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Originally Posted by Juko
I am not trying to steel your thunder, but here is what I did to remove those heavy brackets. I installed a pulley used to apply tension to the timing belt. You can buy them through 3SX.com. It has an offset hole which allows you to rotate the pulley and apply tension on the belt. The belt still barley fits when the idler pulley bolt is loosened, but once it is turned down, you can apply the correct amount on tension on the belt.
I don't remember what mounted to the hole used to fasten the pulley but it was obviously free. The only thing you have to do is add washers to move the pulley away from the engine block and once tightened you have to make sure the pulley is straight.
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Very nice. I like the fact that the eccentricity of the stock t-belt pulley allows you to adjust belt tension. However, extra parts suck, and my method uses fewer parts.
Thanks for the compliments everyone. I'm pretty pleased with this mod, personally, and I'm happy that there are other people out there who are of a like mind. Thanks to 91Vr4n00maxima, by the way. In another thread of mine he mentioned that he had started but not finished doing this, and I thought to myself, "be damned if that SOB is going to have fewer parts than me!"
Valdas, I'm not sure what belt you should use. the 060390 is quite tight on my setup. If I remember correctly, the 390 has an actual length of 39 5/8 inches. On the stock crank and alt. pulley, a belt 39 7/8 would probably be perfect. With an aftermarket underdrive pulley, you might find that the 390 fits perfectly. If it is too long, there is a slightly shorter belt available, Gates/Napa/Carquest #060388. I'll bet that will fit. I'd like to ask everyone who's planning on doing this mod to let the rest of us know if they find a belt that fits better than my 060390. As I said in my opening post, it's not so tight that I'm worried about it snapping or putting undue pressure on the alt. pulley, but it's tighter than it should be.
VR4's-Kick-Ass, lawdogg, and others who have requested pictures of my engine bay: I don't have any recent ones. I think I've got some from a while back, before I did this mod and before I dumped the AWS and made a custom throttle cable to replace the old Diamante cable. I'll snap some photos this week.
Most likely, though, you guys will be disappointed. I still have the factory intake piping, and I have not converted to speed density yet (don't know if I ever will), so there's still some clutter. I can say however, that it's about as empty as you can get for a car with the stock MAS and intercooler piping. When Tim (*GT) and I went out for beers earlier tonight, I came up with a list of ways to further simplify my engine bay. Here it is, in no particular order:
FMIC: obviously this significantly simplifies the intake piping. Now that Tim and Chris (Multiades) have a tig, a front mount is a much more viable option for me.
Maft-pro or AEM: Currently, I have no plans to make more power than my 450s can handle. I've been tempted to get the Maft-pro because of its secondary fuel trigger (or whatever you'd like to call it) feature, but I hate to spend that much on what is ultimately an unacceptable piggyback for just that one feature. AEM is more expensive, obviously, and total overkill for my power goals, but it
is awesome. Both, of course, would allow me to dump the MAS and run filter-on-turbo, if I wanted.
Relocation of fuse box to glove compartment: This is a tentative winter project. My current plan is to buy a circuit breaker or fuse panel from summit or pegasus and mout it in the glove compartment. I've deleted enough systems that 3 or 4 of the circuits in the stock fuse box are worthless anyway. But I may decide that extending about 60 wires is a major pain in the balls and leave the damn thing where it is. Rest assured, though, that if I do it I will have a thread with pics.
Fuel lines: Current plan is to run a single feed up the passenger side, split it to the rails, then run short lines to AFPR mounted where the cruise box used to be, then run a return down the driver's side. It will be relatively easy because my AWS is out. I may do this over the winter too.
Electrohydraulic power steering conversion: This sounds more difficult than it is. 2G Toyota MR2s use an electric pump to circulate fluid for the rack. Further, the MR2 PS system uses a vehicle speed sensor and a steering wheel angle sensor to vary the assist and to switch the pump off when the wheel is straight. Replacing the stock 3/S belt-driven pump with the MR2 pump is easy: find a spot to mount the pump, wire it up using a relay, and run some new lines, and it's done. I haven't figured out how worthwhile it would be (or how feasible) to employ the MR2 vehicle speed and steering angle sensors. This, too, is a possible winter project.
Unassisted brake conversion: This is probably the most difficult of the things I've listed, especially because I take my car to roadcourses. I can't sacrifice brake pedal feel the way people focused on drag racing could. I looked into this a while ago. I think it's possible to use a Tilton remote MC bracket in place of the stock MC/booster, so long as I can properly modify the pedal assembly. Another option, better but more complicated, is to install a complete floor-mount pedal assembly. But if I do that I will have left the realm of engine bay simplification. That such an assembly would eliminate the stock MC/booster is incidental. In fact, I would put the Maft-pro/AEM in this same category (Chris, I know what you are about to post about piggybacks, so don't bother with it
).
I got nothin' else. 3 of these, realistically, could be done by next spring--fuel lines especially, since all I have to do is buy the parts.
Clint