Project #26 MR2MAN

[paynemw]

So it's pretty funny that you end up getting a Mr. Two. My brother just bought a 2nd Gen Mr. Two the other day. Pretty cool cars. This is coming along my friend.

[2mAn]

So it's pretty funny that you end up getting a Mr. Two. My brother just bought a 2nd Gen Mr. Two the other day. Pretty cool cars. This is coming along my friend.

They are pretty simple to work on. I’m enjoying the new challenge and I’m enjoying the compact sporty nature of what I’m building.

I rode in one that has a K20 swap and that thing was QUICK!

So, today I torqued the Oil pan down (9 NM!) and got an extra set of hands. We took the motor off the stand so I can start installing the flywheel, clutch and pressure plate. Hope to have it ready to install this weekend.

[2mAn]

Well, I was hoping to get the flywheel, clutch and pressure plate but old the rear main seal bested me. I’ve now sweat and spilled blood for this car...




The old seal didn’t look bad at all, so I hope I don’t regret this.

[BlackbirdM3]

I hope you at least have a 10 lb (or lighter) flywheel for this.

[2mAn]

I hope you at least have a 10 lb (or lighter) flywheel for this.

yup, Fidanza flywheel. I think it weighs 7-8lbs

Bought another Odyssey PC680 with a light mount too... I found the mount and flywheel on LotusTalk, as well as the Rota Slipstreams.

It’s nice finding quality lightweight parts from the Lotus guys.

Edit: Finished installing the Rear Main Seal yesterday



...and today...

Check.












I’d be totally ready for tomorrow if the postal service weren’t such lazy f*#%$... twice they have “attempted” to deliver it... so my water pump and oil sensor have yet to be delivered, but I’ll be moving forward with the install tomorrow. I’ve got my buddy and my brother coming to lend some hands so I gotta move forward.

[2mAn]

It’s all downhill from here.













Giving myself until the end of the month to be driving the car, but realistically should be much sooner...

[AWDBOB]

USPS is dropping the ball right now. They lost my flywheel for a month, and lost two of my customers packages in one week. Took another month-ish for those to get scanned back into the system.

Progress is looking good man.

[MR E30 325is]

Excellent progress Simon!

[amcp]

Hell yeah. Best feeling is droppin a motor into its new home.

[luckybk]

I've really been wanting a convertible lately. Gonna be super fun.

[2mAn]

Made a rookie mistake and forgot to install the throttle cable. This is going to be fun to fix. So instead I did something else. These are from a Celica GTS. Think of these as “Sport” seats versus the stock MR2 “Comfort” seats. Just had to swap the seat rails and it’s like they were meant to be there...

[2mAn]

Today I had a few simple things I wanted to get done. Main thing was the throttle cable and it wasn’t as bad as I thought, however after installing it the angle looked bad...







Apparently re-routing the throttle cable isn’t always necessary and I would’ve been better off not moving anything ... undoing my work and installing it from the original side. Result was much better.






After that I wanted to finish up the coolant lines and got most of them except the pass side hard line to thermostat line. Ultimately, I threw in the towel and called it a day. I’ll try again tomorrow...

[2mAn]

Been slowly plugging away over the weekend. Got slowed down because the subframe bolts weren’t threading in and I didn’t want to strip anything so I went and borrowed a tap&die set. Cleaned out a lot of crud... Got that all installed now along with a lot of other stuff and the checklist is much smaller but still got work to do.


Didn’t bother with taking pics with any of that but I did want to take pics of this. Kind of a snowball effect of the Innovative Mounts was that the stock battery mount wouldn’t work, but I also like shaving weight soooo.... Odyessey PC680 Battery and a light mount I got on LotusTalk. I love buying their lightweight goodies... so without further adieu


Stock stuff: ~38#





My stuff: ~15#



So about 23# savings and the battery will be mounted lower, on the subframe.


Anyone else done this before?

[2mAn]

Got a little time tonight to evaluate how I wanted it installed and was actually able to mount it in quite solid, though eventually I was actually able to get all 4 of the mounting points bolted down.


A few pics of the process for those following along.


Here’s the pocket I wanted to tuck it into





I wanted to use one of the several existing threaded holes, so I played around and mocked up this






I pulled one of the rubber plugs and it lined up perfectly with the other existing hole in the mount. This way one is setup for the threaded hole and I was able to get a nut inside the hole.





Found some allenhead bolts that fit almost perfect





Aaannnndddd basically all done. Obviously I didn’t want to bolt both cables on, the ground needed to be slightly modified and I wanted to make sure it reached the post





It tucks nicely Behind the heat shield, though I have some thermotec stuff I’ll add just to add an extra layer of protection




It’s been a minute but I think these are all the correct heatshields

[2mAn]

Well, I’ve pretty much crossed everything off my list. Added oil to the motor after putting a new oil filter on, dropped the nose on the ground and prepped the radiator for ventilating the air in the system.


Here’s a basic look of where it’s at. Also discovered another unexpected bonus of the CA-legal Magnaflow cat pipe: it’s about 10lbs lighter than the OEM one. Couldn’t get an exact weight but it’s about 8lbs versus 18. Cool. Can’t wait to replace the OEM muffler with anything else, that thing is massive...






Tomorrow I need to get proper Toyota coolant, add that and also fill the transmission with oil. After that just need to slap the intake and muffler on... and then I’ve run out of distractions and will need to say a prayer and see what happens when I turn the key.