New Wheels

Now that my car is running at 330bhp (well not quite, i am running a low boost map for winter) i am a bit worried that the skinny 215/40/17 wheels on the back were not going to keep me on the black stuff. so after days of searching, i managed to find some wheels that would

• Fit my car (correct offset)
• be wider on the back than the front
• not cost a fortune

what i did in the end was find some Ultralite Battle Monoblock wheels with the same design as my current wheels, but in 8" width. unfortunately they did not have a 7" for the front. so i decided to take the cheap option and just get the rears. i bought new tyres all round. Falkens.

They look great, the only problem is that the gunmetal on the rear is not the same as on the front. never mind, i quite like the drift / drag look.

i now have 205/40/17 on the front and 235/40/17 on the rear. i perhaps should have found some 235/35/17 for the rear, but i can imagine they would be expensive.

Blow off Valve

After upping my boost, to just over stock levels, i noticed that my stock BOV was not keeping up; it was making fluttering noises on full boost. i have a feeling that this item was from a rev2 mr2 turbo, and so was being strained as it was already.

i took the plunge and decided to get a HKS Super SQV, it had to be one really. i want to keep as much of the tuning parts in my car to HKS.

I fitted it but noticed that this was still fluttering at full boost. i figured it was just a feature of the twin piston design, but upon closer inspection, the bracket was not sealing it properly against the intercooler pipe. Im not sure how this was causing the fluttering noise, but i found the old adapter from the first HKS BOV i had, and refitted it using the circlip.

it is now Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. although i HATE the sound of the BOV... i am in desperate need of a recirc pipe

Rolling Road day Silverstone Performance

I went on another rolling road day, with the idea of getting my Apexi AFC Neo and HKS Boost Controller working correctly. I previously was running 265bhp @ 0.8bar. After the tweeking it is now running 330bhp @ 1.08bar

i was amazed.. it is still running on the stock turbo :)

TB Developments Rolling Road Day Hosted by Western Performance

Awesome day!

I started early, and gave my car a quick wash, then headed over to meet Chris and Nigel in St Ives. From there it was a nice drive to Solihull nr Birmingham. On the way i got a call from Chris saying that i was flaming from my exhaust when i let off. :D much fun.

Once we got to Western Performance we watched a few cars on the dyno and then the MR2s took over the shop. I tried to get them to remove my TVSV, but they didnt quite do it right, so when it came to my dyno i was getting very odd boost readings. I also think a pipe came off a bit, so i only managed to get 0.8bar instead of the 1bar that i was meant to get.
Other than that though, i managed to get 265bhp at the fly, with 290 odd torques.

Hopefully i will get my fuleing sorted (its a bit rich) and get my boost controller set up proprly, and i should easily get up to Chris's 286bhp @ 1.1bar

The drive back was fun, with lots more flamage, but a whistling pipe meant i still wasnt getting good boost. nevermind :)

Fitting 5

I fitted the HKS EVC today, the only thing i didnt do was to remove the T-VIS. so the boost is still running at stock levels. i will do that tomorrow either at the rolling road or before :)

Fitting 4

Using my friends nice new garage, we fitted the Apexi AFC Neo, which was tricky, but simple. even thought i messed up by cutting the wrong wire.

Seems to work, i just need to know how to use it. i guess i need an Air Fuel Mix gauge??

Fitting 3

The bracket went on and it was all good :)

Exhuast sounds great and the car holds boost :)

Fitting 2

Ok, so today we took off the old exhaust and downpipe and fitted the new one and also fitted the piping for the intercooler.

The hardest part was getting all the heat shields off so that we could get the down pipe off. Once done, it was farly easy to remove the very heavy downpipe.

The new stuff went on very easily, and we had to fabricate a bracket to attach the back box... this will be fitted on monday.

Fitting 1

Ok, so today i decided to fit my intercooler, exhaust and catch can... well we started with the exhaust, but needed a socket, so whilst we were waiting for that to turn up we got on with the intercooler. it took about 4 hours to get the old one out and get the other one in place. its not quite done yet :( i had to leave my car in my mates drive. so first thing tomorrow, back on with the job :)

Oil catch can

i bought an oil catch can from ebay.. its red and should do the job of keeping the oil out of the intake. i just need to find a bung.

