Try contacting "mr2nice", or if NJ is not too far, then Prime performance in Stanhope just did my Gen4 swap.

 

Yeah, with your projected budget you should just ship your car to Prime. They have a thread for their motor swaps in the first few pages of the "mr2oc authorized vendor & group buy sales" section down below the home page.

I never really found a shop I felt comfortable taking my MR2 around NOVA, I used to just take it to the dealership for anything major.

 

When I first bought my 91T in 1993, I was living in Cabin John, MD. The MD dealers were thieves. I wound up using this place

http://www.chasautomotive.com/

At that time it was being run by an ex-technician from a Toyota Dealer. He didn't have any problem with the MR2 (of course it was a "current" car back then).

Here are the Google Map reviews of the place

https://plus.google.com/11219268368...112192683680639979268/about?gl=us&hl=en#112192683680639979268/about?gl=us&hl=en

 

Honestly, I still haven't found a shop I'm completely happy with, but I've used Freed Engineering with some success http://www.freedengineering.com/

The problem is that the better the shop, the more difficult it is to get your car in as they end up having more work than they need.

If you end up taking it to Prime, at least they won't piss and moan about having to deal with a mid-engined car, but I don't have any personal experience with them to recommend them. I just know that taking an mr2 or alltrac to your local mechanic will result in nothing but problems as they complain about having to work on it and overcharge you. Best to take it to either a specialist or someone used to working on modified cars.

Good luck.

 

to clarify, "mr2nice" is a shop foreman, who swapped his mr2 to gen4, swapped madboosted's car to gen3, and works on quite a few local MR2's. He is as close to a specialist as you get in this area. From what I've seen, he does very good mechanical work. If I couldn't get something done myself, I would take my car to him.

with your budget, you are pretty much looking at a gen4 with suspension. 32mpg is off an N/A? You will not get more HP and keep that, unless you have a light foot, in which case I salute you, I get 28mpg out of my gen4, got 20 off my gen2. You are probably on your own for body and paint, I'm not sure of any good body shops in the area, and apart from spending 13k in paint and body alone, I'm not sure how you are going to get that done. For interior, just find a reputable upholsterer and stick with him, I was quoted around 1.5k just to recover the seats, IMO this area sucks for having work done, as many people have money. I'm not sure about a gen4 with the auto, as I don't know what the transmission can handle, but if you really want it, go for it. For exhaust, it all depends on what you like, most people like a berk, which runs about 650 or so, but you can go custom for pretty close to that.

Honestly, if I were you, I would probably just drop it off at Prime, tell them gen4, keep the auto, maybe a boost controller, coils, exhaust, downpipe, etc... to solve all mechanical issues, then take it to an A/C shop, get the A/c redone, then you can go for paint, body, and interior.

Just remember, things break, go bad, or go unnoticed, you could end up having 13k in just mechanical work alone to fix, so watch for that. Either way, good luck and I hope it works out for you!

 

I hope it's OK if I revive this thread. I'm in Washington, D.C., and I would love to find a clean SW20 to have as a fun weekend car, but I don't have the expertise to do my own inspections. Considering the dubious history of the cars listed for sale in this area, I'd like to find an expert to do the pre-purchase inspection on any MR2 I'd consider purchasing.

Is there a shop or specific mechanic in the D.C. / southern Maryland / northern Virginia area who could do the PPI on an MR2?

I sent a PM to `mr2nice`, but it looks like he has not logged into this site in over a year.