3SGTE Conversion

THE MK1 MR2 2L TURBO PROJECT 3S-GTE
By reading this guide you are accepting you have also read the
disclaimer at the end of the document.
Foreword:Having owned my MK1 for 5 years and already having modified it in quite a few
ways, I was getting a bit bored with the performance. Now MK1 MR2's are
anything but boring and even in this day and age manage to beat off a lot of the
modern stuff designed to replace it. However I've always been one for owning
one-off cars, something a little special that stands out and not only do I want to
create a MK1 that really looks the part, but one that will have the Subaru boys
demanding refunds because a 17 year old “hair dressers car” has disappeared
into the horizon leaving it choking on tyre smoke. Not that I'm a speed freak, far
from it, I just love my MR2 and want to make it unique. In the forum where this
engine swap is discussed the car is referred to as a MK1.5, halfway between a
MK1 and 2.
To the best of my knowledge there are 6 of these conversions in the world, 4 in
the States,1 in Germany, and 1 in Australia, so mine will be the first in the UK. I
have 3 people here in the UK who have everything they need to do the swap
themselves but are waiting for me to complete mine so they can learn from my
mistakes and also have someone to ask for advice when there's a problem. This
hasn’t been a “lets just do it” job, I've been collecting data from around the world
for the last six months, including pictures of everything , numerous articles, wiring
diagrams and even video footage of the install.
So why this engine?…well, basically the 3s-gte kicks out 200-240 bhp depending on what generation you get - in standard form, making it better than
the most tuned 4a-ge. Other issues like uprating the brakes and suspension will
be tackled once the engine is completed.
Preparation:Originally I prepared myself for not being able to get a 3s-gte engine as crash
damaged MK2 turbos are a rare thing, so I was going for the little brother nonturbo 3s-ge instead with plans to stick a turbo on it when the time was right. I
found a 1987 Toyota Celica for sale at the top of my street and bought it for £80.
It was an MOT failure but had a sound engine and gearbox. After a weekend of
breaking the car and having got the engine out I suddenly realized I had made a
huge mistake….this car is front wheel drive!! The gear box was no good as the
linkages are on the wrong side! How could I be so stupid? I just presumed that it
would be the same…wrong. Not to be undone I simply wanted a MK2 MR2
gearbox that would mate straight onto the 3s-ge. I found a guy in Newcastle who
was breaking one and he said “do you want a turbo or non turbo box?”…I said
“oh, you have a turbo for breaking??”… after 5 minutes I had bought the
complete 3s-gte engine, gearbox, wiring, ecu…basically the whole rear end from
a MK2 turbo that had a crash damaged front for a silly price of £250 delivered.
Anyone wanting to do this swap can expect to pay nearly £1000 for this
engine/box alone so I was very lucky.
Update 29 09 02 - At the time I didn't know the exact generation of my engine as
there were 3, ranging from 200 bhp 1st generation to 245 bhp 3rd generation.
I've just been informed that it's a 2nd generation ceramic turbo producing 225bhp
and 200lbs/ft of torque. To mate the gearbox to the hubs of a MK1 requires MK1
Supercharger drive shafts, now if you plan to do this on a supercharger then you
are one step ahead…I was not and it took me 3 months to find some and even
when I did they cost me £150 second hand, these were harder to find than the
entire engine. The SC short shaft bolts straight onto the turbo box and fits the
hub, as SC and NA hubs are the same. On the drivers side the turbo output shaft
is kept and the SC outer CV joint is removed and fitted onto the short turbo
driveshaft, this in effect gives you two passenger side SC drive shafts. There are
other things to buy or make, Like exhaust system and engine mounts but I have
95% of what's needed.
MAJOR NEWS - 15/12/02 - I've just been informed that the front drive
shafts from a Celica 4WD are identical to the short SC driveshaft having
the same outer and inner joints and are a straight no modification option
for the swap. This information is also priceless for you SC owners
looking for a replacement shaft.
Here's the 3s-gte just after delivery. Now that’s a big lump of power! Believe it or
not that engine fits in a MK1 bay with about an inch at the back and 2 inches at
the front for turbo clearance, needless to say extra heat shields will be fabricated,
and an extraction fan fitted to the underside of the engine lid to suck the heat out.
Note where the alternator is on the MK2, this will be moved to the top right as
later described. The engine will be dummy fitted as you see it here to make
everything fit and to fabricate engine mounts. It will then be removed for engine
bay painting and a strip down of the engine for overhaul and painting.
Here's the turbo shafts minus outer CV joints, you need SC shafts for their outer
CVs, the short SC shaft is identical to these so just use it as it is, take the outer
CV off the long SC shaft and fit it to one of these turbo shafts.
Friday 13th!!! September 2002:
In typical MR2 style it knew what was going to happen to it, and on my last
journey to work in B709 XHW for its big conversion, it decided to blow its head
gasket. Now after 5 years relatively fault free driving and on Friday 13th this is a
bit spooky.
The car had an (LPG) gas conversion fitted to it and the first job was to remove
this completely as the 3s-gte will not run on gas, and even if it did the kit is too
heavy for the planned project. Over the next week the work will consist of
removing the old engine and gearbox, drive shafts, removing the all engine
wiring, removing the coil pack, plumbing and fuel lines, and grinding the original
engine mounts off the chassis legs. The battery tray will also be removed for
relocation to the front compartment, as you can guess as much space as
possible is needed in the engine bay and the battery takes up a lot of it.
The MK2 alternator position causes a few problems, it fouls on the o/s
suspension mount, others have cut a notch into this for it to recess into as above,
but I had a better idea. Remember I bought an '87 Celica? Well the Celica's
alternator position is on top of the engine instead on a different bracket so I've
used this with the Celica alternator, no need to cut anything.
Here's the new alternator position, intercooler piping from the turbo will clear
above it, but intercooler piping from the throttle body does foul on the new engine
lifting hook position that will be removed after the engine is fitted. A big bonus of
doing it this way is the original alternator bracket is a huge piece of cast iron that
weighs a ton, so there's been a weight saving too. Also I've now fitted the Celica
power steering bracket where the alternator used to be in case I fancy fitting a
little bit of power assistance to my steering, which is quite heavy due to the 17”
alloys.
I will have to decide this later on as I don’t want to mess the cars handling up, but
for now having the bracket there gives me the choice. Here's the PS bracket just
above the output shaft bolts. If I do go ahead I will be using the Celica power
steering pump and rack modified to fit, and I will experiment with different sized
pulleys to just give it an assisted feel, nothing more though as the MK1 feels
sharp and precise and fitting PS might make it vague on the road. It can always
be removed if it's one of my worse ideas. You can just see the crank pulley in this
pic, this will be swapped for the Celica pulley that has a smaller inner pulley to
make the PS less effective than with the MK2 pulley. I just want to take the heavy
edge off the steering at low speeds. Either this or go back to 15” wheels.
Monday 16th September:Today the project started in earnest, the rest of the gas kit was removed and the
old 4age engine and gearbox was dropped out in a personal best time of 2 hrs. I
cannot stress enough how important it is to have the car properly supported
when doing this as you need to get the car right up in the air to get the engine out
from behind.
Here it is removed; note I had a bit of an oil spill! Er.. someone forgot the oil
cooler pipes…didn’t they Paul….lets say no more about that!
So with the engine out its time to get rid of all the unnecessary bits in the bay,
starting with the map sensor as this won't be needed and takes up inlet manifold
clearance space.
Next to go was the oil cooler, it was removed at its base on the rubber radiator
hosing right to and including the filler point. After that the coil pack and that heat
extraction fan are removed…the fan may or not be replaced later on depending
on what intercooler placement I go for…note that the MK2 intercooler goes in this
spot but that’s on a MK2 and it doesn’t fit in the MK1, so a smaller intercooler
may be fitted in this place, if the intercooler is to go where an SC intercooler goes
(above the gearbox) then the airflow meter and induction kit will fit where this fan
used to go and get all its air from the vent.
See the hole left by the fan is the perfect size for the induction filter to poke into.
