I saw powellly_eg's message about getting some pics of my motor up so I figured I'd just jump straight to the build thread
Okay so a bit of background, My Toyota SW20 is the second car I have ever owned I started off after passing my driving test with a 1ltr 12v Corsa C which lasted me for 5 years:
until one day I got a phone call off a friend of mine I'd not spoken to in a while asking if I was interested in buying his MR2, basically he and his partner were running two very powerful bikes and the car was bought as a means to do the shopping etc. he'd always been a bit of a mad one so instead of going for the sensible option he bought this:
it wasn't in the best shape by the time he had finished with it as hes more of a drive it until it dies and not care about how it looks kind of guy (the photo above was taken after I'd had it and had chance to start tidying it up). Any way back to the story, after a bit of discussion I decided to at least go up and test drive it, went up that night took it for a blast round the country roads in his area and was immediately in love I'd always had a soft spot for these cars ever since I was a kid but to actually drive one I was like a kid again
while we were driving around we were talking about price and why he was wanting to sell it and stuff, and after a while I hit him with what I thought was a rather insane proposal... that we simply swap cars, he was offering me the 2 for £800, and I would have made at most £1200 on my corsa if I were to sell it so I put across the agreement that we swap and if he should sell the corsa within 2 years of taking it from me anything he makes over £1000 he sends my way, to my surprise he agreed!!! so a few days later (after I'd had time to sort insurance etc.) we met at his again and exchanged paperwork, The Toyota was now MINE!!
When I got it home that night the first thing I did was look through all the paperwork I'd been given and to my surprise I found that it is actually a Japanese Import!
the handbook confirmed this, lots of cutesy Japanese style diagrams and text written in Japanese WHOOP!! I'd done it! my first jap car and it was ACTUALLY A JAP IMPORT
so over the next few days I spent either driving it looking up things i could do to it or driving it some more oh and lets not forget cleaning it and getting it back to a presentable standard
After a while I noticed a few problems like low revving which turned out to be nothing more than the fact that the throttle cable had been replaced with a much longer one so there was nowhere near as much tension as there should be, that was easily solved, then I starte noticing a knocking sound, I had a look but couldn't see what it could be so I paid a visit to a couple of the MR2OC members who diagnosed the problem for me and even ordered the parts for me, not long after this they decided to stop talking to me but thats a different story
it turned out the problem was that the front suspension was fooked so once the new suspension turned up I fitted them and was away again, fun times
until... the alternator died on my way home from work
so I set about finding a replacement, luckily I stumbled across someone who as it turned out came highly recommended by MR2OC members called MR2bits.co.uk so I ordered what I thought was a reconditioned alternator from him when it arrived it was very grubby but thought nothing of it, attempted to fit it and wtf?!?! it was bigger than the one I'd jsut taken out, so I was straight on the blow Ade the guy who runs it who assured me that it was definitely the correct alternator, it wasn't becasue if it was it would have fit in the backet on my engine!!so after a bit more discussion and as I was still new to anything mechanical I decided to buy the bracket from him too and fit it, finally I was up and running again, but wait whats this two weeks after I was driving home from work (again) and suddenly noticed the three lights of doom on the dash, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
so i managed to get the car home ... just, got it jacked up and ripped the alternator out! I found a place that tested alternators and took it down there he looked at it for all of 30 seconds and said whoever sold you this screwed you! all the internals were caked in oil, and even if it was working when it was sold ot me it had never been reconditioned and definitely would not work for long (really? you think?)
So I started ringing around some of the other members of MR2OC to see if anyone had any suggestions for somewhere to get hold of one and win!! the first phone call I made the guy just happened to have an engine in his back garden that had one on so I did what I could to limp the car along to his house but ended up having to rely on a tow truck, got to his for about 8.30 that evening in the middle of November and got the new alternator in, boom! it worked
Now here comes the start of the modifying
I got given a few bits and pieces i.e. aftermarket steering wheel, razo gearknob and a hks mushroom air filter that had never been used
so I fitted them while all the time still updating parts on the car like brakes etc. and heres how the car looked for most of last year.
Smoked the rear lights:
The coating started flaking on the wheels so me and the gf decided to respray them
I also removed the nasty UK numberplate from the front of the car that the previous owner has stupidly screwed straight into the nose!! (I still need to smooth this out and respray it at some point)
and as I really dislike the three piece spoiler I took the side pieces off
at japshow 2010:
then I started getting a bit into stickers ...
I was actually quite proud of this and might do it again...
my gf wrapped these:
did some tidying up of the engine:
then despoilered:
with winter closing in rapidly and the boot now letting in water and not having the time or money to smooth it and paint it I decided to wrap it that way it would be covered during the winter months, ready for a fresh attack in the spring.
unfortunately the wrap I'd chosen wasnt the most durable so the finish wasn't perfect
and then in December out driving one night this happened:
http://vimeo.com/18144485 after some inspection it turned out that the engine had cracked a piston ring so I had two options, buy a new engine and fit it or scrap it.
I decided to get a new engine and after some seraching I found someone selling a revision 4 engine low mileage, and nice and cheap so In January I went with a friend and his van to Oldham to pick it up and got to work on swapping out the engine. I've written quite a few lengthy blog posts about this so rather than copy and paste it all I'll just post the links here
http://stealthygecko.heroku.com/articles/mr2-update-the-good-and-the-badhttp://stealthygecko.heroku.com/articles/mr2-progress-updatehttp://stealthygecko.heroku.com/articles/mr2-update-purchase-madehttp://stealthygecko.heroku.com/articles/mr2-update-phase-one-completehttp://stealthygecko.heroku.com/articles/mr2-update-the-resurrection-of-prowlhttp://stealthygecko.heroku.com/articles/mr2-update-resurrection-of-prowl-part-2http://stealthygecko.heroku.com/articles/mr2-update-resurrection-of-prowl-part-3I've not finished yet I'm just waiting for the last couple of bits to turn up and then fingers crossed he should be back on teh road ripping it up
I've got lots of plans in the pipe line some of which I want to keep a secret until they're done, but the ones I can say are custom stainless exhaust system, coilovers, bumper and boot lid smoothed and sprayed, lots of interior changes, individual throttle bodies and lots lots more
all comments welcome
as for the lights I'm actually torn between getting the revision 3+ rear lights or just get a blanking panel for the rear that works with these lights. 
