1fastmr2

Wow. 4:10am? You are an extreme night owl. As easy as it is to change rod bearings, I might do the same thing. All my bearings looked pretty good except #3. When I pulled the pan off for inspection and replacement of my oil pump I found copper in the pan. Crank surfaces looked good so I checked clearances (.025-.030) with plasigage and replaced them. Question. With one bearing being so bad and the others pretty much OK, should I be concerned about a oil passage being blocked? Next question. The beginning of the process that led me to the rod bearings was that I had a bad oil leak on the front of the motor somewhere. I mean POURING oil. I thought that I had a bad front seal. I went ahead and bought a new timing chain, ten. pulley, spring, water pump, etc. (When I decided to go ahead and change the oil pump is when I found the bad bearing.) Actually, I thought the knock I heard in the engine was the wrist pins and that unless I intended on pulling the whole motor out and rebuilding it, I was just going to let it knock. Back to the oil leak. When I pulled everything off the end of the crank is when I noticed that there was no oil in that area. Hmmm, I said. The more I investigate, the more I started thinking that it might be either the oil pressure sending unit or the o-rings/seals in the oil cooler/oil filter howsing. Note that there is a LOT of greasy/oil/dirt/gunk on and around the A/C compressor. Which to you think is more likely?

Hi Greg,
I'm a long time owner of mr2's. I worked for toyota back in the 90's. I haved worked on Mr2 for years. Yes they are hard on rod bearings. I install new ones once a year. The 4ag makes a lot of heat around the rod bearing area. The oil breaks down. I enjoy working on them. I will be at rockingham speedway racing next month on the weeekend of the 21. Hope you can get your car back on the raos soon.

Hi Philip; Saw you listed over in Burlington and thought I would drop you a note. I am west of you over in Hendersonville. Looks like you have a nice S/C. What is your MR2 story? Are you a long time owner or recent?

My '88 t-top is currently on the disabled list. Its all original except for the wheels and exhaust system with 192K on it. Started knocking and leaking some oil so I determined to change the front main seal, timing belt, etc. Ended up pulling the oil pump and pan only to find lots of copper pieces in the bottom of the pan. Caught the #3 rod bearing just in time. Currently putting in a new set of rod bearings along with everything else.

Anyway, don't want to completely bend you "ear" but just thought I would drop you a note. Thanks for your time. Greg (Hendersonville, NC)