My two money pits
Discussion
The inevitable car category's of the man with a long commute. The fun interesting track car and the boring daily driver. the most logical answer would always be an Mx5 or 7 style car and a Mondeo. Costs would be kept to a minimum and they'd both be good at their jobs. Unfortunately being young and naive i'm a moron and don't do sensible logical things.
Many moons ago at 21 I sold my super reliable Mx5 for what I paid for it. I was getting bored with it, having done alot of track days it was at the point where I either modified it or got something else.
I trundled off to Bradford to meet a dodgy chap with a shed full of interesting and unusual cars Mk2 Mr2 turbo, BMW M3, Honda CRX with an Integra engine and many more. All stuffed into a shabby unit behind a skip company.
The car id come to see was an E reg Mk1 Mr2 tin top 1.6 supercharger. It wasn't boosting right on the test drive and there was rust on the sills and arches and it was generally abit tatty.
I should of walked away but I fancied it and thought I could fix it. After some haggling a price of £2200 was agreed and I brought it home.
basically everything was wrong with it
The engine wasn't running right and I couldn't find someone to fix it. I wanted the car to be powerful and reliable so arranged for a 1mz-fe conversion with Woodsport. Paul sourced the new engine and gave it a rebuild. Sourced an LSD and extended the 5th gear ratio aswell as a twin pipe stainless mongoose exhaust.
The 3l V6 24v Quad cam with VVTI certainly gave it some poke. Its only about 210hp but has a good amount of torque and a broad power band. Having an alloy block I'm lead to believe its not too much heavier than the 1.6 supercharger so the go kart handling shouldn't be too ruined.
The car failed its next Mot on rust rust and more rust. Having just spent a tonne of money on the engine there was no way it was going to the scrappers.
I bought a welder and promptly learnt how to weld. I had done abit with my dad but that was with thick metal. Different ball game doing old cars!
A face of determination!
This was my chosen past time most weekends through winter.
Yes there was asmall errr.... actually quite large fire in the drivers foot well that was interesting! 
Panic!
no don't panic put out the fire! power off! door open! bucket of water slung in! crisis averted 
After what felt like a life time the car was now solid and waxoyled. I was happy with the end result and it passed its mot with flying colours.
At last I could now finally enjoy the car.
I bought it some 16" OZ superlegra wheels
Yokohama tyres 225 rear and 205 front
15mm rear wheel spacer and 5mm front and longer hub bolts all round
I took the car south on its first long journey to Mr2 national day.
Its not a show car by any means but it looked well and I had a good day.
I fitted a new Spal fan to the engine bay in replacement of the old one and wired it via a temperature controller with a digital display where the stereo once was which monitored the engine bay temp.
I upgraded the front brakes to some WMS 4 pot calipers braided lines and larger discs.
It now stopped as well as it went!
I took it to a trackday at Blyton Park full of excitement.
This quickly pointed out the next weak point in the car.
Suspension!
Quite substantial body roll and abit of tyre rubbing the O/S front shock let go in the afternoon. I nursed it for a little longer then took it home. It wasn't a fun day having power, stopping ability and grip but no cornering capability.
I should of seen it coming really but oh well time to spend some more £££
I managed to fit some early mk2 Mr2 Bilstien shocks to the rear with mk2 springs but retained the original mk1 top mount I beefed up the anti roll bar to a thicker mk2 one with some tweaking to the mk2 drop links and new custom made mounting brackets. that was now one planted back end!
some mk1 Koni adjustable shocks were had for the front and that was the suspension sorted.
I got the alignment done and got rid of some weight.
air conditioning condenser gone. Everything out the boot and frunk. scraped all the sound deadening off the bulkhead and floor that was fun! glued in some lighter foam stuff and abit of retro fit black suede to replace the old rather singed carpet.
A Track day at Croft was booked!
really enjoyed the day, and only spun once
Then work ex girlfriends and house sales got in the way of things for quite some time
oh well onto the boring sensible car!
I came across this on a late night ebay trawl. Runs ok but no 5th gear. I stuck a £450 bid on.
2002 Saab 95 2.3 Aero
The chap kindly delivered it so I didn't have to faff with insurance and tax.
Finally got time to look over it properly.
new exhaust
lots of oil leaks
seats are mint black heated leather all round electric adjust on the front.
climate control
CD radio and cassette
bit of rust where the sill meets the rear arches but not too major
wheels need a refurb but tyres are decent
should have 250 hp owner said it was remapped to 270hp drove like it had 120 at most
headlights very clouded
fifth gear pops out even if held in
all in all pretty standard stuff for a bargain eBay purchase
so up on axle stands it went, engine and gearbox out that was fun!