Deliveries 4

Ok, last night i got a bit annoyed that none of the stuff that i paid next day delivery for and took a week off to make sure i was in for had turned up. so i started emailing people

SBits / TwosRus

• KO R1 Exhaust
• Goodridge Stainless Brake hoses
• Brake fluid
• Piston Windback tool

JDM Trade (ebay)

• Apexi AFC Neo

GTS Chris

• Intercooler shroud
• Intercooler fan
• Downpipe bracket

So i emailed all the sellers, and today my Apexi AFC turned up :) it was just taking its time in Royal Mail. I was called by SBits regarding my order, and they messed up on the website meaning that it said it was in stock, but it wasnt, so i will have to wait until next week. BUT they are giving me upgraded braided brake hoses :)

So im feeling a bit better about it all now. (Although im still wating for my Xbox360 back from Microsoft, but that should turn up today.... i am itching to play Forza2 again)

Just in: my order from GTS-Chris just arrived!

I am tempted to take my car up to CC Styling on Monday, to get the work done, as im not going to be able to do anything on my car until next Thursday anyway.

Now the question is.... do i try and fit my Apexi AFC, its very simple looking, the only problem i have is that the ECU is in the boot and im not convinced that the cable supplied is long enough... ill get on the forums.

Bumper Fix

Today, I went to CC Styling in Peterborough to see what they could do with my cracked bumper. I was quoted £300 to get it completely fixed and painted. The only problem is that the undertray is missing, and the wheel arches are falling down. The guy suggested making an F1 style barge board, but i would prefer a carbon fibre splitter. I found one at Carbon Mods, but its rather expensive.

Deliveries 3

Hmmm nothing turned up today, bit gutted really. im waiting for:

• Apexi SAFC Neo
• Intercooler shroud
• Intercooler fan
• Downpipe bracket
• KO R1 exhaust
• Goodridge braided brake hoses

im guessing they are all going to turn up tomorrow when i am out at MPH in Birmingham... nevermind, ill get them eventually.

Deliveries 2

My XSPower Intercooler came today. It looks like is fairly good quality, hopefully it should do the trick.

The hoses do look a bit pants, so i will head over to fensport next week once i have been paid.

Sayonara

Well, shes gone. The Red UK spec GT T-Bar has gone. (along with my copy of Evo magazine that i left in it).

Got the money i wanted, and as i was driving there stuff started breaking, so all in all, im happy its now gone, its like a weight off my mind.

Picked up Nick's new scooby, damn thats fast. really nice car, i like it a lot, but its no match looks wise for an MR2

A Day with Mr T

Today i had my car booked in with Mr T (Toyota) to have the gearbox oil and Aircon gas changed. They also offered to give me a free visual safety check on the car.

Well the aircon had leaked but is now full and is working really well, nice and frosty, should also help demist the windows faster. The gearbox now feels AMAZING, so much better, much freer and smoother and i can now change gear better in high revs.

All in all a good day.... still no sign of my other goodies, chances are they will all come tomorrow afternoon when i am out. im taking my mate to Birmingham to pick up his Scooby from Salah Imports and hopefully getting rid of my old one.

Deliveries

As planned, stuff is starting to arrive for my car... good timing as i just woke up :D

Ok first to arrive is my Japspeed Downpipe... this removes the catalytic converter and provides 3in diameter from the turbo to the exhaust (which will also be 3in when it comes). I ordered it from Temple Tuning and got £10 off because they could not provide my Intercooler, which was really good of them, and i will be using them again. Anyway the downpipe looks really good, nice and smooth and very sturdy looking with a bung ready for a wide sensor should i require one for an aftermarket ECU and bigger injectors. Although currently my plan is to stick with standard fuel. i figure toyota run very rich, so when my Apexi AFC arrives i have some scope to increase boost and use the controller to use some of the extra fuel for that.


I have decided to put the body kit on hold for now, its more important to me that the car is running well... i do intend to have the car show worthy for JAE next year as i have missed it for the last 2!

