Kallisti Motorsports

Second autocross, second place :D

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 00:11:55 GMT

Another CMC autocross today, this one at a new site in Portland - an annex lot for the airport. It was a cold, drizzly day, but it dried out in the afternoon. 3 runs in the morning, but sadly only 2 on dry pavement. It worked for me, though. After searching for tire pressure advice on MR2OC, I settled on 35psi all around to start with. It was perfect. All day, the car felt right. Still a bit of inside wheelspin on corner exit, but the only feasible fixes for that at this point are a stiffer front sway bar, or lay off the gas a little. :) I may browse around for a used front sway bar, but it's not a huge deal at this point.

I also tried out the thermometer ahf got me for the first time today. (I forgot it last time.) Immediately after my first couple of runs, I checked the temperatures on the outside edge, middle, and inside edge of the tread of each tire. From that, I was able to determine that my tire pressures were right on, the rear alignment was good, and the front needs more negative camber. Temperatures on the outside of the tire are hotter than the inside, indicating that the outside edge is working a lot harder. More negative camber would even out the load a bit. Unfortunately, I can't GET more negative camber in the front because the stock adjustments and camber bolts are already maxed out.

The only real problem is the alternator belt. Some belt dressing helped before, but despite gooping the heck out of it yesterday, it squealed like a living chicken in a grinder for much of the day. It's getting replaced before the next event - whether kitszoo likes it or not. :P ;) But again, the old MR2 drew a lot of attention from people, just because it's an old MR2. The kid walking by who asked me "Hey, is that your AW11?" was a true nerd, referring to the first generation MR2's chassis designation. (Yes, I am also a true nerd for knowing that myself.)

Like I said, morning runs were wet. First run was a 50.something. Took it a little easy, felt out the course. Never left 1st gear, contrary to what I'd thought I'd do on the course walk. But I never found the rev limited, so I didn't need more than 1st gear. Second run, I COMPLETELY blew due to a stupid mistake. There's one part of the course that repeats itself. At an "intersection," I go left the first time, and right the second time. I went right the first time. Got confused, stopped, and packed it in straight to the finish slowly. A few people got concerned that I'd broken something on the car, but I assured them that the only thing broken was my brain. Third run was decent, a 49.1. I was ahead of DJ, but Kristin was 0.1 ahead of me.

I knew there'd be more grip in the afternoon, since it was dry. My first run went well. Found 2nd gear and stayed there most of the run. Came in, and the timer said 25.something. Huh?! Impossible. Timing error, I get a rerun almost immediately. Sweet! I basically got a practice run because the timing system messed up. It was another good run, ending with a 46.1!!! Three whole seconds faster than my best morning run, which did not, by any means, suck. Kristin asked how I did, and was really frustrated that I blew away her time by so much. I assured her she'd be knocking a similar amount of time off her run. And she did - but not enough to catch me. My second run, I tried to brake later and harder for the turns. It might've worked, but a 46.3 wasn't faster. Still, it was consistent, which makes me happy. For my third run, I was going to try not downshifting to 1st for the final sharp turn before the final slalom, but then there was no third run. As far as I could tell at that point, I'd won the class!!!

Not quite to be, however. Josh's Miata was finally in shape for STS2 competition. Unfortunately, he DNFed all but one run, and it was a 50.something. If he'd just backed off at the finish instead of stopping past the end of the stop box or spinning out, he probably would've beaten me. But that was not to be. His special guest co-driver, however, showed what the car was capable of. And it's certainly capable of beating me. So that knocked me down to 2nd. But still, 2nd place out of 6, in only my second event ever in this car, is pretty darn good. So is beating the two people I'm usually trying to catch up with. :)

I don't have any video of this one. Due to the soggy weather forecast and no committed support vehicle, I didn't bring the camera so it wouldn't get wet. But ahf took a bunch of pics, so I'll have some new web site and LJ icon fodder once she dumps and posts them. :) (EDIT: The pic up top is one of them. :D )

I won't make next weekend's 2-day event in Orono. Lots going on, plus a vacation immediately afterward. So the next one should be July 8 at the same place as today. That gives me a month to get that damn squealing belt replaced. :)

First day out

Wed, 23 May 2007 22:13:45 GMT

Cumberland Motor Club autocross. May 20. Windham, Maine. Booyah. =B^)

The car was a real hit among the participants. I'd been chattering about it on the club forum for a while, but even people who aren't on the forum were coming over, checking it out, and telling me how cool the early MR2s are.

Conditions were cool, dampness in the air but all 6 of my runs were in the dry. Started with tire pressures at 32 all around, slightly higher than factory spec. (Falken Azenis don't need the really high pressures of ordinary street tires to perform at their best.) I'm learning the car quickly - it's not altogether unfamiliar to me, since I've basically recreated the configuration of my old 87 in this one and added decent tires. After morning runs, all four people in my class (myself, a Miata, and a couple in a CRX) were all within 1 second of each other. Not bad for my first romp in the car.

In the afternoon, I lost the touch. I tweaked with tire pressures, which had gone up and I brought them down, but I think the tires were still warm from a run so I let too much air out. I couldn't improve on my morning runs, and the car felt less connected to the ground. Around the looooooong sweeper at the beginning it understeered a bit, yet on my 5th run I got rather sideways in the final slalom. While I didn't improve, both of the CRX drivers pulled away from me. DJ, who owns the car, finished 0.7 ahead of me, while Kristen pulled an absolutely amazing run to finish well over a second ahead of him! She couldn't repeat that, but since it's only your best single run that counts, she scored the win.

I'm really going to enjoy running in STS2 with this club. The other folks in the class are so cool. Kristen hopped in for a ride during one of my runs (she's the passenger in the second run in the video), and afterward she said it was about time I got into a competitive car. :) And DJ made some comment about how he probably had higher expectations of how well I'd perform than I did. I told him he was probably right. :) And Josh, the Miata guy, was very cool, too. He was running on dead shocks and dead tires, and expected to finish last. But once his Miata's in shape, we're probably going to have an enjoyable 4-way battle on our hands. And I find competition is so much more fun when you know the people involved. I watched Kristen's winning run, and afterward I had to go compliment her on it and concede defeat. :)

During one run, Richard, who currently has a new MR2, asked to ride along. He had an 85 MR2 just like this one years ago. He enjoyed the ride - of course, that was the run where I got all sideways in the slalom. :) He recommended installing a larger front sway bar to help keep the inside rear wheel from spinning when powering out of a turn. I'll have to look into that. ahf's Miata came with one installed for that very reason.

Soon after the event, I noticed some funky handling in the front suspension. Turns out one of the camber bolts had worked itself loose. Again. Not that maniac driving on grippy tires an inch wider than stock would have anything to do with that. So I used longer tools for more leverage and tightened it down as hard as I could. Again. Hopefully that does the trick.

All in all, a good time. I'm looking forward to doing it again on June 3. Though I might have to get started on some bodywork soon. It goes nicely, but it could look a bit nicer. Oh, and that squeaky alternator belt has got to get fixed.

