Hey folks, I will try not to ramble too much..

So I was looking for a car from late 2022, I was going to buy a newish small hatchback with my wife but when we went to test drive some I just couldn't do it, felt like id prefer to flush the money down the toilet.. I have been riding a motorbike for the last nine years and it is my main transport for commuting. I bought an old Ford Focus at the same time as buying a house about 18 months ago and then last year finally had enough money to get something a bit better. So at this point I started thinking i'd like a turbo MR2, I have always wanted one, I was looking for one around 2011 a bit before switching from cars to bikes out of parking issues. I was starting to give up on the MR2, I couldn't find any good ones for sale and then I came across the broke and boosted series on the car passion channel (don't judge me yet!!) I started thinking maybe I could put a turbo into a car. I have very limited experience with working on cars, I have had about 10 cars and serviced them myself for the most part but not done a lot beyond the likes of changing spark plugs. I owned an Mx5 for a couple years from around 2010 to 2012, I had an R32 Skyline before it, sold it due financial issues and ended up with the Mx5 as a good compromise for something rwd and fun yet affordable to run. I had a lot of fun driving it but found it a bit frustrating with the lack of power compared to the Skyline and previous cars where were mostly over 200+ bhp..

What I want a car for is driving to the shops, popping here and there around town with my wife and then mostly f***ing around in trying to slide the back having a laugh. I would be interested in doing track days but likely a few a year ago most. So I guess it would fall into the fast road car bracket. We don't have autoX here which is a shame, its very much off road, there are hill climbs but I think you need a lot of stuff like in date seats, in date harness, fireproof underpants and the rest.. I wanted to get a 1993 car or older as in Ireland Irish tax is 56 euro on 30+ year old cars and the emissions testing is very relaxed from 1993 back, its just a low idle test rather than a high idle from 1994 on and you can have a straight through exhaust. So I set out looking for an early red NA and found a guy selling one in Northern Ireland,






There is a huge issue with rust here, especially cars imported from the UK as they put salt on the roads, this car has a little bit of surface rust on the suspension arms and sway bars but the sills and wheel arches and the underneath of the car in general seem totally clean. It has the following which I would have been looking to install

LSD - Quaife atb, not sure if you have them in US, I think its similar to a torsen diff
Roll bar
Bucket seat & harnesses
Aftermarket exhaust from the downpipe back
Air intake

It has 100k miles, bad points,

Small oil leak from Cas O-ring
I found out there is a leak in the boot
I also found out after buying it the suspension in the car is Maxspeeding coilovers
The exhaust is a little loud and bassy on acceleration at higher revs

Pretty happy with it so far, I found someone selling seals for the rear lights and got them changed, little rain since but no leaks so far.
I have managed to remove the heat shield on over the exhaust manifold in preparation of taking it off.

The timing belt is due to be changed, I got a timing belt kit and water pump with it. I ordered some genuine crankshaft and camshaft seals which have arrived.

So then the turbo side of things, I have ordered a Bofi racing turbo kit

It comes with the following,

• G19 Manifold and Downpipe
• ECU Including Wideband (ME221, ME442 or MS3 Mini) went for the ME442
• Full intercooler fitting kit including 230mm intercooler
• Forge blow-off valve
• Lower radiator hose
• NGK forced induction spark plugs
• TD04 waterline kit
• TD04 oil feed kit
• TD04 oil drain kit
• TD04 gasket set
• Intake air temperature sensor
• Bosch EV14 640cc injector kit
• Pre-clocked TD04-13T turbocharger
• 3/8th BSPT tap
• Reduced shank drill bit for sump drain
• BMW TPS sensor (1.6 NA)
• Davefab EGR blanking kit (1996 onwards)
• MAF loom to IAT connector (NA only)
• RamAir Filter
• Electronic boost control solenoid
• J-B Weld two-part epoxy

I have also ordered from the same people (not Bofi)

Skidnation coolant reroute
MeisterR coilovers (I did read for around 20 hours about coilovers, including a lot of the 100 page thread on here before making this decision)
Compeition stage 3 clutch and lightened flywheel
A few other bits including a rocker cover gasket, hoping tho get all this stuff during this week.

So, my plan is to break it up into a number of jobs,

I think I will pay a mechanic to install the clutch and flywheel, I will be doing all the work on the road outside my house and being under the car all day is unappealing for safety, I also get the impression this is hard than other bits, especially to do on your own, not 100% on this yet though.. I think I should do this first to break in the clutch before the turbo is installed or bringing the car to by turned on a dyno.

Install new suspension

Change the timing belt, water pump and at the same time the Cas O-ring and the collant reroute and new lower radiator hose (makes more room for intercooler)

Install the injectors and ECU

Drill the sump and remove the old manifold/downpipe,air intake etc.

Put together the turbo, manifold, wastegate, oil/water lines etc and put it on the car.
Connect up the intercooler

Connect the other bits, TPS, bov, boost control , iat to maf harness etc

Then get the car tuned.


I am feeling relatively confident, I was thinking of trying to purchase everything individually but living in Ireland its not ideal, since Brexit there is tax on importing even used items from UK and paying for shipping on individual small parts would add a huge amount on. I was going to look at buying a used turbo but I just don't want the hassle of it dying and ending up damaging other bits.
I likely should have looked for input before purchasing everything, I know people on here are not fans of the MeisterR coilovers for example but everyone over this side of the world seems to rate them over everything else in the price bracket and really I couldn't think about spending twice as much. Building my own did seem appealing briefly but it was when I was reading the 100 page thread and I came across 10 paged of someone who had build their coilovers, made some small mistake that had destroyed them and I couldn't understand what it was I then decided this is not the way to go.. Also again, everything costs more here, the likes of the top hats were around double the price of in the US plus tax/shipping etc.. I couldn't find anywhere selling the Integra bump stops or the likes of where to buy springs, the options being listed for the US didn't seem available here and what is available seems to be looked down on more than the MeisterR's

So anyway I am really looking forward to getting started, someone nervous about the timing belt change though I have watched a few videos and made a 70 step list of doing the belt/pump/coolant reroute and cas o-ring. The bolts on the heat shield manifold were seized and rusted to **** and I managed to get them off without snapping any using some atf and acetone penetration mix so I'm taking that as a good sign that things will go well with the build. I also have a friend who used to work for a tuning company building engines who doesn't want to physically be involved at all but will both lend me any tools I need and also provide some guidance and potentially come look at things if I make a complete ***** of something.

Might have been a bit too much rambling, if you made it through that then I will take whatever "constructive criticism" is coming.

 

Welcome, very comprehensive intro! Have another cat.

It is nice to have plans, so do start a build thread so we all can follow along!

 

Ha, better than the typical response I see here from the 'noobs', thanks, I will create a build thread, hopefully getting all the parts in the next few days.