New owner 1980 D50 Sport

Purchased the rebuild kit on last Friday and assembled all of the newly accumulated parts onto a small table in my garage... this is what $1400 USD looks like (minus the new clutch which arrived Saturday)...

Attachment 24981

I delivered the rebuild kit and head to my engine builder on Friday evening. I hope to have the completed long block back in the next week or so. In the mean time I installed a relay/with inline fused power supply under the hood for the electric fuel pump. There is a switched power wire that was part of the A/C system that I am going to use for the relay exciter wire as well as the electric choke on the Weber. I mounted the relay on the stud where the stock fuel filter mounted under the hood. That put it where it were it is easy to attach to the battery and that switched power lead. All I have to do now is install the fuel pump down by the fuel tank on the frame.

I am hoping that in the next couple of weeks that I will be able to post that I am actually able to drive the truck that I purchased in February not running. Of course I am still waiting for the inner seal/boot for the shifter, so that may end up being the final part to get installed...

Yep, that's about what $1400 looks like. Good luck with the rebuild :thumbup:

$1400???? Damn you only got 1/2 the parts :P

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Originally Posted by geezer101

Yep, that's about what $1400 looks like. Good luck with the rebuild :thumbup:

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Thanks! I hope to have it back soon, but my buddy is doing it as a favor for me so I am on his timeline, which I am completely fine with.

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Originally Posted by Fordubishi

$1400???? Damn you only got 1/2 the parts :P

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Yeah, I was not thrilled with the price. I will be close to $3000 total into the truck when I am all done. Guess I should have researched the engine rebuild parts a lot more before assuming it would be an easy fix...

To top it all off, my son put new wheels and tires on his 1985 MR2 yesterday depleting his savings account (against my advice to wait) and then blew the head gasket on his less than year old engine on the way to work... When it rains it pours... I am have about had it with fixing old rigs...
Attachment 24983
It's been a very discouraging week here for sure, I hope it is all going well for the rest of you.

Stay safe and healthy!

Oh damn. You are in for hell on Earth working on an MR2. The engine bay in them is so cramped you can barely get your hands anywhere in there. Gotta say though - first gen MR2's are a cool looking 80's car. We've ALL blown cash on something we've really wanted but couldn't justify. Being young has an expiry date :blue1:

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Originally Posted by geezer101

Oh damn. You are in for hell on Earth working on an MR2. The engine bay in them is so cramped you can barely get your hands anywhere in there. Gotta say though - first gen MR2's are a cool looking 80's car. We've ALL blown cash on something we've really wanted but couldn't justify. Being young has an expiry date :blue1:

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Very true. I was lamenting my week to my good friend who laughed and reminded me about my early twenties when I put a new engine, transmission, and rear end all in my Valiant in the course of a year... strange how the Slant Six tranny and rear didn't hold up to the constant burnouts with the 318... guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Things could be a lot worse. My son has picked up an additional shift at work and is working 6 days a week to rebound from this. I guess I must have done something right in raising that one.

Stay safe and healthy!

Just got back from the engine builder. I had to drop off some parts that I forgot to send with my buddy. The engine is fully assembled! He is just getting the oil pump primed and needed the fuel pump block off plate that I made to keep the oil in the head from coming out through that hole... It sounds like I could have it back as early as tonight...

Update on the MR2. It was a head gasket fail on the water galley between 3 and 4 cylinders and it failed into #4. He has a new gasket and head bolt set ordered. Our friend helping us with this also noticed that the adjuster had fallen out of the fuel pressure regulator on the fuel rail, so we are thinking that it may have been leaning out thus causing more heat... so my son ordered a new one of those as well.

Hope that you are all staying safe and healthy!

I posted this over in the Parts Wanted section as well.

The shop handling my rebuild, has somehow misplaced my starter/clutch shield plate (#15) below:
Attachment 25028

If anyone knows where I can find one, that would be awesome. I am stuck without one....

Thanks and stay well!

https://ebay.us/CLS2yT

I found this part on Ebay... Not 100% sure it will fit as the part number is for an 89 D50 2.0L engine...

