Project Domes shonky autos - Car that lived by the sea in Scotland in rust shocker*

[dome]

So, after lunch we carried on and before too long we only had engine mounts to undo and it was ready to come out. Our bread trolley went under with some mats to protect the sump and we put a strap around the engine to take the strain so I could remove the engine mounts.

With this done I could then lower the engine onto the waiting trolley.

 

Once the engine was on the trolley the next job was to lift the car off it with the engine crane. Don't try this at home...

 

There were 3 of us by this time as another mate had shown up so that came in handy. Especially as I handily found the wires I'd forgot to undo until the back end of the car was hovering 5ft in the air. Some new swear words were learned by the kids in the nearby streets as we hurriedly lowered it back down so I could undo the remaining wires.

 

The crane grounded out on the slope out of my driveway which meant that as we lifted it higher it pulled the car back, which meant it came close to rolling off the ramps we'd driven the front wheels up. The solution was for Duncan to be leaning into the MR2 with his hand on the brake to stop it rolling back. Oh and did I mention it was getting dark by this point?

This was slightly* sketchy but we got there. Smokey engine out.

 

That's where we're at now, next mission is to split the 1zz engine from the gearbox and strip the gearbox down to remove the lsd. Sadly* I'm in Munich just now so this will have to wait...

 

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[dome]

I was away with work last week and busy every night this week so today was about the first chance I got to get near the MR2 since dropping the old engine. I had managed to split the old engine from the gearbox but that was about that.

 

So, we need to use the 6 speed box from the Corolla as the ratios in the old gearbox don't keep the new engine on cam when changing gear.

 

However, the old 5 spd box had an LSD which we wanted to swap over because skids are fun.

 

As usual, there are several guides online to doing this, lets see if i picked the right one...

 

So last night I started by stripping down the 5 speed box to get the LSD out

 

On the bench

 

 

I buzz gunned the bolts off holding the bellhousing on and used a block of wood and a hammer to split it then pried it open.

 

This is the quick* way to do it which saves having to remove all the gears using a puller. However it's not all plain sailing-part of the reverse selector mechanism bolts on to the bellhousing so you have to pry it apart about 20mm then undo 2 bolts holding it on which is pretty tricky on the 5 speed.

 

I quickly discovered I hadn't done a very good job of draining the oil out. I love* gearbox oil...

 

 

Bellhousing off, LSD is the bit attached to the big cog(crownwheel) on the left.

 

 

And out. I need to swap the crownwheel off the Corolla box onto the LSD to keep the final drive ratio so this was removed ready to swap over.

 

 

As I said, this is the easy way to do it. Apparently. To be fair it took less than an hour last night to do that.

[dome]

Onto today and after the 5 speed strip down going fairly well I started on the 6 speed. First up after walking the dog was a bit of gunk and a jetwash to clean up the casing.

 

I then cracked on with splitting the box. The 6 speed has reverse in a different place so a different selector mechanism, I eventually juggled it and got it apart

 

 

I took the crown wheel off the open diff and stopped for lunch and to turn the oven on-the guide says to heat the crown wheel to expand it to make it easier to fit. Before I did I thought I'd trial fit it. A few taps with a rubber mallet and it located itself nicely. Result!

 

 

 

After lunch I decided to reassemble the 5spd with the open diff as a trial run. This went surprisingly easily and all gears selected fine. It would have been really handy for the Auris I bought last year with a knackered gearbox...

 

Onto the 6 speed and the reverse linkage proved to be a massive pain. I'm really struggling to get it all together, it needs to locate on the idler pulley, the selector and the 2 bolts all at the same time whilst assembling the bellhousing back onto the transmission with zero access.

 

I fucked about for a bit and then gave up and took the dog for a walk. I'll come back to it another night. 

 

I'm fairly happy though, it wasn't as bad as I feared. Although I do need to check the preload on the bearings which could be a bit of a chew, it looks complicated and involves shimming it out if adjustment si required. A lot of folk say you don't need to but I'd rather have a crack at it. As soon as I can get the gearbox back together...

[Guest Hooli]

I hope you made sure the crownwheel can't come loose again. I had that on a LR after fitting different diffs & it was enough of a pain without all that work getting to it.

[dome]

The A2 also gave me a scare yesterday. It was last out at Scotoshite on Wednesday night and performed fine, including an M8/M90 blast* back home afterwards to avoid the twisty roads on its Chinese death rings. 

 

It then sat for a 2 days while the temperature dropped to -7 overnight until I went to take it to work yesterday, still at -7. It started fine but there was no heat coming through at the usual spot a couple of miles along the road-it normally starts to give heat through the vents fairly quickly although it takes a long time for the gauge to start to move. 

 

Yesterday however the gauge started climbing quickly even though the vents were stone cold. I stopped and checked it-coolant level had risen and it was pressurising. I drove it back home and swapped to the S4. Total distance covered maybe 3 miles.