A beautiful sight

Sat, 19 May 2007 13:15:06 GMT

Lem worked some miracles and got me the last 4 205/50/15 Azenis in the country. Got them Thursday. Got the MR2 yesterday. Got them on the car today. And I do my first autocross tomorrow. :D Today I also plan on a little shakedown cruising. You know, just to wear the slick outer coating off the new tires... Yeah, that's it... ;)

World premiere

Thu, 17 May 2007 01:33:40 GMT

Life has been so busy I just realized I never updated after the half-a-spring-swap. So, to summarize.

Quite a few hours spent slaving away evenings after work to try and get the fronts done. Due to the lack of a vise where I was working, I actually found it easier to remove both front suspensions, bring them home, swap parts around here, bring them back, and reinstall them on the car. Yeah, a pain, shuttling parts and tools back and forth, but them's the breaks (brakes? No, those stayed on the car). In the end, however, I got the Eibachs on the 85, as well as both Tokico shocks, and I got the stock springs on the 87 so it could be rolled out of the garage. Like, yay and stuff.

kitszoo then took it to get the required alignment after taking the suspension completely apart. The rear went OK. The front, however, could only be adjusted to 1* of POSITIVE camber. And that's as far NEGATIVE as it would go. WTF? So I picked up some camber bolts, put them in the front, and set them as far negative as they'll go. I don't have a way to measure camber at this point, but I do have a toe gauge, and adjusted things for just a smidge of toe-in - good for commuting, which, after all, is this car's primary purpose despite my racing aspirations. :)

I'd planned on doing the next autocross on the Saturn's old Kumho Ecsta SPT tires that are already on the wheels I plan to use. I did a test fit last week while tightening up the suspension (one of the camber bolts had come loose during a test drive, fortunately near my house). It didn't fit. The 205/55/15 tire is too tall and rubs the spring perch. So I can't race the car until I get some smaller tires - like the 205/50/15 Falken Azenis I'd planned on. First it looked like the money wouldn't be there, but after settling up a few pending deals it materialized. So then I went to get the tires from a guy in the club who runs a local shop, and due to a nationwide shortage, it looked like I wouldn't be able to get them for a week or two - after this Sunday's event. Then the guy gave me a call and told me he'd gotten me the last 4 tires *in the country*. They'd be there on Thursday. Got another call today, they arrived a day early. :D So I have my Saturn alloys in the back seat of my... um... Saturn, and after work tomorrow I get my new tires. Friday, I pick up the MR2 for the weekend. Saturday, I put on the Saturn alloys with new race rubber. And Sunday, I race. :D

I'm looking forward to it. Obviously. It's only what all this work has been leading up to for me. :) I hope to have pics and video to share.

And the project isn't over, either. There's still bodywork and paint to deal with. I'll just be running "ugly" on Sunday. :)

Half-assed spring swap

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:23:07 GMT

Actually, a more accurate description would be "ass-only." Since snowbanks and mud pits prevented the intended spring swap (Eibachs from the parts car swapped to the project car and vicey-versey), I skipped CMC's first autocross weekend to try and get it done. Actually I had other plans for Saturday, so I devoted Sunday to the project. I've done 2 Saturns in an afternoon before - how bad could it be?

Well, pretty bad. No real showstoppers, just a lot of little problems with both cars all along the way. The biggest one is the lack of a vise where I'm working. It's quite difficult to tighten and loosen spring compressors without the strut being held in something like... well, a vise. ahf and I got through all these problems, but it took far more time and energy than expected. By the time the rear springs were finished, we were out of both. Had to call it a day.

So kitszoo's truck is supposed to go into the shop Thursday morning. So I have 3 weeknights to finish the job. The front struts should come off the parts car easily, since I've had them off before. I'll be removing the Tokico shock from one side and installing both front Tokicos on the red car. This will absolutely require a vise to hold the strut in place while I remove the big nut that holds the shock absorber insert inside. It looks like I'm going to have to remove struts, then take them home to where I have a good vise to swap springs and shocks around, then bring them back to reinstall. That'll take even more time I don't have. And the red car can't be left in the garage, without struts, overnight, because the silver car is already propped up on 4 jackstands taking up the other bay, and tractors need to be inside for the night.

To summarize, this sucks.

But I'll do what I can.

Proof that it works

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 02:50:04 GMT

You can thank ke4peo for inspiring this wacky idea, kitszoo for allowing the car to be used for it, and ahf for much of the camera work. >:D

Test drive

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 20:25:00 GMT

*cue Knight Rider music*

"I'm warning you, Devon, I'm going to put this thing to the test..."

"Be my guest."

That's not exactly how it went down with kitszoo this morning, but it worked out. :) She's been commuting to work in the MR2 ever since it passed inspection earlier this week. It's running much smoother, now that it's run some cleaner goop and premium gas through it, and the battery hasn't discharged (of course being driven regularly helps keep it filled up with electricity). Today she had a small road trip to make, and invited me along to play with it on the way home. Um, ok. :D

On our way out of town, for the first time we removed the sunroof and stowed it in the frunk. Fresh air is nice. I was rather impressed that with the sunroof off the noise level didn't really go up. In fact, it's quieter and less turbulent than my Saturn with its sunroof open.

The power has, indeed, returned to the level it should be. It starts right up, idles smooth, and I think it even runs a bit smoother than the 87 did. kitszoo thinks it might be a tiny bit down on power as compared to the 87, but the 87 had the larger exhaust from a supercharged MR2 to free up the airflow a bit, compared to a stock exhaust on the 85. We'll save the SC exhaust to install later, but since the stock one isn't broken right now, we're not going to fix it yet. My Saturn will thoroughly cream it in straight line acceleration, but it's got an extra 20-25hp or so and weighs about the same, so that's not a fair comparison. I just have to keep reminding myself this when I put the hammer down in the MR2 and wait for something to happen. :)

The brakes are surprisingly good, for being stock and 85 size (the 87's are bigger). New pads and rotors help, of course, but for regular street driving they work great. No pull to either side, and rather good stopping distance. The pedal is quite firm, as well. We bled the one corner when I replaced the caliper, but we haven't bled the rest of the system yet, so once we flush it with ATE Super Blue it'll get even better. It feels better than the 87 ever did, and the 87 wasn't bad, except for a somewhat squishy brake pedal.

Even the handling is quite good, and took a few twisties at speed to test it. When pushed hard, it definitely leans a bit more than the 87 with its Eibach springs (keep in mind, the 85's suspension is still bone stock). But it still corners like the street-legal go-kart it is, and many smiles were had. Still want to get the Eibachs swapped over, as well as the Tokico blue shocks (front only, since the 87 rears are incompatible with the 85), but stock isn't bad.

Overall, I'm very happy - and a bit shocked - with how well the car runs and drives. It makes me feel good knowing that all the hours and work and "magic car fixing words" I put into this project are actually paying off. Maybe that helps undo some of the bitterness I still feel about not quite finishing the 87, and its subsequent demise.

I've made a decision on tires. Rather than use the spare set of MR2 alloys leftover from the 87, I'm going to get a set of 205/50/15 Falken Azenis RT-615s mounted on my Saturn alloys. Larger wheel, wider tire, better performance than the 195/60/14 Azenis. And on top of that, I can use the Azenis on my Saturn if I feel like doing an event the MR2 isn't available for, or that the Saturn would be better suited for (driving school at NHIS, etc.) And part of my tax refund oughta cover that. :) Just have to get it done and make it happen.

