Resurrecting from the dead Part 3

[Trak Turtle]

Wow Josh... that is some serious work fuelled by passion... those rotors are bad ass & your top to toe approach shows!
Enjoy it!

Is that heat resistant paint on those callipers matt or gloss ?

[MR2_Josh]

Thanks guys! Yeah it's really taken a lot of patience over the years but it's well worth it!

The paint used on the rear calipers is actually semi-gloss.

Stopped by Noland's who's doing my headwork and they said middle of next week it should be all done.

Swung by Crosslink and picked up the last batch of powdercoat. Everything looks great!


I didn't get to sleep till 2am and woke up at 5:30am for class sooo no work today on the car but instead time to nap. Hah

[MR2_Josh]

Modified the water hard lines that wrap around the block and welded on a water feed fitting for the turbo and then of course PC'd them.


They PC'd the back side of the hats on the rotors too for me. Such a nice guy. haha

[Trak Turtle]

Trying to figure your rotor-callipers combination, gathered the front kit is all Wilwood, pls post a pic of the front kit when you're done installing it. Thx.

[MR2_Josh]

Originally Posted by Trak Turtle

Trying to figure your rotor-callipers combination, gathered the front kit is all Wilwood, pls post a pic of the front kit when you're done installing it. Thx.

hah tomorrow or Saturday I was going to take a picture of my entire brake set-up before I put it on the car this weekend.

Fronts consist of the TCS Motorsports/Revolution Brakes complete Wilwood big brake kit. (he's running a group buy now actually) However I don't like the standard cross-drilled rotors that came with the kit standard (they look ricey to me and I am road coursing a lot this next season and cross-drilled cracks) so I paid extra to get the slotted versions. But I have the Wilwood superlite 4 pot calipers, wilwood street/race pads, 13" slotted rotors, and the provided braided brake lines.

The rears consist of the '93+ turbo set up. It's completely rebuilt with Toyota parts internally. I'm running Stop Tech 11" slotted rear rotors and Porterfield R4S street/race pads and then Techna-fit braided lines.

I also upgraded my old '92 brake master cylinder for a '93+ turbo unit and am waiting the arrival of the wilwood adjustable proportioning valve mainly so I can have the versitility but also I want to get rid of that lead brick they call the ABS control unit. Everything else I have converted to Non-ABS including the hubs except the last thing which is the ABS unit itself.

Hope that helps on the clarification.

Oh and there will be many pics once the brakes are fitted. I have to finish modifying the dust shields to fit with the rotors most likely today and then I will be installing them once the hubs are reassmbled with the new bearings etc etc.

[mr2v63vz]

I LOVE THESE IN DEPTH BUILDS, I LOVE THE HEART AND SOUL! i wish i had means of doing this in my garage...id never leave!

[MR2_Josh]

Originally Posted by mr2v63vz

I LOVE THESE IN DEPTH BUILDS, I LOVE THE HEART AND SOUL! i wish i had means of doing this in my garage...id never leave!

Thanks a lot, man! Oh yeah I am very blessed with the resources both here at my house with a lift and full range of tools as well as a good friend to let me play in his automotive shop to do the more tedious work!

Trak Turtle: Also the reason I stuck with a stock based rear brake set-up instead of going with the Wilwood 4 piston rear bbk kit is because I drag race as well and my drag wheels are 15's in the rear thus limiting me to a smaller rotor size unfortunately. However, the rear brake set-up I have should be more than enough and I can control the brake bias now with the adjustable proportioning valve so I can set-up my brakes however I would like whether it's for the drag strip or the road course. When I go to the drag strip I'm going to really favor the front brakes so it's easier to do a burnout to warm the slicks up.

Ohhhh yeah...somewhat bad news....kinda. Bad in the sense that no assembly of the brakes/knuckles. I was starting to assemble the hubs and got the wheels bearings in and realized that Toyota forgot to send the wheal bearing seals. No problem I'll just call Toyota and get them the next day at the lastest.....Nope! They are a 3-4 day wait from Monday. Soooo I can't assemble any further till i get the seals which sucks but oh well. Nothing I can do. I also priced out new rear '93+ turbo brake dust shields for giggles cause mine were pretty beat up and they were only $30 a piece so I ordered them up and paid the extra to rush them here which was minimal ($4 hah).

Sooo next weekend will be a mad assembly weekend since I am getting the head back this week and the last of the steering and suspension pieces I need. Hopefully (fingers crossed) the drivetrain will be completely assembled ready to go in the car as well as the car ready to accept the engine. I'm still shooting for the weekend after next to head to Texas for the final stage of the manifold assembly and tune. SOOOO we shall see.

Right now I'm doing a lot of the small stuff that is needed which is actually a lot of work. It's easy but still takes time.

Valve cover all welded up. I have a -12 fitting welded in for the PCV that will have a 90* anotuff (black) -12 hose end with -12 prolite 350 lines running to my catch-can that I posted earlier.