 

On the way back home last night I was fearing the worst but I picked up some coolant and fired it up and bled it. The weather had warmed up so it was above freezing. I then drove it 10 miles with the heater toasty warm. 

 

I suspect all of the coolant top ups it's had have seen the concentration drop and it had frozen overnight. Time will tell if it's done any damage...

[dome]

  On 02/02/2019 at 19:27, Hooli said:

I hope you made sure the crownwheel can't come loose again. I had that on a LR after fitting different diffs & it was enough of a pain without all that work getting to it.

 

Both are all torqued up to specs (74ft/lbs) so should be reet.

[Guest Hooli]

  On 02/02/2019 at 19:31, dome said:

Both are all torqued up to specs (74ft/lbs) so should be reet.

 

I know when I did the LRs it took a lot of degreasing to get the oil out the threads before the threadlock would hold.

[The Moog]

Good job. Gearboxes are only second to electrics in things I don't want to play with

[dome]

  On 02/02/2019 at 20:16, The Moog said:

Good job. Gearboxes are only second to electrics in things I don't want to play with

That's handy, I need to repin the ECU/loom next...

[The Moog]

You certainly have your brave kilt on!

[dome]

Well despite my best efforts the gearbox didn't stick itself back together so I thought I'd better get on with it.

 

The first thin I had to do was measure the preload on the diff. To do this you need to remove the crown wheel(which of course I had already fitted) then put the diff back in the casing and bolt it together. This is quite easy as you can leave out the reverse selector.

 

You then need to measure the preload on the diff. That is, how much torque it takes for the diff to start rotating on its bearings.

 

The correct range is something like 0.78-1.2nm Naturally my torque wrench doesn't go down that far. I managed to get a hold of one and rigged up something using an old inner CV joint to measure it. After a LOT of checking we confirmed it was consistently giving us 1nm on the gauge I could reassamble for real. Box back apart, crownwheel back on and then the dreaded reverse selector.

 

After consulting the brain trust that is the MR2 2ZZ Facebook page I had a plan.

 

Gearbox hovering in place so I can manoeuvre things together.

 

 

I then had to juggle the selector into position inside the box whilst trying to line it up with the 2 bolts on the bellhousing.

 

 

And a closeup. When you get it close enough to engage the bolts in the bellhousing you have about half this space. The selector is the part you can see at an angle inside the box

 

 

This took fucking ages to get everything lined up. I must've spent almost 2 hours getting the fucking thing together.

 

But, eventually victory was mine.

 

 

We know have all 6 gears and reverse! Winner. 

 

I do need to split it apart again, but only enough to apply some sealant to the mating surface before we bolt it back together for good.

[dome]

Whilst I was doing this Duncan was busy removing the sumps from the two engines-the MR2 sump is baffled but the Corollas isn't so we'll swap them over.

 

Interestingly, both engines have some play in the big ends. Neither of them were noisy and the Corolla burnt no oil so I guess some play must be normal?

 

The movement certainly wasn't as bad as the black MR2s when we took it to bits.

 

We'll stick a set of big end shells in it anyway while it's in bits. 

[Split_Pin]

A power of work there! Bagsy a shotgun ride at Scotoshite when its finished!

[320touring]

Top graft chaps - proper big boy pants stuff!

[The Moog]

Well done gents.... Certainly up skilling your mechanic skills

[dome]

I whipped off my big end yesterday morning and took it with me into work so I could order up a new set of shells.

 

 

It's nothing like as bad as the black MR2s was but a new set has been ordered up anyway.

 

Next up (and this is as much for me as it is for you lot)

 

1 Swap the Corollas gear selector for the MR2 6 speed one (Did I mention it was £200 fucking quid?) and that's the gearbox done.

 

2. Fit the new bearings and the MR2 sump/pickup to the 2zz

 

3. Swap the looms over from the 1zz to the 2zz and add the wires that I need for the lift mechanism. At the same time I need to repin some Ecu wires

 

4. Swap the fuel rail from the 1zz to the 2zz.

 

5. Swap coolant lines from the 1zz to the 2zz

 

Then we should be just about ready to bolt the engine to the box (with a new clutch) and get the engine in the car. I'll try and get some work done this week.

 

 

*Smoll Audi update*

Still plodding along, the scare in the cold weather seems to have done no damage.

I even washed it.

 

 

 

[dome]

Bearings just arrived, that's tomorrow nights mission then. Riding bikes tonight.

 

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[dome]

So, a little bit of progress was made on Friday afternoon. I fitted the big end bearings to the 2zz whilst Fraz on here was tasked with fitting the new gear selector to our gearbox. 

 

I had asked on the MR2 2zz page if there was any tips to fitting it to our Corolla box and was told by a few people "Oh it's dead easy, there's a how to on here."

 

I duly printed off the how to and handed it to Fraz to crack on with.