First CMC autocross is the last weekend of April. Best case, tires and springs will be installed by then and we'll be ready to run. If not, I could run on stock springs and have the Eibachs on for the next event at the end of May. And/or I can run on the Kumho Ecsta SPTs currently occupying the wheels I intend to use for autocross. Either way, I can make it work.

On the road again

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 01:28:45 GMT

Amazingly, it passed inspection. On the first try!!! I'm pleasantly shocked and stunned.

So the car is now 100% street legal. Commuting should do a good job of blowing the crap out of the engine from sitting for so long. Next step should be to schedule the spring swap from the 87. :)

Getting there

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:10:41 GMT

Haven't posted much lately since not much has gone on. But stuff has gone on that's worth posting about.

We got the 85 out of the snowbank and into the garage, just in time for *another* spring snowstorm to bury the 87 in a new snowbank. Naturally, just as the 87 became inaccessible, somebody bumped my "parting out 87 t-top" post on MR2OC and a new flurry of parts requests is coming in - and backing up.

The 85 went into the garage to potentially be painted by a friend from MR2OC. Between bad planning, bad communication, and bad timing of snowstorms, this hasn't happened. We've just about run out of time to leave a vehicle parked in the garage for any period of time, so our window of opportunity may already be shut on this until we come up with some other arrangement. We still eventually want the purple/silver paint we'd previously discussed, but since the car is 5 different colors now we're tossing around some other ideas to do in the meantime.

During its stay in the garage, the car got a stereo and 4 speakers. This is not an insignificant accomplishment. It was previously equipped with a rather killer stereo system, or at least I assume so based on the total lack of stereo equipment and wiring the car came with. Even the wiring for 3 out of 4 speakers was gone. So it all had to be run from scratch - Crutchfield's installation kits were no good in this case (nothing against Crutchfield). Fortunately, one of the only factory wiring harnesses that was intact was the one containing constant power, switched power, and ground, and it was still fully functional. So I was able to use this, then run new wires to the other speakers (with the help of ziranbrom - thanks!) The extension cord for the relocated AM/FM antenna wasn't long enough, but we just got an even longer one last night that we'll install sometime soon. And the leather shifter boot is now installed, looking MUCH better than the trashed stock one.

The car is now registered, and has an appointment for inspection this coming Tuesday. Hopefully it gets through it OK. At the moment the engine is running very rough again, no doubt due to sitting for a couple more weeks since it's still not entirely street legal without the inspection. Once legal, kitszoo will start commuting in it regularly, which, given her highway commute, should give it a good "Italian tune-up" and keep it running a bit better.

It occurred to me recently, while updating the web site, that nearly our entire to-do list on this car is, in fact, done. Only a few things remain:

Inspection, plus whatever work may be necessary to get it to pass.
Install the Eibach springs from the 87 (waiting till after inspection, just in case).
Paint job.
Get some STS2 legal tires to autocross on.

The plan for tires has been to snag some 195/60/14 Falken Azenis RT-615s and put them on the spare triangle alloys leftover from the 87. But some discussion on the Cumberland Motor Club forum involved many people telling me I need a wider tire to have a chance against the Miatas and CRXs in the class. I'm tossing around the idea of using a set of my 15" Saturn wheels with 205/50/15 tires instead. They'll bolt right onto the MR2 with a different set of lug nuts, and as a bonus I could also use them on my Saturn if needed - for example, at a track day so I could preserve the tires I commute on (same reason I won't autocross on the nice Toyo all-seasons the 85 came with). MR2 wheels will *NOT* fit on a Saturn because the centerbore is smaller than the Saturn's hub, but going the other direction is no problem. I could run an even wider tire than 205 on the MR2, but that's the widest I could go and not have it rub the Saturn's struts.

A real update

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 20:24:43 GMT

We didn't get anything done on the 85 today.

Mr. Snowplow Guy decided to bury the car after Friday's storm, and it's the thick chunky icy crud that even the snowblower can't chew its way through. We'd been hoping to finish the stereo install today, but it was not to be.

Still, I took some updated pics.

The 87 tail lights look good. Had to drill 2 new holes through the metal and they bolted right on. Unlike when we started, all of the lights work properly now.

You can see how some more the 87's parts have migrated to the "new" car. We like the look of the later side air intake scoop better (it'll all get painted the same color later), as well as the clear turn signals. The front license plate is in its stock location for now, but later on we might do an offset mount for it like I did on the 87.

You can also see the relocated antenna sticking out the roof. I broke off the old antenna and temporarily put the base back on, just to cover up the hole until we attack the bodywork and "shave" it entirely. kitszoo says this new antenna makes it look like a radio controlled toy car. She isn't far from the truth, because it IS a toy. (Toyota, even...)

Here's a current engine bay shot. New spark plug wires (stock). I added a battery bracket to keep it secure. And you can see the 87's intake swapped over, plus a brand new air filter we found at Pep Boys, of all places. It's totally intended for a riced up Civic or something, but it fits perfectly on the AFM, and it's short enough to be out of the way. I don't think it even sticks out far enough to be under the vent at the rear of the engine lid.

Meanwhile, the dismantling of the 87 continues.

Lots of stuff removed, either sold or ready for sale. The engine lid was the first to go, not to be sold but just so it would be out of the way since there was no way to prop it open. The rear spoiler was removed for a sale, but then the buyer backed out. I test fit this on the back of the Miata, but it looked completely ridiculous. :)

The frunk lid was another accident waiting to happen, so we removed that too. Other than that not much disassembly here.

Most of the work has been done in the interior. Blue interior parts are the hottest selling items on this car - especially if they come off in one piece without shattering! 20 years in the sun will do that. Yes, the instrument cluster is completely gone - the gauge cluster itself is available but much of the trim around it has been sold. And the inner door panel is a pending sale as well.

Next things to do are... well, get the 85 out of the snowbank, for one thing. Then we can finish the stereo install. By then, hopefully kitszoo will finally have gotten the registration transferred from the 87. Then we can deal with inspection. And after that, I plan to take a day to put both cars in the garage side-by-side and swap springs. The 85 will get the Eibachs from the 87, and, yes, the 87 will get the 85's stock springs. We could sell them, but we want to be able to keep rolling the car around the yard as needed. This will give us more time to part it out, since in another month or so we'll need to vacate the garage, at least on a permanent basis. So I figure I'll swap the suspension between both cars all at the same time to keep both of them potentially mobile. Once the springs are on, all the 85 will need is some good tires on the 87's old alloys, and we're ready to go racing! Though the car will probably have a paint job done before then...