The next job was to remove the battery tray, two spot welds on the top and
chiseled off the engine mount. Mine came off very easily as it was quite rotten,
the new battery tray will be in the front compartment. It will be earthed in there as
well with the positive lead going up the tunnel to the rear. Now it's time for some
serious drilling, air chiseling and grinding… the point of no return!.. Off with the
engine mounts!
.... this took about an hour and a half and was a total nightmare, but it looked
good when all was ground off both sides.
Here's both sides stripped down and cleaned ready for new engine mounts to be
fabricated and welded in, this can't be done accurately until the engine is in
place. The new mounts will be made from 5mm steel plates but initially made
from cardboard templates to get the basic shape then transferred to plywood and
then cut from steel. This will ensure no mistakes are made and I’ll keep these
templates and email them to others wanting to do the swap. That is if there's
anyone else mental enough to do all this!
After the engine is initially fitted and everything lines up it will be removed, the
engine bay will be steam cleaned and painted. At the same time aluminium heat
shields will be placed along the bulkhead especially around the turbo as there's
not a lot of clearance. In fact the biggest problem with this swap long term is heat
build up in the bay and I've talked to the guys who have done this job already and
they suggest extraction fans and an air scoop under the car to blow air onto the
exhaust/turbo area to help vent it, also more vents in the engine cover will be
made to help with this.
Here's the engine lined up with the back of the car ready to be pushed under, as
you can see it's on a trolley that was made specially for this, there is no way you
could move this big engine on the floor and still be safe. I've had to chop my
existing rear body kit spoiler away for clearance and as I'm changing this anyway
it didn’t matter. The car had a 3 ton trolley jack under the bulkhead chassis
member with large chocks of wood going from sill to sill to spread the load, also
two heavy duty axle stands are placed under to make everything as safe as
possible. In the second pic you can see I've had to remove the inlet manifold to
get the engine under, this will be immediately refitted when the engine is in the
bay as it's crucial to have everything in situ to decide clearance and engine
mount positions. In the picture below you can see the big problem…the bottom of
the engine bay is very narrow compared to the top, but even taking this into
consideration it’s a tight fit, there's just no way that engine would go in like this
with the inlet manifold on as it adds about another 7 inches to the width.
Tuesday 17th September:Today was going to be a big day, it was time for the dummy fit of the engine in
the MK1 bay, now I've only ever seen pics of this done from America and as I
started to lower the car onto the engine I began to wonder if I had been the butt
of some huge transatlantic joke…” yeah let's tell this guy it fits and we will paste
some 3s-gte pics into our bays for a laugh!” …well that’s what was going through
my mind…the engine fit is that tight I was wondering if my body shell was
different from a USA model etc…..anyway I can assure you it does fit although
things are a lot tighter than I expected.
You can see here as the car is being lowered onto the engine just how close it
is… and this is with the inlet manifold removed!…as things got tighter I also
removed the n/s and o/s engine mounts for better clearance. As it approached
the top I added the inlet manifold to get an idea on clearance and as you can see
part of the bonnet catch is stopping the engine from sitting back against the
bulkhead, it needs to be as close to the rear as possible for exhaust/turbo
clearance at the front.
The shaded area here was marked out for removal and then neatly ground off,
this won't affect the bonnet catch at all and will give some vital clearance. Now
with the engine right up in place I remembered reading that someone had taken
a large adjusting tool (that’s a big hammer to us) and caved the front and rear
bulkheads in on their cars, to allow more room. I'm not a big fan of this method
and I'd rather cut away the offending steel and rebuild it around the obstruction.
So that’s what I decided, now you can go for the big hammer technique if you like
but my reasons for cutting out a section of boot bulkhead means that I can build
a removable panel that will give me access to the rear of the engine should I
need it. Some people have just fitted the engine in the bay without doing this and
opted for large heat shields on the front bulkhead but as you can see it looks too
close for comfort. Note that the engine will actually fit without either method but
its tight.
So this area was marked out and removed, it gives the inlet manifold a good area
to recess into, not a lot, but enough to make the exhaust clearance at the front
happier. I'm also very pleased with the new access I have. The bulkhead around
this hole will be reinforced with bracing so I haven’t lost any of the strength and a
panel will be fabricated from either steel or thick aluminum that can be unbolted
for access if need be. The new panel should intrude into the boot by about 1.5
inches more than standard.
This is the engine in the perfect position, as you can see the inlet manifold is
parallel with the rear panel and because of the bulkhead modification it allows a 2
inch gap at the front. There's a large bulge in the front bulkhead opposite the
exhaust manifold and when I take the engine out for painting this will get slightly
inverted for even more room (hammer technique again).Together with adequate
heat shields at this point it should be fine. Something that didn’t go to plan today
was my idea for routing the airflow meter and induction filter into the fan hole on
the drivers side, I cannot now do this on my engine as the turbo pipes would
need major altering to allow space so I will have to decide where that’s going at a
later date, for now I think the fan will be going back into its place for good heat
extraction.
With the engine in the perfect place I tried fitting the drive shafts and they slotted
right into place with no problems. To help with this bear in mind that the shafts
get longer as the suspension rises so as long as the shafts fit initially with no
weight on the rear wheels then they will work as they only extend in their inner
joints as the weight does go on the rear wheels. I'm more than happy to provide
accurate measurements from one point to another should anyone need them so
that their swap will be more straightforward.
Here you can see both shafts in place; the n/s shaft went right in… I had to
remove the top strut bolt and pivot the strut out a little to give space for the o/s
shaft. Overall the shafts do ultimately decide engine position from side to side;
there isn’t much free play at all.
The day ended with the first engine mount bracket offered into place, this is
basically a 6 inch piece of 5mm thick angle iron that fits nicely on one side of the
engine mount and contacts the chassis leg and suspension tower in all the right
places. A captive nut will be welded to the back of this bracket when the hole is
marked through the mount. I've been advised to drill the hole 1cm higher than it
should be here to allow for the mounting rubbers taking up the weight of the
engine, so if you mark and drill 10 mm up it should fall back into the original
place…. Clever eh!…another bracket will be made for the other side of the mount
as well and this will just be welded to the chassis leg. These mounts are over
engineered and are thicker and stronger than the original MK2 mounts.
Wednesday 18th September:Having looked at that offside engine mounting this morning I decided it wasn’t
what I was looking for, what if I had a problem with the captive nut coming free?
There would be no access to it boxed in like that so I decided on a different
design of mount, it's actually the one that everyone else seems to go for anyway,
basically it's two straight bits of 5mm steel ether side of the mount that’s profiled
to fit the chassis leg and inner wing. So I set about making templates for these
out of card.
Here are both profiles of mounting in card, these are fairly accurate and the right
hand edge of these fits the inner wing/chassis leg very well, the hole for the
mount was also marked on these 10mm higher than the actual position to allow
rubber movement. They were then scribed onto the 5mm steel plate that I have
and then cut out using an angle grinder.
The position of the bolt hole was marked and drilled and both sections tack
welded into place ether side of the mount, all these welds have to do for now is
hold the engine, nothing more, the brackets will be very solidly welded right
round their circumference and boxed in with a square plate on top joining them
together when the engine is removed. A big tip to get the engine in the right place
prior to making this mount is to screw the driveshaft outer nuts onto the shafts so
they are flush with the end of the shaft. Then push the shaft in as far as you can
and note how far the nut travels. Do this for both sides and get the distance
traveled the same for each nut by levering the engine left or right. I found it to be
perfect when the hub covered half the nut on each side as seen below. Now to
get the height of the engine right is a matter of getting it as high as possible with
the lid shut and still clearing the manifold. Also from underneath the car the
gearbox output shaft should run parallel with the rear chassis member and its top
edge level with it.
Get this amount of travel both sides and the engine should be in the right place
left to right.
Here you can see the output shaft parallel to the chassis, note the sump is about
1.5 inches lower than the suspension mount, so it's important to get the engine
as high up as possible. In the second pic note the badge on the inlet manifold is
parallel with the boot edge. With the offside mount tack welded I jacked that side
up 1cm and the bolt pushed through easily, then the jack was let down on that
side and the engine settled back to its original position proving that the 1cm
higher than should be hole worked a treat. I then made templates for the
nearside mount, scribed them onto the steel, cut them out and placed them into
position for welding tomorrow. There is some adjustment on the nearside mount
as the holes it is attached to on the gearbox are oval and allow some movement.
