[brenttheiceman]

Well I've been planning this for a while, and I'm ready to announce it to the world.
I'll be entering my '87 MR2 in the GRM $2007 Challenge in October.
So far I'm up to about $960. That includes $300 for the car (with blown motor), $300 for a JDM engine/tranny, $200 for Tokico Blues (I thought the car was handling pretty good, even though the shocks were original with 250,000 miles), ~$80 for Prothane bushing kit, and ~$80 for new ball joints all around and tie rod ends.
Right now I'm finishing the bushing/shock installation and painstakingly sanding down the control arms, strut rods, and springs to paint them gold for those all-important "bling bling" points.
Most importantly, I've been building a Megasquirt to use with my turbo Probe injectors, adjustable FPR, wideband o2, and booster fuel pump (if necessary) to take advantage of the pristine Volvo T3 I pulled from a junkyard for ~$25. No shaft play at all, I'm pretty sure it had just been rebuilt before the car was trashed, and it even has a blowoff valve built right in! I'll couple that with an $11 Saab intercooler and ghetto-rigging my a/c condensor to be a heat exchanger. Then if I'm feeling lucky I'll install my wet nitrous kit for the strip.
My only question right now is, what would be the best tire for this competition? I need to make serious points in the autocross because that's kind of the key event. I've heard the names Toyo TS1 and Falken Azenis tossed around, but what would be best for this situation? And money isn't really a problem since I want to drop more coin on the rubber because it's worth it, and I'll just shop around and find the best price possible.

 

[BoostCreep]

Kuhmo 710's. I believe they make a 205/55/14 at about 140ish from www.discounttiredirect.com

I autocross the Azenis with my AE86 and they arent as sticky as the 710's... but they will last longer. When my azenis go dead, I'm going with the 710's on dedicated wheels.

 

[brenttheiceman]

Awesome, thanks for the info.
Now I need to decide what to run until October to get used to the car. I'm thinking Azenis in the front and something else in the rear? I'm not too sure about what to put back there.
I finally got to drive the car with the refreshed suspension and damn! Happiness! It turns in so much more crisply now, and when I put it sideways on a dirt road it was perfectly controlled and even let me have a lot more angle, Niiiiiice! But now it's practically screaming "PUT DECENT TIRES ON ME!!" What's on there now is garbage, it's like I've taken all the slop out of the suspension and now I can REALLY tell how bad the tires are.
Another question I had was about greasing the ball joints. Long story short, 1 of the new balljoints on the front is greaseable. I filled the little compartment behind the zerk fitting, but wanted to make sure that that is all of the greasing I had to do. I was under the impression that it was supposed to fill the rubber boot on the ball joint with grease via the zerk fitting, was I wrong? Is it only supposed to fill that little compartment on the bottom? I'm afraid to drive the car anymore until someone can assure me that it's okay and I'm not gonna fry my ball joint.
Thanks

 

[matsuwesty]

If you're concerned about your balljoints, get new ones. They aren't that expensive. Dont mix brands of tires on your car. You end up getting some really weird handling as they heat up and push the limit. The Falkens RT-615's are less expensive and they handle great. I've been running them for several months now and I love how they handle. I've heard good things about the Kumho 710's but they are about twice the price of the Falkens and I'm not yet convinced that they are that much better of a tire. Good luck with your project, it sounds like fun. It would be nice to see a Mk1 MR2 in the winner's circle at the GRM event.

 

[brenttheiceman]

As I understand it, the RT-615s are the tire that's supposed to replace the Azenis? Or am I wrong? I was looking at them and will probably give them a shot. I'd like to try several different tire setups and see what works best for my car so I can do well in the autocross part of the competition.
And I'm not too sure about the winner's circle, but I'd be really happy if I made it into the top 50%. We'll see. My plan is to basically try every different combination of performance and suspension stuff I can think of until Fall, then re-install whatever worked best and take it to the event.
I'm also going to do a baseline dyno run of my car pretty soon (hopefully this weekend). I haven't decided whether or not I'll install my wet nitrous kit to see what kind of numbers that puts down, but I'm thinking I will.

