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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 21:25:40 GMT
March 2018 Started swapping over the exhaust again  side by side it's easy to feel how much thicker the steel is on the RS*R manifold. Cobalt cat-back has come off, along with the cat. Replacing with: RS*R -> silenced Decat -> standard catback which should stop the drone but give me a bit better exhaust note than completely standard (fingers crossed) I picked up the standard exhaust which has spent a couple of months in the garden, a whole load of nut shells fell out! Obviously an ideal home for some mice  I spent ages shaking them out of the exhaust box with a one or two still left in there it's going to be interesting watching the car do a pea shooter impression when it starts up.  Fitted the RS*R manifold + silenced decat + standard exhaust today eventually on the drive. I hate jobs like this working under the middle of the car with sod all room for manoeuvre. Anyway it finally sounds good again, the silenced decat has introduced a little extra noise over standard, but a better tone. And it's miles away from the drone I was getting with the Cobalt (I think my cat was knackered anyway) So I'm happy with the result.  |
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 21:27:13 GMT
March 2018 Well the smiles were short lived today as I came back from a drive in the car to find there was some water leaking from the heater hoses, strange I thought seeing as I had replaced those. On further examination it looks like the water was spraying merrily out of the hose on the right looking from the engine bay. It was then I noticed the windscreen was steamed up, opened the door and saw water dripping from the bottom of the glovebox. So I removed the glovebox, pulled back the carpets and was greeted with a very damp footwell and rusty kickplates! looks like it must have been happening for a while thankfully the rust was only on the plates and hasn't rotted the floor somehow.    You can just see a drip under the right hose in the engine bay, looks like a lot of it was going down the other side of the grommet under the dash. The ECU seem to have escaped damage as it's dry, but one of the brackets has rusted a bit. Some soggy sound proofing to dry out plus wire brush & hopefully save the kickplate. I don't think the matrix is leaking otherwise why would the water have been coming from the pipe connections that are higher than it? Time to take a few things apart and see if I can cut out the offending copper pipe & replace with new, this seems to be a fairly common problem so there's quite a few write ups on the Web that should help. Oh well, I'll have to put that nice long drive I was going to take in the car on-hold for another couple of weeks... |
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 21:28:31 GMT
March 2018 Some goodies arrived today, A US-spec Condenser radiator for a '91 Miata to match the US-spec dryer I bought, arrived in a very reasonable six days from RockAuto in America ! Plus a can of Classic Red paint for the spoiler, and two copper pipes to hopefully fix the leaking heater pipes from AutoLink.  |
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Post by atlex on Jan 1, 2019 21:36:08 GMT
Always loved the collector on the RS*R 4-1 :-) SEXAY.
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 22:42:39 GMT
March 2018 Took advantage of the first warm(ish) day for what seems like ages to take the dash out, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, took me 1 3/4 hrs to get the dash out, plus a further hour to remove the aircon evaporator & strip the offending pipes from the heater matrix. There's some great how-to guides on the web that made the job a lot less daunting, although what they don't say is a couple of things: - You only need to take the console air vents out to remove the dash, not all four! - You don't need to remove the steering wheel at all, just lower it Step 1 centre console, cowl & instruments out  Step 2 lower steering column, remove rest of console, disconnect Hvac cables, radio etc.  Disconnect wiring, unbolt dash & remove   Aircon evaporator & heater removed (see green stains on carpet where copper pipes had started to erode on heater end)  Ordered some new 17mm heater hose to replace these:  Plus a aircon delete pipe to use a a temporary measure whilst I rebuild the aircon system, now all I need to do is track down a new pair of the the grommets that go through the bulkhead as one has been rubbed away. Although I can't see any splits in the copper pipe, it was crushed so maybe there's a weakness in it.  Interestingly it seems to be near to leaking at the heater matrix end, look at all the green corrosion on the copper pipes that had crept under the rubber joining piece.  predictably took longer to get back in, although the hardest part was replacing the old heater rubber hose that goes to below the coilpack which took nearly an hour of faffing around!  Matrix removed, cleaned up pipes with wire wool to remove corrosion before refitting with new 17mm hose rubber joiners  Dash back in  Nearly there, just waiting for the glue to dry on part of the instrument cover that broke, don't know what they make these from but this is the fourth repair I've made on mine as they're pretty fragile!  cleaned up the rusty brackets, dried out all the sound deadening  Heater repaired, dash all back in & working, fixed a few bits of trim whilst I was at it, rust repaired the ECU brackets and kickplate, dried out the sound proofing & refitted. Also took the opportunity to try my home-grown induction kit with a couple of tweeks. It now sounds most agreeable :-) Gratuitous engine bay shot with all the new bits:  |