I love it when a plan comes apart

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 01:04:06 GMT

This past Sunday I focused mainly on dismantling parts of the silver MR2. I posted a thread on MR2OC - "Parting out 87 t-top, tell me what you want..." (OK, a bit longer than that and with some details, but you get the idea.) A lot of people are interested in parts, and a few have even shown me the money. :) Mostly it's interior bits and pieces. Plastic grows brittle after 20 years in the sun, and people are looking to replace broken parts. I've managed to break one or two myself while trying to remove them, but I've been telling people to let me try removing them before giving them a price, so I won't charge them for a broken part. :)

We also pulled the 85 into the other garage bay for a little while to begin the stereo installation. I managed an extremely slick XM radio installation, all ready to plug into the head unit. Then things got tricky. There are no brackets to hold the head unit in, and I can't find any speaker wires where the speakers ought to be. Looks like I may end up running new wiring all around, and will have to come up with something clever to keep the stereo itself in place. That's about it for the red car, though, until it's registered and, hopefully, inspected. Street legality is important for what's supposed to be primarily a commuter car. :) It also helps shake things down a bit on a longer drive, see if any problems come up that need to be fixed. Better to do it during conservative driving than on a race track.

I should take some pics of my own, rather than waiting for others to get sent to me someday. >:) The silver car is looking really impressive, in that "OMG a bomb hit this thing" sort of way. I think the struts should come off soon, mainly because we're going to want to make those Eibach springs available for the red car once we're ready to play switcharoo.

Out with the old, in with the not-so-old but very rusty

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 02:58:23 GMT

It was another good day in MR2 wrenching land. We had two goals for today: try to get the 85 running better, and get the 87 into the garage to be dismantled.

The 85 was nearly out of gas, which was at least a couple of years old. So we emptied a 5 gallon jug of new gas into the tank, plus some dry gas and Lucas cleaner stuff that was recommended to us by iroczgrl. (This was after another jump start, since the battery was dead again after sitting for a week.) We also checked the spark plugs and wires. The plugs were good, but two out of four wires fell apart when I removed them. So we went to the parts store for replacements, and also picked up a cheap ricer K&N style air filter that fit on the AFM much better, and a battery bolt-down kit, since there's nothing holding the battery in place now. It ran much more smoothly after running for not too long, and a quick warm-up and test drive up and down the road showed me that the power is back, too. There was a distinct smell of unburnt fuel before, but not anymore. I suspect that the dead spark plug wires weren't allowing enough spark to burn all the fuel, causing some of the problems. So I declare the 85 roadworthy and ready for a try at state inspection. :) Oh, once the horn, which used to work fine and just quit, is fixed. Of course, kitszoo's idea of "roadworthy" includes a stereo, and one can hardly argue her logic. :) And her leather shifter boot arrived in the mail. We didn't install it today - instead we'll do that at the same time we run the antenna extension cord up underneath the center console, since we have to remove it for both jobs anyway. We parked it, and left it running a while to recharge the battery.

Then it was time to bring the 87 parts car into the garage. This was one wacky adventure. Keep in mind that the 87 no longer runs under its own power, AND it has no brakes! Oh, and no seats, either. The idea was to use a tow rope and pull it behind the 18hp lawn mower into the garage. It's an uphill into the garage, and in a low gear we'd be going slow enough for the car to coast to a stop, or throw a block of wood in front of a wheel to stop it. What we hadn't counted on, however, was the snow that had packed into ice in places on the way to the garage. Traction was our single most difficult issue, and being a lawn mower it wasn't equipped with tire chains. We spent at least half an hour making extremely slow progress - pulling, pushing, sliding, digging in snow, spreading ash from the wood stove on the ground... kitszoo alternated between sitting in the car steering it, pushing the car, and at one point even stood on the back of the lawn mower to try and give it more traction. But eventually, the mower made it to the garage's concrete floor, and all went well. I had actually thought ahead to how to get the mower *out* from in front of the car, and had already arranged a path to drive it around to the adjacent bay where the mowers are stored. Unfortunately, with just two people, one on the mower and one in the car to steer in the close quarters of the garage, there was no one to chuck a piece of wood in front of a tire to stop it once inside. Some quick thinking on kitszoo's part and she popped the car into 1st gear, which stopped it quite nicely. It was an insane comedy of errors, the sort of thing you tell your buddies about over a few too many beers and laugh at how stupid you were at the time, but in the end all was done and nothing was broken - not even the lawn mower.

The second most difficult part was finding parts of the underbody that were NOT too rusted to support the car's weight on jackstands. It took a bit if finagling and probably 10 attempts in the rear, but eventually we found a setup we're happy with, and that the car is stable on. This is important because the car's going to be here a while, and I will be under it at times.

Around this time, kitszoo noticed smoke coming out the engine lid of the 85! We'd left it running for so long that it overheated. This wouldn't have happened, except we forgot that I'd disconnected the constantly-on engine fans to try and get some heat into the passenger compartment during the winter. Oops! I don't think any real harm was done. The lid of the coolant reservoir had partially disintegrated from the heat, so I swiped the lid from the 87 to replace it. There's a plastic hose that also showed signs of heat distortion, so I snagged that from the 87 as well and will replace it the next time we work on the 85. Yes, we feel stupid now, ok?

From there, dismantling began. I already had some requests from folks on MR2OC, so I removed those pieces - well, except for an interior trim piece that, unlike on the 85, shattered into several pieces instead of popping off the A-pillar. Guess he won't be wanting it anymore. Since the 87 no longer has an engine lid prop rod, I simply removed the engine lid, and access to the engine bay is greatly simplified. kitszoo removed the wheel with the one remaining snow tire in an oddball size from the others. She'll get it replaced with one in the proper size, and then all four snow tires can go on the 85 until spring.

At this point, we called it a day. Dismantling will continue, but the order of parts removal will depend on what requests I get from the "parting out 87 T-top" post I just made on MR2OC tonight. We'll go from there, sell what we can, save what may be useful later on the 85, and when we're done what's left of the 87 will go away.

If you're reading this and want any parts from an 87 MR2, let me know. :)

IT'S ALIIIIIVVVVE!!!!!!!!!!!

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 22:10:21 GMT

Been a slow couple of weeks. Between bitter cold that even the wood stove couldn't cut through, and a lack of funds for a set of '85 rotors, not much of anything got done. But that changed today. My goal for today was to get the car roadworthy.

My first project was to install the mid-roof radio antenna. Not exactly a top priority repair, but the interior was already taken apart, so it made sense to do this now, reassemble the interior, and leave it. So I got to drill a hole in the roof. Once big enough, I found that it wasn't going to go together quite like I expected, so that sloped back Scirocco antenna look wasn't going to happen. But it's there, secure, and with a little extra silicone to plug potential leaks it's solid. I ran the antenna lead as far as it would go, under the headliner, down the B-pillar, and the end currently sits behind the panel where the door buzzer used to live. It's safe there until we get an extension to lead to the stereo - that is, once we *have* a stereo, and speakers, and all that. Then I put the interior back together.

Meanwhile, iroczgrl showed up and began reassembly of the brakes. This was a straightforward affair, since we're not upgrading to the larger 87 brakes at this time. She hit a snag, however, when the piston of the left front caliper couldn't be pushed back in to make room for the new brake pads. It was seized. Normally, this would be a major bummer and add some time and expense to the rehab. However, the 87 was parked outside, with perfectly good calipers. So after finishing the interior I "liberated" a caliper from the 87. Iroczgrl had it on the 85 by the time we finished removing the front license plate from the 87 (to go on the 85) and I'd lowered the car back to the ground. She also snagged the H4 headlights from the 87 and, with a little finagling of rusty bolts, we got them on the 85. Iroczgrl and I bled the left front caliper and the brakes were done. The fluid is adequate, but dirty. Particularly with the smaller 85 rotors, I'll be wanting to change out the old brake fluid for some ATE Super Blue Racing I had at home, but not at the "job site." For now, however, it's fine.

