Engine Rebuild?

[fred130111]

Hi guys im new to this forum and own a MK2 Rev2 N/A 170K miles

The only modifications are Exhaust and Decat and A Pipercross airfilter

I apologize in advance for my lack of knowledge, anyway I bought the car around 2 years ago and recently had a dyno and it came out at 149BHP now from what I understand they were born with 156. I am wondering what i can do to restore the lost horse power

At around 100K the engine was rebuilt but since then nothing has been done

there are a few things that i am aware need to be done such as rocker cover gasket as it seems to be leaking oil when giving it a bit of oomph and the clutch also slips on hard launches this was not done since 110K, oh and the cambelt was done at 100k but no signs of it needing to be replaced however i will do this anyway

anyway cut the story short i am thinking of taking the engine out and literally rebuilding so that its basically a brand new engine

my main question is it worth the effort of doing this or shall would you advise that its probably best just to replace the clutch, cambelt and rocker cover gasket?

Ah and one last thing the exhaust is blowing from the flexi pipe so i can imagine it may be losing a little power as a result of this?

Any ideas or opinions are appriciated

Thanks!!

[stephenj]

Hi Fred and welcome to the forum

I'd get those exhaust leaks sorted first, that won't be helping.
Does the air filter have a heat shield?, a few years back my rev1 came with a hks mushroom filter which was awful. I found going back to the standard air box was much better.

An engine rebuild for 7 hp sounds a lot of work for the gain to me, don't forget your missing horsepower could be simply down to inaccuracies on the dyno.

Steve

[fred130111]

This is true! no it was just an inclosed filter, dont agree with these cone ones that clearly just suck up hot air :L literally just fed a pipe to the side vent with the filter inline

Google pipercross viper, got it for free but would deffinatly not spend £200 on it lol


Hmmm the rebuild would also be to make it "reliable" as considering doing a trip around europe next year so would be better peace of mind knowing that the parts were all knew

[l1ca]

For the cost of rebuilding in your quest for that lost 7hp, wouldnt you be better buying a Rev 3 + turbo and rebuilding that?

Power seems to be a primary motive in this, so start with something more beefy and then go from there?

As mentioned, its a lot of work for that power, and with a Turbo, you'd have a damn more fun

[stephenj]

Hmmm the rebuild would also be to make it "reliable" as considering doing a trip around europe next year so would be better peace of mind knowing that the parts were all knew

Is there a specific aspect of the engine that concerns you?

[fred130111]

hmmm yeah i am in 2 minds about what to do to be honest i suppose i could wait for this to go bang whilst saving for all the stuff to do a conversion!

Well it just concerns me in genral with the car on near enough 180k lol!

I know its probably much easier to sell up and buy a turbo but i would like to do a rebuild for the experiance aswell so that when its finished i have achived something

[Donato]

Hi Fred,
Your engine sounds healthy to me. You normally lose 1bhp per year. But i'd get all your issues sorted first, mainly your exhaust as that won't be helping, then run it again to see what difference that makes.
You can always add performance parts to your car to improve performance witch will be cheaper than having to rebuild an engine.

What year is your MR2?

[fred130111]

Yeah it's a pain as I have been trying to find an aftermarket manifold and sow pipe but they seem to be very rare? It's either that or just get a new flexi pipe welded in but for the money would rather get the whole part and it's a 92 rev 2

I don't need anything extremely quick and probably wouldn't be able to afford to insure / run a turbo engine so just want the car to be as reliable a possible for a tour around Europe

[gnzyza]

Compression / leak down test would give a good indication of health.

the power diff could well be down to dyno variance, tbh I would imagine a little more than 7bhp lost.

[jimGTS]

no offence, but the reasoning is plain stupid.

take the car to a bunch of dynos, im sure one will show you with 143hp, one 150hp, one 152hp etc.

rebuilding the 3sge just to recoop 7hp that ONE dyno said youd lost is madness.


fix the issues and enjoy it.

if you really want to play around with an engine, buy another and work on it during winter on an engine stand

or buy a 3sgte and build that instead

[Donato]

Japspeed sell a manifold and down pipe kit. Apart from that there's no one really that produces 3SGE manifolds that are easy to get hold of. If you marry this with a decat and a back box you might see you have stock power