MR2 MK2 Engine woes

[ELAN+2]

A friend has not long bought one of these bolides and after week one the clutch failed, week 2 the big ends must be fed up of being in the dark and are knocking to be let out! Its done around 80K from what i can gather, is this normal on one of these? What are the chances of getting away with a new set of big end shells only? Has anyone any experience of these?

Mark

[steve bowen]

not normal, sounds a dog to me, why not phone 3s service centre and get them to transplant a 3sgte into it.

www.3sservicecentre.co.uk/services.shtml

if he just wants it fixed considering they probably have a pile of 3sge engines from customer cars that have had the gte transplant, he maybe able to get a low mileage 3sge from them for peanuts.

Edited by steve bowen on Wednesday 8th November 19:50

[d-man]

Big ends aren't 'normal', but not unheard of with an abused engine on these cars (usual stuff, ragged from cold, oil not changed regularly enough, oil level not paid attention to). Keep an eye on the levels and they're normally pretty bombproof though.

What happened to the clutch? Asides from just wearing out the clutch master cylinder can give trouble sometimes, but its an easy DIY job to change that.

[_Al_]

[quote=ELAN+2]A friend has not long bought one of these bolides and after week one the clutch failed, week 2 the big ends must be fed up of being in the dark and are knocking to be let out! Its done around 80K from what i can gather, is this normal on one of these? What are the chances of getting away with a new set of big end shells only? Has anyone any experience of these?

Mark[/quote]


Does sound like a dog. From what I hear on the owners clubs the big ends only ever go if it's been starved of oil.

Engine transplant seems like the best way to go. That way you get rid of most of the bits that die when they aren't cared for...

[Andy Mac]

Yup... The 3s-ge engine is renowned for being damned reliable. Sould like he bought a raped example, and is suffering the consequences. I'd reccommend biting the bullet, and getting a gs-gte engine plonkled in from Fensport, or t'other place mentioned above. He will not be unhappy!!!

[_Al_]

Woodsport do a V6 conversion for not much more than a 3s-ge.

He'll need surgery to remove the smile from his face...

[ELAN+2]

thanks for the response guys, I'd have thought it would be standard Jap bullet proof stuff, however it is an import and he bought it on ebay without viewing. It sounded and looked fine when he bought it round to show me,the clutch had started to slip after a week! He hasn't got a lot of cash spare now, I wondered about slinging in a set of shells, unless the crank is scored.

regards

Mark

[_Al_]

I'm told you can do the shells with the engine in there. Not a quick job though and won't be pleasant this time of year.

[Mr2Mike]

Actualy, big end failure on the 3SGE is far from unknown. A while back my brothers ST182 Celica had a big end go at ~60k miles, and we looked out on ebay for a while for the chance of a cheap replcement engine and spotted 3 with knocking bottoms ends in the space of a few weeks! Bought a low mileage (allegedly) engine from Fensport in the end and they said they had heard of several bottom end failures. The 3SGTE doesn't seem to suffer from this, perhaps owners tend to change the oil more frequently.

[Turbo T]

I had one of these from new as a company car in 92 and thrashed ( and I really do mean thrashed) the life out of it for 90,000 miles. The only thing that ever went wrong was the alternator, and 1 clutch replacment, 2 sets of HT leads. We still have a 1990 Celica that has over 200k on it now. I am surprised to hear of the bottom end problems. My personal experiences are very different ( maybe he bought my old one )

[Turbo T]

[quote=ELAN+2]thanks for the response guys, I'd have thought it would be standard Jap bullet proof stuff, however it is an import and he bought it on ebay without viewing. It sounded and looked fine when he bought it round to show me,the clutch had started to slip after a week! He hasn't got a lot of cash spare now, I wondered about slinging in a set of shells, unless the crank is scored.

regards

Mark[/quote]

I would have thought it was too much grief. They are not the easiest engines to work on in that bay. If he intends on keeping the car, either throw another engine in, or get a new shortblock from Toyota (I reckon around the £1200-1300 from the US)

[_Al_]

Turbo T said:

[quote=ELAN+2]thanks for the response guys, I'd have thought it would be standard Jap bullet proof stuff, however it is an import and he bought it on ebay without viewing. It sounded and looked fine when he bought it round to show me,the clutch had started to slip after a week! He hasn't got a lot of cash spare now, I wondered about slinging in a set of shells, unless the crank is scored.

regards

Mark

I would have thought it was too much grief. They are not the easiest engines to work on in that bay. If he intends on keeping the car, either throw another engine in, or get a new shortblock from Toyota (I reckon around the £1200-1300 from the US)[/quote]

I know a bloke selling a whole rev 5 clip on MR2OC. He was going to swap his engine but wants the V6 now. £750 I think...

[_Al_]

Mr2Mike said:

Actualy, big end failure on the 3SGE is far from unknown. A while back my brothers ST182 Celica had a big end go at ~60k miles, and we looked out on ebay for a while for the chance of a cheap replcement engine and spotted 3 with knocking bottoms ends in the space of a few weeks! Bought a low mileage (allegedly) engine from Fensport in the end and they said they had heard of several bottom end failures. The 3SGTE doesn't seem to suffer from this, perhaps owners tend to change the oil more frequently.

They're hellishly susceptible to low oil but as long as you service it they'll be fine. The bloke in the thread above (selling the r5 clip) had serviced his normally but skipped one. The oil went low and bang...

[Andy mac]

www.fensport.co.uk/partsfiles/sw20conversion.htm

Fensport are very good for Toyota stuff. I used to get all my stuff from them, purely because of the service, and the fact they knew exactly what i was on about!

[icraigmy]

My P-Reg MR2 has just done 80,000 miles and running really well, still with the original clutch and exhaust.

It's must be a myth.

[_Al_]

icraigmy said:

My P-Reg MR2 has just done 80,000 miles and running really well, still with the original clutch and exhaust.

It's must be a myth.

My tubby killed its first clutch around then... N/A should last a fair bit longer, surely?

[System-G]

Gutted to hear this. My first MR2 was a MKII with the 3S-GE lump. I thrashed it regularly to redline and it never suffered any problems at all. As said above he must have bought a dog. It's the risk of ebay purchases. I got stung on my red track MR2 through ebay - also engine issues that I didn't spot when I went to view it.

If your mate is a bit strapped for cash, then there's no chance of dropping a turbo lump or V6 in it.

The best bet is to contact people like Rogue Motorsport (www.roguemotorsport.co.uk) - was Rogue Systems until they started racing or 3S Services. Both companies specialise in doing the turbo conversion to the N/A's. The old N/A engines I'd imagine would be cheep as chips from them
Fensport are one of the best Toyota suppliers about, but they are not cheap.

One option to consider would be to take the opportunity and learn something different by dropping the engine and re-building himself over time as and when money allows.