Then it was time for the moment of truth. We reconnected the battery, put the wheels back on for the first time since the car was delivered, lowered it to the ground (that was an adventure as the larger floor jack we'd used gave up the ghost and my smaller one didn't go high enough to reach), and fired it up. With plates on front and back, it was time for our very first test drive. =B^)

Since it hasn't been inspected yet, I just drove down to the end of the road and back, which was still long enough to put the car through a few paces. The brakes feel good - need to be bedded in still, but it takes more than a quick cruise down the block for that. Handling is OK. This was my first time EVER driving an MR2 on a STOCK suspension! It's definitely cushier than the 87 with its Eibachs. Still a great handling car, but quite a bit more body roll. kitszoo has decided we definitely need to swap the Eibachs on, as she's used to the go-kart handling of the 87. I completely agree.

Power, well, that wasn't so good. The engine's running OK, not stalling out or anything, but it's definitely down on power, and it sputters some. Those with a sense of smell (I have none) smelled gas when I started it. The gas tank is almost empty, and the remaining gas is probably at least 2 years old. So fresh gas and a basic tune-up are next on the list of things to do. I'm optimistic that this alone should get it running more like it should.

Additionally, now that the 85 is mobile under its own power, it's time to move the 87 into the garage and begin stripping parts. This is where the fun really begins. :D It'll also mean removing the snow tires and popping them on the 85 for the rest of the winter. The Toyo Proxes H4s were perfectly adequate in the snowy driveway, but since we have the snow tires we might as well use them. The Toyos will make great highway commuting tires come warmer weather. But we had other plans for the afternoon, so the 87 is still out in the snow for now. This, plus the tune-up on the 85, are next on the agenda. Getting that coveted inspection sticker is on the list, too. Then the real fun can begin...

Work day #1

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 16:09:07 GMT

OK, so this was actually *last* weekend, but I haven't gotten around to cropping and posting pics and writing this until now. mkay?

Got a lot more done than we ever expected in one day's worth of work. Though granted, we had 3 of us working on it, and I'm used to doing this sort of thing alone. Also, this car is AMAZINGLY clean!!! I don't see how it could've possibly lived in Maine its whole life. The brake lines, fuel lines, etc. are in great shape, and now that we've looked underneath the car w can see the structure is totally solid. There's barely any rust on the car, and best of all, every part we've removed so far has come free with very little effort. Particularly compared to the rusty 87, which I'll get back to later...

We started with some easy stuff, swiping the plastic wiper switch knob and the shift knob from the 87, as well as the wipers, arms and all. The 85's were rusted and didn't have blades on them, but I'd painted the 87's last year, so we just put the better looking ones on.

The previous owner said it needed "brakes." We weren't sure exactly what that meant, but when we pulled off the wheels it was pretty obvious. All the rotors look like this. The pads still have life left, but they've also seen better days. However, the 87's brakes are in fine shape - in fact the rear calipers and rotors are new, and there was a complete set of stock brake pads in the trunk - slightly damn from a leaky trunk seal, but perfectly usable. In addition, Toyota switched to a larger brake design in 87, which means better braking than the 85's design. Best of all the only parts necessary to upgrade are the larger rotors and the larger caliper brackets (the calipers themselves are the same). So we figure we'll just swap the parts over from the 87. That's what parts cars are for, right? All we'll need to buy new is a new pair of front rotors.

So, to start with, we disassembled the brakes on all four corners of the car. It can stay in the garage this way for a while until we have all the parts we need for reassembly. While the brakes are off the car, we'll replace the ball joints, which was the other thing the previous owner said the car needed. Removing the brakes isn't necessary for this, but there's so much more room to work down there with the rotors out of the way, we might as well do it now.

Do those seats look familiar? They're out of the 87. Here's the really ironic thing. I got these seats for the 87 from a guy who had bought a pair of black/red 85 seats to put into his red MR2. Now the black seats are going back into a red MR2 (that won't be staying red, but still).

The black/red seats are for sale. The beagle is not. (Winchester is our mascot, we can't sell him!)

Here's where the "Franken2" part comes in. This is the side air intake grill from the 87. Compare it to the 85:

We like the 87 design better. Again, the whole car will be repainted, so the mismatched colors don't matter right now.

We also figured out that the sunroof not only pops up, it's completely removeable, and it fits (barely) into the frunk. For autocross, I can save a little weight up top by removing it and leaving it out of the car, but for commuting it's a little more convenient to take it with you.

The 87 had a better flowing intake that I'd installed. I swapped the entire setup, AFM and all, to the 85. This also saved the hassle (and expense) of buying the adapter bracket necessary to attach the K&N air filter (yes, it needs cleaning) to the 85's AFM.

Although we didn't have much daylight left, we decided it would make sense to swipe the 87's caliper brackets now. That way, once we got the rotors, we could put a full set of brakes on the 85 and be done with it. I started with the right side, which came free without much effort. Makes sense, since the brakes were off the car not too long before it came off the road. On the left side, one of the two bolts came out. The other, well, it had a 19mm head, which was strange because all the other bolts on both cars were 17mm. But the main problem was that the bolt simply would not budge.

I even pulled out the big guns:

No go. I gave up and swapped a few other small parts over to the 85 (the clear front turn signal lenses among them), while the others managed to pry the stuck bracket far enough away from the rotor that it would come off. But the bracket's still stuck, and we need it to use the 87 rotors on the 85. At the moment, we have 3 options:

1. Continue to try to get this bracket off the 87 without destroying it.

2. Try to buy a bracket from someone parting out an 87-89 MR2.

3. Buy four rotors for an 85 and keep the stock setup.

This process caused some collateral damage on the wheelwell. Also shows just how rusted out the 87 is under the ripply silver skin. This is why the car's off the road. Fortunately, this happened to the parts car, NOT the car we're assembling.

Then it was time to go back into the garage and warm up a bit. Yeah, that's a wood stove. In the garage. And it keeps things nice and toasty in there. :D We decided to call it a day at that point, since we needed to get more parts to continue the project anyway.

Last night, the parts fairy brought us many of the parts we need - ball joints, a positive battery terminal (the one on the 85 is scary), and a few other little things. We're holding off on rotors until we know what year MR2 we'll need to get them for. :)

Tomorrow we plan to attack the ball joints, that caliiper bracket again (if successful in removing it, we'll swipe the front ones too), and perhaps try a little more electrical diagnosis on the 85. The tail lights mostly don't work. Could be fuses, bulbs, relays, whatever - we don't know yet, we haven't checked. We'll get to it before it goes on the road.

A second chance

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 21:57:31 GMT

In a reply to mfulghum's comment to my last post - back in April 2006 - I said about MR2s, "They're fun. I'd definitely consider getting another someday - preferably a LOT less rusty than this one."

