…when I write only in generalities. But I’ll risk being specific to say on behalf of us all: Thanks, Pat, for pulling together the TARP crew for this insane project. Without you there would be no we. And we led that race for a chunk of day one, not to mention having a lot of fun up to and even past when this “half-shaft” ejected itself from the car. And even then if the junkyard would have been open or one of the other MR2 teams could have helped us out…but I digress.
Thanks, Pat.
Engine Trouble, Logistics, MR2, Parts, Race Prep, Team Strategy
From: Brad
It is a day of great rejoicing here at TARP HQ! Gentlemen, I just now (11:46pm) started and ran the engine on the car. Woo Hoo!!!
I would have taken it out for a spin but (a) my truck was parking it in and (b) it has no headlights. There were several things that were probably contributing to the problem, including crappy wiring in the engine compartment, a blown fuse on the AFM header, and crappy work by prior ownership on underdash wiring. And the ignition switch is still mega-crappy. We can now wire in the switch panel and kill switch with confidence.
Grayson, the exhaust sounds loud. And fantastic! Click on the play icon below and give it a listen for yourself. You might want to turn down your speakers at first. And then turn them up really loud so that your co-workers wonder who has moved a loud car into their cubicle!
And be patient, I haven’t edited it for length yet so you don’t hear the car start until the countdown timer is at about -0:43 or so:
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Audio, Engine Trouble, MR2, Race Prep
Author: Pat
As most of you know by now, we have not one but two bad engines. Which is discouraging.
However, I have some very exciting news to share.
Our engine woes may be solved. I did a little hunting online this morning and started calling some local places. Bolt-On Motors in South Dallas (check out the far right side of that photo — is this kismet?) has a remanufactured motor with zero miles still sitting in its crate. The guy on the phone said that they don’t sell many of those motors and he’s had it sitting around for 4 or 5 years and he’d love to get rid of it. Price is right in our wheelhouse, $350. We can have a new motor in the car and still be under the $500 limit before we even sell off any parts!!!
To my mind, this is the answer to our conundrum. We can still use the MR2 and for less investment than a replacement vehicle. Thoughts? Discuss.
Engine Trouble, Knowing Is Half of the Battle!, MR2, Parts
Author: Pat
Grayson and Dave came over tonight to take a look at Blue. Before they arrived, I got it up on jacks and took off the right rear wheel to facilitate access to the right side of the crankshaft. Turns out there is a 17mm nut on the end of the shaft that you can turn by wrench to inspect the engine. After a brief inspection, it appeared that the timing wasn’t off because the distributor rotor was in the 1-cylinder position when the 1-cylinder was at top dead center on the exhaust stroke.
So, there’s good news and there’s bad news. More after the jump:
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Engine Trouble, MR2
A few other ideas that came up while we were working on Wednesday night:
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Engine Trouble, Knowing Is Half of the Battle!, MR2
After a lot of discussion about testing for spark and fuel and about why/how the distributor cap got melted on the engine, I decided that the next thing to do was actually not to test for spark and fuel, but to test the compression. Minimum compression per cylinder should be in the 140 psi range and max is around 173. So I ran up to the AutoZone and borrowed a compression tester. More after the jump:
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Engine Trouble, MR2, We Need Parts
So Dave came over this afternoon to review our mighty steed, the blue MR2. My dad had helped me to clean out the garage enough on Saturday night so that we could roll Blue into the garage to facilitate nighttime work and, since it’s getting about as cold as it gets here in Dallas, it’s a little warmer inside. We knew that the engine was a mess; our plan was to pull the old spark plugs, put in fresh plugs, top off the oil and coolant, install the new battery, and try to start Blue. I pulled off the trunk lid and engine cover to make some room to work:
More after the jump:
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Engine Trouble, MR2
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