MR2 Update: Liberate Tuteme

So I got the new ignitor yesterday and while installing it discovered why the old one was failing.



I'm stunned it ran at all actually.

Nonetheless, the car still doesn't start. I'm regressing on the project, and that my friends is incredibly aggravating. It fires, every now and then, once or twice but otherwise pretty consistently gives no spark.

Part of this I realized, is that the sender cable for the distributor is completely screwed. I had to repair it previously. I had to do it again tonight. Now with the engine buttoned up, there are 4-5 parts that have to be removed every time during the repair so I don't go all 'Event Horizon' on the car and my little dog eared companion Chip.



After firing buttoning it up again, guess what still didn't work? I was moments from speaking Latin and letting the car decide where we are going.
My assumption and gut instinct is that the distributor sender is still hosed. One of the wires, having severed right on the connector, is tenuously held at best.

I suppose its a bad sign that I'm using 'Event Horizon' quotes to reference my car. But really, I just like that movie.

For my Brother/Marine/BadAss/etc.

MR2 Update: Go go Gadget ignitor coil!

After a hiatus from MR2s and dealing with MR2OC vendor MCS, I don't recommend either, my '2 is almost on the road!

As some of you may know, I used to have a rather nice low mileage AW11. I loved the car. But a ditz cut me off at an intersection and, ce la vi, caused more damage than I could rightly compensate for at the time. I mournfully sold her for parts and moved on to a '91 Silverado that served me phenomenally well till Memphis happened (stolen... from my own friggin driveway).

I always regretted letting the car go, but now that things are far more stable for me, I plunged back in with encouragement from the wife.

The new car I found was a greenish 91t that was on the outs in San Antonio. It had significant engine troubles, an owner that was unfamiliar with the car (and in retrospect was either a con or completely ignorant), and some collision damage. It was practically screaming for a little TLC to run free on the roads again.

And not unlike seeing a lonely puppy in the rain, I took her home.

As the 5SGTE MCS engine thing fell apart after more than a year, i picked up a 50k JDM motor from ebay that, i kid you not, arrived at my door the day after I ordered it and fired up fine outside of my own shenanigans. Just last friday she made her baby stepping trip around the block.



Pic is moments before its first trip. I figured if there was a moment for epic hilarity, it would be the moment it gets to the street. So I took this picture to compare the before and after effects of the supposed imminent carnage. Thankfully, it did fine.

Notice the "BriCk" TRD external parking retention device on the passenger side front. It's mad JDM tyte yo. I gotta fix that.

The ignitor coil failed on it just recently after tuning/dressing down the car from its trip. Though I'm grateful it did not leave me stranded, it's being replaced tonight with a brand new one from Lithia!

It's first real trip also took place that same day... but that's another story. One that opened my eyes to how the cops work around here, the retaining tension of license plate screws, and how a seemingly fine ignitor can develop problems the moment you need it.

New Predator Movie!

Fuming with Hostility

So the general sessions court date for the truck theft came up yesterday and I went to deal with that.

I showed up and was briefed by the prosecuting attorney. She gave me a run down on the questions she was going to ask me before the judge; "Where was the car?", "Did it have a Shelby county plate?", "Was it taken without your discretion?", etc.

It was a general sessions court, which is apparently kinda low on the rung of responsibility and whose primary purpose is that of separating the wheat from the legal chaff. Regardless, I got to see and hear allot of punishments go down. I've never been on that side of the legal rooms. It's terrifying compared to the traffic stuff.

By the time the proceedings for my case were about to go in both of the cops that took down the thief had arrived and were also briefed by the attorney and were waiting patiently in the back. Moments before introduction, the defense attorney asked for the witnesses to be out of the court before they introduce his client to the room.

So, the 2 cops and I were escorted out to wait in the hall.

They were real good guys. We cut up and joked for about 20 minutes and discussed how they caught the guy (they had no clue the truck was stolen, they pulled up behind him and he freaked and took off from a red light into opposing traffic) before the prosecuting attorney came out with a waiver saying that the case was going to criminal court where he would most likely plead guilty.

The defense attorney traded some banter with the prosecutor, parting shots really, whom was bemoaning that she had all her witnesses lined up, shortly after we received the waiver as he was leaving the court room. He seemed somewhat despised by one of the officers whom was grilled by him in the past and recounted a fairly hilarious exchange of questions regarding how a suspect left a car and the propensity of broken windows equates to stolen cars.
The officer was immensely honest and the defense attorney was just looking for an small crack to work with.

