RaceLAB's K-Series powered MR2 project

The time has come to build something we can call our own. After tossing around a few different ideas. We settled on a road less traveled, and decided to drop a K series into the back of a mid 90's MR2. Car came all the way from Texas. Its an NA Hardtop non-ps non-abs car. So off the bat its already a bit lighter than the other models. The power plant was an easy choice. Tons of power, lightweight, cable actuated transmission, good aftermarket support. Once its all ready to go, it will definitely be boosted and receive a heavy dose of positive manifold pressure. Ok enough talk, on to the good stuff.


How it looked a week ago after a quick rinse once we got it off the transport. The picture makes the paint/body look decent but it definitely isn't. Its going to need work/paint but we will leave that for last.
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The previous owner pulled the motor before selling it off. We took a few more misc parts out of the bay that will no longer be used for the K series motor.

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I picked up a used k20z1 from our friend Jdmdc529.
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Fast forward to today, we decided to drop our motor into it to take some measurements and see what clearances are looking like.

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We dropped the motor in with a set of DSS pro level inner joints to check clearances and axle angle with the larger 108mm porsche style joints. So far it all seams to be working out as planned.

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That is where we left off. We will be updating pictures as we complete different aspects of the swap.

Our goal is to get the car running on the factory k20z1 shortblock and a decent turbo setup then once we get it all working as we would like, swap in a more power appropriate engine.

Cannot say how excited we are to get the ball rolling on this new project!!!

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Transmission mount is 90% done. We couldn't help but test borrow manifold off of Edwin's EK. 20 minutes later, Project MR2 has a turbo manifold/turbo on it lol

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Spent a decent amount of time laying out both the mr2 and honda electrical diagrams. Got it all figured out and on paper.Next we will be moving the engine bay FB into the car, behind the drivers seat. The ecu will be located there also. We are going to de-pin anything not necessary to this swap to cut down on as much weight as possible.
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Here is a unfinished picture of the passenger side mount. It still requires some finishing and some creativity to allow us to still view the timing pointer on the crank shaft.
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We test fit an Xcessive center feed manifold just see what kind of space we would be working with. We will be making our own manifold when the time comes.

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We also had Honey's 18x10 CCW's off her car for some clutch work and decided to throw one on the MR2 to see what kind of clearance we can work with. Tire size is 275/35/18.
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We moved the fuse box into the cabin and reloomed and lengthened the tailight harness. Next we will focus on the shifter cables/rear mount/and ecu wiring. We have been a little slow on updates but customer work comes before our own stuff.We will have more pictures in the next few days. Thanks for looking.

Got the majority of the wiring done. Dropped an engine harness I had laying around on the motor and plugged everything in and it was all systems go. Fuel pump primed and sprayed fuel everywhere from the cut fuel line in the bay lol. Connected the AEM and its all functioning as it should. So its just a matter of looming the harness and figuring out our desired routing for everything. Rear motor mount is in progress but I forgot to snap some pics of that. Ill get some when I get back to the shop.

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Just received our brand new K series engine harness. Now comes the fun part of laying it on the motor and cutting open a perfectly good harness to fit the car the way we want it to lol. Since the ecu will now run behind the drivers seat, the harness has to exit the motor from the front side plus it has plugs on it for emission stuff that we obviously wont be retaining, so they have to go also. More pictures soon.

Thanks for posting those pictures guys.

Well not has been done but well go ahead and post a few updates while we wait for parts needed to continue

First off, the 10 gallon fuel cell arrived. Fits good, now we just need to make a frame to support it in the location we want and then the fuel lines can be made.

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The rear mount is now 100% done. Only mount left now is the front one. Its pretty safe to say the motor isnt going to move even with only 3 mounts but we plan to give this thing hell so the extra strength cant hurt.

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As mentioned before, we received some K-Tuned goodies (Thanks guys!!!) and we installed a few of them. Pictured is their swivel lower water neck and alternator relocation kit. It affords us more room for a large intake plenum.

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Next up, we began tossing a few ideas back and forth and brainstorming on a few different intake manifolds ideas, however we settled on simplicity. Maybe later on down the road we will switch it up and do some back to back test with some other designs we had in mind.

