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Meet Vehicle JT2AW16J8K0144786
Six second Video of me at Talledega Grand Prix Raceway
This car entered the Registry on 2/21/97 and the entry was last modified on 11/21/01. FACTORY INSTALLED OPTIONS:
SERVICE HISTORY - Has had regular oil changes with a Synthetic Blend motor oil every 2500 miles since I purchased it. Changed to Mobile 1 in March of 2000 and still maintain the same oil change schedule May 97 - Replaced the clutch with a setup my mechanic (who both owns a street SC and races an 85 SC conversion in Solo ASP class) recommended. Also had the clutch slave cylinder rebuilt. (105,000 miles) April 98 - Finally found the last electrical problem that was causing missing above 6250 rpm. Found that one of the spark plug leads was not fully seated in the distributor cap. It would idle and run fine, but under extreme pressure (above 6250 rpm) the spark would not jump the gap between the lead and the cap. It will now rev to 7000 rpm with only a stumble or two on the way. May 98 - Replaced gearbox oil with Redline MT-90 fluid (Two words....DO IT!). (124,000 miles) August 98 - During routine maintenence I found that one of the hoses that connect the intercooler to the intake has a hole. Replace with Toyota part. What a difference. It now revs to 7500 rpm easily with no stumbles or hesitation of any kind and if I'm not careful will hit the Rev limiter. August 98 - My car starts to make ring-tingly sounds at idle that quit at speed. On August 25th it behaves like it has a potato in the exhaust pipes. The ring-tingly sound turns out to be a worn timing belt crank pulley. The keyway has worn through and the pulley is moving through about 30 degrees of timing. I have the Timing belt, drive belts and water pump, cam and crank seals replaced while they're fixing the timing belt crank pulley. (129,000 miles) I was going to replace all this myself when I got the Blitz pulley I ordered in JUNE (*$%&^$%# Pann Autosports!!). September 98 - Installed my New Blitz pulley (from ZEN MotorSports not &^%&^%& PANN!) and did the ABV mod. Now I'm pumping 11.4 PSI and hauling butt! Incredible difference! WhoooHoooooo!!!! (130,000 miles) October 98 - Clutch started slipping (could it be from the extra boost?). I called around to find the TRD Kevlar clutch kit and found that it has been discontinued. I call the manufacturer and found they had shipped new units to TRD (these are now meant to be sold with a flywheel in the kit). I called TRD and pleaded to have them drop ship a set to me and I would pay the dealer. NO GO! Not until I mentioned that I autocrossed and that I needed to get the clutch before the next event. Now it was possible. New Kevlar Clutch Kit is now installed. Thank you to Chris at TRD and Jeff Watson at Jay Marks Toyota in Texas. (131,000 miles) January 99 - My car developed an oil leak in November that turned into a major oil (2 quarts per tank of gas) leak by January. Turns out the oil cooler lines had hardened and cracked. It hadn't completely split, but it would've. I took it to my mechanic and he changed both lines, cleaned the entire bottom and firewall side of the engine for about $70. HE used regular oil pressure line rather then the official Toyota parts. Toyota wanted $63 for the pair. Also had to buy a set of front tires after autocrossing on my road set. The back of my muffler blew out on the way to the Birmingham trip (My car was REALLY grungy for that event!) so it was time to replace the muffler. Since the OEM unit works well I decided to use one again (after all, it did last 10 years and 135,000 miles!). March 99 - I've put 35,000 miles on my SC since I bought it and I've just put my third pair of tires on the rear. This time I went with Yokohama AVS-i 205/50ZR15. Added an AutoMeter 2" mechanical boost gauge and pillar mount pod. April 99 - With the rear Yokohama's and