I also has the 2 holes that the bolts for the stock TB support go through welded shut as well as the hole below and to the right of the #2 spark plug hole welded shut (originally has a nipple there that ran to the TB). I'm going to be cleaning up the welds on the fitting (big ol fatties on there but I can make them not and smooth easily) and making the holes that were welded shut nice and smooth and then coating the VC in the metallic blue I did it in before.




This is my last valve cover that I painted myself and the new one will look exactly the same as far as the color goes.

[MR2_Josh]

Worked on the car forever today/evening. The front end is essentially done minus the knuckles and brakes. I installed the new inner and outer tie rods, boots, and ball joints. Also the '93+ tension rods and brackets and bushings. I have the tension rods swung forward so they were outta the way so they didn't get paint on them and plus I was tired of hitting my head on them. lol!



Next I cleaned the hell out of the fender wells etc on both the passenger and drivers side front and prepped them, then painted and coated it. I was going to knock out the rears tonight too but I couldn't find my respirator and the fumes were getting to me hardcore. It's too cold outside for me to open the doors for ventilation as well so I figured this was a good stopping point. The fender liners aren't install but I have brand new ones going in as well. (note**the brake hard lines have caps on the fittings so they didn't get anything in or on them.)

[MR2_Josh]

Finished up the rear fender wells as well as cleaned up the tein monoflex coilovers as they were a little crusty even though they hvae less than 5000 miles.

[MR2_Josh]

Fronts





Going to address the rear underbody and the portion that goes around the engine bay this week and then it all should be finished. By then I should hopefully have the head back and knuckles assembled.

[Trak Turtle]

The only part that could get you re-thinking the rear callipers is if they are too visible through the 15 inch wheels... they could end up looking like crap before the Wilwoods up in the front ... or maybe not.

I feel like I'm under your car right now... just last fortnight I had 2 litres of 3m Under Shield sprayed, the original under coat had thinned down over the years. Your undercoat with the tien coilovers is a photocopy of how my car looks underneath... our coilovers are identical Only your setting is way way lower coz I need much more clearance around here to enjoy a long drive and avoid blowing apart the under plastics on those Speed Breakers - Car Breakers actually

You're doing this with great care, take your time Josh... awesome stuff!

[MR2_Josh]

Originally Posted by Trak Turtle

The only part that could get you re-thinking the rear callipers is if they are too visible through the 15 inch wheels... they could end up looking like crap before the Wilwoods up in the front ... or maybe not.

Haha, well I'm not going to drag race near as much next year myabe one or two outtings. My main focus is road course racing so I'm going to see how the wilwood bbk front/'93T rear combo works out. I mean the rear '93+turbo brakes have a little over 11" diameter rotors so they aren't small by any means compared to the 13" (12.8" to be exact) rotors up front. But I have a slick/skinny drag set-up on 15" drag wheels and the rear '93's barely clear them.

Originally Posted by trak turtle

I feel like I'm under your car right now... just last fortnight I had 2 litres of 3m Under Shield sprayed, the original under coat had thinned down over the years. Your undercoat with the tien coilovers is a photocopy of how my car looks underneath... our coilovers are identical Only your setting is way way lower coz I need much more clearance around here to enjoy a long drive and avoid blowing apart the under plastics on those Speed Breakers - Car Breakers actually

You're doing this with great care, take your time Josh... awesome stuff!

haha Yeah it's great stuff and I recommend it to everyone! I used Duplicolor truck bed liner as it replicated the hard urethane undercoating that originally came on the car. Then the areas that didn't have the lining I used a Duplicolor high heat ceramic semi-gloss as when it cures it's very thick and very tough.

Oh and yeah I have my car lowered quite a bit. Basically as much as my fenders allow me to do. The roads here are nice and speed bumps aren't an issue as they are very subtle. I never have issue with any sort of scrapinging luckily. I like the look of the loooooww stance.

Oh I'm being very thorough on this stuff. Everything has to be very precise and I'm paying attention to fine detail. Trust me! hah

[MR2_Josh]

Soo first off, NEVER BUY A '98-'02 Honda Accord 4 cylinder. The trans for them suck horribly. I replaced the old one last March due to it getting stuck in 3rd gear which is a common issue. I bought a JDM 30-40,000 mile (supposedly) trans for $850 (cheapest I could find and trust me I searched) and just today on the way home it did the same exact thing. Soooo screw Auto trannies, i'm doing a full manual conversion on it this week. It's a cheap and easy swap too infact, I think I can get it all for around $500-$600 with a new clutch. Going to U Pick-it Sunday to gather parts. Luckily it's supposed to be mid 60's and sunny. hah

Now for the MR2, My head is delayed till Monday...sucks...oh well, delays are inevitable at this point. Got what I thought was all of the last parts I was waiting on from Toyota only to open the box and find that they forgot 1 of the wheel bearing seals (needed 2) so I can't assemble all of the hubs only three. Oh well again, I can still get the car on it's wheels though as I'll just throw a spare hub I have lying around on so I can move the car to the other location that I'm assembling my motor.

So with that, tomorrow I'm going to assemble all of the hubs I can. So I can hopefully get the car rollable by Monday.