Either way we needed a nice intake flange so we contacted Rich over at Xcessive Manufacturing and cut us this beautiful intake flange for us. Its a work of art.

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As for the plenum it will be a simple round shape. We still need to get some tapered runners and velocity stacks for the inside of it but for now, here is a picture of the plenum just hangin in the engine bay for size comparison.

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That is really all for now, we will post more updates as they come. Thanks for looking.

Some new updates:

Just received our new Garret core. 27x13x5.1

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how we are going to run the intercooler is yet to be decided but shes definitely a big girl.

Also got the frame for the fuel cell pretty much done. We might add a few braces to it but we are happy with it so far.

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Also spoke to Justin@ATS about possibly getting some Fortune Auto coilovers made to our specs. As always, we will post updates as things progress.

Just received our Fortune Auto coil-overs with custom spring rates and what they call "drag valving". We will be testing them out for them and see how they work for our application. They appear to be top quality and very well built.

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Just received our runners and stacks in. Got it all just put together to snap a few pics. All the parts looks great. As long as they work half as good as they look, we will be fine lol
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Angel got the intake manifold all fitted up to check clearance in the car and to determine proper TB orientation. So far fit is spot on to what we had envisioned.
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Figment-The-Dragon

Updates?

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Hey Ted, not much has been done except for ordering parts. The only work completed was cutting out the trunk and rear firewall and Angel fabricated the end tanks for the intercooler. We will be posting more pictures and info as we have more time. The intercooler will have a full length shroud made to help those fans pull air from the entire core. And let me say that these fans move some serious AIR.

We purchased the following:

Complete Fuel system

Two 12" SPAL fans for our intercooler

XS power Battery

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We haven't posted an update for quite some time so we figured it was a good time since we are completing some of the larger parts of the project.

To start off , we purchased and began putting together our air to air intercooler setup. It is based off a Garrett core rated to handle 1260hp. Obviously airflow won't be as great as on a vehicle with a front mounted IC so the core is overbuilt to hopefully provide the cooling we are after. To move air through the core, a custom fan shroud was built to house 2 Spal 12" high performance fans. Hopefully the combination of the intercooler's size and the two quality fans drawing air through the core will be enough to keep our charge temps in check.

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We also finally measured and ordered our DSS Pro Level axle setup. It uses a Porsche style inner joint and DSS's own outer joint/oversized hub. This particular kit uses a larger diameter intermediate bar, as well as a spool instead of a differential.

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Also, the shifter cable/shifter box setup has already been figured out and we are in the process of ordering custom length cables from the good guys over at K-Tuned. We will post more updates as we go along.

Thanks for reading. :thumbup:

Here are a few recent update photos. Built 2.0 is in the car now. Axles are in, Shifter is in and functioning. Fuel system needs to be installed as well as downpipe/dumptube/intercooler pipes and few other odds and ends.

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OMG I want!

I can't wait to see your finished intake manifold! I wish I had your resources and fab skills!

Holy hell this is an amazing build. You guys do some incredible work. That intercooler is insanely thick! Are you guys going to be running the stock engine or is that going to get built later on? there is actually a good bit of room in the back of that car!

Wow the best of both worlds right there Honda / Toyota thats gonna be sick

What an awesome build! Where are you guys located?

awesome build u have going here!!! i really love your intake manifold

We finally got her running and took her for her first drive. Must say it feels good to finally hear her run and drive.


Here is a quick video of the first drive:

http://youtu.be/AVMnxOZtJBU

ahhhh sounds so badass! i can't wait to see some dyno videos. Fab work is great.

im sure you probably get a lot negative comments from other mr2 owners ;)

Ahhhh finally this build has made it way. I've remember hearing about you guys doing this a while back. What made you guys decide to do A2A instead of A2W on the IC? Deffinatly a sick build. What do you have in mind for the rest of the set up?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by boosted_teg

ahhhh sounds so badass! i can't wait to see some dyno videos. Fab work is great.

im sure you probably get a lot negative comments from other mr2 owners ;)

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Maybe, maybe not. My buddy has a turbo mr2 and be has ridden in my turbo civic and admits mine has a much better top end and overall acceleration and be knows how good the Honda motors are when done right. I don't think mr2 owners are as stupid as your typical, say, mustang owner.