Project Domes shonky autos - Manta progress!

[cort16]

it looks like the Civic was just under 17 grand for the basic model the T-sport was just under 16 grand.. It's not impressive when you look at the stats on parkers the type-r was almost 2 seconds quicker to 60.

Only the final supercharged version was close performance wise but that was over 20 grand.

It seems to be the lack of torque that's the issue, which sounds to me it'll it'll suit the MR2 much better.

[spartacus]

I looked at buying one a few years ago, it seemed fairly well accepted that most of them never made the power quoted. It's a shame that Toyota seemed happy to have their flagship hatchback as a bit of a pudding. All good for the cause though dome, as now you've managed to pick one up cheap and work your magic fixing it. As cort suggests, it should suit a lighter car.

The early BMW variable valve timing system, Vanos, has a similar filter that caused the same issues when blocked, it was cheap to buy and we would change it at every service to avoid issues.

[davehedgehog31]

I hope the lassie you bought it off doesn't stumble upon this thread. I'm sure she could live without seeing the faithful family cars face removed with an angle grinder.

[cort16]

 

 

Toyota seemed happy to have their flagship hatchback as a bit of a pudding. 

 

This was exactly the phrase missing from review I read online

[Sir Snipes]

I found an Auto Car article that said "from £11995" but that sounds dubious. More specifically £19995 for the Compressor, which is (was) Golf GTi and Astra VXR territory.

 

2005 CTR was "£16,785 - £17,785" according to a Parker's article. I'd expect the Toyota to cost about the same as they've always been at the pricier end of the scale. Celica range topped out at £23,315 for the GT, for example.

 

I think the Celica T-Spprt is a better match than the Corolla; the Corolla didn't even have independent rear suspension.

 

Edit- oh you answered you're own question lol.

[SiC]

It does seem like an odd car. That metallic beige colour does it no favours either . I guess they thought they had the engine and the car and thought it would be reasonably low cost to put together . I wonder what it cost new against the type r?

A proper unloved underdog. Prime Autoshite vehicle material!

[dome]

A proper unloved underdog. Prime Autoshite vehicle material!

I'll do you a good price on a rolling shell!

[Dick Longbridge]

I sold the armrest from mine to an MR2 owner. Quite a popular MR2 modification. Didn’t appeal personally, though.

[SiC]

I'll do you a good price on a rolling shell!

Fit an XUD and we may consider.

[Sir Snipes]

Nah. The engine is almost on a par with a Type R and better than a Clio but everything else is average.

 

The MR2 is a brilliant handling wee car that deserves a decent engine. Blame Toyota for not building it in the first place!

I remember there were vvtli mr2s in Gran Turismo 2. I didn't care about a 180bp MR2 when I had 500bhp Skylines obvs. Don't know if they made it for real though.

[dome]

 

So, i decided to replace my lift bolts on the Corolla at the weekend.

 

These bolts hold part of the lift(variable valve timing) in place but early ones had a habit of breaking their heads off. This stops lift from engaging but more worryingly you need to strip the cams out to get the remains of the bolts out. 

 

Onto it and kudos to Toyota/Yamaha here-the entire job can be done with a 10mm socket. 

 

Stripped bare.

 

 

I tentatively removed the bolts, fearing the worst. 

 

 

Result! They came out complete but you can see the wear on the old bolts so we definitely got lucky there.

 

New bolts on and torqued up

 

 

I then turned my attention to the sludge which had built up under the rocker-safe to say it's missed at least one oil change...

 

 

Cleaned up and ready to go back on.

 

 

I warmed it up and dropped the oil. It came out black but oily looking. It'll get another change and the bottom end cleaned up when it goes into the MR2-I need to swap sumps over anyway as the MR2 sump has better baffles.

 

That's pretty much it for this thing until the engine comes out, although there is a sticky caliper so i may clean up the sliders-It's now my daily driver while the Audi gets some attention.

[dome]

The S4 has been clocking up the miles but a rumbly rear wheel bearing was getting worse. 

Of course I had purchased the bearing some months ago but had never bothered my arse to fit it. It sat with the other parts I've had waiting to fit, some for over a year...

 

Saturday morning I stripped it down. It was pretty easy to get to this stage.

 

 

I dropped the bearing off with my tame local garage this morning to press the hub out of the old and into the new.

 

I also set about replacing the crankcase breather-this is more preventative but seemed worth doing. It uses a wee bit of oil but is within spec-some owners have reported an increase in MPG by changing this. Of course it's tucked down the back of the engine so was nice and easy* to get to. Swearing was involved but it's done now.

 

Can you see it? No , you can't...

 

 

 

That done the next thing is replacing two oil check valves in the engine, this involves inlet manifold off and removing the valley gasket. I've put off doing this as I was wary of disturbing the LPG system but I need to man the fuck up. 

 

It's also due an LPG service so I'll likely change the filter at the same time.

 

Anyone changed LPG filter on Prins VSi systems? I did the OMVL system on my old Jeep but there's not a lot of info on the VSi that I can find. 

