Little update

The Engine was picked up at the weekend and taken away to be worked on. As well as having the head gasket done, I've decided to get the valves lapped as the head is off.

Lapping the valves is where the valves have a paste put on them that has fine grain in it, the valves are then spun in their seats and the valve is cut finely as well as the head giving a better contact area and seal (there are various ways to lap valves). So when the fuel is ignited there is less leakage around the valves, this should mean it runs cleaner and in theory produce slightly more power. however my personal reasons is to have a smoother running engine, so the valve seals will also be changed at the same time.

This week ill be dragging the MR2 shell out of the garage to be picked up and taken away and then cleaning the garage a bit for my work area.

MR2 fully Stripped

Managed to complete the goals for this weekend with mild weather to help me along.

* Remove the accelerator cable - that was a nice easy job with it just unclipping all the way under the car.

* Remove last loom - this caused me some issues, I had one loom from the front boot which included the lights - down the passanger side - into the engine compartment. For the life of me couldnt work out how to get it out the car so I posted on a UK MR2 forum...and bingo the one trim plastic I left on, I popped open and two 10mmm nuts holding the 2 seperate looms together was revealed! Thats all looms out the car now as well.

* Fuel Pump - dropped the fuel tank without jacking up the car at the front or anymore at the rear so was over the moon with that. Some quick tips on this. the coolant and aircon pipes are attached at 3 places along the car, the rer bracket, front bracket on fuel tank and finally at the front just as the pipes start heading upwards. Once all of them are undone just lever the pipes out the way and the tank will come free. another tip, pull the front end down to the floor first... then you can just go in the engine compartment and push / pull the back down without being crushed!


I'll now check with Diego at DDR about what little bits I have left on the car to confirm I dont need them! then the shell will be moved to outside and picked up and removed.

In the meantime the bracket adapters for the 4 pot calipers and to move the mr2 rear calipers further outwards arrived. Ive ordered the UK spec supra discs for the front and the rx8 front discs for the rear. so 323mm on both ends. I'll do a seperate blog post on how it all looks once I get the front hubs back and can do a mock up of the look.

Some pictures of how the MR2 now looks from front to back;

And the Engine is out

I managed to get the engine out. With the MR2 it is easier to drop the engine out rather than lift it out.

Preferred tools are a jack, pair of axle stands and engine crane. I didn't have an engine crane and do plan on buying one but the issue I currently still have is space, where would I put the engine crane with the engine on it? I had to come up with a solution where I could remove the engine but put it back for storage in the space it came from.

My solution was 4 axle stands, a car dolly and a jack! So I followed the guide I posted previously and got to the stage of undoing the last two axle mounts, before doing this I lowered the rear of the car to the ground with a car dolly underneath the engine and gearbox. the car now sat like the below yesterday evening. I now hoped to raise the car and leave the engine where it is.

so to do with out an engine crane was a case of raising each side slowly and putting an axle stand under each side as I went. The reason for 4 is for safety because it of course could slip going this high. To help the tilt at the back the front was rested on the ground and the hubs put in the front to weigh it down. the photo below is before the final little push up.

Now I can easily just role the engine in and out to work on the engine and the car. For everyone's knowledge by following the previous guide I posted the engine came out with no effort at all, a small wiggle was all that was required.

I've decide rather then keep the shell outside for any parts I may need I will literally strip as much as I can and confirm with Diego (DDR Motorsport) I don't need anything else. I know I need to remove;

* Accelerator Cable

* Fuel tank (for pump)

* last of the wiring harness's

Then I can look into getting rid of the shell!! Which will give me a nice warm garage to work in and more importantly the space I need to work easily.

Engine Parts arrived

The engine parts have arrived. As you'll see every box gets labelled when I'm doing this (even if obvious);

* Water pump
* New belts
*  Thermostat
* Headgasket Set
* Head bolts (stretch type)

Also have brake pads come for the s14 4 pot front caliper upgrade. Just sourcing some discs now for the upgrade to the front and back!

The weather is looking good for this weekend, so will attempt to drop the engine this weekend...wish me luck, I don't have the best tools for this part of the job!