6G Celicas Forums

Ok so about this time last year (july '08) i picked up a '91 mr2 3sgte long block & e153 tranny from a guy not too far away for ~$500 and these are some of the more recent events.
some facts from the get-go:
-I am 21 and until this car and these forums I had only the very basic knowledge when it came to cars. I am a computer nerd by profession and prior to cars. I'm also still a college student, working part time to pay for the project. and a friend of mine offered wrench time in order to build experience in that he had only just started working on his mechanics certification. -and he has since been much more informative.
-I had to go big, 3s swap or bust. (and doing all the work in my parents 2nd garage was not a favorite of my mom [who thinks its a waste])
-The daily driver would be the victim, a '95 ST w/280k miles (at the time). Regrettably, here are the first few pictures I took.
Here's how things began after tearing it all down...









Took the block and head to Suder Engine Services and had the following done:
Block hot tanked, cylinders honed, freeze plugs replaced and block decked. Head was cleaned, milled and rebuilt, replacing a burnt valve in the process.













mock up






After it was returned we painted it with a flat black HIGH temp paint and bought an engine stand!




And its at this point in the story that on St. Patty's Day the 7afe DIED. Pretty sure it was a combination of bad ideas including a castrol syntec oil change, highway driving from cincinnati-columbus-indianapolis-chicago and some 94ocatane. (no other upgrades) yes, bad choices + 293k miles = thrown rod.
the carnage:

yea pistons aren't suppose to sit sideways...







and so while the new engine work continues I borrow the 'rents '98 camry LE in... oh, you guessed it. gold. just like everyone else
and i also began tearing down the engine bay.













and after a very thorough sanding, 2 coats of high temp black paint and 1 layer of clearcoat
viola!








back to the engine-
Installed the bottom end






Put new CP pistons & Eagle Rods together






and then in the block








got head?




valve cover fitting




i have since made a bit more progress and more pictures to follow soon. questions and comments welcome.
thanks to anyone who has answered questions or helped me in anyway thus far in the project.

This post has been edited by cjh4l22: Sep 29, 2011 - 1:09 PM