I sent the engine off for a rebuild and the gearbox to get the fifth gear sorted. Once they were back I stuck a clutch and slave cylinder in, new coolant pipework, water pump, boost control valve, new aux belt and pulley wheel, new half shaft and probably some other stuff i've forgotten.
Basically spent a small fortune on getting it right.
There was so much more power! Report from the engine man was that the piston rings were past it, and piston 3 had spun a big end bearing!
Skeptical I paid them a surprise visit. Not that I don't trust garages but I know what some of them are like. Not this one though they showed me my engine and the spun bearing. so the engine probably wouldn't of lasted much longer.
It was all back together about 3 days and the alternator stopped charging properly so annoyingly had to change that and put a new battery on it while I was on.
The headlights which are Xenon no less were pretty crap! I put some new Philips bulbs in £50 each and cleaned the foggy headlight lenses. Much better
Then It developed a misfire at high revs. One new DIC casette and some new plugs sorted the problem out.
It now runs great! 28mpg is as low as I can manage to get it
Its a great car with a real twin personality. It waffles along in comfort looking like a boring estate. Stick your foot down it spools up and goes like stink revs high and sounds awesome. It handles corners surprisingly well for a big car. There's no LSD so it can spin the inside wheel as you power out, But if you time the turbo lag for when there's no grip it spools up then just as the car straightens and settles down it drags you out the corner and onto the next one. Its generally great fun to drive!
These are abit of a bargain if you want a mix of performance and practicality on a budget
That's my two money pits.
They cost me a fortune but I love them.
I find it rewarding turning scrap yard fodder into a good car or at least trying to. Still jobs to do on Both cars when I get the time.
I'm hoping to take the Mr2 to Anglesy before the years out.
Thanks for reading
Many moons ago at 21 I sold my super reliable Mx5 for what I paid for it. I was getting bored with it, having done alot of track days it was at the point where I either modified it or got something else.
I trundled off to Bradford to meet a dodgy chap with a shed full of interesting and unusual cars Mk2 Mr2 turbo, BMW M3, Honda CRX with an Integra engine and many more. All stuffed into a shabby unit behind a skip company.
The car id come to see was an E reg Mk1 Mr2 tin top 1.6 supercharger. It wasn't boosting right on the test drive and there was rust on the sills and arches and it was generally abit tatty.
I should of walked away but I fancied it and thought I could fix it. After some haggling a price of £2200 was agreed and I brought it home.
basically everything was wrong with it
The engine wasn't running right and I couldn't find someone to fix it. I wanted the car to be powerful and reliable so arranged for a 1mz-fe conversion with Woodsport. Paul sourced the new engine and gave it a rebuild. Sourced an LSD and extended the 5th gear ratio aswell as a twin pipe stainless mongoose exhaust.
The 3l V6 24v Quad cam with VVTI certainly gave it some poke. Its only about 210hp but has a good amount of torque and a broad power band. Having an alloy block I'm lead to believe its not too much heavier than the 1.6 supercharger so the go kart handling shouldn't be too ruined.
The car failed its next Mot on rust rust and more rust. Having just spent a tonne of money on the engine there was no way it was going to the scrappers.
I bought a welder and promptly learnt how to weld. I had done abit with my dad but that was with thick metal. Different ball game doing old cars!
A face of determination!
This was my chosen past time most weekends through winter.
Yes there was a
Panic!
no don't panic put out the fire! power off! door open! bucket of water slung in! crisis averted After what felt like a life time the car was now solid and waxoyled. I was happy with the end result and it passed its mot with flying colours.
At last I could now finally enjoy the car.
I bought it some 16" OZ superlegra wheels
Yokohama tyres 225 rear and 205 front
15mm rear wheel spacer and 5mm front and longer hub bolts all round
I took the car south on its first long journey to Mr2 national day.
Its not a show car by any means but it looked well and I had a good day.
I fitted a new Spal fan to the engine bay in replacement of the old one and wired it via a temperature controller with a digital display where the stereo once was which monitored the engine bay temp.
I upgraded the front brakes to some WMS 4 pot calipers braided lines and larger discs.
It now stopped as well as it went!
I took it to a trackday at Blyton Park full of excitement.
This quickly pointed out the next weak point in the car.
Suspension!
Quite substantial body roll and abit of tyre rubbing the O/S front shock let go in the afternoon. I nursed it for a little longer then took it home. It wasn't a fun day having power, stopping ability and grip but no cornering capability.