Well, I haven't gotten another MR2. After its initial tune-up, the Saturn's been the good reliable commuter I needed. My friend who bought the MR2 has enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the unfinished rust removal has taken its toll. There's no way it'll ever pass state inspection again, particularly with new, tougher standards taking effect.

And then our attention was drawn to a red 1985 MR2. It had been sitting on a small dealer's lot for over a year. The paint was badly faded, but the body was in *much* better shape than the silver 87. A little rust here and there, but nothing compared to previous car. The seller had put a lot of work into it - a fresh motor with only 50k miles on it, starter, alternator... He said it still needed ball joints and "brakes" to pass inspection. And the battery was dead. And there were some missing interior pieces (wiper switch, shift knob, stereo).

It's a project I wouldn't suggest someone take on as their new commuter car. However, there's this rusty 87 MR2 with lots and lots of good parts to donate - including parts the 85 needs. And all of the 87's upgrades can be swapped to the 85. One thing led to another, and she snagged the 85 for $650, delivered to her driveway. Best of all, she told me she'd be willing to let me autocross it locally, and maybe even go to the GRM $2007 Challenge with it. ahf might just get that rematch after all...

So I'm reactivating this LJ account to blog the progress of Operation: Franken2. You can read more about the big picture on the Kallisti Motorsports web site (note the "new" temporary URL - I had some DNS issues with the old one).

Soul searching

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 13:42:22 GMT

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I post when I make progress on the car. As we head into spring, you'd think I'd be making some significant progress on the car. We've even had some days warm enough for Bondo to work properly, allowing me to redo some of the bodywork that has deteriorated over the winter. But none of that's happened.

A new job has caused my transportation situation to change significantly. The main reason I got a rusty old MR2 for cheap was because I was using a company vehicle for work, and I never had to rely on my own car to get me somewhere to keep the bills paid. But now, I have a 45 minute commute each way, and the MR2 is my only vehicle. I've had issues getting an alignment so I don't kill my new snow tires. I've had trouble finding replacement inner tie rods, since the car is 20 years old and parts aren't so common anymore. Worst of all, the local shop is afraid to put the car up on a lift due to the possibility of busting through my rusty floorpan rather than lifting the car. These factors are not conducive to my long term stability at this job, which I really need.

It seems that I need a newer car. Something reliable. Something less rusty. Something I can get parts for easily and quickly. But something I can still work on myself. Something that gets better than the 25mpg I've been getting lately (yeah, it's gone down from 30ish when I got it), and a larger fuel tank so I don't have to "fill up" with 7 gallons every 2 days. And I still want something fun.

As luck would have it, around the time I came to this conclusion, an old friend of mine decided to sell his old car - a 1996 Saturn SL2. Before you roll your eyes at one of the most boring cars I can get compared to the MR2, let me tell you that this is no ordinary Saturn. He's tweaked it out rather nicely. All the standard bolt-ons - intake, header, exhaust, Eibach springs, etc. Mid-90s Saturns were notorious for oil consumption issues. His had them, and while rebuilding the engine to cure them, he mixed and matched parts from different years and shaved the head to bump up compression and power a bit. I have a long history with Saturns, having gotten a 95 SC2 in 1999 and autocrossed it a lot - mainly against this particular 96 SL2. And this car usually beat me. To misquote an old saying, if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em...

"Well this is great," you might say. "You have a fun commuter car, and you can still focus on tweaking out the MR2 for autocross and the $2006 Challenge." At another time and another place, that's exactly what I'd do. Unfortunately, my current living situation will only tolerate one car per resident. Yes, I managed to bend that rule a bit by having a company vehicle in addition to the MR2, but I can't bend it far enough to let me have a commuter *and* a tinker car. Which means, unfortunately, that the tinker car will have to go. :(

The good news is that another friend of mine, who has been looking for a cheap, non-boring commuter car to supplement her 3/4 ton diesel pickup, will be buying the MR2 from me once I get the Saturn on the road and inspected and all that fun stuff. It'll remain pretty much in its present state of tune. Actually, I'll probably remove the rear sway bar and resell it, while recycling the end links on the Saturn, which needs some. I've already finagled a deal to swap my brand new Falken Azenis for cash and a set of Saturn alloy wheels to put summer tires on (the car is coming with snow tires on steel rims, which will be very useful during the next Maine winter). I'm keeping the stereo that's in it now, but will install another CD player I found packed away, and put my CD/MP3 player in the Saturn (which is coming with no head unit but with an amp and component speakers already installed - should be plug 'n' play). And we'll probably end up tackling the bodywork together, and try to stretch out the car's life as long as we possibly can. I don't expect it to get through state inspection again, after the hassles I had last time, but the sticker's good until December, so she'll at least get the rest of this year out of it. And we've agreed that I can occasionally borrow the MR2 as a backup vehicle to get to work if the Saturn is out of commission.

I'm sad to stop this project halfway through. I've been SO looking forward to a rematch against ahf and the Miata. But as it happens, although my 195/60/14 snow tires will clear the right front spring perch, the 195/60/14 Falken Azenis still rub, so I'd have to do that strut job all over again to hammer out the spring perch a bit more. Now that I'm working full time and commuting, I can't afford that kind of downtime. The Saturn isn't in perfect shape - it, too, needs 4 new struts, but that's a very simple job on that car which I can do in an afternoon. And it needs very little. In fact, I could start commuting in it immediately once I get it on the road. Getting through inspection, with Maine's totally erratic standards that vary from shop to shop, will be the one tricky bit, though not nearly as tricky as with the MR2. It'll just be a matter of time and finding a shop that likes the car, and maybe removing the window tint if the laws in Maine are different than Mass, where the car is coming from.

Though it will be primarily a commuter, I'm not giving up on autocross. The current (and only) owner did quite well running the Saturn in DSP (the internal engine work is illegal in STS), and that was among the more competitive folks in southern New England. I'm not sure what I'm doing about tires just yet, but even on some decent summer street tires I may be able to hold my own at CMC and SCCNH events. Racing is a secondary priority, commuting being the first, but it's definitely a consideration. The car is so nicely set up it would be a shame for all that work to go to waste. >:)

Those of you who were looking forward to a $2006 Challenge project may not be entirely disappointed, however. The purchase price of the Saturn is $1200. The cost of the work it needs, plus a set of tires to compete on, should keep it under the $2006 limit. I was on the team that entered the first Saturn ever in the GRM Challenge events. Perhaps I'll enter my own this year...

Plan B

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 17:50:25 GMT

Thursday morning, I get an alignment and 2 front snow tires. This will be regardless of whether they find the slightly used ones in the warehouse or not. If they do, great, I'll take them and it'll be a little cheaper. If not, I'll take 2 new Viking snows for the front. Either way, I get what I need.

And at this point, I expect to take another break from tweaking the MR2. This stage of repair/upgrade will be complete. Well, except for the 3 remaining Tokico strut cartridges. That'll be the next priority, and will depend on scheduling with someone who's got better tools and facilities than I do. After that, there's really just two areas left - brakes and bodywork. Brakes will happen before my first track day, and bodywork will happen as I can schedule it with Derek.