 

[brenttheiceman]

Oh, and I finally bit the bullet and ordered another round of Megasquirt stuff. I've accepted that I lost the one I had been building when I moved. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find it eventually and just sell it on ebay.
But I'll be receiving the version 2.2 board, stimulator, 12 foot wiring harness, a USB to serial cable that will actually work (unlike the ones I had been trying before), the extra circuit for accessory activation (I'll use it for TVIS or alcohol injection), and a few extra resistors so that I can use Megasquirt to run ignition control with stock components, as explained here - http://www.diyautotune.com/tech_articles/how_to_megasquirt_your_mki_toyota_mr2.htm

 

[matsuwesty]

As I understand it, the RT-615s are the tire that's supposed to replace the Azenis? Or am I wrong?

The Falken Azenis RT-615's replaced the Azenis RT-215's. They are both Azenis tires.
Good luck on your Megasquirt, I know many people swear by them (a few swear AT them ;-)

 

[brenttheiceman]

Yay! Got the car running on Megasquirt just now, controlling fuel and spark. Not running well, but running. I'll give more info later

 

[savestheday]

you'll want to get some pretty good used (or new) r-compound tires for the event. Azenis are good street tires but are definetly not a race tire. Look into Kuhmo victoracers, Kuhmo v710's, Toyo Proxes RA-1's, Or take chances with Hoosiers A3S0x (insert series number here) these are by far the stickiest when new but heat cycle out very quickly. Good Luck, i'll be there in '08

 

[brenttheiceman]

Thanks for the info savestheday.
I have good news! Today I started the car for the first time with the remote mount turbo! I've been in a competition with a friend of mine who's putting a turbo KA into his 240 to see who'll be done first, so I've really been working the last few days.

The high points so far - I can say that I've seen what the oil looks like that drains out of a turbo(beautiful!), because the line I had gotten wasn't long enough and I'm using clear gas-siphoning hose right now!
I know what the pressure is at the turbo (low!), because I'm using a copper oil pressure sensor line from the oil sensor location to the trunk, with the oil sensor at a T at the turbo, and bigger hose going from the T to the turbo (pics soon!)
My Volvo turbo is in darn good shape! No smoke or anything, even with open turbo. It was stuck at first (guess I should have primed it and turned it beforehand), but as soon as I gave it a nudge it started spinning nicely!
And the turbo was spinning at idle despite three moderate exhaust leaks (I should have known better than to try muffler mender for the connections instead of just welding!). I had also forgotten that I hadn't reattached the pipe that goes from the header under the engine, I had only finger-tightened two of the nuts while I was fitting everything and hadn't gone back and torqued anything down!
Four exhaust leaks for the win!

 

[Mr. Pockets]

The Avon Tech-RA r-compound tire is on closeout on Tire Rack's site. $109 for the 14".

I used Avons (first the Tech-R and then the Tech-RA) for two seasons and loved them. For the $120 you'd save buying Avons, I don't know that it would be worth getting 710s. That money could buy you...paint, I don't know...

I'd also check out places that sell used race tires. That might be a good way to go.

 

[brenttheiceman]

Used race tires, I hadn't thought of that. That would make a lot of sense if I end up running low on budget, but as it is now I'll probably buy something like those Tech RAs (I figure tires are the best place to invest money). I'm also seeing a lot of other good tires on that site.

On another note, I challenged my 240 friend who's going KA-T to another contest. Since we both started our turbo cars on the same day, I challenged him to see who would drive and make boost first. Yesterday I won that contest. Pulled out of the driveway, drove up and down the street boosting 1.5-2psi (I turned the adjustable wastegate down pretty far), and parked. The whole thing is pretty crazy, with the turbo and intercooler piping sticking part way out of the trunk (no trunk lid) and the exhaust coming straight out of the turbo to atmosphere. Yay!

I'd love to start tuning it today and keep working on it but have to do real, money-making type work all day until tomorrow afternoon.

 

[brenttheiceman]

Pics, Finally!

