• Stevo
  • Ripened Lemon
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  • From: Indianapolis
  • Registered: 2009-05-26
  • Posts: 102

Topic: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

Well, as some of you probably saw, the Topless Asset Racing Program's blue MR2 only lasted about 2 hours into the race before Something Bad happened to the engine and we spent the better part of Saturday unsuccessfully trying to swap in an engine from a parts car.  A maddeningly undiagnosable fuel injector signal problem prevented us from continuing. 

Thanks for all the good wishes from everyone as we struggled in vain.

During our time out there we loaned out and received some parts.

Our alternator finished the race on the red "Star Wars" MR2.  Thanks for helping a tiny part of our car finish the race.  We'd love for you to send that alternator back if you can.  Thanks for the caramel apples.  My kids loved em.  Please drop me an email!

Same goes to the kids with the dark MR2 next to the Camaro.  If you still have one of our distributors, please let me know.

Bill Strong, your little plastic box of assorted wire connector odds-n-ends ended up going home with us.  Sorry!  Thank you for loaning it.  Let me know your address, or I'll find you on mr2oc.com and get it back to you.

To the Ft. Wayne guys, thanks for selling us that distributor cap.  I hope the side mirror you borrowed came in handy.  Sorry I wasn't comfortable letting you take our main bearings.  I just sort of arbitrarily set the line for part loanage as outside the crank case only.

The Bumblebee Camaro guys across the road were awesome.  Thanks for the cherry picker and test light usage.  I hope both our teams have better luck next year.

This Sunday we are going to tear down the 4AGE and see what exactly blew up and what didn't.

Best wishes to all from the TARP guys!

  • From: 5,280 ft.
  • Registered: 2009-05-01
  • Posts: 1,298

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

sorry you guys couldn't get back up and running.  having dealt with electrical issues in our MR2 (albeit in a lighted garage), we can sympathize.

mike - Schumacher Taxi Service
12+-time loser
"Winner" - We Got Screwed, NJMP '11

Buzz Killington's Website

3 Reply by Bill Strong (edited by Bill Strong 2009-10-09 08:02 PM)

  • From: Piney River, Virginia
  • Registered: 2009-09-07
  • Posts: 192

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

That little box has never left my ownership since at least 1998... maybe even before that smile

Racing Strong Motorsports
116 Mountain View Ln
Arrington, Va 22922

I really wish you guys had got that car fixed.

Bill Strong
Racing Strong Motorsports
Like us on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/RacingStrong
  • From: Portland
  • Registered: 2009-05-02
  • Posts: 568

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

Bummer!  We had a similar fate in our MR2 at Buttonwillow.  Luckily, we blew the motor on Friday evening during practice... so we had about 15 hours to do the swap overnight.  We managed to limp through the race on the parts car motor... but burned through about a qt of oil an hour through the front-main, rear-main and the cam seals.

Post pics of what you find!  We are bringing a spare EVERYTHING to Thill

Matt
Free Range Racing
  • Marc
  • Lemons Staff Stalker
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  • From: Fort Wayne, IN
  • Registered: 2009-10-06
  • Posts: 1,378

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

AndyDenver wrote:

Anyone who doesn't think of using a section of leather belt for a main bearing doesn't deserve to be accepted to a race. Case in point. Smiley for added for effect. big_smile

actually we came up with a solution that lasted another 78 laps. but we did not finish the race.

  • From: Frisco, Texas
  • Registered: 2009-05-02
  • Posts: 1,430

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

What is up with all these MR2 problems anyway? the 4AGE is normally a very reliable motor....

"Don't mess with Lexas!" LS400. We survived another one! See website link for build details.
Maker of the "unofficial Lemons fish!" - If you ask nice, I'll likely give you one at the track.

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  • Marc
  • Lemons Staff Stalker
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  • From: Fort Wayne, IN
  • Registered: 2009-10-06
  • Posts: 1,378

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

Spinnetti wrote:

What is up with all these MR2 problems anyway? the 4AGE is normally a very reliable motor....

best i can tell, it's a heat issue.  it's only a 4quart motor and the stock oil cooler isn't adequate. at one point we came in and our oil was steaming off the dipstick. considering it was brand new oil it had to be oil steam, not water contamination.

personally we'll be back with a solution to this problem. while we had quite a bit of fun it's way too much money to spend to just race for 5.5hours. next time we'll race all 24.

that still doesn't address that we are 15-20mph slower than the leader on average. that will take some better tires and better driving to fix.

  • From: Toronto, Ontario
  • Registered: 2009-05-03
  • Posts: 1,114

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

Marc wrote:
AndyDenver wrote:

Anyone who doesn't think of using a section of leather belt for a main bearing doesn't deserve to be accepted to a race. Case in point. Smiley for added for effect. big_smile

actually we came up with a solution that lasted another 78 laps. but we did not finish the race.

Bearings can be an interesting fix...if the crank is badly scored and it's junk anyway, you can trim the bearing and shim it to restore some clearance...and soft aluminum strip can sometimes work too, but if it's rods, it's tough to make 'em last with enough oil pressure for the rest of the engine. I've tried brass shim stock with disastrous results....maybe it expands too much.....leather? LOL! A great old-time Model-T idea. Love to try it, maybe on a Briggs & Stratton.