Pretty sure that if it is at all close to working that given my work abilities, I can modify it to work.

It won't fit - G63B with M/T is a narrow block engine and it will probably throw the starter motor alignment out miles. Tell the shop to find the backing plate. This isn't a problem you started off with, it's one you've inherited from incompetence...

i have one i can sell you in perfect conttion

I've had a productive weekend. I got the engine back in the D50, got the fuel pump mounted and wired, and got the shifter assembled and installed. I hope to fire it up tomorrow. Got the intake and exhaust put on this evening. Just need to install the Weber, fill the coolant, and it's time to fire it up.

Attachment 25076

The D50 sport striping on the rocker cover looks legit :thumbup: Good work with getting the engine back in!

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Originally Posted by geezer101

The D50 sport striping on the rocker cover looks legit :thumbup: Good work with getting the engine back in!

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Thanks! I repainted the Sport badges as well, so they all match.

As of 7pm last night I have a running and driving D50! The Weber is working flawlessly as is the 42S fuel pump. It is a bit noisy but once it is the engine is started, it isn't noticeable.

I didn't take it out on the open road yet, as it isn't licensed or insured, but we drove it around the neighborhood last night and it did good up to 45 mph. I was surprised since as it sits right now it has 3 different sized tires on it (the rears are the same size). The previous owner apparently liked to buy used tires 1 at a time and didn't always make sure that they matched... I have a full set of matched tires waiting for the second set of factory rims to get blasted and painted. There are a few things to button up, but it is 100% drivable for now.

Hoping to hit the DMV today to get plates, and already have a message into my insurance agent asking to add it to my policy since they quoted it for me a couple of weeks ago.

Stay safe and healthy!

sweet! plenty of power? i know a 2.6 in a light little 2wd truck ought to be pretty zippy.

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Originally Posted by 68valiant

...As of 7pm last night I have a running and driving D50!

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Awesome! :beavisbutthead:With a bit of messing with the distributor you'll be motoring nicely

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Originally Posted by Salteen

sweet! plenty of power? i know a 2.6 in a light little 2wd truck ought to be pretty zippy.

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I got it all legal yesterday and drove it to work. It is pretty zippy! I let my son drive it and his comment was that it was faster than his MR2. My dad's Arrow had a 2.0 and 4 speed, this definitely has more zip that it had.

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Originally Posted by geezer101

Awesome! :beavisbutthead:With a bit of messing with the distributor you'll be motoring nicely

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I double checked the timing last night, and used it as a learning experience for my son as he hadn't ever adjusted the timing on anything. It was trying to diesel a little when turning off, but that has been remedied. Drove it to work today and it just fires right up and purrs.

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Originally Posted by 68valiant

Attachment 25076

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That orange short block and yellow head is pretty much the coolest thing I've seen under the hood of a D50.

Edit: upon further inspection, that's just tape covering the intake ports isn't it?

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Originally Posted by Uncle Spence

That orange short block and yellow head is pretty much the coolest thing I've seen under the hood of a D50.

Edit: upon further inspection, that's just tape covering the intake ports isn't it?

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Yeah, that is just yellow tape covering the ports. The yellow head would have been a good idea though. With the aluminum intake, new Weber, and silver VHT painted header it looks pretty clean under the hood. I need to get an updated picture taken and posted....

Well, it has been a couple of weeks and about 300 miles. The D50 is running very well. I took it downtown this past weekend for a cruise that was going on. Normally would have taken the Valiant, but my wife and I decided to take the D50. Got a lot of positive feedback. People love the color and stripes (lil' Tonka truck) was a common remark. A few of my buddies really liked the engine compartment, and how clean and simple that it is without all of the emissions hoses and piping.

I spent a couple of hours and made some new exhaust hangers to replace the baling wire that someone previously had used to hang the muffler and tailpipe. Now it is hanging on some nice 1/4" round rod from the frame down to the rubber insulators which is a lot more rigid. I also dug into the trailer wiring plug. It has the smaller round 6 connection, and when I tried it with my little trailer, everything worked but the tail lights. Turns out a previous owner had the taillights and constant 12v leads routed incorrectly. I removed the constant 12v from the receptacle as had I already cut it off and repurposed it for the electric fuel pump. Once that was sorted out, everything worked great. Someone had already wired in the smart box that combines the brake and turn signals for the trailer which is the way all of my other vehicles are wired, so it is golden.