Remote boot operation

Ok, today i managed to do something that i have wanted to do for a LONG time. When i got my first Cliford alarm i ordered a boot pop solenoid, this is plugged into the Cliffod unit and basically pulls on the boot release when the button on the remote is pressed. Well i never really knew where to plug it in, so when i got my Clifford alarm fitted this time i asked the guy to leave a wire hanging for me.

So this morning i wired it all in, and traced the wire into the boot and although not a pretty install, it seems to work ok. Its just nice to have things that you have paid for working.

Shiney

This morning I got a missed delivery (why dont they ring the door bell) for my gauge holder, so this afternoon i fitted that, its a 60mm GReddy one, but im using it for my cheepy Swoosh boost gauge. I managed to run the wire and hose quite nicely behind the dash, but it would have been better if i used the black vacuum hose... never mind.

Halfrauds (halfords) had a deal on a tool chest with 235 pieces in today... i couldnt resist. its pretty good, has most things you would need, even if the quality isnt amazing. It will do the job, and for £50 i now have a big red tool chest :)

Last weekend I helped Nigel to clean his car to help him sell it, so he can get a Skyline.. still waiting on that one. But whilst we were doing it he polished his rear strut brace, so today i decided to do the same... came up nice and shiny. a quick going over with wet and dry, then a good rub with Autosol and then a coat of clear lacquer. It was quite good fun, so i had a go with one of my intake pipes, it was a bit more complex so i used a dremmel to clean it up. The only problem is that its not made very well to begin with, so it doesnt look amazing.

Parts Update

Ok, well today i received my HKS EVC Boost controller :D looks awesome, i can not wait to get it fitted.

I got a phone call saying that my intercooler was not in stock so i got refunded and also £10 off my downpipe. Thank you Temple Tuning, great customer service!

So i did some more research on the forum and decided to go with the XSPower intercooler and ordered the inlet shroud to go with it... when it comes i will nip to Fensport and see about getting some new hoses and clamps.

Chatting on the forum about my exhaust, it looks like i could sell my other one once i get it fixed, and i should buy the KO Racing one. as it is cat back and only weighs 7kg! :D

All good fun

Decisions

Ok, I have got some money to spend on my car and as you may have seen from my last post, i have been making a bit of a shopping list. This list is basically an extended BPU (Basic Performance Upgrade), but i need to get realistic about what i actually want to do, its all very well buying nice expensive shiny things, but if they are only going to be able to do 1/3rd of what they can do, why not buy a part 1/3rd the price.

The next big purchases and options are...

1. Bodykit
2. Intercooler
3. Downpipe
4. Exhaust
5. ECU

Bodykit: Since owning an MR2 I have always loved the Border front bumper, and since looking for kits i had settled on a Border front with Toms sides and rear. But from looking around, i have noticed that it is a very commong kit, and the front bumper that is on my car is quite rare, its a Kei-Office, which is cool because it goes with my Kei wheels. So my current plan is to get Toms sides, fix my front and get either Toms rear, or border extensions. I dont want to spend too much money on a bodykit, because its a boring white car, and im more interested in how it drives rather than how it looks, and the chances are im going to spank it into a cone on a track day, or a speed bump on the road.

Intercooler: There are 3 options here really, expensive GReddy (£600) and might not need to upgrade for a long time if pushing my cars power, mid-high Berk Tech (£400) similar to above but not for huge power applications, or low XSPower (£180), should see me to the top of bolt on tuning, provided i get good hoses and clips. Ha Ha as i type this i just found a Japspeed Intercooler for (£200)...sold and sold

Downpipe: This doesnt really need a descicion, i think i will just get whatever looks best made for under £200... oops just bought one (Japspeed £130)

Exhaust: Again, since owning an MR2 and getting into the Jap car scene, i have always wanted a Blitz Nur Spec R exhaust, the only reason i havent bought one is because A it is expensive, and B it looks rather big and heavy. I found a nice exhaust KO R1, so i am waiting to hear more about that from the MR2 OC Forum. Or do i just fix the one i have???