Here are some pics of my current setup. I'm pretty much going as step-by-step as I can, which is why I haven't installed my intercooler yet (don't let the section of Saab pipe that says "turbo intercooler" fool you!) and am still running stock fuel. The trunk and car are dirty because the oil return line, which is clear, slipped off on one of my test drives and I haven't thoroughly cleaned everything yet. I also haven't filed down the areas where the bolts seat on the turbo flange, so they look kind of weird. In other words, I'm far from done. I am boosting 3.5 psi, though, and have an AFR of about 10:1 at 65% throttle! I think I'm pretty much maxing out the stock injectors, though, as the duty cycle according to MegaLog Viewer got up to 91%!

I also figured out why my oil pressure was reading weird. I was thinking "hey, how does a sensor work if there's only 1 wire going to it?" It's because the sensor is a variable resistor, and it's varying the amount of current that can travel through the sensor to ground (the engine block). So I ghetto rigged a speaker wire from the sensor to the trunk lid latch, and voila!

Oh, and your eyes aren't deceiving you. That's my stock intake piping on the engine bay side. Word.

I'm thinking about calling the car Max, from Mad Max, because of the way all the crazy piping looks (trunk exit exhaust!). If I keep the piping like that and paint the car flat black it'll be pretty insane.

 

[brenttheiceman]

Here are the rest of the pics. I used my crappy stick welder from harbor freight to make the welds. The adjustment knob actually broke while I was working on these pipes! And yeah, that was the first time I had really used it. Don't buy cheap welders! I'm gonna quit messing around and get a decent MIG.
You can see that the main support for the turbo system is the stock exhaust hanger. Now that I've attached the downpipe with the wideband o2 sensor, the whole thing moves around more than I'd like. I'm thinking about using that pipe hanger stuff to brace it inside the trunk.

 

[mister2sc88]

Are You Still Using The Afm? You Have Pics Of The Oil Lines?

 

[brenttheiceman]

I wouldn't say I'm "using" the AFM. It's still there and plugged in. The only signal I was trying to get from it was the intake air temperature, but for some reason that stays pegged at -40 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm not too worried about it because that sensor shouldn't be used with boost anyway, I got a GM open-element IAT from a supercharged grand prix or something that will adjust to changes more quickly. One of my next steps is to actually run intercooler piping all the way from the turbo to the intake instead of using the stock piping for half of it (though I do find the current setup to be hilarious). At that point, I'll no longer have the AFM in the system.
Oh, and I ran a switch to the two AFM wires that control the fuel pump so that I can switch between Megasquirt controlling the pump and the AFM flapper door controlling it (I like the ability to return to stock).

As far as the oil lines, you can see where the supply line comes into the trunk and Tees to the pressure sensor. Beyond that, the drain line managed to escape the camera's lens, but it is a clear gas-siphoning hose for now (which is pretty cool because I can actually see the oil draining). And the supply line goes from the block to a rubber hose, to a hard brake line that I mounted on the firewall, all the way around the engine and into the trunk, to the Tee setup (you can see the brake line in the third picture)

 

[stealth2]

not to jack the thread or anything but if your looking for good race tires I have a set of Yokohama A032 r compounds for sale slightly used. I'll give you a decent deal on them because it's going for a good cause. PM me if your interested.

 

[advanAW11]

=] sweet! i wana see it done already

 

[tred]

sorry but that car could have been something so much better

 

[brenttheiceman]

Some more pics. I bought some sheet metal today to make a box around the intercooler, I also have a water pump coming through e-bay (water to air intercooler soon, no more heat soak!)

advanAW11 - Thanks, you should see the way people look at me in my little hometown when I'm driving this thing around. I go go go, then stop, look at the datalogs and make some changes, then go go go again. It's pretty funny. It's almost like they've never seen somebody tuning their car with a laptop in the passenger seat before.

tred - I don't get what you're talking about. The car's nowhere near done yet, so we don't know what it can be.

I'm also going to make a bracket to brace the turbo assembly inside the trunk and I'm going to modify the stock exhaust hanger to lower the whole thing so that I can put the trunk lid back on. This thing's starting to come together. :smile:
I'm also trying to figure out the best way to keep heat from building up in the trunk once the lid's back on. I have exhaust wrap which will help but I'd also like some air flow without chopping up the body..,