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 22:45:17 GMT
April 2018 Fitted a spacer for the exhaust as I was having alignment issues after I fitted the silenced de-cat. The rear box was being pulled out of alignment due to the manifold+decat combination I'm using are about 20mm shorter than standard. I bought a pair of 2" exhaust manifold flanges off eBay and repurposed them as a spacer with gaskets sandwiched inbetween them. This has given me the desired 20mm spacer and the rear exhaust box & tailpipe now lines up perfectly  Also too the opportunity to raise the Meister R coilovers back up a bit (approx 8-10mm) as I've been grounding the car a few times recently. The fronts are nearly at the limit - you are supposed to keep an eye on the inspection hole in the shock base and make sure there is at least some thread left in it (see picture)  Lastly, finally got round to fitting all the domed centre caps & retro Mazda badges on the Panasports. I think they finish the wheels off nicely :thumb-up: Oh and I made some 18" racing roundels out of some sheet magnetic Vinyl so I can take them on/off when the mood suits me!   |
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 22:48:02 GMT
May 2018 Visited the Spa Classic last weekend stopping off at Chimay and had a great time, took the Mazda out on the track where it didn't disgrace itself managing to keep up (most of the time) with a real mix of cars!   However after 900 miles of driving over the weekend it started to consume a lot of oil. No leaks but blue smoke from the exhaust and a sooty tailpipe. By my calculations it used just over 2 litres in 900 miles, and the last 300 miles it went from full to under empty (see photo) Power is good with no misfire so we suspect it's probably the oil scraper rings which wouldn't show up on a compression test. On reflection I did know this was coming as nearly two years ago when I bought the car it sounded like a bag of nails until I filled it up with a couple of litres of oil and the tappets noise went away. The price was haggled down accordingly so I've had my fun out of this engine.  The decision is whether to replace with another 1600 or to take the opportunity to upgrade. Turbo sounds nice but I'm not sure I want to go down that route just yet as I really enjoy the instant throttle response & high revving nature of the 16v engine. Supercharged is an option as I loved my old mk2 supercharged but the choices for SC seem to be thin on the ground at the moment. I did consider getting a complete rusty mk2 RS and transplanting everything into the car but not sure the neighbours would appreciate the car on bricks look for the driveway  Current thoughts are for a 1.8vvt conversion as they seem to be much more plentiful, newer design and I've not seen many reports of them failing like the older 1.6NA engines are with age & neglect. So looking for at the moment: - 1.8vvt engine - controlled by ME221 which means I can keep the vvt throttle body and crank sensor (no CAS) also means the fan switch can be controlled by the ECU & not by a relocated fan sensor - 1999/2000 fuel rail & FPR to change back to return fuel system - mk2 5 speed box (mine is noisy so take the opportunity to change it now) - change VLSD for Torsen, using 4.1 ratio rather than 3.9 to keep the final drive down rather than the 3.6 or 3.9 - change driveshafts & propshaft to fit the torsen Of course those are today's plan and who knows if I'll change my mind tomorrow but thanks to Skuzzle and Motorsport Electronics for answering all my questions so far on how it can be done :thumb-up: Plan would be to get donor engine & parts, service them before installing back into car then take it down to Skuzzle to get it running properly |
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 22:49:50 GMT
June 2018 Did a compression test last night: cylinder 1 - 215psi cylinder 2 - 210psi cylinder 3 - 220psi cylinder 4 - 220psi Done whilst warm and dry, tried a wet test on cylinder 1 and it went up to 300psi so didn't bother with the rest! Still undecided as to rebuild 1.6, or go VVT or normal 1.8... I suspect this is what I'll find when the engine is pulled (not my image)  |
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 22:53:08 GMT
June 2018
Ok so it looks like this is turning into a bigger job, what I thought was a noisy gearbox turns out to be loads of backlash in my VLSD so that needs replacing as well :rant:
Bit worried that there aren't any decent 4.3 diffs out there - this is my second VLSD I've gone through and if I move to a 4.1 then am I going to notice much of a loss in acceleration...