Today between the resisting taking a sledge to the Honda and the BS'ing around the shop I desided to tackle the new coolant water outlet sensor tree and modify it to my likings since the last one cracked.

Here you can see where I cut a huge chunk off and then reshaped the end with a dremel to make it all nice and round. I still need to hit it with some 80 grit sand paper to make it perfectly smooth. The whole assemble once I'm finished is going to be media blasted and ceramachromed as well for a nice shiney finish.


Top view (ignore the twisted off bolts, they are going to be removed obviously)


Here is a pic I found to show what all I removed from my water neck. Where the red arrow is pointing labeled "Water Outlet" is what all i removed and reshaped to give you an idea.


I moved all of the sensors to the cabin firewall side of the outlet and nothing will be on the other side (trunk side) which will make it a cleaner appearance. Here you will also see the NPT to -6 fitting I added for the water return from the turbo. I popped out one of the nipples too for the heater core lines (I deleted the heater core lines from running into the bay, that's another post later I'll make showing you) and I am going to thread that hole and put a plug in it and grind it smooth. The other nipple is for the water hard line bypass.


This is the other side of the water neck showing the now "dead" sensor hole as well as the water feed for the stock TB that I popped out. I'm cutting off that big bulge for where the sensor used to go and having it welded shut as well as the old TB water feed and I will again smooth and reshape those to where you will never know anything was there.

[MR2_Josh]

Here is the parts order I received. Two new rear '93+ turbo brake dust shields, 2 new fuel filters (since I'm running twin walbro's), 2 coolant hoses for the oil cooler, and then 1 of 2 front wheel bearing seals (waiting on the other as it's on back order)


I also started cleaning up the globs that were suppsed to be welds with the dremel around the -12 fitting I had welded in for the PCV that will feed the catch can. I still need to, again, hit it will 80 grit sand paper to make it all smooth but it looks much much better.




Then this is a pic of the 2 stock TB support bolt holes that I had welded shut that I dremeled smooth as well as the vent that ran to the TB however I have to have it rewelded as it wasn't deep enough and it fell out. I also removed the raised area for the vent and formed it to the shape of the rest of the valve cover casting. Still need to hit it with 80 grit to make it perfectly smooth after I have it rewelded and then reshape it.


I received my 1150cc injectors back from witchhunter from cleaning which they are now 1200cc injectors after cleaning. They needed it badly too apparantly as the before flow test there was a 5% varience between the four which was a recipe for disaster (one cylinder would have been running pretty lean compared to the other 3 because it was so "clogged"). Now they have less than 1% varience and all flow around 1200cc's.


More pics to come hopefully this next week since I have my 2 weeks worth of tests basically non-stop out of the way! lol

[MR2_Josh]

Ohhhh yeah, forgot that this showed up today, I had a lot of **** go on today so I'm out of it but yeah my Greddy timing belt showed up. It's veerrrrrrr nice! Hopefully dude with the clear T-belt covers gets those done soon!

[MR2_Josh]

And to give you an idea of what my intake manifold will look like as well as how my intercooler set-up will be I stole some pics from Dedicated-Matt as he is the one that is building the intake manifold and IC piping for me just like he has his.





From the engine bay (obviously my bay won't look like his but very similar)

[Trak Turtle]

That is the neatest engine bay on an MR2 I've seen yet. Similar wud be awesome Josh (Is Matt's car in full running state or WIP? Seems too clear of hoses, pipes, resistor packs, fuse boxes etc... looks great surely )

Great going!

[Butters]

you sir deserve member of the year award for saving this two. looks great i love the in depth build!

[MR2_Josh]

Originally Posted by Trak Turtle

That is the neatest engine bay on an MR2 I've seen yet. Similar wud be awesome Josh (Is Matt's car in full running state or WIP? Seems too clear of hoses, pipes, resistor packs, fuse boxes etc... looks great surely )

Great going!

Actually ours will be identical. The only differences are the fact he is a gen3 head and I'm gen 2. You must have not seen my old engine bay. I was one of the pioneers for the engine bay tuck. There is going to be tons less in there too and much cleaner as wasn't full stand-alone at that time (just ROM tune) and now that I am full stand-alone I can delete a lot more on top of just removing a lot of other uneeded stuff or moving it to a better location.

Here is a shot of the bay before....

Originally Posted by Butters

you sir deserve member of the year award for saving this two. looks great i love the in depth build!

haha Thanks man! I wanted to build the car from scratch because I only trust myself really on the work of the car because previously modded cars have been more trouble than they are worth from neglect of installation etc. This way I know EXACTLY what was done and that it was done right. I have had 0 issues with the car thus far from neglect.

[MR2_Josh]

Then one last pic, woulda been two but for some reason the pic didn't save. But here are the rear hubs fully assembled, all media blasted, powdercoated, new Toyota wheel bearings and seals, new brake dust shields. The fronts are all assembled as well. Going to be installing them on the car this week along with the brakes etc etc etc...




The head is FINAAAALLLYY being picked up monday fully assembled etc...So the motor will be full assembled and the new transmission arrived friday along with the new shift cables as well. Big progress pics to come soon. [