Journey to the dark side - K20 swap

[MRII]

I see both companies (Honda & Toyota) as cousins and I agree with Repete, there needs to be different new ways to achieve goals. It's all about thinking outside the box or it would be boring all the time.
There is someone on the mr2oc forum installing a LS1 in a 91 MR2 atm and there is a lot of cutting involved.

[MRII]

I installed the Clockwise Motion baffle into the oil pan. It just presses in between the fins inside the pan and has 5 trap doors so the oil pump is always submerged with oil. I had to order this from the UK and shipping was cheap and fast, surprisingly.
Then I JB weld the oil return fitting on the back and front side, it is locked in place solid. The oil pan back on and torqued it to specs and now is ready for the next step...









Another spot in the Fort Langley area during a solo cruise a few years ago.

[MRII]

Up and out. 3sgte parts going to be posted for sale in the next few days.

[sprinterkb]

Typical ... . ^ Boring old school comment not needed.

We have a very innovative local community, first a 2GR swap and now a K20 swap - awesome. Keep up the good work!

Keep the innovation and the honder engine in a Honda, the 2GR is a Toyota engine
And MR2's are "old school" and not boring in stock form, should be tru to the brand!

[RePete]

...should be tru to the brand!

Should? Them's fightin' words.

It's not a good thing to close our minds to innovation, to other brands, to better engines no matter who makes them. Whether replacing shocks, an engine or washer fluid with a non-Toyota item, there's no difference. You may forget our engines are produced by Yamaha. That sort of rigid thinking takes the fun & imagination out of life - just as oppressors do.

In the end, cars & engines are man-made mechanical things built by corporations that have no difference between their goals: profit. We're not car racists or 'purists', just free-minded dudes having fun updating an old mid-engine car that now has a dwindling parts inventory.

[sprinterkb]

FYI, 3sgte engines were built by Toyota, the head was developed by Yamaha, ( a Toyota collaborator since the 60's) this is and was the case for all Toyota "sports" wide angle heads.
When you say "we" you are referring to yourself not the majority of the club who like me are purists.
The title to this post is " journey to the Dark side" which is the truth.

[RePete]

Majority? Highly debatable. One's view ultimately depends on who one speaks with and hangs out with at those meets. And whether it's Yamaha or Honda or even Eibach, it's still a non-Toyota part on a purist's car. Judging a difference between the assembled parts or the companies is selective discrimination and a contradiction.

[sprinterkb]

While I applaud the engineering that had gone into this build, I this is still a one off project that does not reflect the way the "Majority" of us MR2 owners think.

[immorality]

I applaud the bastardization, and regardless of my opinion, we need an update on this project.

[MRII]

I appreciate how some people feel about this project and like it that we can talk about it, good or bad.

Not much of an update I did minor things because my daughter is sick and I've been a dad these past few days. This weekend I'll have more time.
No pictures but pretty much straight forward:
-I remove the cruise control and wiring
-re-routed the brake booster hose
-sent out the cv shafts to have them rebuilt with cwr upgraded inner joints with Joe
-cleaned up the e153

I also just found out there is a girl out in Ontario doing the k20/e153 swap, so there is 2 of us in Canada doing this swap.

[immorality]

I've seen a couple of those vids (https://www.youtube.com/user/lindseyhunt1090/videos). IIRC, it was already a gen3 jdm car to start with.

[MRII]

So I recently sent out my radiator to have it checked over to Richardson Radiators in Langley. The core was good and it has no problems but I wanted to be sure that it would do it's job with high boost and whp levels so after discussing it with them I had a thicker core installed. I recommend them, good service and price was good plus they have a 10% discount coupon on their website that you can use.





Next I put together a vacuum block to run lines from one source.



I also had to make another oil return opening. The first one (blue fitting) would have worked but the MR2 cv shafts are very large and it was blocking the opening so I tapped, plugged and jb weld the plug in place.





New oil return location.



Up next is the Hux k20 swap kit.

[MRII]

The Hux kit consists of these parts:



Carrier bearing housing installed.



Passenger side engine mount





Lay everything out



Flywheel adapter



Adapter plate



This cover needs to come off

[MRII]

This solid dowel needs to be removed, I tried but ended up grinding it off.





Lay out all the pieces



Installed





Now the joining



Had to drill through





The MR2 cv shafts are very large so this part of the k20 has to be shaved down





Next is the starter plug





Finally together. Wired in the starter.

[MRII]

This part of the k20 block was interfering with the clutch cylinder so need to shape it using these on a Demel and drill







You need to get this flywheel inspection cover from Honda ($13)





Ready to be installed









Being positioned



Installed



Passenger side coolant hose



Driver side was more challenging. All the hoses I tired would hit the shifter assembly, it took 2 days to figure out what combination worked.



Adapter to join the flex hose and reuse the Toyota passenger side coolant hose



Installed all the heater hoses and added coolant. There is air trapped in there so it will need to be bleed out.



A side project, new negative battery cable put together



Joe installed poly bushings in the rear control arms and rebuilt the cv shafts with the upgrade kit