weasy2k he can hook you up

06-28-2006, 03:17 PM	#5 (permalink)
wagonis Cage Fighter Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Tampa Bay area, FL Posts: 844 Thanks: 44 Thanked 15 Times in 15 Posts iTrader Rating: (4/100% )	Hello Joel, Welcome to the boards, I'm new here too. Before I came here, I didn't know a V6 swap was even possible, so I am thinking about this now too.

06-28-2006, 07:52 PM	#6 (permalink)
Oteck Guu Sama! Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 1,715 Thanks: 8 Thanked 48 Times in 45 Posts Blog Entries: 2 iTrader Rating: (2/100% )	do more research before you jump overboard theres more to it than that. This is a true DIY swap, unless you got deep pockets.

06-28-2006, 08:29 PM	#7 (permalink)
wagonis Cage Fighter Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Tampa Bay area, FL Posts: 844 Thanks: 44 Thanked 15 Times in 15 Posts iTrader Rating: (4/100% )	Oh hell yeah I'll do the research first...and a whole bunch of homework too. I work from home, so I have all the time that I need. I have a Civic EG hatch I was going to drop a B18 into, but I got this MR2 for only $800 and doing a V6 swap seems like a lot more fun.

06-28-2006, 09:51 PM	#8 (permalink)
Oteck Guu Sama! Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 1,715 Thanks: 8 Thanked 48 Times in 45 Posts Blog Entries: 2 iTrader Rating: (2/100% )	lemme guess MKI? that will be a tight squeeze

06-28-2006, 10:19 PM	#9 (permalink)
wagonis Cage Fighter Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Tampa Bay area, FL Posts: 844 Thanks: 44 Thanked 15 Times in 15 Posts iTrader Rating: (4/100% )	Nah man MKII, just happened to be a good friend moving out of the country and just wanted to rid of it. (see my garage for pics). The engine is only 156K miles young, but I got the Civic to run around in so I can play with the MR2 and do a swap.

06-29-2006, 01:10 AM	#10 (permalink)
Oteck Guu Sama! Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 1,715 Thanks: 8 Thanked 48 Times in 45 Posts Blog Entries: 2 iTrader Rating: (2/100% )	wicked deal, if you can do the car stuff yourself your almost good. it's just the electrical stuff thats gonna hold you down for abit

07-07-2006, 03:49 PM	#13 (permalink)
wagonis Cage Fighter Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Tampa Bay area, FL Posts: 844 Thanks: 44 Thanked 15 Times in 15 Posts iTrader Rating: (4/100% )	Wow dude, and I thought I had patience, you got me beat by a mile. Sounds like it started as a mess, but now you are on to a good start in resolving this. Good luck and post up the results.

07-07-2006, 05:34 PM	#14 (permalink)
Brad Bedell V6 MR2 Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 324 Thanks: 0 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts iTrader Rating: (14/100% )	Wow, what a mess. 3k is a heck of a deal. He didn't know what he was getting into. I've done a few of these now, I currently have most of my other projects done so that I could finish it reasonably quickly. Of course, I'm in TX, so add shipping to it. If your shop doesn't work out, I'll make a good backup plan. -B

07-07-2006, 06:33 PM	#15 (permalink)
JoelMomma Average skills Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Washington Posts: 9 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader Rating: (0/0% )	Thanks Brad, All in all it probably would be more simple to do that even with the shipping. They seem to be into it, and competent, so I'll give them a try since they are next door to me, literally.

07-07-2006, 07:15 PM	#16 (permalink)
Brad Bedell V6 MR2 Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 324 Thanks: 0 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts iTrader Rating: (14/100% )	Indeed, having someone excited about it really helps. For someone to just jump in without doing this type of work before is actually a pretty big challenge. Good luck with it. The v6 forum is here if you need specific answers to complete the swap. I presume you've seen the faq and other threads in there correct?

07-07-2006, 08:51 PM	#17 (permalink)
Seth W thats me Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 697 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts My Google Map iTrader Rating: (0/0% )	glad to hear their is another V6 in the NW

07-08-2006, 02:34 AM	#19 (permalink)
Seth W thats me Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 697 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts My Google Map iTrader Rating: (0/0% )	come to portland you'll be number 3 of the shop group.