It also just occurred to me that with my weekends now free, I'll be able to devote some time to helping out Kakashi Racing, who recently bought the #34 ITA Saturn SC formerly run by James Walker, Jr. in the midwest. This is probably *the* most famous Saturn race car among Saturn performance nuts, and has come to live in New England. The new owner has raced before but not in a Saturn, and I figure I can help him out, both with my years of experience wrenching on Saturns as well as maybe some driving tips, since at this point I have more track time in Saturns than he does. :) It's not the same as being in the driver's seat myself, but for the time being it's the closest I can get to road racing. And it's pretty darn close.

Meanwhile, I'm eyeballing the Cumberland Motor Club's April 29-30 autocross in NH as my first event of the year (one or both days, not sure which). Unfortunately that's the *only* 2006 event even mentioned on their web site so far - the schedule is still from 2005. SCCNH has their season posted, though, and I'm planning to instruct at their May 13 school and the May 14 autocross. It's quite exciting to actually be planning to race for the first time this year, and for the first time with the car in decent condition.

Though if there's an ice race this weekend, I will have 4 good snow tires and the time off work to make it... >:D

Azenis mounted!

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 16:48:56 GMT

Funny how everything works out in the end. I had a 6am pickup near me that was being delivered not too far from the office. So last night, knowing this, I packed all 4 Miata wheels and all 4 Azenis in the back of the work truck. This morning, I did the delivery, then stopped by the office. I know our mechanic usually comes in early, and I thought if I was lucky maybe we could get the Azenis mounted on the Miata wheels. I was lucky. :D

Still won't put them on the car until it's at least aligned. And then I still plan to leave the snow tires on a while for commuting and all (once my 2 replacements for the front come in). But this is a big milestone in the project. No longer will I be complaining about inferior tires.

ahf, you ready for that rematch now? >:D

Hurry up and wait

Sun, 19 Mar 2006 22:27:47 GMT

After the rush to get the struts replaced and camber bolts installed before getting the snow tires and alignment, I'm *still* waiting for the snow tires to come in. :( Meanwhile I'm not driving the car much, not wanting to go too far on the dead snows. Though at least the alignment is only screwed up in the front, and the tires the screwed up alignment will kill are already dead and being replaced anyway. I did mention to them that I need the car to be in order sometime next week, whether the slightly used snow tires they're lining me up for arrive or not. If I have to, I'll buy some other ones, even new. It sounds like that should be quite possible.

The more I'm thinking about this car's future as primarily a commuter that also autocrosses and does the occasional track day, it's occurred to me that I could make it last a good while longer quite easily. The only problem is that doing so will probably exceed the $2006 budget in ways I can't recoup. Since I'll rely on it as a commuter, I can't afford to cut corners on repairs so much. I need it to last. That, more than anything, may push me over budget. Sure, I could strip the interior and sell bits and pieces off to get back under budget. But I don't want to drive that to work every day.

But the more I think about it, the more I'm relatively OK with that. I mean, yeah, the Challenge is great. The idea of entering my own car is extremely appealing. But I need to be practical. (Yeah, this coming from an MR2 owner!!!) If it doesn't qualify for the Challenge by October, what have I got left? I've got a fun mid-engine sports car that I've affordably tweaked out to my specifications. I can drive it to work every day, and I can attack the cones or the twisties on the weekends. Although I originally bought the MR2 specifically as a Challenge car, that's not a particularly bad thing to be left with if I can't take it to the Challenge. If anything, I'm going to get to enjoy it *more* now that I actually get to take it out of town regularly!

That's not to say I'm giving up on the Challenge. I'd still like to make it, and will try to make that happen. But life's changed, and so have the priorities a bit.

Plan B

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 20:44:19 GMT

Turns out the place I got my fenders from doesn't have either of the front struts. :( No idea where I can get the housing. Or possibly two, if I can't get the strut cartridge out of the left front.

So I switched to plan B: hammer the hell out of the bent spring perch to straighten it out.

Believe it or not, I think it worked. I've just finished reassembling the front of the car. I test fit one of the rear snow tires - 195/60/14, and just about full tread, unlike the dead front tires. It clears the perch with about an inch to spare. I'm not sure how much the perch weakened or whether it'll even be a factor.

But the right front now has a new strut cartridge, and the rubbing issue is solved. In other words, the repair on that corner is complete.

Going by the abbreviated version of this repair, all I need to do now is jack up the rear and replace one the strut bolts on each side with a camber bolt. Then it's off to VIP for tires and an alignment, and call it good for now. I want to finish installing the Tokicos, but until I can get the gland nuts off, there's no point in continuing, now that I'm going to need to rely on the car for commuting.

This was so much easier when I *didn't* need to rely on the car...

"There's your problem right there..."

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 18:39:46 GMT

It wasn't until I got the left front strut off and got a good look at it that I figured out why the right front tire is rubbing on the spring perch. But when I saw it, it was blatantly obvious.

The left front spring perch is nice and flat across its diameter.

The right front spring perch curves downward from the center to the outside. The spring sits lower than it's supposed to, and the tire rubs the perch.

I can almost guarantee you that this is another casualty of our lovely Maine roads in winter. Nasty bump SLAMS that corner of the suspension upward. Spring compresses fully, strut keeps going anyway, perch bends downward.

I've already found a replacement strut housing, from the same place (and the same car) my front fenders came from. Of course, this means I'll have to replace the right front strut *again*, this time transplanting the spring and strut cartridge into the good housing. Oh well - at least it'll come off easily this time.

Which is exactly what's *not* happening on the left front. Spring is off, but all of my attempts to remove the gland nut have failed. I've tried it all - liberal soakings of Liquid Wrench, leverage, heat, a housemate who's much stronger than me... I even bought a not inexpensive pipe wrench specifically for this job. Ain't happening, short of destroying the gland nut, and the ones that came from Ryan only have one spare that's already been battered a bit.

It could be worse. I could have this problem with a blown strut. While I'd like to upgrade, and match the Tokico that will be on the right side, it won't be disasterous to stick with what I've got - at least, for commuting. Maybe Derek has some better tools and expertise that can make this work.

This makes me question whether I should continue installing the Tokicos at all right now. I want to use all 4 of them, but the front's already going to be mismatched, and the rear is in fine shape right now, so what's the benefit of messing with it? I'm thinking that for now, I'll at least put the camber bolts in, but beyond that I'll leave them alone for the time being.

I guess things were just working a little *too* smoothly. But at least I found the problem with the right front. Rubbing and alignment should be no problem once I've got the replacement part.

I love it when a plan comes together

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 01:57:47 GMT

Cue the A-team theme, because that's the perfect soundtrack for this entry. :)

I decided the struts should arrive anytime now, so I might as well at least pull the right front strut (the suspected blown one) so it would be ready for the cartridge once the set arrived. It took a little doing, partly to get all the tools and stuff I needed lined up.

But all the pieces fell into place this afternoon. Did most of the work to remove the right front strut. Borrowed a spring compressor. Got my camber bolts. When I got home, the struts had arrived and were waiting by the door. So I just kept working on things, and that strut is now back on the car with a Tokico HP insert. :D I ran out of daylight, and lighting in the garage sucks, so I'll do the others as I have time and daylight around work.

