JR's 2.3L FP Black R2 Build
 

So 1.0 for this car started as an 03 Evo 8 wuth about 122k miles on the odometer and about 500 miles on a freshly built 2.3, rebuilt 5 speed and a rebuilt rear diff.

The previous owner decided that rather than ship the car from Washington to Hawaii he wanted to sell it, so I picked it up directly from English Racing where the first 500 miles were put on it by John Bradley/Midgespec himself.

Here's the rundown of how it was set up.
2.3L 4g63 with Wiseco HD, Manley H beams, Manley crank.
The head has GSC S2 cams and Kiggly springs and retainers
Turbo setup was just an FP black bolted to the oem manifold, 3" open dump, ETS piping and intercooler and an HKS SSQV.

Here it is when I first got it.


Attachment 251266


Attachment 251267

Attachment 251268

Bad ***** 2.0
 

After a short amount of time having it I did a few upgrades.

Synapse DV. If you don't have one, I highly recommend it

Attachment 251272

Delrin knob means no more burning my hand. And a little double din action for bluetooth goodness.

Attachment 251270

Attachment 251274

Attachment 251275

Next, I cracked a drilled rotor that came on the car, so some upgrades there.

Attachment 251271

Attachment 251273

Next, removed those ridiculous eyebrows from the headlights, wet sand and polish.

Attachment 251280

Attachment 251278

Attachment 251279

And evo 7 style red spray on the tail lights. Before and after...

Attachment 251277

Attachment 251276

After about 4000 miles, the brand new Comp stage 2 unsprung clutch went full on fail mode.

Here's a shot of the splines in the disc completely gone.

Attachment 251283

So, off to work me and my buddy went to install an ACT XTSS. I also had English surface my flywheel and give the transmission a once over while it was out. And everything in the drivetrain got new Redline fluids.

Attachment 251286

Attachment 251284

Attachment 251282

Attachment 251285

Attachment 251287

The new clutch is so much better. If you're choosing a clutch I'll recommend this one all day long.

Bad ***** 2.0
 

Immediately after getting back on the road with this thing, a girl rear ended me lightly creasing the bumper and dinging the trunk lid. After insurance approved repairs, the body shop was happy to swap me into a JDM rear. I paid the difference of $120.

I love how much shorter the car is, and a local muffler shop re-hung my HKS Hi-Power for $40

Attachment 251288

Attachment 251289

Attachment 251290

Attachment 251291

Retune time. I decided to ditch the mbc and put a 3 port solenoid in.

Picked up 14whp and 19wtq.

Attachment 251293

Bye MBC, anybody need one? I still have it somewhere.

Attachment 251292

Bad ***** 2.0
 

And that brings us to the beginning of 2.0

Doing the next version begins with another failure. The Manley 100mm crank the previous owner chose to use against advice from English Racing cracked. I noticed a light tick one day and though very faint grew a bit more noticeable after about a week. So I had English cut open the filter and drop the pan. Sure enough, cracked on rod journal #4

Attachment 251294

Bad ***** 2.0
 

So apart comes the car. Might as well do a bunch of stuff while it's down right?

Eagle has my new crank on backorder, so I've got some time.

Not much engine side is changing. Same motor, same head and just a trip to the machine shop.

Here's some shots tearing it apart.

Attachment 251295

Attachment 251296

Attachment 251297

Attachment 251299

Attachment 251298

Bad ***** 2.0
 

Attachment 251315

Attachment 251314

Attachment 251312

Attachment 251311

Attachment 251318

Attachment 251313

Attachment 251310

Attachment 251317

Attachment 251316

So I always planned to buy a daily, but this kind of forced my timeline. Found this 2000 Tacoma for 6k.

Attachment 251322

Went ahead and stickered it.

Attachment 251321

Decided to tear off the HKS Hipermax RS Coilovers to fund some upgrades. These are for sale if anyone wants.

Attachment 251320

Attachment 251319

Also got me some wheels. Ray's Gram Lights 57DR in 18x9.5 and I'm currently having them powder coated.

Attachment 251323

Attachment 251324

I've always hated having gauges on my pillar, so I removed this thing. Yay oem pillar!

Attachment 251332

Attachment 251331

I'm switching to the PLX multigauge and mounting it in an Ortiz pod I ordered.

Attachment 251327

Does anyone have a clue what this is. Tucked under carpet inside my center console.

Attachment 251330

So after talking to FP about the copious amount of oil that gets past these ball bearing turbos, I decided to use their new head feed line and I'll be addressing the crankcase ventilation issues as well.

Attachment 251341

And then while I was ordering that I saw this on sale, so why not?!

Attachment 251338

Attachment 251339

Attachment 251340

And if I'm going to buy that, might as well go down the road to Finish Line Coatings for some ceramic love, and hey let's take the turbine housing too.

Attachment 251342

And corroded bolts suck, so titanium hardware from Speed Factory, yes.

Attachment 251343

So being the brilliant dumbass I am, I decided it would be cool to tear apart the wiring harnesses and redo all of the looming to make them look nice.

...ugh.

Anyways, start small. This is the transmission wiring harness. Before and after.

Attachment 251344

Attachment 251345

This is the charge harness. Runs to battery, alternator and starter. Also had a plug for EGR in it, so I deleted that.

Attachment 251347

Attachment 251346

Attachment 251348

This is a little ground strap that runs firewall to intake manifold.

Attachment 251349

Stayton Peterson to the rescue with his mad headlight modding skills. Looking so good now. Did you know oven cleaner takes chrome off of plastic?

Attachment 251354

Attachment 251350

Attachment 251352

Attachment 251355

Attachment 251353

Attachment 251351