Project #26 MR2MAN

[2mAn]

Made some progress on the two motors...


Original 250k motor got mostly stripped. Almost done with what I need from it.





shifted gears to the new motor. Pulled these little bad boys out. These are the updated ones so do I need to worry about replacing them still?





First part of the conversion is done... with more to come





Quick question. Pulled all the coil packs out and they all have hairline cracks down the middle. Is the a misfire waiting to happen?

[Northern]

I'm liking this new build haha.

I think those coils look pooched, but they use them in everything right?

[2mAn]

Thanks, Im excited for a new challenge.

After sleeping on it and thinking about it more, I am going to replace the coilpacks now. I have new spark plugs, no reason to slap these on top of that.

Its funny how things work out. I sold my E30 to get a Cayman, but then couldnt bring myself to sell the Datsun. A month later, the Datsun performs harakiri and I end up building something different.

Its the first time in my entire life that I havent owned a German car. Some can argue the Mini is a BMW inside, and I wont fight that, but still... strange.

[luckybk]

i'm sure you're doing your research but i just happened to watch this recently. pretty damn adaptable car. it takes a minute but he covers all the basics of his suspension / wheel set ups for different applications down to spring rates and sway bars and such. apparently the stock brakes are good enough for sub 60 second laps around tsukuba, just swap in carbon pads.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

coil packs are absolutely a misfire waiting to happen. and if those bolts aren't torque to yield then I'd send them if they are and updated part

[2mAn]

i'm sure you're doing your research but i just happened to watch this recently. pretty damn adaptable car. it takes a minute but he covers all the basics of his suspension / wheel set ups for different applications down to spring rates and sway bars and such. apparently the stock brakes are good enough for sub 60 second laps around tsukuba, just swap in carbon pads.

Ahh yes, I figured someone would be linking that or other Techno Pro Spirit videos. I have that and several others saved. He's my kind of guy. I have all the specs saved.

coil packs are absolutely a misfire waiting to happen. and if those bolts aren't torque to yield then I'd send them if they are and updated part

Yea, I ordered a full set of Denso Coilpacks yesterday. The pointy bolts pictured are known as the "lift bolts" and the early design would fail and VTEC wouldnt engage.... yo.... so since these are the updated ones, they dont need to be changed as far as I know.

I picked up a busted 5speed that has a low mileage LSD in it, and will be promptly yanking that out and taking that along with the 6 speed to a shop to have it installed.

So far everything has been going relatively smoothly, I still havent found a suspension setup I like. Theres plenty of 100-way adjustable coilovers, but Id rather have something that has more R&D in it. There are Ohlins Coilovers out there to be found on Yahoo Auctions (Japans ebay) but they are quite a rare find. I reached out to Ground Control to see if I could have them make me a custom setup, but so far no reply.

[luckybk]

u gonna get that Ti muffler tho?

[2mAn]

u gonna get that Ti muffler tho?

Not gonna lie, I REALLY want it hahah

First things first, I have to finish up this swap... then I need to get some suspension on the car... and THEN... we'll see

[rzerob]

Damn, that sucks about the Datsun. What exactly happened? The last I saw it was running bad and the towing company secured it too tight which caused some body damage. Was the bottom end unsalvageable? You could not get another one? You had a lot of time and money in it to just let it go.

[Melon]

Oh dang!

Several guys I know have 2ZZ swapped MR2's,
IIRC there's a weak point on the oil pump drive sprocket. I can't recall exactly what it is, but do a little digging on that.

[2mAn]

Update for the weekends work.


Stacked up the boxes that have been coming in. There’s actually more but this was a nice stack. This is most of the swap parts.





I spent some time cleaning up the wiring harness as it was a bit nasty. Took all the loose electrical tape and crumbling wiring covers and replaced it with new covers and 3M friction tape. Here’s a pic halfway through






I didn’t buy enough so I spent some time scraping the crud off the rear subframe, it was quite nasty and this was a pic, also halfway through





Finally a quick pic of the swap bracket and my hardware I bought for it. Painted it black to disappear in thebackground and used new 10.9 grade hardware to bolt it down. I’ll get 2 more for overkill haha

[2mAn]

Damn, that sucks about the Datsun. What exactly happened? The last I saw it was running bad and the towing company secured it too tight which caused some body damage. Was the bottom end unsalvageable? You could not get another one? You had a lot of time and money in it to just let it go.

Yea, I lost a good bit of money parting out the Datsun but overall I’ll end up with about ~70% of my money back. Pretty good luckily and still have a few items left to sell. Basically what happened was that my replacement bottom end was no good and I was entertaining the idea of rebuilding my original bottom end. Problem was that was going to cost thousands and there was no guarantee that the car would be bulletproof with the potential of the transmission being next at risk of going down, which again would be thousands to fix... and I’d still be stuck with a car worth less because of the damage that AAA caused.

At that point, I decided to cut my losses and move on. Wasn’t a good feeling but once I decided to move on, I didn’t look back... on to the next one. This one.

Melon I’ve heard about that too and it’s something I’ll address

[2mAn]

Denso Coilpacks and Spark Plugs installed. Old Plugs didnt look terrible and matched. A possible sign of an actual, low-mileage JDM motor?... Hopefully...









Current Status of motor.







Tomorrow, I will have more time to knock out a few more items on the conversion.




Also, just ordered a 1D0 (Silver) Hardtop. Should be here in a few weeks. :pimp:

[glnr13]

looking good simon

[2mAn]

looking good simon

Thanks Glenn! I keep looking for shoddy welding because of what your buddy was saying at Dockweiler, but nothing yet! hahah


Soooooo, I had bought wheels quite early in the build and with the needed lugs here (Thanks Motorsport Hardware!!) , I test fit one of the wheels... I dont think Im going to run these juuuuuust yet haha








With that on my mind, I took a closer look at the existing 15" OEM Wheels and Im blessed with 3 different tires all in a 195/50/15 size. One was a 7 year old Falken that was showing cracking, which is definitely on the chopping block. The other 3 had either late 2017 or 2018 dates on them. Looking at the tread, one looked nice, but sadly it wasnt the one that there was a matching pair of. Trying to weigh my options, I decided to get a pair of Nankang Cross Sport SP-9 205/50/15s for $115 shipped from Discount Tire Direct. This will give me a good set of tires that have nearly matching tread, but not the Extreme Tires that I plan to run on the double staggered wheels. That wont happen until Ive got some longer studs installed though.




Heres the two different tires with good tread. Can you tell which one I wanted and which one I will end up with?... a bummer, but its ok.