Jim "Endo" Anderton
30 years of racing and still not Brambilla.....
  • Marc
  • Lemons Staff Stalker
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  • From: Fort Wayne, IN
  • Registered: 2009-10-06
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Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

jimeditorial wrote:
Marc wrote:
AndyDenver wrote:

Anyone who doesn't think of using a section of leather belt for a main bearing doesn't deserve to be accepted to a race. Case in point. Smiley for added for effect. big_smile

actually we came up with a solution that lasted another 78 laps. but we did not finish the race.

Bearings can be an interesting fix...if the crank is badly scored and it's junk anyway, you can trim the bearing and shim it to restore some clearance...and soft aluminum strip can sometimes work too, but if it's rods, it's tough to make 'em last with enough oil pressure for the rest of the engine. I've tried brass shim stock with disastrous results....maybe it expands too much.....leather? LOL! A great old-time Model-T idea. Love to try it, maybe on a Briggs & Stratton.

that was the weird thing. our crank wasn't really scored, it's like the main bearings were just delaminating. if we could have found new main bearings we probably would have made it to the end of the race. unfortunately there were no mains between summit and youngstown.

in the end we used a nail file to smooth out the brass bearing edges so the crank could seat right and ran it with 30wt/lucas engine goo. we also placed the best bearings at both ends of the crank.

we also has to weld the center main bearing cap back together: http://battjt.soliddesign.net/divinewin … CF3568.JPG

  • From: Toronto, Ontario
  • Registered: 2009-05-03
  • Posts: 1,114

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

Great stuff! Did you win Heroic Fix?

Jim "Endo" Anderton
30 years of racing and still not Brambilla.....
  • Marc
  • Lemons Staff Stalker
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  • From: Fort Wayne, IN
  • Registered: 2009-10-06
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Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

jimeditorial wrote:

Great stuff! Did you win Heroic Fix?

nope, the snoopy team got it for also rebuilding their motor and getting screwed by summit racing smile

  • Registered: 2009-07-15
  • Posts: 18

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

Stevo wrote:

Our alternator finished the race on the red "Star Wars" MR2.  Thanks for helping a tiny part of our car finish the race.  We'd love for you to send that alternator back if you can.  Thanks for the caramel apples.  My kids loved em.  Please drop me an email!

Thank you, and you're welcome!  We don't know how we'd have finished without the loan.  We're hugely grateful.

Sadly we're pretty poor stewards, as our inappropriate kill-switch install that killed our original alternator killed yours as well.  We finished under battery power.  We didn't diagnose that until sometime on Monday.

We will make good and send you a working alternator, or provide sufficient $$ to replace it.

  • From: Land Of Subarus, Colorado
  • Registered: 2009-04-30
  • Posts: 9,416

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

For some reason, Lemons MR2s tend to fry engines- usually main bearings but sometimes they prefer to do the Honda thing and pop a head gasket. Since the 4As have mostly held up just fine in Corollas, the poor-cooling conspiracy theories probably have some basis in fact. How about roof-mounted radiators?

Murilee Martin aka Judge Phil on Facebook
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  • From: Portland
  • Registered: 2009-05-02
  • Posts: 568

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

MurileeMartin wrote:

For some reason, Lemons MR2s tend to fry engines- usually main bearings but sometimes they prefer to do the Honda thing and pop a head gasket.

Yep, main bearings caused this:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2503/3834959455_b1f737e4c2.jpg

Our motor after Friday afternoon at Bwillow

Matt
Free Range Racing
  • Registered: 2009-05-04
  • Posts: 311

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

If you have cooling issues in an MR2, you've got BIG problems with your cooling system.  It's so over-engineered that you can just about run without rad fans for a 24 hour race.

Mod Squad Racing
http://twosrus.com
  • Stevo
  • Ripened Lemon
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  • From: Indianapolis
  • Registered: 2009-05-26
  • Posts: 102

Re: Nelson Ledges MR2 Ghetto -- TARP Parts and Service Department

We started tearing down our bad engine today.

When we pulled the oil plug to our "kicker" 7qt oil pan, a lot of water came out before the oil.  We pulled the head and the gasket looked fine, no sign of blow by, all the pistons heads were dirty.  I am afraid the Something Terrible happened to the bottom end of the motor.  One piston has some vertical slop in it.  Its looking grim for this 4AGE.

The engine was iffy in enough ways to have several competing theories for its demise.

Our radiator setup is much better than stock.  We're comfortable with that.  The pipes are long and hard to burp completely, but we feel good there, too.  Our temp gauge was in good shape the whole race.  Oil pressure gauge went to zero the morning of the race, but we confirmed oil circulating by peaking in the  oil fill hole just as the green flag dropped.  Later in the first stint, the oil pressure gauge returned working.  The engine did fine through night practice Friday and lasted 2 hours into the race before blowing with a lot of smoke.

Hours before the car got loaded up Thursday night, water was leaking from the water pump weep hole.  The copper stop leak stuff worked.  We bought a new water pump and took it with us to the race.

I'm wondering if we weren't carrying around a lot of water in that pan and it eventually got hot enough to boiler up our crank case.  Or the water pump could have just stopped.  Doesn't really matter in the end.  That engine appears to be done with racing.

So, we got a line on a very low, low price 5S-FE.  We are considering.  Looks like it has been done in an MR2 Mk1 before.  Newer engine good.

---

Bill, I have your case and will get it shipped this week.  Unless you are coming to Houston?  I'll bring it with me.

D_D, between 1 dead and 1 live engine, I have an alternator, but no distributor.  You can paypal me whatever.  Pick-a-part is $15.