'88 MR2 NA, building it up for the "One Lap" in 2018

Looks like I've got a gauge cluster on the way from a local guy.Good thing too as I'm going to need to start doing dimensional measurements on the left side gauge set pretty soon. And once I get the left side ready to install, the right side will be a breeze to lay out.

I don't have circuitry in place yet for the fuel level measurement, but it's all a dead-simple schematic anyway. The hard part was tracking down the code for running dual OLED's from a single processor. Rev1 is only going to replace the existing gauges with more precise readouts, and add a bit of expansion room for future sender inputs. Voltage is reading live already from a power supply on the bench.

Still need to work out how I'm going to calibrate sending units and develop formulas. Hopefully I can find some resistance curves for the factory sending units.

Good news!

I was able to piece together enough of a resistance chart for the factory coolant temp sender. This will make life a lot easier.

Now if only I could find a resistance chart or graph for the factory oil pressure sender. Otherwise I'll just make up a fitting or something and plumb it into my air compressor and compare to a mechanical gauge to get the curve. I know I could just use an aftermarket sender and use a known quantity for the resistance curve, but I'm considering putting these up for sale if it works out, and would like to have an option to have it just drop into the factory cluster.

-hans

Good week on the project. New brake lines are all run in the front end. Calipers are rebuilt. Spindles got new bearings pressed in today, just need to torque and lock the retaining nut. Managed to get a good schematic for the gauge set, the code I can declare is in nearing beta testing phase. Next chapter of the video series will be up in a few days.

Here's the current breadboard layout of the gauge set, with the processor I'll be using on the actual build (Arduino Trinket Pro 5v). I'll only be going a bit larger on the OLED's, but unfortunately will lose the dual color with 1.3" screens. Oh well.

Impressive

Going to wait a day or two, give it another review before sending out for fabrication, but PCB layout is all done. Paper and cardboard template lays in the cluster just right. Nice and simple schematic too. All the complicated stuff is handled on the Arduino processor board. Makes my life easier for sure.

Next chapter of the videos is now live.

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2755996&ty=h

Found out there's a 2 day HPDE, also a licensing session for the WRL, in Omaha this summer. I won't be able to attend the April session, but definitely signing up for the August one.

-Hans

Since my coilovers are delayed, again, I slapped the old ones back into the front end just so I can get it back on the wheels and free up my jackstands to tear the rear end apart. Passenger side is all apart now, driver side I've only just started taking things off. Need a longer breaker bar for the hub nut and of course another brake line doesn't want to come out.

Nothing dramatic that I found, or at least nothing that I didn't expect. Needs new wheel bearings, and I'll do the ball joints while I have it apart. Tie rods have been butchered by a previous owner. Those will get replaced with a set from Matrix Garage. I have everything either on-hand already or on order .... I hope anyway.

Since I could get a good view underneath, it looks like I found my persistent oil leak. I've been losing about a quart per 1,500 miles. Oil cooler lines are soaked. A new oil cooler is on the docket for later this summer anyway. So I don't know what I'll do short term just yet. I may just slap in some new lines to hold me over until I can get all the plumbing that I want to use.

Nothing else to remove in the suspension, front or rear, that I can think of. All the rear arms and links are ready for painting and re-install. Coilovers should either be shipping any day, potentially have already shipped, so we're into the final elements of getting ready to have the car back on the road.

Whoops, I'm a dumbass. Installed the rear suspension arms upside down. Makes it a weeee bit tough to get the ball joints installed. At least it's a small backtrack.

Though it is nice to be dealing with clean parts now for the most part. So much easier to work on once you've broken them loose and cleaned the threads.

And good news today, My coilovers have shipped from Ceika. Should be here in less than a week according to the tracking info.

Busy week, mainly because I'm excited, but the March update video just went live. April is going to be a big deal on this build, should hopefully be back driving, but there's a LOT of work to do still. I'll also be doing a separate unboxing video when those Ceika coilovers arrive, plus if they'll let me do some filming there, I'm making a stop at Pegasus auto racing for a few goodies and possibly buying a helmet.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/4927265

Hmmm, $400 for a small-port, a couple hours away.
I wonder if I can talk him down to fit my available cash.

Well, it's about time. Got my coilovers.

For a more in-depth review, prior to install, I've done a video. Ceika Coilover Review.

Sweet

This is awesome. As the owner of a black 86 NA AW11 I'll be following this closely. Didn't know about those Ceikas...

Started doing the coilover install today on the rears. There were a couple minor fit issues I'll describe below. Also driving me nuts that I can't find one of the camber adjusting cams for the rear. Only two places to look that I can check tomorrow, if I can't find it then I'll have to order a new one. Swaybar mounts are on the way for the fronts, should be here middle of next week. Gives me time to get the back end sorted out.

The holes for the two lower mounting bolts were a touch too small. Easy enough to fix. Front ones appear to be fine.

The banjo fittings for the remotes extend a bit too high and interfere with the structure of the engine lid. Can't fault Ceika for that, I gave them the max height and that's what they went with. So I'll have to make a few clearance cuts and bends. All internal stuff, won't affect how things look on the outside.

Locations to mount the remotes in the engine compartment are kinda limited and I'll have to figure something out there. There's plenty of spaces, just a matter of getting a good bend radius in the line and finding a mounting point.

As a side note to the above, I also didn't realize there are different part numbers for the left and right camber adjust cams. So I don't even know which one I'll need, if I have to order one. Assuming I only have one, how do I tell which one I have?