As suspected, the right front strut was completely blown. I could easily push the rod in and out with my hand. The insert was a generic white thing, no markings at all, so I have no idea what it was. Clearly, the previous owner didn't upgrade the struts when he had the Eibachs installed. No matter, I'll take care of the rest and go from there. Now that all the pieces and tools are in place, I'll probably get through the other struts quickly. It's one case where work being so slow is actually a good thing - gives me time during daylight hours to get the car done. :)

The car handled like a dream before. I can't imagine how it'll handle with some decent struts and a decent alignment...

Camber bolts

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 19:12:40 GMT

So this morning I got the hookup with 2 not-quite-new snow tires, which are being ordered at the local VIP and will wait for me to bring the car in for 2 tires and an alignment, after I put the Tokico struts on (which should arrive anytime now). The service manager suggested picking up some camber bolts at the local Napa while I had the struts out anyway. The idea hadn't occurred to me, but he said it would make it much faster, easier, and cheaper for them to align my car. Also, since he was sending me to Napa to get them, it's not like he was trying to make more money off me. And once I do my own alignment with a more aggressive autocross setup, it'll let me dial in more negative camber. Not a legal mod in stock class, but I'm not running stock, and they're specifically allowed in STS (and therefore STS2 where I plan to run). So I went to Napa, and they can get them for $16 a piece. I ordered 4, one for each corner. I'll pop them in while installing the struts, and alignments will become easier and more flexible.

Also nice getting 2 barely used snow tires for $25 a piece. That'll get me through the rest of winter (which, in Maine, lasts at least another month), and I won't be worried about tires next winter. (These will not be counted in the Challenge budget - that whole not needing snow tires in Florida thing...)

Oil and a spark plug...

Sat, 11 Mar 2006 21:35:28 GMT

...two bits! >:D

Actually, 4 quarts of oil, an oil filter, and 4 new NGK spark plugs. That's what today's tinkering came to. Had only planned on the oil, but it was nice outside, so just for yuks I pulled a spark plug. You know the electrode, the center part of the plug that's a small cylinderical thingy sticking out of the ceramic? Well, these weren't cylinders - they were points. Who knows when they were replaced last. The amazing thing, though, is that they STILL WORKED!!! The car ran and drove fine, aside from an occasional misfire. Now I think I know what was causing that.

I love twin-cam 4-cyls. So easy to replace spark plugs on. Literally a 5 minute job. Took a test cruise, including a brief interstate run and a few bits of full acceleration. Doesn't feel more powerful, but it does seem to run a little smoother. A good investment, in any case.

I used NGK plugs, by the way. That's what was in there, and they were still working despite major deterioration. Good enough for me.

Change of plans, plan of repair

Sat, 11 Mar 2006 16:10:38 GMT

I can now announce this publicly - I got a new job in Portland (45 minutes away). :D Full time (right now I'm working 2 jobs and STILL not getting 40 hours), better pay, benefits... w00t!!!1!!

The good news is I'll get to commute in the MR2.

The bad news is I'll have to commute in the MR2.

On the drawing board, the MR2 was originally intended to be a commuter car, rather than the fun zippy affordable sports car it turned out to be. It's perfectly comfortable for that (though with the Eibachs, big bumps upset it a bit - fortunately I can go almost entirely interstate), and its mid-engine layout gives it the handling advantages of RWD, plus the weight of the engine over the drive wheels like FWD, which helps in snow. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

On the other hand, when I bought a $400 MR2 that needed some work, I did so because I worked out of a company vehicle, and would never have to rely on the MR2 for commuting. That's about to completely change. And while the MR2 has not yet left me stranded (emphasis on "yet") outside my own garage, I also haven't racked up miles on it the way I will be. Mostly highway, but given that the car currently has 194k, I have to wonder if it'll last until the Challenge in October.

Buying a second car may not be feasible for me, since I live with a bunch of friends, driveway space is tight, and there's a winter street parking ban. Not to mention that everyone else here has only one car (if that), and it may be seen as unfair if I suddenly have two. There's also the factor of being able to afford a nice enough car to rely on as a commuter.

I've also been tempted to pick up a motorcycle to replace the one I had to sell last fall when I ran out of money. You know, strictly to save money on gas. >:) I could commute on it during the nice weather, stretching out how long the MR2 lasts. But as we go into winter, I won't be able to use it as a backup vehicle, and if the MR2 dies and/or doesn't pass inspection, I'll be left with no way to get to work.

My current thinking - and this could change - is to keep the MR2. Continue fixing it up. Get a bike, because I want one. :) The new job will give me all nights and weekends off, which means Derek and I can attack the bodywork this summer without much scheduling hassle. Stick to my current plan for fixing it up and entering the $2006 Challenge. But after the Challenge, it'll be time to seriously evaluate the future of the MR2. If it'll last a while, I'll hang onto it, because I like this car. But if not, it may be time to say bye bye MR2, hello something newer and lower mileage.

No matter what I do in the future, I still have to get the MR2 in shape for commuting. I start the new job March 27, which means it could easily continue snowing for almost another month. I've got two dead snow tires, front suspension issues that killed them and will kill any other tires I put on, and two weeks to take care of all that. Fortunately, my tax refund plus working two jobs has put some money in the bank to deal with this, and until the new job starts, I don't have to commute anywhere. Well, except down the street to my second job, but that's literally a 10 minute walk from my house.

The Tokico HPs are on the way from CT, and should arrive in the next couple of days (thanks, Ryan!!!) Here's the plan I've devised to get the car ready to commute:

1. Upon arrival, install all four Tokico HPs. Start with the right front, which is blown and where the inner edge of the snow tire rubbed off. Inspect that corner carefully while it's off to see if there's any further damage to be repaired.

2. Put all four snow tires back on, in the locations they were before, including the dead ones.

3. Take it to the local VIP, who can hook me up with 2 discontinued or barely used snow tires for the front, and do a full alignment.

Here's the deal. After I put the struts on, I need an alignment. My abnormal tire wear issues are quite possibly related to the alignment. So let's get all the alignment wrecking jobs out of the way now, then set it to stock specs (I can tweak it to more performance oriented settings later).

Putting the snows back on first serves two purposes:

1. They can simply pull the wheels off, put 2 new snow tires on, and bam, my tire situation is solved.

2. They can see exactly how the old front tires wore out, from that determine what problem(s) caused that to happen, and prevent it from happening to the new tires - snows or Azenis.

And if there is some damage I'm not aware of - a bent control arm, for instance - they'll figure that out when they align it. Then I can replace the busted part myself during a weekend.

From there, the only thing left to figure out is how to get my Azenis mounted on the Miata wheels. I'm using those wheels now, since worn SP8ks are still safer than bald snows, and until the problems in the right front are fixed, the Azenis will just wear out the same way the snows did. If I'm lucky, maybe I can get the car fixed, the snows on, and the Miata wheels and Azenis to the office before (or even on) my last day to get them mounted there. :) Derek has said he can also do it for me, but he's 2 hours away, and I can't figure out how to carry 4 wheels AND 4 tires in an MR2. Maybe I could borrow a larger vehicle for a couple trips to the go-kart track to meet him...