front (other) tires, my car pushed like a MOTHER! So off to TireRack again for a pair of front AVS-i tires (195/50ZR15). Now this is well balanced! Good tires are GOOOOOD!!!!!! May 99 - Replaced front (Performance Friction) and rear brake pads (CarboTech Mean Green). The fronts were about 40-50% worn and the rears were about 90-99% worn. I have been spending many hours under the car with the Simple Green spray bottle was everything down. Pulled into the Nashville Nights '99 meeting Friday night with a load clacking noise the rose and fell with the RPM. Once again the timing belt crank pulley had worn the keyway and was causing the timing to change with RPM (Retarding under acceleration and advancing under deacceleration). This also caused the SC crank pulley to wobble on the crank shaft wearing both the pulley and the shaft. This whole thing is caused by to small a key being used by Toyota (Please see SC Crank Pulleys for a description of the problem). The stop gap measure to repair this was to add some metal to the crank snout and machine it down and to also machine a sleeve for the Cusco pulley to make a very snug fit. Also have had the key "JBWELD"ed into the crank keyway. The long term repair is probably to pull the engine and transmission and replace both with Japanese low mileage import engines. Sep-Nov 99 (143,000 miles) - Well the p**p hit the fan and I truly spun the crank snout. Not only the part that holds the SC crank pulley, but also the timing belt gear as well. The options were part the car out, replace the crankshaft in my 140K mile engine or order a Japanese import engine. I went with option #3.. I ordered Levin SC engine which comes with 165 horsepower stock. This is mostly due to the 8.9:1 compression ratio instead of the US spec 8.0:1 CR. Other small niceties are the teflon coating on the piston skirts and ceramic coating on top of the pistons. Also included with this engine is the Twin Coil ignition. This is extremely close to a direct fire ignition system since it has a crank sensor charging twin coils with two outputs each (four high voltage outputs total). In order to get this project down as quick as possible, we decided to just swap the iginition and intake from the old US spec engine over to the JDM engine. I'm saving the extra goodies for later on. While I had the engine out I decided to get the TRD headers installed. I also ordered the EL Prototypes pulley to replace my destroyed Cusco. I haven't installed it yet as I need to sort out my cooling system. I'm also investigating either Water injection or a larger Intercooler. March 2000 - The weather is starting to lift so the pile 'o parts I had stacked up over the winter is starting to get installed. I replaced the leaking clutch master cylinder and flushed the clutch system. Replaced the crapped out top hinge on the drivers door so now the door shuts properly! Removed the trash car alarm and the bundle of wires that went with it. I finally got to do the air/fuel mixture mod so now my car runs very well again. I've also done a lot of the preliminary work for some of the other stuff. November 2001 - The Second JDM engine was installed at 165,000 miles. David Greene and Shane Cross helped me install it in David's well equipped garage. Pictures of both the old and new engines can be seen here. AFTERMARKET PERFORMANCE - ENGINE - E. L. Prototypes 14 psi Aluminum SC Crank pulley, Changed Supercharger Oil to FORD Synthetix SC Oil. Marc Summers Cap, Magnecor 8.5mm wire set, Hose Techniques Red SuperSilicone vacuum lines, Custom Red Intercooler hoses, HKS Super Mega Flow intake, TRD Kevlar clutch, TRD Header, Custom Spearco Intercooler w/PermaCool 10": 1250cfm intercooler fan wired to the rear window defroster switch, Adjustable Air-Fuel Mixture mod as described by Jorn Innset, SuperTrapp Muffler to go on the end of the TRD header (for autox or track use only).