Generally, the defense attorney seemed like a bit of a weasel. I suppose it comes with the territory.

The prosecutor said I'd likely never hear from her directly again and that the offices will, at a later date, call to arrange restitution or another testimony in criminal court.

MR2 Update: Anticipation

So yesterday I rebuilt the CV joints (what an odd mechanical rubik's cube those things are), finished up changing the valve cover gasket, and plugged some other non essentials up and tested them.

The engine is fine. The transmission is go. Electronics coming back crystal clear.

So I set upon the final items.
I started bolting up the remaining drivetrain and sealing up the engine. I'm at the brakes now. It's only a matter of time till it coasts, gently at first out of the garage where it will see day light again for the first time in years.

Whereupon I'm flushing the ever living hell out of the cooling system to get that rust out.

Unrelated picture:

Love the sound of those engines

There is a great crash at around 3:10. He lost traction on one rear wheel while attempting to pass when he should be braking. He did brake, but too late, and experienced a problem with most mid engine cars.
It's a great example of snap over steer.

MR2 Update: Tango de la Muerte

Assuming no other problems, I have to replace some CV boots and re-bolt everything in.

However, the coolant is brown and upon pulling out a sample and letting it settle, is afflicted with rust the likes of which I’ve never seen before (and what would appear to be some sort of cleaning agent from long ago). It’s hard to say, but flushing it until its clean is the modus operandi for now. I thought It might have been oil, but the particulates settle out and sink.

Second on the list, and discovered when testing this weekend, is that the car is burning a precipitous amount of oil. It went from full to near “E” in about an hour or so (with an audible change in engine tone when things got low). It’s not coming out of the exhaust, but rather, from the back side of the valve cover. I’ll replace it.
Apparently, this is somewhat common.

I pulled a sample of the oil too and let it settle. It stayed universally oil throughout the test period.

I’m just grateful that the oil and coolant aren’t throwing some post engine start up after party without me.

The last problem, and I think is kinda minor, is that the axles roll even when in “neutral”. It’s not moving much force and I can stop it with my hand. It remains to be seen if this is some residual force from the transmission or if it’s a problem.

Drive!

MR2 Update: IT LIVES!

One of my waking fears, drenched in sweat and screaming from the waking nightmare, is that I might in fact be a n00b. I'm swapping a rev2 2nd gen JDM 3SGTE engine into my 91t. I have feared at times that it was a little beyond me and my "skillz0r" to accomplish. Soldiering on regardless, I hook the engine up to find that it would not start. It would crank, but there would be no spark. I tried my hand at everything I could think of (and at one time discovered not only that I did not plug in the distributor sending(?) wires, but later that they were broke anyway and required mending).

So when Ku-Sama made his thread about "no spark " on MR2OC, I politely and patiently followed what was happening and attempted to heed the sage advice of users Luni/Baktasht.

Instead of just replacing parts, which I was inclined to do, I sat down with the BGB and the suspect parts (ignitor, then distributors, caps, rotors... etc) and began testing them one by one. About 30 minutes in, it became apparent where the fault was. The USDM igniter coil did not have the proper resistance.

The JDM one did. It passed with flying colors. Mucho kudos to everyone on MR2OC that insists on, you know, following the instructions Toyota went out of their way to make. It's all there in the books.

Now, I've read before that the JDM one will work in this setup... but there are some extra tabs on the igniter that make it unable to plug in to the 91t USDM wiring harness. Dauntlessly, I shaved them off and hooked them up to the wiring harness. *queue A-Team theme and sandpaper montage*

Wincing at the epic explosion I might have caused by releasing the JDM powa, the car turns over, but did not actually start.

Bummer.

So continuing with the Luni/Baktasht line of troubleshooting, the next thing that might be bad is the ECU. I should pull codes. If anything it should code out that the RPM signal isn't there right? Which would indicate a bad distributor/wiring. Or nothing at all... and in that case the ECU is bad.

So I pin out the diagnostic pins... IT LIVES!

The timing is... bad, to say the least in that video. I was so surprised at first that the engine was running that I thought something had gone horribly horribly wrong. But in an hour of tuning it was mostly sound. There are some other things I need to troubleshoot later.

Seriously, I did nothing else other than pin out the diagnostics and the car started fine and every time there after (without the pinning).

Made of so much win it hurts

Beastie Boy's "Sabotage" done with a shot for shot remake using "Battlestar Galactica".

Only minor, and vague, spoilers follow.

Fuuuuu