[dome]

So, last night was brace fitting for the MR2. 10 bolts underneath the car to undo to fit it. All of which had been exposed to 16 British winters.

 

8mm bolts-no bother. 

10mm bolts-easy. 

 

By this point I was perhaps overly confident

 

17mm bolt-sheared. FML

 

Needless to say that is a job for another day. I think welding a nut on is the best option as I've never had any joy with drilling bolts out or using easy outs. I'm open to other suggestions though-it's snapped off flush with the chassis rail. 

 

I've thrown the brace back in the garage and will tackle this another day.

[Tickman]

Loads or penetrating fluid then a good clean up and try and get a nut welded on.

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

2ndedededed - tend to find after the prep - the heat of welding the nut on also helps break the hold on it..... 

Fair play on the engine swap prep - looking forward to seeing that one unfold.

 

How's the Audi to live with as a daily? Mate complained he kept cracking brake discs...... but he drove like a twat - everywhere..... 

[cort16]

Blimey, you're a machine working on multiple cars at once. You need to ask yourself, does it REALLY need that 17mm bolt?

[dome]

 

How's the Audi to live with as a daily? Mate complained he kept cracking brake discs...... but he drove like a twat - everywhere..... 

 

It is, for the most part, a mildly rumbly A4. 

 

Comfy, solid feeling and nice to drive with good weight to the controls. The suspension isn't too harsh. You are aware of the weight over the front end but it doesn't get in the way.

 

It needs some revs on to really fly but when it gets going it's fucking amazing and charges all the way to 7000rpm as fast as you can throw gears at it. 

Cornering abilities are frankly rude. There is understeer when pushed really hard but that's to be expected. It spends most of it's time covering big distances on motorways and A roads which it does very well.

 

I'm using the Corolla just now which is averaging 38-40mpg, this is costing me sightly more than running the S4 on LPG.

[dome]

Blimey, you're a machine working on multiple cars at once. You need to ask yourself, does it REALLY need that 17mm bolt?

It's not critical but it does (did) hold on an existing chassis brace and without it the new one will no doubt rattle.

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

Forgot to ask dude - have you investigated the cooling etc... once you put the 'new' engine in the back there? Will it need an upgrade or change of radiator etc...? Or is it fairly plug n play? 

Often wondered on that with FWD going elsewhere - even though both transverse - the airflow in through the front of the car has to be a shitload more than behind your bonce. Does that make any difference - or just rely on the rad up front to keep everything in check?

I googled ( a long time ago ) and couldn't really find anything to say what kind of temp differences there was with the same engine in both locations for comparison...... 

Only did it as I had a Mk1 MR2 - so was pondering things. 

Would hate to do all the work and for it to cook itself in short shrift...... Sorry - bit noob - but interested.

[dome]

As far as I'm aware it's just a case of plumbing the MR2s cooling system into the new engine. There shouldn't be any issues there as Toyota did all the hard work when they designed the car. Hopefully.

[dome]

I thought it was time for an update on the fleet.

 

Corolla.

 

This has been trundling around (occasionally at 8200rpm ) while awaiting its fate. The only thing I've done to it is flush out the heater matrix as the heater wan't blowing cold. I used descaler shiz and was maybe a bit too quick in putting it back together after seeing some gunk come out-it now works perfectly on the passenger side but is now as warm on the drivers side. It's not dual zone so it just needs more cleaning out. But more likely I'll ignore it til we rip it apart...

 

S4

 

There was a bit of vibration and clunking coming from the front suspension on this. I'd been putting off fixing this but a puncture followed by a ripped sidewall by the garage I took it to to fix it gave me a reason. The garage said the tire had been ran flat which is why it ripped, i think it was more hamfistedness. 2 new tyres were ordered up (from my usual garage) and I prodded the suspension while it was apart.

 

These things run a complicated setup with multiple arms achieving what is basically a double wishbone setup at the front. The upper arms on mine were showing some wear in the bushings so a full set of Meyle HD arms were ordered up at a good price. I've been happy with Meyle HD stuff in the past-sort of  OEM plus with heavier duty bushes but not as harsh as poly bushing. 

 

Awaiting parts

 

 

 

Audi thoughtfully use a setup where the two balljoints press into the alloy upright and are held in by one long bolt. They don't use any anti seize compound though so the bolts always snap. At least I knew this going into it. It wasn't too bad, I used washers on the threaded end and a nut to pull it out as far as possible and then hammered it out the rest of the way. 

 

New ones fitted and ready to go back on

 

 

 

All I can say is I'm glad I was doing it on a 340bhp V8, if it was a TDi I'd wish I'd bought an Octavia instead...

 

At the same time I removed the front caliper sliders and cleaned them up.

 

Back together and it feels LOTS better. There's still a tiny rattle over speed bumps but it's not drop links or top mounts so i now suspect trim or something rattling. 

