I have recently purchased a nice black NA JDM SW20 MR2. Since my purchase, I have become increasingly interested in the inner working of cars. I have done an insane amount of reading, mainly on the Internet, on pretty much anything to do with cars. I have read a lot of work logs, and other web sites (using my common sense to quickly disregard the non-credible ones) and have found the Toyota engines to be the most interesting to me (obviously bias comes in to play here but there seems to be very few car manufacturers that make such elegant engines, at a - comparatively - acceptable price.)

Anyway, being a geek at heart, my thirst for information cannot stop at reading about how other people do it. I want to do it myself! Now, the problem with this is I have near zero practical experience on any kind of car maintenance or modification. I also have no tools, and at the moment next to no money (In fact, at the moment, even if we forget about my car loan, I still owe money )

So, how does one quench ones thirst for said knowledge, without diving further into debt? Well, I visited a wreckers the other day with my father. He was going to get a couple of bits for my sisters car, and I came along to have a poke about. While we were there, he gave me this idea. Why don't I buy a shoddy engine from a wreckers (one that would most definitely be unusable in its current condition) for next to nothing, sit it in my garage and go crazy with it. Take it apart, see how everything works, and then put it back together.

Now, I know it won't work when I put it back together – an operational engine is 'phase two' of my master plan. The purpose of this exercise is simply to learn about the inside of an engine first hand – without the risk of ruining a decent one

Would this exercise be beneficial to me? My long term goal (when I am financially able to do so) is to buy an older corolla (probably an ae82) and strip it back completely, rebuilding it from the ground up with a 4age, doing as much of the work myself as is humanly possible. The advantage to this whole exercise is that I could probably get a 16v 4age (and at the very least a 4afe) from the wreckers, meaning that when I come to rebuild the 4age that I actually want to use in a car, it is familiar to me.

My long term goal came about because it seems that there is a hell of a lot more information out there on the 4age than any other engine of its type. I initially started out looking for information on my engine (3sge) and found next to none. I figure the 4age is a good engine for me to start with because of this abundance of information.

Whilst my long term goal may alter slightly in that it may turn out to be an aw11 that wraps itself around my 4age, I don't think the engine will ever change – at least for this first project. From all I have read it seems to be one hell of an elegant engine, and for some reason appeals to me a hell of a lot more than any other.

So, what do you all think? Is taking apart a shot engine worth my time and money? Can a newbie such as myself complete a project like the one defined by my 'long term goal'? Or, am I just dreaming?

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks for your time

[Updated on: Mon, 31 January 2005 12:08]

[Updated on: Mon, 31 January 2005 21:55]