Still working on getting the second set of wheels blasted and repainted so I can finally have all 4 tires the same. It is still a bit dodgy driving down the road as the front tires are 2 different sizes and the rears are a 3rd size. :wtf:
Luckily both rears are the same size, just really old and weather checked. I haven't ventured above 45 mph for short distances in town as I really don't trust the rear tires. Aside from being 2 different sizes the front tires look to be in decent shape and the better of the the 2 will replace the current spare studded snow tire that is hanging under the rear. :shakehead:

I am narrowing in on getting all of the questionable things repaired on the D50 and am looking forward to some fun summer driving!

Hey 68 Valiant could you post some pictures of how the coil is wired and where the small R wire from the starter is connected to? If you don't know the R wire here's this http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin...nd+S+Terminals It explains but it doesn't say what post to put it on. I have the 2.0 but as long as you have the coil with ballast resister it should be the same.

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Originally Posted by 85Ram50

Hey 68 Valiant could you post some pictures of how the coil is wired and where the small R wire from the starter is connected to? If you don't know the R wire here's this http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin...nd+S+Terminals It explains but it doesn't say what post to put it on. I have the 2.0 but as long as you have the coil with ballast resister it should be the same.

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My coil does not have a ballast resister on it. I put some engine shots in my album for this pickup.

http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin...hp?albumid=595

My engine just has the 2 wire harness from the coil to the distributor. The only issue that I have is that I need to crimp the connections at the distributor a little as they can come unplugged pretty easily if you bump that wire.

I hope that you are able to get your D50 back up and running. I have read your posts; you have the right folks helping you on them.

Thanks. That is mighty clean engine bay! I want mine to be like that eventually.
Couple questions. Which side of the coil in the 3rd picture is positive? I see the Temp wire and the female spade connector come from that branch of the harness. What is the red wire? and is that other wire that comes from the left and hooks to a different red wire from the starter? I can't read the tag on it. If so what is that wire it hooks to?
Thanks man haven't been to Lewiston since 99 or 00. Almost bought a house on the Snake. Wish I did now. :) I had come up from Ca to be with my mom in Kennewick while she went through cancer surgery and the hall in Spokane gave me a job on a shutdown.

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Originally Posted by 85Ram50

Thanks. That is mighty clean engine bay! I want mine to be like that eventually.
Couple questions. Which side of the coil in the 3rd picture is positive? I see the Temp wire and the female spade connector come from that branch of the harness. What is the red wire? and is that other wire that comes from the left and hooks to a different red wire from the starter? I can't read the tag on it. If so what is that wire it hooks to?
Thanks man haven't been to Lewiston since 99 or 00. Almost bought a house on the Snake. Wish I did now. :) I had come up from Ca to be with my mom in Kennewick while she went through cancer surgery and the hall in Spokane gave me a job on a shutdown.

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Thanks! I was going for a very clean minimalist engine bay. Luckily, most of the emissions stuff was already removed when I got it, and since it was a basket case, I just put back only want I wanted/needed to.

That red wire is the exciter wire that I ran for the fuel pump relay. It is plugged into a wire that ran up from the harness for the A/C system that was removed previously. It is a switched "+" wire so I used it for the relay exciter and also the electric choke on my Weber. It is a larger spade connector with a rubber boot so I was able to put a bullet connector on each of the wires and plug them both into it, and it stayed all sealed up.

There are a lot of folks that come to town for the shutdown. My brother worked for the rental equipment company in those years, they would set up shop on site and staff the rental office there 24/7. I have a lot of friends that work out there year round. I work for a small manufacturing company that does a good amount of work for them making parts for the machines. We really do have a great offering here in terms of recreation and outdoors. Pretty mild climate as well.

Stay well!