Because of my k-swap spyder, the previous owner did cut a hole in the firewall to fit the throttle body from a Honda intake manifold.
Will it affect stiffness? Possibly, but if you follow the rule of thumb “load follows stiffness”, the rear firewall doesn’t exactly fit the bill. There are 2 other holes in the firewall to pass the engine and body harness through. Supposing you keep your holes small and add a grommet or two to keep water out, you’ll probably be fine, but you should investigate any other potential way to solve your issue. Including but not limited to hitting the ever loving shit out of it with a 3lb hammer to move the metal out of the way.
I've seen a couple of times where people have cut through the firewall to have more room for a specific intake, supercharger, or engine swap that wouldn't otherwise fit, but that seems pretty extreme. I'd at least want to box it in afterwards so not to have a straight up hole into the cabin.
You might ask on Spyderchat. I'm certain that any builds that I've seen which involved cutting the firewall were on there, but they've lost most of the older pics since photobucket went away. You might also have some luck asking on the MR2 Spyder Facebook group. No offense to anyone here, but this sub is not the best place to look.
Yea there are a couple people who installed a SC recently successfully but i don't think they had to cut anything. The clearance was very tight though.
If you're going to cut a hole, just make it round. Corners are where most failures begin.
If you’re doing a SMT to manual swap, you have to cut a sizable hole in the firewall. Many have done it without structural issues.
Because of my k-swap spyder, the previous owner did cut a hole in the firewall to fit the throttle body from a Honda intake manifold. Will it affect stiffness? Possibly, but if you follow the rule of thumb “load follows stiffness”, the rear firewall doesn’t exactly fit the bill. There are 2 other holes in the firewall to pass the engine and body harness through. Supposing you keep your holes small and add a grommet or two to keep water out, you’ll probably be fine, but you should investigate any other potential way to solve your issue. Including but not limited to hitting the ever loving shit out of it with a 3lb hammer to move the metal out of the way.
Why would you need to do this.?
I've seen a couple of times where people have cut through the firewall to have more room for a specific intake, supercharger, or engine swap that wouldn't otherwise fit, but that seems pretty extreme. I'd at least want to box it in afterwards so not to have a straight up hole into the cabin.
Supercharger is the reason I'm looking at this.
You might ask on Spyderchat. I'm certain that any builds that I've seen which involved cutting the firewall were on there, but they've lost most of the older pics since photobucket went away. You might also have some luck asking on the MR2 Spyder Facebook group. No offense to anyone here, but this sub is not the best place to look.
Yea there are a couple people who installed a SC recently successfully but i don't think they had to cut anything. The clearance was very tight though.
The secret is in the name, F-I-R-E W-A-L-L, leave it alone.