Oil in radiator, engine swap sounding better.

Okay, I recently bought a 1991 MR2 with little knowledge of all the internal workings, just the basic test-drive and quick run-through that I could do at the dealership. I paid $3500 for it, which is quickly seeming like too much because of the following problems:

1. The steering is INCREDIBLY tight so that you have to use considerable force to turn while driving under 10 MPH, like parking lots for example. Anyone have any ideas on this? Sounds like the power steering pump may be going out to me...

2. The brakes needed done, not too bad there, but the rotors are evidently a little rough and I'll end up replacing those before I'm done with the mods for sure.

3. Head gasket evidently is blown/near-blown. I have motor oil in my radiator and the engine feels a little rough. Throttle response is slow and sometimes it hesitates when I'm accelerating/shifting up from 1st to 3rd. I'm currently not driving the car and waiting for my "engine swap fund" to accumulate. This happened to my girlfriend's 4-Runner, so I'm wondering if this is a common Toyota problem, to blow headgaskets and dump oil into the radiator. If so... is the JDM 3rd generation engine any better on this aspect?

4. Transmission grinds, mostly noticable when downshifting into 2nd gear. I'm thinking that the tranny I'll be getting with my rear clip 3rd gen JDM 3S-GTE will fix this problem. :)

That's pretty much it. The body is in good shape, interior is great, suspension is good, alloy wheels and nice tires. So... basically, the plan is to replace everything with 3rd generation components, as well as build up the engine and put a bigger turbo in, the goal being to have a nice peppy car that can "decimate all" for under $10k. I think it's doable. I know someone who does these swaps for a living and plan on enlisting his services as soon as the money falls into place, as well as doing what work I can do myself w/o a garage. Basically I'm looking for a little encouragement saying that it's all worth it 'cause MR2s rule. They do. They really do. :)

1. The engine is in the back, so the power steering does not have a pump. The MKII MR2 has a electrical assist power steering set up and it was an option. Are you sure you have power steering?
I removed the P/S from my one car and the other never has it. The biggest reason(s) the the steering will feel heavy is (a) to low of tire pressure in the front or (b) to wide of a tire.

2. Brakes: I'd recommend getting new faoctory rotors, the $20 Toyota caliper rebuild kit and spend the big bucks on Porterfiel R4S pads. They ARE worth the money.

3. A blown head gasket can happen in any car. If I recall correctly, the 4-Runners were prone to headgasket failures. The MR2s are not. I have 200,222 miles on my original headgasket and I am putting out nearly 400 HP form the engine and I have gone through 3 race seasons. The Gen III is better for a lot of reasons, but I have never heard of any headgasket benefits to the swap.

4. The 93+ MR2s had better transmissions (better syncros and an LSD option). It is typical for MR2s syncros to wear and cause grinding on shifting. The WORSE thing you can do is keep your hand resting on the shifter while driving. The only reason your hand should ever touch the shfiter is to shift. Touch it, shift, let go of it. Anything more than that puts unneccesary wear on your tranny.

As for going to GenIII, that is not something I would bother with. I have yet to see a huge benefit for the shear amount of cost involved. However, in your case, if you are looking at a tranny rebuild and a headgasket job, it my be lucrative for you to do the GenIII swap.

Good luck with your car. Even with it's issues, $3500 is not a bad price.

hey Jeff, interesting that you mention the hand on the gears thing, i heard about that a few years back but didn't really believe it. what's the reasoning behind it or where'd you hear about it?

it's kind of hard not to have your hand on the gears in an mr2, round town at least. I just try not to put any force on them...

Thanks for the advice! Oh, I forgot to mention that I actually have the 5S-FE engine with 135 HP, so the swap is mainly for the added horsepower and stronger transmission, as well as the other benefits of having an engine/tranny/drive train with 30,000 instead of 130,000 on it.

Was the LSD a standard option for them in Japan, or is that going to be very difficult to find?

And yeah, I never hold my hand on the shifter 'cause I've heard that too. Whoever owned the car before me probably did though. Can head gaskets be blown just by abusing the car, over-revving the engine frequently, not letting it warm up sufficiently before driving etc.?

I've noticed a little blue smoke too which usually suggests piston rings if I remember correctly, but from what I understand about engines, a head gasket could likely cause smoke as well... anyway... I hope to have this car ready to race within a year. Doable goal, I hope. :)

When you have your hand on the shifter you are applying pressure to the whole system (whether you realize it or not).

LSD is not a "standard option" ... actually nothing it.
Standard features come on ALL the cars; therefor, they are not an "option."
Options are not standards on all the cars, so that is why they are "optional." Make sense?

A majority of 93+ turbo MR2s had LSD if that helps.

The 5SFE's frequenly blow blue smoke at start up because their valve seals tend to be leaky.

Thanks again. On the other hand, if I want a good project, would it be feasable to rebuild my 5S-FE to accept a turbo with say... 15-20 psi boost? All I've ever heard is that this engine is good for low HP applications but building it up isn't an option...

The 5SFE is an economy engine. It is a terrible platform to build big horsepower.