Sly's SW20 Turbo

[Sly Guy]

Picked this up a couple weeks ago. For something 20 years old the condition isn't too bad. No rust and only 2 dents by the driverside spoiler end. Paint is of course, faded. I don't mind the paint being faded, really. Repainting is in it's future pending fund of course.

Wish List

• Body work & paint
• 2006 Rav4 Base 3.5L V6 2GR-FE swap (Engine/ECU/Harness purchased)
  
• Enkei RPF1 17x8 ET35 17X9 ET45. Tires 225/45/17 and 245/45/17 (Purchased rear RPF1s, still no tires)
• Relip my Work Equips. New size will be 17x8 ET16 17x10 ET18. Tires 205/40/17 and 235/40/17. THey will be stretched. (Purchased new lips for the rear, 3.5" stepped)

Fixed List

• Tachometer (Replaced the 2 capacitors)
• Passenger headlight doesn't flip up sometimes
• Air Filter (Needs to be cleaned)
• Driver side door wiring.
• Throttle Cable
• Electric speedometer conversion
• Distributor oil leak
• Installed CD box
• HKS BOV
• Boost leak
• A/C doesn't work
• Oil leaks (distributor seal, possibly oil pan)
• Driver side leather seat torn up
• Rerun speaker wires to bypass premium sound

 

[Sephy]

Congrats! 👍

 

[CodeRedR51]

What color are the springs / shocks? (if you can see)

 

[Sly Guy]

What color are the springs / shocks? (if you can see)

Springs are red, so they're probably sportlines. Struts look black, but the rear is 5 way adjustable. I didn't check to see if the fronts were the same strut.

 

[Sly Guy]

Bump for update.

Two saturdays ago my throttle cable went bad. Got it fixed the following Thursday.

There was a guy parting a 91 Turbo on Craigslist and I went to scoop some parts. I got:

Turbo engine lid
Fog light switch
CD box bracket
Front plate bracket
Passenger headlight cover
Ashtray
93 front lip

 

[Sly Guy]

It's been a long time and she's been through a lot. I'll just post everything that I did the past year.

Turns out the car had a massive oil leak since I got it. The oil filter would always come loose. I fixed it over a year ago, but this here was the culprit.

Also bought parts. Mainly Work Equips, electric cluster conversion, Recaro seats and Blitz Nur Spec exhaust.

Installed the electric cluster

Bought a Revision 5 N/A cluster from the UK

Another exhaust. TCS 85mm exhaust, based off the Garage Fukui/Phoenix Power, but in full stainless.

Also a genuine Revision 5 spoiler.

One of the last Fortune Auto 500 coilovers ever made for the SW20.

 

[Sly Guy]

Update, I was going to put a bunch of parts on my Gen2 3SGTE, but then decided not to and purchased a 2GR. Sold all those parts to help fund my swap.

I will keep my Work Equips to cruise on and use my RPF1s for spirited drives. The 2GR makes a lot of low end torque so I need wider rear tires, so I will be going with either 245/45/17 or 255/40/17. The RPF1s I bought is not the standard, most MR2 owners go for the 35mm offset to make it more flush with the fender. But since I intend on running both sets of wheels, I went with the higher offset to clear my fender with my low ride height, and to provide more clearance for the tires. I could actually go as big as 265 in the rear, but I wanted a tire package that was more balanced. Too large of a rear tire would just increase my understeer, and you really can't fit anything larger than a 235/40 in the front.

But yes, I will be (eventually) running two sets of wheels. One set aggresive and stretched, and one with proper widths and larger tires. I actually am not into the entire hella flush thing too much, but believe it or not no one would buy my set of Equips for $800. So i decided, screw it, I'll keep them to daily on and relip them. I won't go any lower than I am now, I may actually raise my car up about half an inch anyways.

 

[Punknoodle]

This thread needs pictures

 

[Sly Guy]

Well, almost a year has passed and no progress on the swap. I am almost there with the parts list, just need a handful of items that are a little pricey and I've been putting off purchasing them. Need a USDM Supra TT fuel pump, clutch, M14 timeserts, exhaust piping... and that's it. I will build a board that houses my relays, fuses and 12v and common sources to make the swap easier.

I did run into a major issue however, which is the reason why I have slowed down. The engine I bought came out of a running Rav4 that was in a wreck. The yard started it for me and it sounded fine. Now, the 2GR is famous for the exhaust cam gear on the rear bank to go bad. It will still run, but not 100% as you lose your vvti basically.

I had neglected to pull the valve covers within the warranty period, and when I finally pulled the valve covers, the rear bank was okay (phew!). But when I pulled the front valve cover... broken exhaust cam gear.

I have all the Toyota TSB info on the repair and it doesn't sound too bad. I do have a parts list saved but I just haven't bought the parts. Along with the parts list I threw in a bunch of gaskets that I can change while I'm in there. So hopefully by the end of the year I will have the engine repaired and all the remaining swap parts purchased.

And because I'm such a tease and don't post pictures, here are some old ones. Car pic is from 2013, looks much different from this pic.

 

[JrDarknes]

That thing is gorgeous, how does the phoenix exhaust compare to a berk one? Also are they're a lot of custom parts that need to be made to swap in the 2GR or no?

 

[Sly Guy]

That thing is gorgeous, how does the phoenix exhaust compare to a berk one? Also are they're a lot of custom parts that need to be made to swap in the 2GR or no?

