Turbo Conversion shopping list

[Si_Crewe]

Just wondering really, after seeing a thread about a conversion kit for sale on aBay...

If you wanted to bung a turbo engine in a NA what, in total, would be on the shopping list?

You'd need the engine, the turbo, the exhaust manifold, the entire inlet system, the ECU, the intercooler. Anything else?

I mean, if you removed your NA ECU and plugged in a tubby one, would everything else plug straight into it or would you need to replace other NA bits as well to make them compatible with the tubby ECU?
First thing that springs to mind is dashboard. At the very least you might want a tubby instrument pod just for the boost gauge.

What about the intercooler?
I assume it needs mounting brackets? Is there any ducting required for it?

What about engine mounts? Are the NA ones the same as the tubby ones?
Is there any additional chassis strengtheners on the tubby?
What about suspension? Different anti-roll bars? any other differences?

I just thought it'd be nice if there was a comprehensive list of the parts you need to liberate from a dead tubby to do the conversion yourself.
I did search for this but most of the returns were related to specific issues rather than an over-all shopping list.

[redmr89]

engine
turbo
intercooler
piping
ecu
wireing harness
basicly everything from in the engine bay
boost gauge
brakes ( hubs/pads/etc )
clutch
gearbox
driveshafts
probably more

so either buy a clip from 3s or rogue etc and swap everything.
or sell your car and buy a tubby.
never understood anybody doing turbo conversions when for the same amount of cash and the sale of your car you could buy a real one. which is built for the job.
hth.

[kenny.c]

hear hear

[3S Service Centre]

there are lots of good and bad things about the conversion.

Since we do them i should explain the two most important.

1) You know your na, its good, its served you well, its not been crashed, it has history, its not a fresh grey import, you have spent money on it to get it to its current condition, its not been abused, and it will still be insured as a na becuase of the chassis code.

2) when buying a tubby its without question you are going to mod it to some level, modding the tubby is not cheap mainly due to cost of parts but also due to the labour time involved, whilst the tubby engine is out it very easy to mod, inside the engine bay it becomes a long expensive job, so whilst its sitting on the floor you can.

Get the engine bay cleaned
remove and clean all the engine bits, even polish and paint.
Change the cambelt
check for oil leaks
change the downpipe
Add uprated turbo
Add nice clutch

for very little extra labour time

Do this lot with the engine in the car and you will need a fat wallet.

So you own a na, its worth say...... £2500

you spend £1500 on a clip and £1000 to install it with some additonal mods so maybe £3000 for the complete job. In theory you have spent a total of £5500 and you have tuned tubby that you know is in great nik.

or


You sell your na £2500 and buy a nice tubby for £5500, but now its time to mod it at extra cost.

OR you buy a tuned tubby for £5500 which you dont know whats happened to it how well its been treated and how competant the previous owner or the tuner was.


Just a few reasons why you might want to do the conversion.

James

[Si_Crewe]

...or sell your car and buy a tubby.
never understood anybody doing turbo conversions when for the same amount of cash and the sale of your car you could buy a real one. which is built for the job.
hth.

Funny thing is, I was gonna say not to bother with the whole "sell your car and buy a tubby" lecture.

For most cars it is sensible but, given the price an MR2, it doesn't hold water.
If I have an NA which I *know* is in good mechanical condition, with no rust, and the exact spec I want, it makes absolutely no sense to flog it for around £2k and then spend £4k on a tubby which might well be a rusty old nail which has been thrashed to within an inch of its life since the day it fell off the end of the production line.

Sell car for £2k. Buy Tubby for £4k. Uncertainty as to cars condition + £2k expense.

Alternatively, I can keep the car which I KNOW is in perfect condition and buy a written-off tubby for between £500 and £1k then remove whatever bits I need.

End result is I spend maybe £1500 in parts and a bunch of time doing the work and end up with a car which I KNOW is in good order and a spare engine I can sell on. Added to that, if I'm lucky (and can be bothered) I can strip the interior from the dead tubby along with any other decent mechanical bits and flog them to recoup some of the cost.

Buy dead tubby for £1.5k. Do conversion. Sell excess parts for £500. Known condition car + £1k expense.

Where's the flaw in that logic?

Sure, I know it'll take a week to do the conversion but it has taken much longer than that to get the car into the exact spec you want it so selling it on and starting again is as much of a hassle as spending a week fitting a new engine.

[Mr2 CJ]

I agree, i have recently done a turbo conversion into my two! (3 months ago). I loved the condition of my NA, good leather seats,no rust. And thought looked at turbo's and just saw flaws in all of them, ripped seats, rust, scratches,tin top etc......

I spent 700quid on the donor car. Which came with HKS SuperDragger exhaust (Over £400), HKS Bov (over £200), Blitz Air Filter (£200), Leather seats (sold for £150). Had a rebuild 10,000 miles or km ago. Took all the panels i could, ie. doors, engine lid (obviously a must for all mr2 turbo's). All clocks, storage boxes, glove box (better condition than mine), ash tray (mint condition). And would probably say its the best 700 pounds i have ever spent.

The other good things about the conversion is when we took the engine out and put new cam-belt, oil filter, and all the other new service items on, which everyone knows is a pain to get to on these cars . so i had peice of mind with the engine.

[darcy]

My (bad-ebay-experienced) Scream is to sell NA and buy turbo or pay someone £2.5k to do the full conversion or buy a good, tested/ full running damaged donor Tubby.

I bought a cheap low milage rev2 3s gte package off ebay to convert my 130k mile NA with 'kerbed' & cracked gearbox.

Paid a garage to do the subframe drop and swap -£250 then did the rest myself.

It has been a labour of love / insanity, and turned out to be very expensive.

My two definitive recommendations to anyone thinking about this are:

1) Make sure you get EVERYTHING you need as one purchase, from one reputable source.

2) Get full engine wire harness, with correct ECU, AND engine fusebox AND uncut loom all the way to the plugs in the passenger footwell.

I have spent hundreds at rogue and fensport just picking up the additional bits I needed.

Little things like replacing a dead EFI relay, temp sender, purchasing the mounting bracket for the intercooler, second hand AFM, second-hand loom, replacing the fuel hose (that had been cut rather than unbolted), convert the electronic gearbox to cable-driven, etc, etc have cost a small fortune.

I also spent 3 weeks with 8 different UK, USA, & Japanese wiring diagrams to work out how to graft a rev2 GTE engine loom to a rev1 NA body loom.

I have completely re-wired 2 cars before, but this was a nightmare unlike any I have had in 20years of playing with cars.

There was a point where the car would try to start itself..... caused by zero continuity between engine and gearbox of all things!

Oh and did I mention the headgasket?

Mr Darcy