I've kept the templates I made for the mounts and these will be scanned and
emailed to anyone who wants them. Again this mount will be boxed together with
a square plate on top. Strength is the key and these mounts are very very strong.
Thursday 19th September:The first job of the day was to tack weld that nearside engine mount in place and
after using the 10mm higher than is technique on the other side I was confident it
would be easy. It was and 30 minutes later the whole engine was supported by
its new mountings.
The next job was to fabricate the rear torque mount that goes on the gearbox… it
needed making from scratch using bits from the old 4a-ge mount and most of the
turbo mount plus some extra steel. Firstly an angle iron section was drilled and
fitted to the original gearbox holes, this was a bit tricky but all the holes lined up
eventually, then a little side bracket was added and welded onto the angle iron
section. Here you can see it fitted, there are two bolt holes on the front face as
well but only one bolt is fitted here, I’ll fit the other when the engines out. Note the
added bracket to get as much support as possible from the existing mounting
holes. The second pic shows the old turbo mount, as you can see there's no
room for this but the main body of it will be used. I removed both side brackets
from it leaving the centre piece only. This is the perfect shaped bracket to be
fitted upside down to clear the chassis.
Next I removed the top section from the old 4a-ge mount that would be used to
attach the turbo mount to the chassis. It was placed on top of the turbo mount
and welded on.
This enables the strong turbo mount to be attached to the chassis, using the old
4a-ge mount just isn’t an option when there's this much power, even the 3s-ge
non-turbo mount doesn’t last long. The top bracket was welded on the opposite
way to original to form a little channel for the chassis to rest into. With all the
pieces fabricated they were fitted together and it looked really good, a small side
bracket was welded onto the other side to catch an unused hole on the gearbox,
as I've said before, you can't have enough strength.
The whole mount fitted looks very strong, this doesn’t support any weight it just
controls engine flex under acceleration, again it has been over-engineered to be
on the safe side. I may add an angled piece on top of the rubber mount and bolt
it through the back of the chassis where horizontally arrowed in the pic.The day
ended with me playing with airflow meter and filter positions to make sure it was
all going to fit in nicely.
Friday 20th September:This project is moving along much quicker than I anticipated, it should have taken
me about a month to get this far but it just goes to show that all that research and
forward planning has paid off, I would highly recommend anyone who is
attempting this conversion to do as much homework as possible before even
thinking about cutting out engine mountings! All I can say is I take my hat off to
the first guy who ever did this in America….he's a brave man. Anyway, today was
about concentrating on finishing the rear torque mount and fabricating the front
torque mount so that by the end of the day the engine would be fully supported
by all four mounts. I started by removing the rear mount and seam welding the
whole thing up.
Here it is all done, this like all the other bits, will be shot blasted and painted
before the final refitting. Next was the front torque mount, it is made with a
combination of the old 4a-ge mount, the turbo mount and fresh steel plates
added by me. Here you can see the old mounting and the first job was to remove
the rubber mount block as we only need the bit that bolts to the car(arrowed).
The mount was cut along the yellow line to remove the block. Next the turbo
mount had all of it's brackets ground off to just leave the rubber block as pictured.
Again the arrowed piece is the only bit to be kept.
These two sections are now attached to their respective homes, the 4a-ge
bracket to the car as it would be, and the turbo rubber block to the gearbox. Now
all that remains is to join the two sections together with 5mm steel plates either
side.
Here you can see I've made templates out of card that will be the steel sides of
the mount, these too have been kept and are available for those who want
copies. The templates were scribed onto steel and cut out. These were then tack
welded into place joining both bits of mount together. Once again no sacrifice
with strength, these torque mounts do exactly that…. Stop the engine flexing
under high torque.
The whole mount was then removed and seam welded around every join and on
both sides. It was then refitted and small areas marked out on the sides (in
yellow here) for future trimming to make them clear the chassis better and to look
more rounded.
It was a fairly easy mount to make compared to the rear mount, and again don’t
even think about using the old 4a-ge or even supercharger mounting blocks, I've
been told they won't last 5 minutes. The trick is to use as much of the MK2
equipment as possible on the whole project.
Monday 23rd September:With the engine in place and fully supported by it's new mounts, it's time to start
fabricating that new back panel. After a lot of thought I have decided to put my
intercooler in the boot on the far right hand side. I've seen three different
intercooler placements on previous projects and I think mine might be a good
alternative. I'm using the boot because its totally separated from the engine bay
and therefore won't have any of the heat from the engine affecting the
intercooler, also I can make neat piping to this area from the engine that won't
look out of place. Thirdly the boot will have an air scoop built in above the
intercooler that will catch air coming off the roof and this will keep things cool.
There’s plenty of room for the fan in here too and I won't lose a lot of boot space.
The pipe from turbo to intercooler was fabricated first using 2.5 inch bore steel
pipe and similar rubber piping. This is fed into the top corner of the boot and
meets the intercooler.
The neck of the IC was cut and altered to meet this pipe and will either need
welding back on or sleeved with a rubber joint (arrowed).The second pipe from
IC to throttle body was a little more complex, there is no real method to fitting
these pipes, it's more trial and error, or you may go for an entirely different IC
placement. The three I've seen so far are (1) in the SC position above the
gearbox (2) in the MK2 position using a smaller IC (Deno from the USA claims
he’s used the standard IC here but mine wouldn’t fit) or (3) vertically in front of
the gearbox at an angle with a scoop made to catch air rushing under the car.
Here you can see the second pipe, the only drawback with this method is it
slightly covers the oil filler cap but I can live with that for now. It helps to have a
large selection of rubber hoses and angled bits of steel tubing to make these
pipes no matter where you place the intercooler.
My biggest problem on a project is staying focused on what I'm doing and I easily
get distracted by moving to another job that needs doing rather than sticking to
the task at hand and getting it finished, this is what happened today and I left the
boot panel for another day. Instead I worked on the fuel pump…I did a bit of
research into whether or not the 4a-ge in tank fuel pump would deliver enough
fuel pressure to the 3s-gte, most people have carried out this swap on
superchargers which have a higher fuel pressure pump than the NA and I've
been told they haven’t had any problems. However there was no definite yes or
no as to the NA pump being up to the job, for those who haven’t changed a MK1
fuel pump let me just say it’s a pig of a job, basically the whole tank has to come
off to get at it and the tank has more pipes going to it than Middlesborough! So
with already having a turbo fuel pump spare I decided to fit it anyway to be on the
safe side.
Here's the two fuel pump carriers, the 4a-ge carrier is on the left, the turbo on the
right, the inlet and outlet pipes are a different length and also the turbo carrier is
about an inch taller than the 4a-ge, however both pumps are identical to look at
sharing the same wiring and plumbing connections. You could get away with just
fitting the turbo carrier without swapping pumps as it bolts on in the same place
but the pipes do need altering. Here you can see the turbo pump fitted to the 4age carrier on the left. I happened to have a spare 4a-ge carrier so I fitted it to this
ready for the tank coming off. The tank will be removed as soon as the engine
comes back out as there are lots of pipes to disconnect in the bay.
Thursday 26th September:Having looked at that intercooler to throttle body pipe, that I made previously,
made me think I'm letting standards slip in a bid to get this project done quicker.
To be honest it's crap and I never liked the way it covered the oil filler cap so the
first job today was to rethink this pipe and get it looking how Toyota might have
done it instead of me. After playing about with various bits of tubing I found a
much neater way of doing it and I think you will agree it's much better than the
previous attempt. Note that the turbo to IC pipe changes to rubber just before the
suspension strut to stop vibration.
First I removed the old pipe and scored 2 points with a well aimed shot at the
scrap bin, then fabricated a sweeping curve that bypasses the oil filler point and
exits exactly where the intercooler is. I then made a bracket from 3mm steel to
join both intercooler pipes together to make them very strong. This will also
reduce vibration and hold the pipes exactly where I want them. These new pipes
will now be shot blasted and a good friend of mine, who works in a plastic coating
firm, will be plastic coating all my pipe work in his lunch break when the boss isn’t
looking!