ECU: Ok now this is a really difficult one, the options are

• stupid crazy full AEM or MoTec ECU £1000's.... er no, thats for very high power cars, and i am not planning on upgrading fuel lines and internals just yet.
• Link ECU, similar to above but more like below...
• Apexi Power FC, similar to above more more affordable and comes with a base map for my car, (£600) ish, but will still need a rolling road to get it right
• Piggyback ECU like GReddy Emanage, (£300) this will allow me to tweek some signals to get the best out of my current set up, but will not be good enough for higher power applications
• Simple Air Fuel regulator, just make sure its not lean or rich

Shopping, Part 1

Ok, so i have a bit of a shopping list. I have been reading MR2 Only magazine and getting tips from the Tune 2 articles... so far so good, i bought a Manual Boost Controller (not yet fitted), but my friends are all buying nice new powerful cars so i have decided that i want this car to be MENTAL so today i ordered a HKS EVC VI Electronic Boost Controller from ebay... it seems a bit cheap, but it says that its official... worth a punt at almost half the RRP.

Next on the list is:

• Berk Intercooler
• full body kit
• De-cat down pipe (if i dont already have one)
• Braided brake hoses
• hydraulic engine strut

Once i have done those things, i will be running pretty close to the limits of the stock ECU, so i will need to get a new one or a piggyback... i think i might go down the route of a HKS F-Con... lets see.

One thing i also need to do is fix my exhaust, it has a hole in it and also has no sound deadening, so i need to get some more insulation and get a friend of mine to weld it all back up. That reminds me, i need to go to Demon Tweeks now.

Smelly Aircon

After a weekend of driving my car, i started getting the sniffles and running eyes, i tried eliminating various things, such as the new Poppy Coral air freshener (i have had them before), hay fever? no, its almost winter.... Anyway i put it down the the air con (my other car didnt have it), after a bit of searching on the Internet, i found that this is quite common, and it needs to be cleaned. Well MR T wants £75 to service my air con, but for about £10 off ebay i found an aerosol that will clean the bacteria from the unit... leave the air con on recirc and full blast for 10 minutes and jobs a goodun. My car now smells great and the decongestants in the spray make me breathe better :)

WYNNS AIRCONDITIONING CLEANER

Foggy?

Japanese cars do not seem to come with a rear fog light, and mine didnt even have working front fog lights, so i needed to fix this. When the car was imported someone replaced one of the reversing lights with a red bulb and wired it to a switch.. this is really crappy.

I stole the UK switch from my UK car and put it in the dash, i then wired the switch into the after burner set up that i have. This means that when there is no fog, all 4 lights act as lights and brake lights, but if the fog light is pressed, the middle two act as fog lights and the outside two are the lights / brake lights. This is a really good set up. and i found out how to do it using diodes from a post on the MR2 Owners Club forum.

I now had to investigate the front fogs. I manged to find a switch hidden behind the dash, no iea what it did until i traced the wires from the fog lights back to it. (It was an aftermarket PIAA fog light set up) i plugged it back in, but it didnt work. I found out that the fuse had gone, so i replaced teh fuse and found that it was because a bulb had gone. replaced the bulb and it was all good.

Being the perfectionist i am, i also wired this into the existing fog light switch.. all that remains is for me to illuminated it by getting the feed from the light circuit. Easy job for a boring day.

From the old to the new

Ok, well they guy i bought the car from said that he would take my old one off me for £600, and seeing that i bought it over a year ago for only £1200 its not that bad, especially as it has the clutch / gearbox problem, a contsantly flatting battery and a fuel usage problem.

But i will be damned if im going to let all the mods go to waste.

• Clear front indicators swapped


• Rear afterburner set up swapped


• Red Clifford LED swapped


• Grooved discs and EBC / Mintex pads removed


• Wheels swapped (i refurbed the originals and put them on)


• Dash board LEDS swapped


• Radio Swapped

Unfortunately i could not remove the exhaust because it was an NA only, left in the custom induction kit, the wireing harness for the original rear lights was broken so i had to leave the REV3 lights, and i have no idea how to remove a clifford alarm.

So overall i will loose some money on it, but it was my fault for breaking it at the World Record Attempt... damn tunnel was too tempting.