update: (late June 2018)
managed to source a low-ish mileage drivetrain from a 1999 mk2 1.8iS that was scrapped due to rust. Not picked it all up yet but I will have:
- 1.8 NB engine with all ancillaries
- matching 5 speed NB gearbox
- propshaft
- driveshafts
- 4.1 Torsen diff
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 22:54:31 GMT
Engine's here! spoken to the previous owner of the car it used to be in before it was scrapped for rust and it sounds like it has been well looked after which is a great re-assurance :thumb-up: I was toying with stripping it down but it sounds like it was still going strong when in the car and has been well serviced so will treat it to a new clutch and maybe lighten the flywheel then stick the whole lot in  |
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 22:55:30 GMT
July 2018 - A slight detour 'Wheels' I’ve been doing some research in the evenings as to some wheels to get a bit more grip on track. I love the Panasport but the 14” tyres aren’t the stickiest ;-). Undecided between 15 and 14” rims as I have a set of Daisies behind the shed which I could just stick a set of Nanking NS-2R tyres on. Or do I go for some 15’s where the choice of tyres is a bit more varied. Compiled this list of wheel weights as I want to keep the weight down. My experience of driving bigger wheels has been mixed, on my old mk2 I had a set of 15” Rota RB’s with 888 tyres on it which stuck like glue but gave a horrible tramlining experience on the road. I guess that’s because they were a lot stiffer sidewalls than the normal tyres and almost square in profile. Interestingly I think the MX5 is more sensitive to this as I’ve driven an Elise on 888’s and it felt fine. In contrast the mk2 sport wheels with road tyres on the same car behaved great on the road. My current mk1 feels nice & light on it’s feet compared to the clumsy 888 shod mk2. Here’s some comparisons of wheel weights - interesting to see where the Daisies come in the chart, and OEM Sport wheels from mk2 16” wheels Mk2 5-spoke 16 x 6.5 - 7kg 15” wheels Compomotive ML 15 x 6 - 8.1kg Rota RB 15 x 7 - 6.5kg Mx5 Phoenix mk2 Enkei wheels - 15 x 7 - 6.5kg Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 15x7 - 6.2kg Rota Slipstream 15 x 7 - 5.9kg 949 racing 6UL. 15 x7 - 4.85kg Mk2 Sport 5 spoke (Enkei) - 15 x 6.5. - 5.9kg BBS mk1 15 x 6 - 5.4kg Enkei RPF1 15 x 7 - 4.4kg Rays Volks TE37 15 x 6.5 - 4.3kg 14” wheels Daisies 14 x 5.5 5.6kg Mk1 7 spoke (solid spoke) 14 x 6 - 5.2kg Mk1 7 spoke (hollow spoke) 14 x 6 - 4.9kg BBS mk1 14 x 6 - 4.8kg It looks like Mazda knew what they were doing with the mk2 sport wheels even today they hold their own in the table and are cheap as chips used. I’d love to find to 15” Panasport ideally but I’ve been keeping an eye out for over a year and none have come up for sale  |
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 23:00:57 GMT
July 2018 I managed to source a set of mk2 sport Enkei wheels (15x6) in pretty good condition for £60 so it seemed to be too good to pass up. One wheel has a brand new tyre, the others are past it. I thought in the interest of science I would weigh the wheel with the new tyre and compare against some of my other wheels. MK2 Enkei (15 x 6) new tyre 14.1kg  Original Daisy (14 x 5.5) worn tyre 11.9kg  Panasport (14x6) nearly new tyre 12.3kg  All of these wheels are known for being quite light, the probable reason for the Daisy being 400g lighter than the Panasport is the fact that it's an old worn tyre. In reality I'd expect the daisy to be marginally heavier than the Panasport with an equivalent new tyre. Difference between a tyred 15" mk2 Enkei and a 14" mk1 Daisy is therefore about 1.6kg (or about 15%) so not a great amount but enough unsprung weight to notice if you're a spirited driver I'd say. Now it comes to offset, took a picture from the same point for each wheel lining up the centre swage line to make sure the photo angles din't lie 5.5" daisy (ET45)  6" mk2 Enkei (ET40)  6" Panasport (ET 31?)  