Next job was to return to making the rear panel in the boot. I've decided to give
the manifold a good area to recess into, so this panel will now intrude into the
boot by 2.5 inches. Before a removable panel can be made I had to strengthen
the hole that I made with 40mm angle iron, these will form the outer shape of the
new rear bulkhead and probably add more strength than was there before I
chopped it.
Above is the first piece welded in, this just comes up to the intercooler. The area
in front of the intercooler will be boxed in right up to the place where the pipes
come through. Here I plan to leave an oblong hole for the pipes and line the edge
of the hole with a rubber door seal so the pipes don’t chafe on the body. In the
second pic the next support is welded in and this square hole will have a bolt on
panel attached to it for engine access. Using stronger steelwork than was
removed means the whole area should be rigid.
Friday 27th September:With the strengtheners put into the boot wall I'm leaving the plating of this area
until the engine is out and I have access to both sides of it. All that remained in
the boot area was to mount the intercooler in the right place to finalize the
position of the pipework going to it. First job was to make a support bracket to
hold the IC in place and this was made from 20mm aluminium angle that was cut
and bent to the right shape, a few holes drilled in it to fit both the IC and the rear
panel and it was mounted using rubber washers between it and the body to
minimize movement.
With the IC finally in place the pipes needed positioning and marking ready for
welding. This is the only point in the entire project when I can't do the work
myself, I have a lot of welding equipment but nothing that will weld aluminium
successfully so I took the IC to a local engineering firm and 20 minutes later they
used a TIG to join my IC pipes back on in their new position. Here you can see
the IC all welded and it was a perfect fit onto the engine pipes. All that remains to
do to this is spray paint and fit.
Here’s the boot vent cut out above the IC, sides were then made for the vent
going down to the IC, they stopped about 10mm short of touching it so a good
rubber seal could be added to the bottom lip, much like the SC seal on the
engine lid.
You can see the sides had a 90 degree lip on the top to weld it onto the boot lid,
these welds will be ground down and the lip blended into the boot, then the whole
vent will be covered by a forward facing air scoop. I'm going for the Imprezas
scoop if I can get one but failing that I may just make one from scratch. It will be
subtle and only rise about 20mm at its highest, I only want a little air caught here,
not make a parachute out of my boot!!. The next job was to fit a rubber door seal
strip to the bottom of the vent to make it seat onto the IC. This will help keep it
firm and also keep all the air going through the IC rather than around it. The seal
fitted perfectly, there is some tidying up to be done on the underside of the boot
with seam sealer but it I'm happy with the end result.
With this work now done there is no reason for the engine to stay in now, all the
necessary brackets have been made and everything lines up in the correct place,
so next week will see the engine out for the final time to fit a new clutch and
timing belt to it and repaint or polish the engine where necessary. Along with this
the engine bay will be detailed ready for the final install.
Tuesday 1st October:First job today was to remove the engine, it all came out very easily but only with
the inlet manifold removed and I really saw the benefit of the boot panel
fabrication. Next both engine mounts on the chassis had to be totally seam
welded and reinforced with more 5mm steel plates. The first of these was made
from card and transferred to steel and was welded into the top of the o/s mount
to tie the two sides of it together and welded to both the suspension strut and
inner wing. It is important to fit the rubber engine mounting block with the bolt
fully tightened while welding as the plates may “pull” when welded, this will keep
them in the right place. Also a bracing piece was added coming up from the
chassis leg and joining the bottom of the mount together. Here you can see it all
welded up and the bolt has been fitted to weld the nut captive onto the mount.
There's no way a MK2 turbo has mounts as strong as these but it's better to be
too strong rather than weak. Ok I know all this steel is extra weight but at least
you are sure the engine is stable. All that remains for this mount is a bit of
grinding to tidy it up and seam sealer along the joins like Toyota do it.
The same strengthening work was carried out on the n/s mount and again the
mounting block was fitted and fully tightened to make sure the sides didn’t pull
apart or close up.
Here you can see it seam welded with a support on top and in the second pic a
small brace is added to the underside and onto the chassis leg, again the bolt
was tightened to weld the nut captive. Both of these mounts are now finished and
ready for painting. With the engine out its time to start stripping it for inspection,
new timing belt and a fresh clutch kit and paint it up. Various bits will be polished
or chromed before refitting.
A point to remember is to keep the turbo pipes covered at all times to stop dirt or
anything else falling in. Both gearbox oil and engine oil/filter will be changed here
too.
Wednesday 2nd October:With the engine out it was easy to indent the front bulkhead around the turbo and
exhaust area, this need'nt necessarily be done as others have left it alone and
taken the risk but I know this area will get hot and for peace of mind I'd rather
have as much space as possible between the exhaust and bulkhead. A large
hammer was used to recess this area which will have a good heat shield over it.
On inspecting the timing belt and pulleys I found the bottom idler pulley (arrowed)
to have a slight noise on it and it’s a nasty job to do when the engine is in so I'm
replacing it now. The engine block and cam cover were treated to a fresh coat of
paint in the same shade as the plastic coating I'm having done on the pipe work.
Also I inspected the clutch and its worn right down to its rivets so it’s a good job I
checked it. When swapping any engine it's always a good idea to presume the
timing belt, it's pulleys, and the clutch are faulty as these often get
neglected…what can I say…these MK2 owners just don’t know how to look after
their cars!!!
The 2nd pic shows a shiny rivet on the friction plate, this clutch would definitely
slipped had I used it. The clutch kit is going to cost you around £125 plus vat,
timing belt around £25 and that idler pulley for me is an extra cost of £45
Monday 7th October:I've had a lot of trouble trying to find a clutch kit for a MK2 turbo, not as easy as
you would think…. Plenty available for the non turbo at about £80, but the
cheapest I could find for a turbo version was over £230 with the vat. So after
many phone calls to people in the know it was suggested I try to find a clutch for
the Celica turbo as it should be the same. The next day I found one at parts
suppliers Langley Tyre and Auto who supplied one at £135 all in. After a quick
check it's identical to the MK2 turbo clutch and the only difference I could find
was the spring clip on the release bearing was a different shape so I just used
the old clip on the new bearing, doing this will save you over a hundred quid on
the clutch cost. With the clutch rebuilt and nearly a week of engine detailing done
its starting to look the part although there's lots more to be done.
I got all of the pipe work back from the plastic coaters and they look fantastic
(cheers Anth), well worth doing and of course will never corrode. Note that the
prettier the engine gets the worse my garage floor gets! The turbo outlet was
polished up and although it took all day it was worth it, so the engine is now
finally ready to go back in safe in the knowledge I won't have timing belt or clutch
worries. I've also sourced a set of blue Samco coolant hoses for a MK2 turbo that
will need very little modifying to fit the MK1. Next job was to finish off the engine
bay rear wall section. I started out by making a panel for the offside and welding
it in, I used 2mm steel here - instead of the 1mm stuff used on body panels - for
strength. I've left a hole at the top for the intercooler pipes to run through and the
whole edge of this has been doubled back to form a lip that the pipes can't chafe
on.
Here's both side sections welded and with only the bottom chassis to repair it all
looks nice and strong. With the whole thing fabricated and seam sealed the
engine bay is nearly ready for cleaning and painting. I will be using stone chip
first on the engine bay to give it a tougher texture, and it forgives grinding marks
and scratches well.
Just a removable hatch to make for the square hole and this area is finished, I'm
going to make this out of thick aluminium checker plate with a rubber seal around
its edge and bolts screwed into speed clips for the fastenings.
Tuesday 8th October:The main job today was to get the fuel tank off and replace the NA fuel pump
with the 3s-gte turbo item, this will ensure you get the correct fuel pressure and
will supply all the fuel the engine needs even if it is modified. I already have plans
to turn the boost up from a standard 10psi to around 15psi and the turbo pump
will be adequate for this. A few weeks back I already fitted the turbo pump to a
MK1 carrier so it's just a matter of dropping the tank off and swapping the pump
carrier. To get the tank off isn’t easy and the full handbrake linkages have to be
removed with all it's brackets. Then all the filler pipes and breathers in the engine
bay have to be removed as well.