I should of seen it coming really but oh well time to spend some more £££
I managed to fit some early mk2 Mr2 Bilstien shocks to the rear with mk2 springs but retained the original mk1 top mount I beefed up the anti roll bar to a thicker mk2 one with some tweaking to the mk2 drop links and new custom made mounting brackets. that was now one planted back end!
some mk1 Koni adjustable shocks were had for the front and that was the suspension sorted.
I got the alignment done and got rid of some weight.
air conditioning condenser gone. Everything out the boot and frunk. scraped all the sound deadening off the bulkhead and floor that was fun! glued in some lighter foam stuff and abit of retro fit black suede to replace the old rather singed carpet.
A Track day at Croft was booked!
really enjoyed the day, and only spun once
Then work ex girlfriends and house sales got in the way of things for quite some time
oh well onto the boring sensible car!
I came across this on a late night ebay trawl. Runs ok but no 5th gear. I stuck a £450 bid on.
2002 Saab 95 2.3 Aero
The chap kindly delivered it so I didn't have to faff with insurance and tax.
Finally got time to look over it properly.
new exhaust
lots of oil leaks
seats are mint black heated leather all round electric adjust on the front.
climate control
CD radio and cassette
bit of rust where the sill meets the rear arches but not too major
wheels need a refurb but tyres are decent
should have 250 hp owner said it was remapped to 270hp drove like it had 120 at most
headlights very clouded
fifth gear pops out even if held in
all in all pretty standard stuff for a bargain eBay purchase
so up on axle stands it went, engine and gearbox out that was fun!
I sent the engine off for a rebuild and the gearbox to get the fifth gear sorted. Once they were back I stuck a clutch and slave cylinder in, new coolant pipework, water pump, boost control valve, new aux belt and pulley wheel, new half shaft and probably some other stuff i've forgotten.
Basically spent a small fortune on getting it right.
There was so much more power! Report from the engine man was that the piston rings were past it, and piston 3 had spun a big end bearing!
Skeptical I paid them a surprise visit. Not that I don't trust garages but I know what some of them are like. Not this one though they showed me my engine and the spun bearing. so the engine probably wouldn't of lasted much longer.
It was all back together about 3 days and the alternator stopped charging properly so annoyingly had to change that and put a new battery on it while I was on.
The headlights which are Xenon no less were pretty crap! I put some new Philips bulbs in £50 each and cleaned the foggy headlight lenses. Much better
Then It developed a misfire at high revs. One new DIC casette and some new plugs sorted the problem out.
It now runs great! 28mpg is as low as I can manage to get it
Its a great car with a real twin personality. It waffles along in comfort looking like a boring estate. Stick your foot down it spools up and goes like stink revs high and sounds awesome. It handles corners surprisingly well for a big car. There's no LSD so it can spin the inside wheel as you power out, But if you time the turbo lag for when there's no grip it spools up then just as the car straightens and settles down it drags you out the corner and onto the next one. Its generally great fun to drive!
These are abit of a bargain if you want a mix of performance and practicality on a budget
That's my two money pits.
They cost me a fortune but I love them.
I find it rewarding turning scrap yard fodder into a good car or at least trying to. Still jobs to do on Both cars when I get the time.
I'm hoping to take the Mr2 to Anglesy before the years out.
Thanks for reading
The Saab’s very stylish and the MR2, do you have any regrets not sticking with and fixing the supercharged set up?
Now you have a fresh engine build you may as well go stage 3, 3in downpipe, fuel pressure regulator, £100 remap and your there...
Upgrading the intercooler is a good idea though.
Now you have a fresh engine build you may as well go stage 3, 3in downpipe, fuel pressure regulator, £100 remap and your there...
Upgrading the intercooler is a good idea though.
viciousj377o said:
Awesomely crazy! Neither car is my cup of tea and yet its a proper petrol heads post! Some serious man maths must've gone into deciding to rebuild the saab engine!
yeah something along the lines of they were 30k new so if I get it mint for 3k its still good value. problem is its nearer 5k and growing ha ha. I will hopefully end up with some longevity in the end and as time goes on and there all going to scrap the value might creep up.exgtt said:
The Saab’s very stylish and the MR2, do you have any regrets not sticking with and fixing the supercharged set up?
Now you have a fresh engine build you may as well go stage 3, 3in downpipe, fuel pressure regulator, £100 remap and your there...
Upgrading the intercooler is a good idea though.
yes and no with the mr2 its a battle between keeping its originality and making it how I want it. Now you have a fresh engine build you may as well go stage 3, 3in downpipe, fuel pressure regulator, £100 remap and your there...
Upgrading the intercooler is a good idea though.
yes its tempting but i'm trying to keep the Saab standard and not chase power as its got enough at the moment for front drive and no LSD
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