Thanks! I'll upload a more current picture later, it looks much different than it does in that picture since I vinyl wrapped it myself last October. I haven't heard a berk IRL, but from what other owners tell me, it is actually quieter than the berk. If ground clearance is an issue, go with the berk, the mufflers on this thing hangs very low lol.

And from my research with the swap, there isn't a whole lot of custom parts you need, it seems to be on par with the Gen4 in terms of custom parts. Except you can actually buy everything you need for a Gen4 swap, but you still need to wire it. The 2GR swap requires a swap kit, and you need to fabricate your own mid pipe and wire the engine. The 2GR also requires a FPR, but it's just to adapt your return fuel system to a returnless engine.

 

[Sly Guy]

Nothing special going on here, I just came across some parts I wanted/needed for a good price. Got a 94-97 spoiler, steering fog ECU (my fogs are the steering ones), and brand new OEM driver and passenger power door harnesses.

The driver side harness I had to repair a couple times already, and already had a spare one to go in. Now I can install the spare and hoard these new ones!

I was figuring out how to wrap the spoiler with some scraps from when I did the whole car. I might have a problem wrapping the underside

 

[GDII]

So jealous of the spoiler. I really want one but quite like the 90 look of mine. Can't decide what to do.

You need to show us what your car looks like now. I'm guessing it's black now?

 

[Sly Guy]

Okay I've been incredibly busy recently with work. I bought a ST185 RC ct26 to replace the one in my car now. Why do this when I have the v6 going in? Well, I wanted to fix the 2 broken exhaust manifold studs to hopefully improve my performance and fuel economy, and since everything needs to come out, I should replace it. Plus it was cheap! I also did the HFH, but not the HFHOE since I replaced that a couple years ago when I installed a new coolant block.

I will get pics up soon

 

[Sly Guy]

So jealous of the spoiler. I really want one but quite like the 90 look of mine. Can't decide what to do.

You need to show us what your car looks like now. I'm guessing it's black now?

Finally got around to posting a pic . Only the spoiler is black, although a black MKII would be nice too . I do like the 94 spoiler, and it was actually my first choice before I bought the 98.

I keep going in circles as far as my exterior goes, but I finally found a look I want. I've decided to stay stock body, and to go back to the Zenki rear lights with LEDs retrofitted in them. I have about 700 LEDs and 2 PWMs from a few years ago, so I will finally get to build the lights. This does mean I will be selling my OEM clear corners and Kouki rear conversion.

The biggest reason for this is a famous 91 Crimson Red MKII in Canada recently put a 94 spoiler on and kept his Zenki lights, and he has inspired me to go with the same look. When I first obtained my MKII, I couldnt find pictures so just went with a full 98 conversion.

My LED retrofit will be more simple, but I will do a little extra to it to set it apart. I found the rare Zenki rear panel with the El Glow MR2 badge

So onto my previous post about the turbo. The ST185 RC turbo got a little shipping damage, but doesn't affect performance. The spool feels a bit quicker, the ST185 RC turbo is basically a 7MGTE and ST165 CT26, but with twin scroll housings. 8mm larger than the CT26, steel wheel like the USDM CT26, and slightly smaller than the CT20b. I believe it has a tighter wastegate spring as well, my research says the ST185 RC had a 12PSI wastegate.

Bought a brand new MKIV USDM Supra TT fuel pump for uber cheap! The USDM MKIV Supras had larger fuel injectors and a larger fuel pump, from what I found this baby puts out 290LPH and is silent like the OEM turbo pump. I read that the Walbros are loud and of course don't flow as much as this does. It also basically drops in.

Oh and the same night I got everything back up and running, I went to open my driver door, heard a noise, and got locked in my car from the inside. Door would not open from outside or inside. Lucky for me I found some info, turns out a spring breaks on the door latch. So when this happens, to open the door you need to roll the window down and use a flat bar to actuate the door lock from the outside. Then pull off your panel and replace the spring. Easier said than done, but took me a couple hours including a couple strips to the hardware store. So GDII, if this ever happens to you, at least you know how to fix it when it does . Here is the culprit, it looked to be made of just mild steel so I shot some Boeshield on it to hopefully prevent the rust for a bit.

Oh and I bought a little OEM literature, I'm always on the lookout for factory manuals, and to my knowledge this is complete.

 

[GDII]

Oh and the same night I got everything back up and running, I went to open my driver door, heard a noise, and got locked in my car from the inside. Door would not open from outside or inside. Lucky for me I found some info, turns out a spring breaks on the door latch. So when this happens, to open the door you need to roll the window down and use a flat bar to actuate the door lock from the outside. Then pull off your panel and replace the spring. Easier said than done, but took me a couple hours including a couple strips to the hardware store. So GDII, if this ever happens to you, at least you know how to fix it when it does . Here is the culprit, it looked to be made of just mild steel so I shot some Boeshield on it to hopefully prevent the rust for a bit.

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately it has already happened to me before so I already know about it. Still took me a while to figure it out.

 

[Sly Guy]

Got my Revision 2 center panel in the mail. Took awhile for the EL inverter to come in the mail, it's just a regular one used for gauges.

 

[Hayden]

I love EL rear panels! It was a rare factory option and common mod for the 300zx.

That's gonna look properly tidy mate! Also keen to see how exactly you go about the LED conversion. 700 LEDs sounds like something of a nightmare to put together