In the first pic I've removed the linkages and placed them to one side, all that
holds the tank now is two supporting straps, give the nuts on these a spray with
penetrating oil beforehand cos if these snap it would be a very difficult job to
replace them. All nuts and bolts underneath MK1s are prone to snapping off so
luckily all mine came free. It goes without saying that there should be no petrol
left in the tank here for safety reasons and an empty tank is easy to refit. In the
second pic the breathers have been removed with just the filler pipe to go. The
tank was supported by a trolley jack and gently lowered. For some unknown
reason my tank didn’t have the proper electrical blocks on top of it going to the
sender unit and fuel pump…and I had to cut the wiring to get the tank off, looks
like a previous owner must have had the tank off before and did a bodge job. It
took 2 minutes to change the pumps over and I soldered a 3 pin block connector
into the sender unit wiring and a 2 pin block connector into the pump wiring so
that future removal will be as it should be (arrowed).
The second pic shows the tank ready for refitting; it went back in a lot easier with
the new wiring. The only other job to be done today was stonechip the engine
bay over all the walls and fabricated sections; it's nearly ready for painting
Wednesday 9th October:I managed to source a large offcut of aluminium sheet from a local machine shop
and made a large template out of card to make the front firewall heat shield. Care
was taken to cut out all of the necessary access holes for water pipes and the
brake servo pipe and the whole shield was pop riveted onto the bulkhead, it not
only looks the part but will provide critical protection from the heat radiated from
the exhaust manifold and turbo.
I may make extra thicker shields to go right were the turbo area is to be on the
safe side, but I think this one should be adequate for now and certainly it's more
than others have done in the same area. Note in this pic I've cut a large area out
of a spare engine lid that I had, this is going to get a bulge fitted to it with a vent
facing back to allow the extra heat generated by this engine out the rear. The
extra space above the engine will also allow me to fit a much needed strut brace
between the suspension tops, something that I've yet to see on a 3s-gte
conversion due to the lack of space between engine and lid. For information you
don’t have to cut the lid, the engine will fit under the standard lid without
modification, it's just personal preference. I've also painted the servo pipe and
refitted it.
I've tried for weeks now to find a decent air scoop to fit over my intercooler vent
on the boot lid, but nothing looked good enough or was simply to big and clumsy
looking so I decided to make mine from scratch. I started by using 10mm
diameter round bar to make the vent hole at the front and flat bar welded to this
to make a framework for the scoop.
A steel cover was then made with 1mm sheet steel cut and folded to the perfect
profile. Next silicone was applied to the top of the framework to bond the top of
the scoop onto the frame, this could be drilled and spot welded but I've found
stuff like this tends to warp easily with the heat on a flat surface. The scoop was
then tack welded around its base and when the silicone cures the scoop will be
blended into the bodywork. All that’s left to do to it is fit a mesh front after the car
is painted. Hopefully this will catch air coming off the roof and cool the IC.
Thursday 10th October:With the intercooler scoop fitted attention turned to the bonnet bulge that doubles
as a heat vent and leaves space for the strut brace. In the same fashion as the
IC vent a frame was made with 10mm bar at the front and flat bar on the rest. I
only want these vents to be subtle and when blended into the body they should
be just that. The second pic shows cross bracing that will have the silicone
sealant on it to stop the panel flexing. Further strengthening supports were added
to the sides and to the catch area.
Again a hood was made for this vent and this time I've chosen to place a few
spot welds on the top to help keep its shape as this is much larger than the IC
scoop. It's important to only spot weld metal this thin as a solid seam weld will
distort the whole panel. I usually keep the spots about an inch apart and as you
can see its all stayed in shape. One thing I've wondered is does the SC bonnet
with its higher vents give enough clearance for a strut brace (with 3s-gte fitted)
without modifying like I've done?
These pics show both scoops fabricated and their mesh fronts fitted (mesh stolen
from a large piece left in the yard by a Mr Michael Sheavills hey if it's left lying
around I’ll use it!!!), Michael has also donated an excellent MK2 Jasma rear
exhaust silencer to the project which will be covered later so many thanks to him.
I believe no one else has fitted these vents with the 3s-gte swap but I think they
are very much needed in such a small engine bay. If you are intending to do this
project then its really up to you, with a different intercooler position then that
scoop isn’t needed but I would at least recommend the engine lid vent if for
nothing else other than being able to fit the strut brace. It's worth bearing in mind
this engine is 80kg heavier than the 4a-ge and produces 225bhp with 200lbs/ft of
torque so a strut brace is a must. All that remains for these vents is to be tidied
up and blended into the body with a small amount of bodyfiller and a good high
build primer. As far as the 3s-gte project goes this is as much as I will cover in
this article about bodywork on the car, it's already cosmetically different on the
front end - and there are more body mods to be made on the rest of the car that
won't be covered here.
Wednesday 16th October:After a few days of preparation on the engine bay it was finally ready for painting
and although not perfect I'm quite happy with it, let's just say it’s a lot better than
it was!
As this car is unique (or one of very few) I decided it needed a non standard paint
colour to make it different from the rest. I've always been keen on yellow but only
a certain shade that’s also found on Porsche boxters and is also an old MG
midget colour, it’s a pastel yellow called “pale primrose” that really stands out
without being hard on the eye. It's very much a matter of personal taste and you
either love a colour or hate it. I also wanted a colour that would be in sharp
contrast to the blue engine detailing to make the engine stand out . With the
engine bay masked up in all the right places I applied 3 coats of 2 pack paint to
the bay.
I took this opportunity to stand in the engine bay and get some paint onto the
inside of the roof posts which has always been a very hard area to paint on
MK1s, you really need to be double jointed to paint this area! With the paint
applied and allowed to dry I masked the lower half of the bay from the chassis
legs down and applied 2 coats of black stonechip, this will help protect the
underside and also blends the underseal into the bay.
With the whole bay painted and demasked it really looked good against the
aluminium firewall, all that remains to do here is tidy up the gear change cables
and refit a freshly painted extractor fan and refit the fuse box. The bay is now
ready for the final engine fitting which I know will now fit perfectly because of the
dummy fit a few weeks ago, it's all coming together now.
Thursday 17th October:Today saw the engine going back in for the final fitting, lots of care was taken not
to scratch any of the new paintwork on the bay or engine, after an hour it was in
and everything lined up exactly as it had done before. The inlet manifold was
again left off for the refit to give more clearance. The drive shafts were then
connected up and both torque mounts fitted, it's just like putting a 3s-gte into a
MK2 now as all the hard work has been done. Indenting the front bulkhead and
removing a section of the rear has really paid off, I now have a good 2 inches of
clearance between the exhaust manifold and wall and at least 3 inches clearance
between the turbo and wall, still not an awful lot but together with the aluminium
heat shield I expect it to be fine. Note again that vitally the hoses to the turbo
have been blanked off to stop anything falling in.
The second pic shows it in with various bits refitted, the inlet manifold wont be
fitted until I'm ready to fit the wiring harness as it threads through between
manifold and head as it connects up to different sensors/injectors/ignition
components.
With the main mechanical stuff done its time to start plumbing it all in, most of
this is fairly easy as it connects up roughly where it would on a MK2. I sourced a
set of blue Samco performance hoses from a very helpful MK2 turbo owner on
the drivers club website (cheers Mark). Next I made a small pipe with a bracket
welded to it, this is to join the drivers side radiator hose to the o/s engine hose.
Here's the first piece from engine to pipe and in the second pic the pipe to car
hose is fitted, you could just make a one piece pipe going straight to the car from
the engine but I wanted a bracket that would keep the hosing secured to the
bulkhead away from the heat source. The bracket will now be bolted on with a
rubber washer between it and the aluminium. Even with this bracket the hose is
about 2 inches away from the factory heat shield on the exhaust, this should be
fine but to be on the safe side I'm going to pop rivet a small aluminium shield
around the hose where arrowed.
