One Milestone at a Time

Happy New Year everyone! I took a short break to enjoy the holidays with my family and friends, I hope you were able to do the same!

There is a lot planned for this car, but first and foremost I am trying to get the MR2 back on the road by the summer, I'm going to consider that June 1, 2023. Lofty goal for a newbie, but I am hoping it will keep me pushing. The project won't be done by June, not by a longshot, but I'm hoping to have the engine running in the car by then. If you've done this before you may think, "6 months? That's plenty of time to get an engine swapped if it's as 'bolt-on' as you say!" And you would be right, the actual swap is maybe a month of weekends for a novice. The problem for me... is the $$$. Unfortunately, I am not, literally, made of money. I have some loose parts from the Miata, the ST, and some assorted items from other hobbies I am hoping to sell to get some extra gwop. Plus, the Mrs. would prefer if I simultaneously get rid of some crap I don't need to fund this project.

I started taking out all parts that were in the way of the engine, the intake, the intercooler piping, various wiring harness bits.

I was very intimidated that this car would sit for months or even years and I did not want it to be another example of a project forever left unfinished so I took very serious care to label everything as best I could. My career is in IT so I approach many challenges the way I would at work. I approach documentation with the mindset: "Would I be able to complete this if today was my first day?" and similarly if I pick this up months later I need to know roughly where it should go.

This is my first time working on an auto project of this scale, so I found it very helpful to make a list to stay on track. This isn't everything, I continued to add tasks as I thought of them, but it definitely kept me focused and from forgetting something.

Eventually, after draining all fluids and removing anything on the walls of the engine bay the motor was ready to be dropped. Under the car I have a cheap cart with an old tire on it to support the engine. I knew this cart was never going to survive, but I'm going to buy a hydraulic lifting cart for the 2GR and I didn't have the spare budget at the time.

The traditional way people pull the engine out of these chassis is out from the bottom and by lifting the body of the car up. I definitely should not have wrapped the straps under the body like this, but thankfully I didn't damage anything.

Shoutout to my buddy Jake who moved to California and is letting me "store" his QuickJack. I didn't like it at first, but for a project that is going to live on jack stands or for a "mobile" lift I think this is helpful. I don't know that the asking price is what I would consider fair, but if you're in a low garage like me this is about the best you can expect.

With some wiggling and some higher than comfortable jacking of the body (Again, better ways to do that) I was able to squeeze the old 3SGTE out from under the car.

With the engine out of the body, unfortunately I can't just plop the new engine in its place. I want to clean this engine bay as much as possible before the 2GR fills the space.

Next post we will start degreasing the ever loving shit out of this bay and prep the bay for paint!