I'm definitely interested in how the coilovers are. I checked them out some and they seem to be better than average, digressive dampening curves and all that.

Cool project! My local friend has a red 1st gen MR2 with a camry v6 and the TRD super charger. It has 205/50/15 or 16 hoosier slicks and a rollcage. It made like 230wtq/whp from 2000-redline so about 6500rpm or so. Thing was a rocket at any RPM. I haven't seen it in a while, I need to bug him and see if hes still got it. I don't know about squirrly or anything like that, but if you have that much power in a little MR2 I'm sure you need good traction too.

I'll have to say, Ceika's customer service has been on the ball. The missing swaybar mounts got here within a few days, and install has been proceeding nicely. There are a few critiques I have for dimensional issues with the install, and they're pretty anxious for me to provide photos and measurements to correct them. Nothing huge though that is going to hold me up. With luck I'll be driving again by the end of April, mainly alignment and brake bleeding are my major things left to do.

Alignment is going to be a beast though, considering how many adjustment points there are to worry about. Pre-load, Ride height, caster, camber, toe, compression, and rebound (in that order, if I have it correct). Lots of numbers to get right.

Back on all 4 for the first time since October. Lots of adjustments to do still, been working on the ride height all afternoon today as the first step. This photo was before the ride height, had to take it down about 3" or so in the front.

Doing some rough tweaks in other areas just to get into the general ballpark. I have a feeling the front left is going to be troublesome in regards to camber, it's sitting at about +3 degrees right now, with very little adjustment left in the factory cam. I also need to get it moved a bit too so I can get a level spot to finalize it. I may just have a shop do a final alignment on a rack to make sure I didn't screw it up ... first time doing an alignment of my own to this degree.

Long way to go on the alignment still. But it does feel good to be at this point now. I can already feel the difference just sitting in the car. With the old suspension it sagged and creaked and flopped around even when all I did was sit in the driver seat. Now? Rock solid.

Bad news.

I can only get my front-left to -0.8 degrees camber, maxxed out both at the top hat and in the factory adjuster. Front-right can maybe get to near -1.75, but even that would be a stretch, top-hat is maxxed but factory cam is at neutral.

Likely an issue with the car, not the coilovers, as it has been in two accidents that could have affected the front end geometry.

Arrrgg. That sucks. Are you going to forge on or find a different chassis? Unfortunate, as that one looks incredibly clean, which isn't exactly common these days.

The more I dug, the more it started to look like the coilovers actually. That and it was both front and rear, not just front. But to be honest, those previous accidents are one of the things that convinced me to use THIS car for a semi-track build. If it wasn't for the bondo and creative previous repairs, I would have kept it clean and stock instead of modifying it. Once I didn't have to worry about keeping it all-original then I could have fun with it. Sometimes an accident opens up more opportunities than it closes in a project car.

Short summary of the coilover problem, same front and rear, comes from my custom specs. Since I opted for the dual-adjust, with remotes, that meant a larger dampener body than the single-adjust. When Ceika built the coilovers they didn't catch that dimensional change. So the geometries got all screwy front and rear when they built up the lower mounts. Front got the excessive positive camber while the rear end got some chassis interference. The good news on this front is that Ceika has really stepped up to rectify the problem, they're going to be making new lower mounts for me to correct all these problems, and we're coordinating the measurements this time to make sure they fit.

A bit of a step back on my timeline, but I can run with the existing parts for now until the corrected ones arrive. Just not at the camber I am shooting for. However I can hit factory alignment specs for now.

Here's the problem I had in the rears

First drive today. Didn't die, explode, or bump into anything. Only went about 30mph. Time to look for a local place with an alignment rack to verify my numbers, as I know my garage floor isn't level, and I don't know how accurate I leveled the car during all of this. Though it did track straight under power and braking, so that's a good sign.

Initial feelings are that the ride is firm, but not too harsh, which is in line with what I was looking for. All my strange knocks and rattles appear to be gone from the front end. Definitely need to start firming up the dampeners ... totally expected though as I'm starting at full-soft. Next drive I'll start really working at feeling things out and tuning it a bit better, today I was just too nervous to really notice much.

Got a few miles on the car today, as in like 5, and started adjusting the compression on the dampeners. 10 clicks of adjustment, so I'm starting with the halfway point.
A very different experience compared to the old blown-out suspension. Some things improvements, some things I'll have to get used to. All the nasty front end clunking and associated shaking in the steering wheel are gone. I don't feel that wallowing sensation any more, though I've only brought it up to 50mph at this point. Not exactly exploring the envelope of the car yet. Feels a lot more planted on the road. It's too early to make sweeping statements though as I have yet to take any corners at speed. I need to take care of some other problems before I can start really working things.

The not so great things are mostly in the brakes. I need to bleed the system out again, still have some sponge to them, and one of the rears has a hell of a screech. That might just be rust on the rotors from sitting all winter but I'll yank them apart again to make sure. Probably a stupid little clip got knocked out of place.

Between the poly bushings and the T3 front track rod, it's transmitting a lot more sensation from the road into the chassis. There's also a lot more road noise too, all of which were being buffered out by the old loose and sloppy struts plus the old rubber bushings. I'm going to have to get use to it. Nothing that surprises me, particularly with the spring rates I went with. I just can't say I 'like' the feel, nor can I say I 'dislike' the feel, I'm just not used to it yet.