Friday 18th October:-
The radiator hose on the left side was very easy to fit with no altering needed at
all and there's plenty of clearance between it and exhaust manifold. The fuel
return pipe was also connected and this too is a straight fit, I used the pipe from
the MK2 that was already on the engine and it fits perfectly onto the fixed steel
pipe on the bulkhead (arrowed).
As there's no standard air box fitted to the engine, the air flow meter (AFM) is
unsupported so a few brackets need to be made to hold it steady. Here you can
see I've made a support that’s bolted to the engine mount holes that are normally
used for a small damper that’s fitted to the MK2’s. I've yet to work out the function
of this damper, it looks like an anti-roll bar drop link with a rubber bush at one
end and it seems to control lateral left to right movement but my engine is
absolutely solid on its mountings so I don’t see the need for it. Either way I've
never seen anyone else fit this so I’ll leave it off and maybe fit it at a later date if
found to be necessary. This AFM support is welded to an existing steel bracket
on the back of the unit. It must be remembered, that when mounting anything
onto the engine, not to attach any part of it to the body of the car unless rubber is
used in between. The vibration of the engine will simply snap it off or cause other
damage.
Above I've fitted the filler point, I've used the MK1 filler and modified it to fit, first I
removed all of the plastic brackets from it and then I've blocked one end of it off,
like MK2’s are, with a thermo switch. It just happened that the switch was the
right diameter to fit the end and also I plan to run a heat extraction fan off this.
There is no need to do this you can simply use the MK2 filler neck instead. You
can also see I've fitted the MK2 expansion bottle next to the air filter, it recesses
nicely into that curve in the bay but the neck is 6 inches too long so this was
chopped down and plastic welded back on where arrowed. Again Samco hoses
are used on the filler point and overflow tubing.
Monday 21st October:Some things on the engine connect very easily, others need a bit of modifying,
and I'm pleased that Toyota made the gearbox speedo drives the same on the
3s-gte and the 4a-ge. The cable screwed on perfectly and the gear change
cables also fitted as if they were being fitted to the original linkages. The heat
extraction fan was also refitted after painting, this will be wired up through the
original MK1 air temperature sensor that’s mounted above the exhaust manifold
on the 4a-ge, I’ll have to play with its position on the 3s-gte to get it switching
correctly. The clutch slave cylinder flexi pipe was also connected using the flexi
from the MK2, the MK1 flexi is no use here as it has two female ends on it and
the MK2 has a male and a female.
Here you can see it fitted, note I've bent the bracket slightly to allow a little more
free play. The engine is now plumbed in, fuel lines connected, clutch and gear
cables done and all the little ancillaries fitted around the engine, now it's time for
the serious fun to begin….wiring. In my opinion this is probably the hardest part
of the swap, it's very easy to wire it up so that the engine actually runs, just
power up the ECU and Circuit open relay and it’ll run, but there's more to it than
that, there's dash instruments to get working like RPM, oil pressure, water temp
and also the engine warning light. The first thing to do was fit the engine side of
the harness to the engine, this is relatively straight forward and everything
connects where it should. I then routed the harness through the original hole in
the rear wall together with the MK1 wiring that comes from the dash and fusebox.
It's in the boot where all the vital connections are going to be made. It's vital that
you have year relevant full wiring diagrams of both AW11 and SW20 (turbo), I
can provide these via email if you need them. For now the engine work is
finished with only the exhaust system to fabricate. All of the IC piping was refitted
and IC refitted under its new vent.
Final job of the day was to fabricate a new battery tray in the front compartment.
It was made from 40mm angle iron and situates the battery in the corner of the
bay. You can put it wherever you want but I like this position as it also allows me
to carry a space saver spare wheel beside it. The battery will be earthed here
and a thick positive cable will run up the tunnel and onto the starter motor.
Tuesday 29th October:There's a lot of connections to be made to wire it all up and I strongly recommend
every single connection is soldered and shrink wrapped, or at the very least
insulating tape on the soldered joints. With all of the MK1 engine harness
removed there should only be the large grey connector left in the boot, this is
called the N1 connector and this is where I'm wiring my MK2 ECU and engine
harness up to. Which ever Circuit Opening Relay (COR) you use it must be wired
into the N1 connector. I've used the MK2 COR but either will do. I've also
decided to retain the MK1 fuel pump relay and just wire it up to the MK2 COR. All
of this won't be understood until you have read the wiring diagrams over and over
and have become very familiar with both wiring harnesses from both cars, a good
understanding of how it works is 90% of wiring it up correctly. I've also used the
engine side of the N1 connector to wire it all up so that it can be removed in
future if need be. I've mounted the MK2 ECU near to the harness entry point and
although this all looks like a crows nest everything is labeled and ready to join.
Once its all wired it can be tidied at a later date.
Here you can see each and every wire on the N1 connector (circled) has
been labeled. These are joined to their respective wires on the MK2
harness.
Here's the MK1 N1 connector showing both sides and the pin outs.
Here is a table showing the relevant connections that have to be made from the
N1 connector to the MK2 harness, please note that these colours were correct
for my 1985 NA but may be different on other years or models. The EFI relay
wire (7) is connected to the black and yellow wire on the COR. The black and red
wire coming from the Engine Main Relay (12) is connected to the thick black and
red wire on the MK2, this powers up the coilpack and live feed to the
igniter/amplifier. This would normally be connected to the Ignition Main Relay on
a MK2. The fuel pump wire (18) is connected to the blue and black on the COR. I
haven’t used all of the N1 wires as I'm wiring my cooling fans on the IC and
engine bay fan onto a separate circuit so I've got more control over heat issues.
For instance if the MK1 circuitry wasn’t bringing the fans on soon enough I can
alter this by moving the air temperature sender closer to the heat source or fit a
manual switch for both or either on the dash.
Circuit Opening Relay Connections
1 Blue wire on the COR to N1 - Pin 18 (fuel pump)
2 Black and yellow wire from all of these- TPC, T-VIS, ISC, EGR, Ox
sensor, check connector (+B),ECU wire A12 + A13,all joined to N1 Pin
7 (EFI main relay)
3 ECU wire A11 + M2 to Starter solenoid Wire (black and white on
MK1)
4 ECU B17
5 Ground
Here are the wires that come from the Circuit Opening Relay (COR)
The MK2 ECU also has additional wires that wont be used, mainly because they
have nowhere to connect to on a MK1 but won't affect fuel metering at all.
There's a blue wire with red stripe coming from the ECU that goes to the MK2
fuel pump relay, a MK1 doesn’t have this wire on its relay and its used on the
MK2 as a low speed circuit for the pump to operate at a lower pressure when the
engine is idling or cruising. Many who have done this conversion have opted not
to use this wire (can only be used in conjunction with MK2 fuel pump relay
anyway) and just have the pump operating at full pressure constantly just like a
MK1 does. There is also an idea that during the switch over period between low
speed circuit and high speed that there's a momentary lag in pressure so many
MK2 owners disconnect this wire as a modification. I'm now including the
relevant MK2 wiring diagrams that are priceless when doing the swap.
These electrical diagrams show all of the MK2 wiring to the ECU and are
indispensable when it comes to doing the job. I also have diagrams of the
starting and charging circuits should you need them. Please note that the
information I give about wiring is merely an account of what I've done and
although it may used as a reference I cannot take any responsibility for it being
wrong or any damage it may cause as a result, in other words…your car may be
wired differently! Please email me with any electrical queries and I’ll help in any
way I can.
Thursday 31st October:With nearly all of the wiring done, there only being some fans to wire up etc, It's
time to connect the throttle cable and the brake servo pipe. The throttle cable
fitted but it was a bit tight so I extended it by about 4 inches so it wasn’t stretched
over the engine. I did this by extending the outer cable and threading a new
length of inner cable through it and then crimping the proper ends onto it to make
it a perfect fit, it works very well and feels light while getting 99% of full throttle. I
don’t like getting 100% as it means the cable is then under tension and may snap
over time, there is also some adjustment available on the throttle body just like
the MK1.
The 2nd pic although not very clear shows a vacuum T-piece I've fitted to a hose
coming from the inlet manifold (arrowed), this will be routed by means of brake
pipe under the car and to the dash for my turbo pressure gauge. With the wheels
back on the car was lowered back to earth for the first time with its new engine in
and as you can see by the wheel arch clearance the extra weight hasn’t really
affected the ride height , I'd say its maybe 5mm lower than before.
