V6 conversion

[pintovit]

Hi guys,

I live in Portugal and was studying the possibility to upgrade my MR2 mk2 N/A to a V6. However when I started discussing the legal stuff required to make everything by the book, I learned that in Portugal this is almost impossible.

Besides several bureaucratic complex steps, one troubles my a lot. I have to get a document from Toyota saying that the engine is compatible with the car and the change will result in a safe vehicle. I bet that in Portugal no Toyota representative will give me that. I was just wondering if in the UK is the same...

Do you need such document? Because if you do and if some of you did get it, I should be able to get it too (if a MR2 V6 is safe in the UK, it should be safe everywhere... ).

Thanks for your time.

Regards,
Vítor

[mattcambs]

As far as I know, in the UK if you change the engine in your car to a different size all you need to do is register the change with the DVLA (they deal with vehical licensing/taxing/registration etc) and declare the specification to your insurance company.

My advice to you would be to try and get the document. You won't know if it's possible unless you try.

matt

[PW@Woodsport]

sounds like you need to move to the UK vitor! thats seriously harsh though...we dont have anything like that here.

[pintovit]

I didn't even told you the full story.

I have to find a Mechanical engineer to do draw the schematics of the change in several different scales and sign the thing (like, yes, this is ok and I take responsibility for it just like in a home planning project).

The car has to be subjected to a rigorous inspection (that I have to agree... otherwise we would have to start calling ourselves as USA ).

The only thing that the Portuguese authorities don't ask for YET is a crash test... I should shut up now instead of giving them more ideas....

[PW@Woodsport]

well on a slightly dodgy note.....would anyone know if you didnt tell them?

[pintovit]

Crossed my mind so many times...

But unfortunatly yes...

Cars with more than 4 years old are subjected to yearly inspections.
On those they don't check engine capacity (a stroker kit would go un-noticed) but from 4 inline to a V6... That would be found... Without that check, the car is off the streets.

[PW@Woodsport]

so the equivalent of our yearly MOT test in portugal also includes an engine type inspection? bloody hell! thats too harsh buddy.

What if a car was built in the UK,tested here and then driven over to portugal,would you still need all of the engineers reports?

[mattcambs]

sounds like a lost cause doesn't it!

What about importing a car that has already had the conversion and therefore has the supporting vehical registration document from that country (i.e. the UK)

[Gordy]

What about importing a car that has already had the conversion and therefore has the supporting vehical registration document from that country (i.e. the UK)

My thoughts exactly.



Or perhaps drop in a turbo engine, as Toyota have to agree that it is suitable. (And then tune it and boost it all the way, just to get your own back on the spine-less beaurocrats).

I would hate to live in a country where the authorities were so pre-occupied with rules and regulations that they took the fun out of it all. It's heading that way here, but not quite that bad yet. At least you get more sun than we do!

Good luck.

[pintovit]

Hi,

thank you all for your feedback.

Actually "exporting" the car to England, do the upgrade, MOT, everything you usually do to make the car fully legal and then re-importing it to Portugal should be the easiest move. Just some simple homologation steps (since it is a new car in the country, unless somebody already brough a MR2 V6 which I'm not aware of) and then taxes...

The biggest drawback (besides getting an address in the UK so the car could get english plates, getting the car there, etc) is the taxe itself... For a 3.000cc car with more than 10 years old, I would have to pay £3.000 just to get the Portuguese plates back. It's a completely different reality here... In average a new car can pay as much as 40% in taxes depending mainly in its engine size.
A TVR Cerbera 4.5 can go from the £45.000 in the UK right up to £70.000 after taxes.

It's hard to have a nice car here so the major tuning you see are desperates Fiat Punto's and Renault Clios...

Not that I'm a fan... more into mechanical tuning as you might notice

Conclusion. Putting there a 3S-GTE would create absolutely no problem. Same engine size. It's just that I would prefer the V6... Mainly because of the torque, noize and because it's different. But given all these drawbacks... I might just find a turbo and customize it to give me the best torque possible and "no lag".
Not to bad I guess

Regards to you all!

[jacenotts]

Does the aproving toyota sginatrue have to be in your country,maybe you can forward a propoal to a nice uk toyota person,they then can declre they find that safe and fit

[pnjmcc]

Hi Vitor,

Instead of shipping yours out here, getting the conversion and shipping it back. Could you not just buy a previously converted one?

I was thinking, if Paul Woods built a 3.0 V6 for you, could you not claim it was a kit car based on an MR2 ? (called a PW2) then import it like that. It would have a UK MOT cert on export and they couldn't tell you it wasn't supposed to have a 3.ltr engine cause its a freashly built kit and Paul (if he agrees) could give you a cert from the UK

Just a thought

Regards
PaulM

[PW@Woodsport]

interesting idea....i would help with as much of that as i could,but from what ive heard hes screwed no matter what angle its approached at.

Needs more investigation i think!

[pintovit]

pnjmcc - actually that would be a very interesting idea. Wouldn't need to ship my car to UK and would save a lot of paper work giving it a UK license plate.

Just don't know if Paul Woods can find a left hand drive MR2 to convert.

Could always sell mine (40.000 miles MR2 N/A) for something like £6-7k.
Get a high mileage N/A for a good price and convert/fix/upgrade whatever needed.

Putting some numbers there:
£2.000 for a high mileage N/A
£2.500 for the V6 conversion (should be around that I guess)
£3.000 for the import taxes

Gives £7.500 for the total... Putting there some £2.000 for suspension, painting and extra stuff required it shouldn't be that bad. At the moment, it seams the easiest option for a fully legal car.

Have to investigate all the options...

Guys, your feedback has been great and very helpful. Many thanks! =D>

Regards.

[PW@Woodsport]

god....i dont even know if a left hand drive mr2 even exists in the UK...it would probably be easier (im using that term very loosely!) to v6 convert a RHD uk car and then have that converted to LHD when it goes to portugal....thats an absolute nightmare to do though....not even sure if all of the pedalbox holes etc are on the RHD chassis?

Definately needs more investigation!

[pintovit]

Yes, you are right...

Was to excited with all the discussion/proposals to think right.

A LHD car could always be bought from Germany or something. Plenty of cars there with high mileage... Don't know how those are rust wise. Maybe full of holes because of the salt used in the roads in winter time.

The only advantage of that instead of using mine is the value difference between mine (which is a good low mileage example) and the car to be converted that could be more crappy.

Definitly needs more investigation. Just exchanging some thoughts with you guys.

Once more, thanks a lot.

[Brian]

god....i dont even know if a left hand drive mr2 even exists in the UK...it would probably be easier (im using that term very loosely!) to v6 convert a RHD uk car and then have that converted to LHD when it goes to portugal....thats an absolute nightmare to do though....not even sure if all of the pedalbox holes etc are on the RHD chassis?

Definately needs more investigation!

LHD SW20's do occasionally pop up for sale in the UK in Suffolk or Norfolk usually... the ones I have seen have always been owned by US military personnel who have been stationed over here, who've then decided to buy something a little spicier (usually a Skyline if they're in to the Jap car scene) to take back home with them.

Good luck with finding one though... they are rare!

B.