Although there's no offset marked on the Panasports there is a '31' marked in one of the serial numbers, it looks like the wheel sticks out about 15mm more than the Enkei's so it's likely to be 31mm. And for my own peace of mind this resolves the question in my head whether 14" 8-spokes or 15" 5-spokes are more classic on a mk1   |
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 23:07:39 GMT
September 2018 Started preparing for the 1.8 swap, the old engine is still going strong in the car (just drinking oil) so I decided to leave it in for the Summer and enjoy the car Got the flywheel for the 1.8 lightened and balanced with a new clutch at a local engine builders. Weighs 6.8kg according to my bathroom scales, most of the weight they took off was removing the band from the outside of the flywheel plus scooping out some of the rear. Hopefully should see an improvement and worthwhile doing whilst it was out anyway :thumb-up: flywheel face just needs a light going over with an emery cloth   Getting a load of grief with the nearside hub nut off tried a 1/2” breaker bar, a 3/4” breaker bar with big extension, plus air gun impact driver. I don’t hold out much hope for the driveshaft coming out of the nut is giving this much grief! |
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 23:11:17 GMT
Slight alterations in the project plans... I've always thought that the best standard MX5 I've ever driven was a friend's white mk2 RS. It had the urgency in gear of my early 1.6 NA but with more power and a much revvier engine than the standard NB I used to have and felt noticeably quicker. I've done some research and I think there's a number of reasons.  1) The six speed box combined with a 3.9 diff (rather than 3.6 on a mk2.5) puts gears 1-5 almost identical ratios to the gears 1-5 on my 1.6 NA which has a 4.3 diff. That means 6th gear is in effect a motorway overdrive. This differs substantially from the mk2.5 where all the gears are taller. 2) not sure if the mk2 RS does have a lightened flywheel, as internet research shows some did come with one, others not. Certainly my mate's car felt like it did! 3) The NB RS had a higher rev limiter and supposedly a better inlet cam So it struck me that I should try and make car that has the best of both worlds - the mk1 body, but with Mk2 RS mechanicals. It's not going to be exact but I'm going to try and capture the essence of a NB RS in my early mk1 so far I have acquired: - 3.9 torsen diff from a 10AE - 6 speed from a 10AE - 1999 NB 1.8 engine - lightened flywheel - 1.8 brake carriers (to be safe) The plan is to install that lot and get it running with a ME221, then once any kinks are ironed out I will decide if I want to go to the next stage and send the head off to Blink for some work & fast road cams. I did consider hunting down an old RS engine but I figured the Blink stage 1 kit does the same thing but better. I'm rather looking forward to it  |
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Post by carl4x4 on Jan 1, 2019 23:14:12 GMT
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side by side it's easy to feel how much thicker the steel is on the RS*R manifold. Cobalt cat-back has come off, along with the cat.
I spent ages shaking them out of the exhaust box with a one or two still left in there it's going to be interesting watching the car do a pea shooter impression when it starts up.