The shot under car shows the amount of ground clearance I have, it's not much
more than the 4a-ge had and there's a good 4 or 5 inches to the lowest point
being the exhaust downpipe that I've just fitted here ready for the system to be
made. All I've been able to use from the MK2 system is the downpipe and flexi
joint (arrowed), from here various bends will be tack welded into place and onto
the Jasma rear silencer that will sit neatly where the 4a-ge silencer used to go.
I'm also fitting aluminium checker plate to the boot floor to keep heat away from
the boot, after all my intercooler is in there!!!
The only job that’s needed in the cabin is to fit the turbo pressure gauge to the
dash, I've chosen to mount it just above the wiper switch where its easily seen.
Two wires on it go to the + and – on the clock illumination and the vacuum hose
connects to the inlet manifold via a long piece of brake pipe secured along the
tunnel.
Here is the Jasma rear silencer from a MK2 that was kindly donated by Michael
Sheavills, it's just a matter of supporting it in place with axle stands and tack
welding 2.5 inch tubing from the downpipe, under the crossmember, and sweep it
into the box, then remove the whole thing and weld it solid. Refit and weld some
hanger brackets onto it making sure it isn’t fouling anywhere even when moved a
lot.
Today sees the end of the article, everything has been done bar a few bits of
tidying up. In the next week or so I’ll be turning the key for the first time and I’ll
conclude this then with an update on how it runs and any further problems
encountered. For now the car will still be undergoing its bodywork so it will be
some time before it hits the road, or with the addition of wings, runway! This
article was written so that I could give back what so many have given me by way
of information, help and in some cases parts. I hope it proves useful to some
other nutcase out there who wants to break the sound barrier. So that’s it!
Fensport and MR2 solutions have acknowledged that it’s the first 3s-gte powered
MK1 MR2 in the UK, also a big thanks to all the lads in America for their help
(Deno, Alex and Warren). Please feel free to email with anything you need help
with, Paul Woods.
Project update Thursday 14th November 2002:
With everything checked and double checked the key was turned for the first
time, all of the instrument lights came on properly and the engine cranked. Within
ten seconds of cranking it slowly fired on 2 cylinders then 3 then onto 4 and ran
perfectly for 5 minutes before I shut it down to check for petrol leaks etc. The first
problem I encountered was oil pressure, there wasn’t any! So I earthed out the
wire on the sender unit and sure enough the gauge went off the scale proving
that the wiring and gauge were not faulty, embarrassingly after replacing the
sender unit with another I had, it still didn’t work and after an e-mail to Deno in
the States I was reminded that a MK2 doesn’t have a gauge and that the sender
unit is merely for an oil light and therefore works on or off…sometimes the simple
things can slip past. So the MK1 sender has to be fitted instead and as it's bigger
you need to chop an inch off the engine lifting bracket to get it in. With this done
the pressure was reading as it should. On a 3s-gte the sender is mounted right at
the top of the head where the pressure is considerably less than on the side of
the block in the 4a-ge position, with this in mind it runs roughly halfway on the
gauge.
Halfway through testing on the second day and it mysteriously dropped onto 3
cylinders. Number 1 just wasn’t working, the HT lead, spark plug, injector signal
and injector resistance were all checked and found to be ok, the cam covers
were then removed and the cam shims checked along with an inspection for a
sticking inlet valve, still nothing found. Getting really worried I did a compression
test on the whole engine, I had 160 psi on 2,3 and 4 but number 1 was 70
psi…..not good! I've come across a similar problem before with an engine that’s
stood for a long time and I poured about 200ml of oil down the spark plug hole
and let it seep past the rings. Sometimes they fail to expand on an engine that’s
been standing and that’s what happened here. After cranking with ignition
disabled I soon got the Psi back up to 160 on all four and it's ran sweet ever
since. It's therefore important to get plenty of oil down the rings before trying to
start, bear in mind there will be lots of smoke! I won't know turbo boost figures
until it goes on the road but the turbo seems to be working fine, I’ll have max bhp
figures soon from its first dyno test and I'm expecting about 235 bhp…225
standard plus 10 bhp or so from the induction kit and free flow exhaust system,
then with the addition of a Blitz boost controller and an HKS fuel cut defencer,
should see it into 250 territory on about 14psi of boost. So far the check engine
light has stayed off proving my wiring is correct but it may well come on at a later
date, ECUs have literally got a mind of their own! Other than these teething
troubles the cam shims could do with replacing as the top end is a bit tappety in
places also meaning I won't be getting 100% lift on the valves so that’s high on
the list of must do jobs.
The problems I've had are relatively minor and considering this engine last ran in
a MK2 bay I think its worked out well, if there's anything I've learned doing this it's
that you can't do enough research before starting.
Turning the key for the first time....
Everything is fine
The finished installation
Project update Monday 24th November 2003:
Its one year on from the completion of the MK1 turbo project and I’ve been asked
by quite a few people recently “how’s it running?” ”have you had any problems?”
So I thought the time was right to supply an update on how it all worked out.
Since doing the swap I’ve been blown away with the amount of interest a MK1
turbo has generated, it seems I’m not alone in wanting a car that looks like a
MK1, handles like a MK1 but has the power of the MK2 turbo. My email inbox
gets filled every week with MK1 people worldwide wanting to do the swap or
having a problem mid swap. So an update on the birthday of the UK’s first MK1
turbo seems apt.
Since it was completed around 5 more 3sgte powered MK1s have been put into
production and earlier this year Nik Farmer from Milton Keynes rolled out UK
MK1 turbo number 2 so congratulations go to him. Nik had quite a rough time
with wrong parts being sent to him, in particular the company he got the engine
and gearbox from sent him the totally wrong ECU for that engine! As if doing a
MK1 turbo swap wasn’t hard enough! After trying to wire up this ECU for about a
week we discovered it was from a normally aspirated 97 model MR2, apart from
that Nik had his gearbox seize up on him which again wasn’t swap related just
bad luck, so despite all the problems he came through, well done Nik.
From the moment mine went on the road I knew I was driving something special,
it was a very weird feeling indeed sitting in a car I had owned and driven as a
daily driver for over 5 years and then feeling that turbo spool up behind my head
and feeling a huge surge of power launch it forward…the first week was the
worst, or the best depending how you look at it, half expecting something terrible
to happen and a million thoughts like “did I fasten that properly” or “have I made
that strong enough” flashing through my mind every time I squeezed the throttle,
it took over a week to build up enough confidence to find a long straight road and
open it up, quite simply doing the conversion totally changed the driving
character of this once tame little MR2.
The following weeks were amazing and driving the only MK1 turbo in the UK was
quite a buzz, it was time to enjoy those long weeks of toiled labour and head
scratching and that’s exactly what I did. The car had its first real road test on its
debut at this years JAE at Billing Aquadrome, needless to say I was very anxious
about such a long journey in an unproven car. I just took it easy all the way there
and we drove in convoy through some absolutely terrible rainstorms which didn’t
help my MK1 turbo nerves at all. Having got there all seemed well but the
following morning the car violently overheated 5 minutes after start up, after
some investigation it appeared that an 18 year old jubilee clip on the front
radiator hose had let me down and it was leaking coolant here. During the show
the car attracted a lot of interest and I got rewarded for my efforts with best
modified which was an honour for me given the very high standard of the
competition. With a great show under its belt we headed off home and at the first
pit stop for a hamburger there where pints of coolant leaking out from the engine
bay, it was overheating again….!! Well you always fear the worst and thoughts of
the head gasket being the culprit and every other really nasty cause of this
coolant problem were foremost in my mind, I refilled the coolant system and
limped the car home keeping on eye on the temperature gauge the whole way!
After a week of trying to stop it overheating I was just about to strip the head off
when an embarrassing phone call from Mr Alan Jones put things in a different
light…..”You have got the expansion bottle cap on the right way round haven’t
you Paul?” Yep it was as simple as that, in doing the conversion I missed that
tiny detail and it was dumping its coolant on the floor after each run. 5 seconds
after the phone call it was fixed and the coolant system has been perfect to this
day, cheers Al.