Refurbish Air Filter

My new air filter arrived for my HKS Super Suction Power Flow Other Cool Words Air Induction FIlter. They had ran out of red ones at Envy Performance so i got a standard green one, meh... at least it looks right.

I took the mushroom off the pipe and found that it was completly corroded, and the existing filter foam was falling to pieces.

So i sanded it down

Primed it

then sprayed it

and also used back to black on the rest of the unit to make it look nice and shiny.

Then i put it back in the car, sweet

Giving it a good service :)

Ok, so first thing to do with a new car is to service it... im not going to let some garage monkey touch it, so i ordered all the parts and got stuck in.

• Change oil, i chose 15w50 motorsport oil just for a change, and replaced the filter with a high flowing TRD jobber from fensport. with a sump washer from MR T.


• New Spark plugs NGK BKR7E cold grade (to help stop detonation)


• Newish spark leads, Magnecore 5mm


• Newish dizzy cap and rotor arm


• Nice lemon fresh washer fluid :)


• engine coolant


• ordered a replacement HKS filter


• New battery


• Fuel Filter - yet to fit

im sure i did some other stuff, but i cleaned it too :)

Starting to Sort it out

Part of the insurance also required the installation of a Category 1 thatcham approved alarm. Salah Improts said they would fit a Toad Alarm, but as i had a Clifford Intellistart sitting around for my old car, i figured i would splash out and get a Clifford Concept 650, £400 was not bad either. i got special discount because i had bought from them before.






I also decided that it would be a good idea to change the Turbo hoses as they were looking a bit tired. So a quick trip to Fensport to get some new Samco jobbers :)



MMMMMmm. Weirdly the throttle pipe did not fit on my throttle, i was given a 65mm pipe but it looked like it needed a 70mm one. So i poped back to fensport and chatted to Adrian Smith, and he agreed that my specific car looked different, but still stock, so he cut me some pipe, and i was on my way.. what a nice chap.

I also got a delimiter for my car, this converts the speedo from Kmph to Mph. It does it by changing the signal from the engine (or wheels) so that 1 km = 1 mile. It means i can keep the same dials and potentially go to 180mph, lol

Picking up the car

I got the train to Birmingham on the Saturday morning, and went to pick up the car. Got there about 12:30, took a while to get the tax on the car and then drove to the closest petrol station!

The car felt fast, but didnt blow my socks off, i assumed that the stock turbo just wasnt as fast as i thought. Being a total turbo noob, i also didnt realise that the boost gauge should read full when flooring it... luckily a friend did.

When i got back to Cambridge i decided to take it over to a friends, i let him have a drive and he instantly realised it wasnt boosting right. After a quick look in the engine bay, we noticed that there was no diaphragm on the Blow Off Valve, so basically all the boost was escaping.

We temporarily fitted a metal plate into the flange and just to make sure there was no other problem... WOW the MR2 turbo is a bloody rapid car... i was actually slightly scared by it.

That night i got home and ordered a Boost Gauge, Cold Grade Spark Plugs, a stock BOV and various other little bits.

Insurance

Before picking the car up I phoned around a few places to get insurance, i tried Direct Line, Ardian Flux, Chris Knott and Sky Insurance. After a bit more haggling i got a good price. Seeing as im 24 with 3 years no claims trying to get insured on a Imported 260bhp modified turbo... i knew it would be expensive, but £800 was not bad at all.

Purchase MR2

After having my Red 1992 UK GT T-Bar for a year and modifying it and pushing it pretty hard (on a track day)

It unfortunately developed a clutch / gearbox issue that was making it very difficult to pull away. Regardless of what the problem was it was going to be rather expensive to fix, and i would not be able to fit an LSD, which after pushing a car, you know is almost essential... so i looked around on Ebay for a new car and saw one that caught my eye.

I decided to go and have a look at it instead of just getting drunk and buying it on ebay there and then (which is how i got the last one). It was being sold in Birmingham by Salah Imports who are really nice guys who have some really good stock... i dont think they update their website much, but their fore court is full of great cars.

We drove over there after work and met the guy around 8pm and he showed me the car in the warehouse. it was really clean and looked spot on, after the usual haggling, i paid my deposit and waited to pick it up that weekend.