SUSPENSION - Performance Friction front brake pads, CarboTech Mean Green rear brake pads with Ford HD Truck Brake fluid. This combination of brake pads shifts the somewhat front biased brakes more towards the rear and really lets me slow the car down when needed. TRD Stainless steel brake lines with Speedbleeders on the calipers complete the brakes. Installed ARE 15x7 wheels with 195/50HR15 on front and 205/50HR15 on the rear. I had to replace the rears after 15000 miles and the fronts after 25,000 miles. The rears were completely bald on the inner edges while looking almost new on the outer edges. The fronts were bald on both inside and outside edges as well as highly flatspotted from autocrossing. Installed Eibach springs (1.25"drop) with Tociko Illumina strut inserts November 1, 1998 (132,000 miles). Grex (Trust Japan) Front Strut Bar (145,000 miles), Mcmaster-Carr Shore 80 Flexane to make my solid motor mounts, INTERIOR - Jon Oellrich Short Shift kit, Ken Farrell Shift Boot, Autometer 2" mechanical boost gauge in Autometer pillar single gauge pod (for 79-93 Mustang), TWMInduction Halmeter AF30 Air Fuel ratio gauge., Jorn Innset's Air/Fuel mixture control mod., RJS 5 point harness (installed as 4 point, anti-submarine strap is not used)
THINGS I HAVE IN HAND WAITING TO BE INSTALLED The weather's been cold so I have things piling up to get done. All four ball joints, both front outer tie rod ends, TRD bushing kit (partially installed), ThermoTec Header Jackets, PermaCool Transmission Oil Cooler, Throttle Cable, RC Engineering Balanced and Blueprinted fuel injectors., Marc Summers Distributor cap, Lotek dual pillar mount gauge pod, TRD Adjustable rising rate fuel pump, Toyota OEM MKIIT Fuel Pump, McMaster-Carr sealed bearings (part # 6384K353) to replaced the bushings in the transmission end of the shifter cables. AUDIO UPGRADES - Replaced AM/FM/Cassette with Panasonic AM/FM/CD, chucked the factory Subwoofer and replaced it with a Sherwood 75x2 RMS Amp driving a pair of Bose 141 bookcase speakers behind the rear seats as subs. I replaced the dash speakers with some Boston Acoustics coax and the B-Pillar speakers with some generic 3.5" speakers. Sounds good even on the Freeway with the T-Tops out. PREVIOUS HISTORY - Last owner (Nicole Y. Gant) had car for short period, which is good because she didn't do much maintenence. She traded it in at Trickett Olds/Honda to buy a Honda Accord. Trickett wholesaled it out to the used car lot I bought it from. I purchased it for $3300. AUTOCROSSING EQUIPMENT - BFG G-Force R1 P205/55/R14 mounted on stock SC rims, Lots and lots o'stickers! I've constructed an autocross only exhaust system made from a SuperTrapp muffler and a length of 2.5" tubing. This setup hooks to the ball on the TRD header and exits almost straight back at the stock location. This replaces the cat and muffler and decreases weight dramatically! I'll have pictures soon. Every race weekend I pack into my SC, Four tires, a Hydraulic floor jack, two jack stands, Torque wrench in case, Molded case of tools, helmet, special exhaust system, box of wheel nuts and half inch rachet and 13/16 deep well socket, Kneeling pad, box of magnetic race stickers and numbers, MISC NOTES - This is my second MKI MR2. I had an 85 NA for a couple years. This car is much stronger and feels more solid. I especially like the T-Tops with the wonderful weather here in Nashville! ANY DAMAGE - Purchased the vehicle with a small dent in left front fender. Someone then donated a small scape along left rear wheel well in a mall parking lot for Christmas. I hope to get these repaired in the near future. The left front fender and drivers door have faded to a not so subtle shade of oxidized Super Pink. Strange because there is no sign of repaint or body repairs on the car and all the VIN numbers on the body panels match. Ooooppppsss! (1999) Had a major case of brain fade and rear ended a Mitsu Eclipse, and then I was rear ended by a Ford Tempo. Very light damage in front (you might not notice it first time you look) and none in rear. Very lucky. Ooooppppsss! (2001) Drove through a temporary road patch and mangled my left front wheel. Thankfully American Racing had on 15x7 left in their warehouse in Chicago. A big thanks to Brad from American Racing for taking the time to track it down for me even though he got no commission for it WEB SITE - Other then this one, Try my autocross page. Right now there is just pictures of the Nashville MR2 Club (TRIMOC) at local autocross events. Also the local Nashville MR2 club can be found here.
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