 

It's pretty lacking in underseal underneath so I want to  buy a Grand Cherokee for the winter underseal it. I'm not looking forward to doing it but after being quoted £600 to get it done professionally I think I'll man up and underseal the car myself. And no doubt underseal my hair, the driveway, my ear, the dog...

 

Any underseal recommendations/tips welcome!

 

 

I'll also do the rear caliper sliders, more as preventative maintenance than anything else. 

 

A scrappy mission to get a new wing for the Swift I'm selling also got me the entire gubbins I need to fit cruise control for £25 This is a bargain as the parts sell for over £100 on ebay. I need to fit it and get my mate to code it in then I can happily cruise at 70*mph. Even better all the parts were removed and lying in the boot of the scrapper!

[dome]

MR2/2zz swap

 

This hasn't had any attention since I failed to fit the underbody brace.

 

We have however sourced one of the parts we need for the swap-the Corollas ECU won't run the MR2 dash. This is about the only downside to  Corolla donor over a Celica. Normally an ECU and keys (which are needed for the immobiliser) are over £100. The same scrappy turned up a Celica 190 which we liberated the ECU and keys from for £50. Winner!

 

We need to swap the LSD from the MR2 box into the Corolla box before we do the swap. This is the part of the swap that worries me the most and if I was doing it "for real" it would be happening when both the Corolla and MR2 were in bits.

 

My plan was to pick up a second hand box or LSD to strip down, work out what the hell I was doing and then teach myself prior to stripping down the Corolla box "for real"

 

The first one we looked at didn't have an LSD in it-purely bad luck as every UK car had one. This was a UK car that had had a new gearbox at some point and obviously got a box from a Corolla or Avensis, or maybe an import MR2. Bullet dodged there. I messaged a breaker but he wanted £250 for an LSD alone.

 

I could buy a whole car for that!

 

Oops. That idea was now in our head.

 

This theory is flawless* 

 

Due to the bad design of these engines there's always oil burning cars for sale. Buy one of these, drop out the engine and box and stick the rolling shell somewhere (we'll gloss over the lack of storage for the moment)

Split engine and box and get the LSD out. 

The bonus is we can then drop the Corolla engine out and swap over all the MR2 bits we need to do the conversion from the dead engine, leaving our MR2 trundling around til the time comes.

 

We can then drop the engine out of our MR2 and drop the new engine straight in.

 

Even better, the engine in our MR2 (which burns a wee bit of oil but is by no means terminal) into the other MR2 and sell it on come springtime!

 

Man maths is great isn't it? We looked at a fucked MR2 last night, the waters have been muddied somewhat by it being better than ours and in amazing nick underneath. Which one do we convert?

 

Watch this space!

 

 

[Sir Snipes]

How is the Corolla to drive? I just kinda asuumed they're a bit dull untill caned and still not very "fast".

 

I quite fancy a 190 Celica.

[dome]

How is the Corolla to drive? I just kinda asuumed they're a bit dull untill caned and still not very "fast".

 

I quite fancy a 190 Celica.

 

It's very average. The engine is a peach though but everything else can't keep up. Having the S4 and Locost in the fleet kinda redefines what fast is though.

 

Suspension is meh and steering is too slow giving no confidence for pushing on. The steering wheel doesn't adjust for reach so I struggle to get comfy in it. 

 

All these points are even more noticeable coming from the Civic Type R which felt so right in many ways.

 

Don't let that put you off a Celica though, it's a totally different car sharing only the engine with the Corolla. I'd rock a Celica 190 quite happily.

[dome]

Well, we have agreed a deal on a gearbox.

 

And yes, naturally it comes with a car attached.

[Split_Pin]

YUSS, plan looks like it is coming together!

[Jifflemon]

If you need any help with the 2zz swap, just Hollar. I own such a beast and swapped it in there myself.

 

Things to add to the list would be a 6 speed shift gearlinkage (the bit the gear knob attaches to). Makes getting all gears much easier.

 

Other things to consider would be the Elise 2zz water pump (different to FWD, and better suited to the job), and swap your 1zz sump to the 2zz. 

[Dick Longbridge]

If you need any help with the 2zz swap, just Hollar. I own such a beast and swapped it in there myself.

 

Things to add to the list would be a 6 speed shift gearlinkage (the bit the gear knob attaches to). Makes getting all gears much easier.

 

Other things to consider would be the Elise 2zz water pump (different to FWD, and better suited to the job), and swap your 1zz sump to the 2zz.

 

Dome - good to see an update, and that the Corolla is behaving.

Soz to sidetrack, but Jifflemon - do you have a thread on yours? Intrigued.

[Jifflemon]

Not on here - Time is my main enemy.

 

Did it about 3 years ago, its been blissfull ever since. It's the engine it should have always had. Below 6200 it feels like a completely standard MR2 (maybe just a tad torquier) but once you hit the banshee zone, its just the gift that keeps giving.

[Sir Snipes]

Did Toyota do a 190 MRS? They were in Gran Turismo 2 as Prizes (irrelevant when you could be using a Silouhette R31 Skyline) but I haven't seen any on the usual Japanese Auction listings.