The performance during the first few months was amazing, 0-60 in just under 5
seconds and a top speed of 160mph (on a private road of course officer!)….but
with all things fast they soon seem tame again once you get used to it, and this is
what happened. In the never ending quest to go quicker and get the wow factor
back I started cranking the boost pressure up, before long it was on its fuel cut
limit at 12psi and going like a rocket. I did however find that the MR2 ct-26
turbocharger is a bit gutless over 5,500 rpm and runs out of breath and over
6,000 rpm it just behaved like a 2ltr NA. Fate it would seem would intervene and
decide my next course of action. On the way to work one day in it there was quite
a bit of black smoke behind me and after a lot of inspection the turbo shaft had
decided enough was enough…it seems I just asked it to perform too much in its
late stage of life and as it was pumping oil into my engine it died, I’d like to think it
died a happy death but knowing that it spins at 150,000 times a minute it was
probably quite violent in the end! So a new turbo was on the shopping list and
this seemed the perfect opportunity to upgrade and give the car its “kick” back.
After a week of info gathering I found that an 87-92 Supra 3.0ltr turbo has a ct-26
on it, but here’s the joyous part…that Supra ct-26 has a much larger compressor
wheel than the MR2 ct-26, within a few days I had bought a low mileage Supra
ct-26 and fitted it. While I was taking time to fit a new turbo charger I also decided
that as I was going to be running more boost I really did need to upgrade my
intercooler system as well. Again in true Woods fashion I managed to locate a
Supra twin turbo intercooler which is basically three times the volume of an MR2
turbo intercooler. I also decided to make the intercooler piping less restrictive and
improve the flow rate.
Here’s the Supra IC in place with a vented section under it allowing it to breath
through the boot floor.
Coupled to this I planned a water injection system, not a shop bought system but
in fact one designed and made by me. The purpose of water injection on a
turbocharged engine is to reduce the high intake charge temperature and
therefore prevent any detonation that may occur, as detonation is an engine killer
so that’s the last thing we want. It also improves the density of the intake air/fuel
mixture and improves the combustion process. After experimenting with different
components I found that a Celica cold start injector provided a nice misty spray
that was going to be perfect for my water injection set up, so I made a fitting that
the injector could bolt to and then welded this fitting to my new intercooler pipe.
The injector is mounted halfway between the intercooler and throttle body. To
supply the injector with pressurized water I’ve got a windscreen washer bottle
with an MR2 fuel pump plumbed up to it, this delivers quite a forceful supply of
water to the injector. Obviously we only need the injector to open at high boost
pressures and to control the whole system I’ve got an adjustable Hobbs 10psi
pressure switch mounted into the IC piping. This switch senses when pressure
over 10psi is reached, it switches the pump on in the reservoir and opens the
injector at the same time.
The DIY FCD in situ, maybe not very pretty but very good at its job, a bit like me!
So with all of the new intercooler in place, the bigger turbo installed with a
Grainger valve plumbed to its actuator to raise the boost and my own brand of
water injection system coupled with my FCD design it was ready for the road
once more…I have to say I was simply shocked by the power increase from this
new turbo and my little gadgets, it feels twice as powerful as it ever did before
and its mission accomplished on the turbo upgrade! I haven’t had time to dyno it
yet but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was pushing 300bhp,im estimating around
280bhp though to be on the conservative side.0-60 is now 4.5 seconds but the
real power comes in halfway through 3rd gear, there's a huge kick of torque right
about 4,000rpm and it keeps on pulling very hard right through 4th gear and
beyond, it just doesn’t run out of puff like it used to do. My fuel economy is
absolutely shocking though but in this type of car who cares about that? Since
this upgrade I've had concerns about the gearbox not shifting from 4th down to
3rd properly but this turned out to be nothing more than the shift cable not
secured into its bracket properly.
To monitor what’s actually going on when this happens I’ve got an Equus air
temperature probe and gauge in the system so I can tell what temperature the
intake charge is with the water injection on and off. It works really well and I’ve
found its lowering the intake charge temp by nearly 20 degrees C at full boost
which is fantastic. This in effect means I could advance the timing a little bit more
and know I’m not risking detonation.
A diagram showing my FCD design, simple yet effective.
The Supra intercooler itself is mounted in the same place the old one was but
this time I’ve cut a large hole in the boot floor and ducted the IC to this so that the
fan inside the ducting is drawing fresh cold air from the outside world. Now that I
had sufficient cooling and a fresh turbo fitted capable of higher pressures I had to
stop the Toyota management system from cutting the fuel off at high boost. It
does this via the turbo pressure sensor which will provide the ECU with an
electrical signal to inform it when 12psi is reached, anything over 12psi and the
ECU kills the fuel injectors and all power is lost until boost has gone away. It’s a
very good system designed to protect the engine should a problem occur with the
actuator or its hoses or even the turbo itself, but it’s a total killjoy when we want
to boost higher than 12psi. In this respect an FCD (Fuel Cut Defender) must be
used to fool the ECU into thinking less than 12psi is being made even when 15
psi is produced by the turbo. Now FCDs are readily available but you know me
and I’d rather design and make one of my own than buy one…so I did! The
problem with most FCDs is that they either get rid of the fuel cut off altogether
which does prevent fuel cut from happening but the downside is zero protection,
so I had to come up with a system that still kept the protection level only raising it
to whatever limit I liked. After playing around with some bleed valves and some
vsv’s I came up with my own design of FCD that raises the cut off point
pneumatically and still gives engine protection.
Water injection reservoir and MR2 fuel pump deliver pressurized water to the
injector on the intercooler pipe
One of the big successes with the project was the brake conversion… its
definitely needed lets put it that way and the only problem I’ve had with it is a
squealing pad on the left front but that teaches me for using cheap pads instead
of paying that little bit more and getting quality ones, lesson learnt! It stops like its
hit a wall, totally amazing brakes on those GT4s and I know why they use them
now, I was concerned about there being no engine weight above the front brakes
like there is on a GT4 but this hasn’t proved significant and it only ever locks up
when you mash the pedal to the floor violently, quite simply it couldn’t have
worked out better in the braking department.
In all I’ve had no more problems with the MK1 turbo than the average MK2 turbo
owner has, and certainly there have been no swap related problems (apart from
me fitting the expansion cap on back to front) ie. No part of the engines
installation into a MK1 has affected how it runs or behaves so I’m quite pleased
with that as I was expecting there to be bugs to iron out. The whole project has
been a vast learning curve as other MK1 turbo swappers are now finding out and
if I had to do it all again I would, there are a few things I may have done
differently though, one of these would be totally rebuilding the 3s-gte engine
before fitment as its quite hard to do work on it given the space limitations.
Another would be possibly doing it to a supercharger model as they have tougher
chassis and better bodywork in general. As Nik and anyone else who has driven
a 3s-gte powered MK1 will agree, there’s nothing that compares to it, ok its far
from the fastest car on the road but part of the feeling is knowing that you are
driving a car that wasn’t meant to be….I’ve often wondered what Toyotas version
would have looked like if they had made a 2ltr MK1 turbo?
Nik Farmers recently completed turbo
A few weeks ago I did consider selling the MK1 on to make way for the next big
project but every time I drive the car it just makes me smile and not many cars
can do that, so its staying for the foreseeable future. This won’t deter the next
project though which will offer the same power delivery as the 3s-gte without the
turbo. I’m going to build a V6 MK1, the engine I’m going to use is from the Toyota
Camry 3.0ltr V6 1MZ-FE, its an all aluminium block and very light for the size of
the engine, in fact it only weighs a few kilos more than the 4a-ge! This swap has
been done before in the States to a MK1 so I know it fits. Its got to be mated to
an MR2 turbo E153 gearbox and a few engine mounts made etc. but nothing
amazing. A full step by step article on this site will accompany that project just
like the MK1 turbo.
PAUL WOODS [email protected]
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damage or injury occur to persons or property using information contained in this
guide.
For insurance purposes persons carrying out any modifications to a motor
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