 

Of course the how to was for the Celica gearbox which is different to the Corolla box with the selector coming in from the opposite side. 

 

As the new selector shaft was too long to fit in the box as standard the solution seemed to be to knock out a plug that fitted on the other end of the box-the Celica had a plug in the gearbox in this area. Removing this would allow the shaft to fit in. 

 

Well it would, if on the Corolla it was a plug and not part of the casting...

 

Long story short, after the application of a hammer we now had a hole in our gearbox and the selector STILL didn't fit.

 

We gave up and turned our attention to beer. I posted up on the 2zz page again. and the gist of the replies was "Oh, you didn't tell us your Corolla gearbox was from a Corolla" FFS

 

Saturday morning we regrouped. Comparing the Corolla selector to the new MR2 one it seemed that chopping about 15mm off the end would do the job. I duly manned the fuck up and got the grinder out to our £200 part. No pictures as I was just wanting to get this done 

 

I then had to drill two holes in the gearbox to mount the new linkage. This was a piece of piss in comparison to attacking internal bits with a grinder...

 

The gearbox is now assembled, I'll need to strip the selector back off to seal it up and loctite and then I can hopefully forget all about the bastard thing. Once I've sealed up the hole we made in it... 

[Split_Pin]

I see you are having the same "naebdy fucking seems to know" type of luck on make-specific forums as I am just now.

 

Glad it's all coming together. If plans really go to shit, I recommend French Toast!

[320touring]

Sorry to hear of the woes.

 

Second the motion for french toast

[dome]

  On 18/02/2019 at 13:20, Split_Pin said:

I see you are having the same "naebdy fucking seems to know" type of luck on make-specific forums as I am just now.

 

Glad it's all coming together. If plans really go to shit, I recommend French Toast!

 

Yeah, it's been frustrating trying to find info on the swap. The MR2 2zz facebook group is generally very good to be fair. 

 

If nothing else hopefully my posts both here and there will help someone in the future. 

 

Noted re Fench toast, however we downed tools about 6pm on a Friday night so beer was a better option!

[Fraz]

Do you think we should hit it? Aye probably

 

Still. The beers were nice

[The Moog]

Am I missing a secret shiters trick .. whats with this french toast? Is it cause you guys north of the border like square shaped snacks as they dont roll down the mountains easily? 

[dome]

Got a bit more done tonight. Baffle plate and oil pickup on and baffled sump from the 1zz fitted. Some people say you need to modify the 1zz sump to fit but this went on no bother. Got a busy week this week and away this weekend so will struggle to get anything done for a week or so.

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[Split_Pin]

  On 18/02/2019 at 15:56, The Moog said:

Am I missing a secret shiters trick .. whats with this french toast? Is it cause you guys north of the border like square shaped snacks as they dont roll down the mountains easily?

Basically, if you serve it for lunch during a 'shiters assemble', it increases motivation by 248% and things are fixed. Brothers_Touring Vs my Corsa B is a case in point!

[cort16]

Nice work, way above my pay grade . Have you got a deadline in mind?

Quite fancy taking the z4 to knockhill if you’re having a launch day. I might have to knock up direct feed from a 5 gallon oil drum though .

[gm]

get yourself on the reserve list for next weekend ?

 

http://trackscotland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9310

 

there will be at least three AS cars on track, plenty of passenger laps to be had, maybe even a cheeky wee shot behind the wheel if you promise to be good  

[The Moog]

  On 18/02/2019 at 20:55, Split_Pin said:

Basically, if you serve it for lunch during a 'shiters assemble', it increases motivation by 248% and things are fixed. Brothers_Touring Vs my Corsa B is a case in point!

I hope you had a double blind trial with other foods to prove the power of French toast!

[The Moog]

  On 20/02/2019 at 00:16, cort16 said:

Nice work, way above my pay grade . Have you got a deadline in mind?

Quite fancy taking the z4 to knockhill if you’re having a launch day. I might have to knock up direct feed from a 5 gallon oil drum though .

You know your way round now, and will definitely be quicker than the panda.

[dome]

  On 20/02/2019 at 00:16, cort16 said:

Nice work, way above my pay grade . Have you got a deadline in mind?

Quite fancy taking the z4 to knockhill if you’re having a launch day. I might have to knock up direct feed from a 5 gallon oil drum though .

 

Deadline is engine in in the next few weeks, then I've got to fabricate an exhaust from scratch. Ideally on the road by the end of March. 

 

There, it's in print. On the internet. I've set a deadline. Watch as it goes wooshing by.

 

Me and a few mates are doing the North Coast 500 at the end of April which should be pretty cool in this wee thing. Track day wise we'll see what's happening when it's ready and proven on the road. I'll try and tag along to the next one though if I'm free.

 

Biggest problem is lack of time and motivation. I've struggled to get myself out to the garage of an evening to actually do anything.