nix
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Post by nix on May 31, 2021 14:35:50 GMT
Sucks when theres leakage, makes a mess and puts work back a while  much damage or just less skin? also, you've never lived untill you've had a finger glued back on......
or driven up a tree*........
Rich.
* not my finest ahh its not dreadful, just a bit messy. I've got probably 1cm roundish holes on the middle knuckle of 2 fingers, they are pretty deep, so skin and everything underneath, thumb is just missing part of the nail and some skin underneath, but it could have been a lot worse. Thankfully it stopped bleeding quick enough and I initially did try to carry on but couldn't even hold the TIG torch in my right hand so gave up, slapped some bandages over it and called it a day. Its the first grinder related injury for me I think, plenty of burns and cuts in the past but this is new |
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nix
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Post by nix on Jun 7, 2021 8:38:51 GMT
So over the weekend I wanted to cross some things of my list so I decided to start with the lower core support section. I'd kinda been putting off finishing the lower core support section as I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to do it and then randomly It came to me whilst I was sat at home; I'd also been putting it off as I couldn't be bothered to get the tube bender setup. I ended up having no choice but to get the bender out and this was the outcome:    I'll probably tweak it slightly and change the sharp 90 degrees bit that links the 2 parallel bars for a nice curved piece now that I have the tube bender setup. So the short side of the double ended cup thingy welds to the side of the chassis leg and has a captive nut on the inside of it so that the longer part can bolt to it making the whole lower frame removable. After that was sorted I decided to finish up the turbo oil feed line as the straight fitting I ordered arrived this morning. With the straight fitting on the turbo everything fits nicely so that's another thing off the list. Next up I worked on getting the downpipe to fit again with the new engine position, with all the extra space I was able to move the flex joint up to sit alongside the gearbox.  I started Saturday by finishing the new prop centre bearing mount so that I could work out how much I need to move the diff. When I first mounted the diff I had angle the propshaft up by 1 degree in order for it not to be scrapping the floor. This time I figured I'd try and keep everything nice and parallel to reduce the risk of driveline vibration. Well with the Prop firmly mounted into the car I broke out the laser and did some maths and measuring to work out that I needed to move the diff up by 60mm. I couldn't be bothered to try and cut the subframe up whilst it was still in the car and as I have a spare in the workshop I decided to use that instead. After having a look at the subframe and taking some measurements I decided that to get the diff high enough I'd have to cut about 80% of the rear bar out so figured I'd just cut the entire thing out and replace it with new steel. First thing first though I needed to brace the subframe so that it didn't Taco out of shape as soon as it was cut and then I cut a big old chunk out of it.   Unfortunately I got a bit carried away and didn't really take any pictures but long story short, I bent some tube, plasma cut some plate, ground some rust, welded some steel and sprayed some paint and I ended up with this  I didn't get chance to chuck the diff back in as the paint was still wet but hopefully tomorrow I can chuck the diff in and chuck it into the car. I'll probably make a brace to go across the underside to replace the crusty old OEM one as well. The paint is only temporary as once the swap is done and running and I'm happy with everything I want to pull all the arms off and get them re-powder coated and refreshed with new bushings so I'll get the subframes powder coated to match. |
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nix
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Post by nix on Jun 8, 2021 14:02:47 GMT
So this is probably not the Ideal place for a technical discussion but didn't want to a whole new post for something so minor. So someone recently suggested adding a mini sump to the bottom of the turbo to help with any oil foaming. I wanted to get people thoughts on whether it was worthwhile or if I should just send it and see what happens (I'm happy with both options). I know that guys that run scavenge pumps often do this on their turbos.
so should I add a shallow mini sump to the bottom of the turbo to help oil drainage or just crack on without and send it?
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nix
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Post by nix on Jun 8, 2021 14:18:39 GMT
To clarify what I was talking about I threw something together in fusion (obviously the edges would get seam welded): The idea is that the hole on the top will have an AN fitting (or barb) to run a vent probably back to a catch can and then the angled hole on the bottom will take an AN fitting (or barb) to drain somewhere into the oil pan  The benefit is that is may help with any oil foaming issues and it may help with routing the oil drain. The downside is that I've got to design and fabricate it and there's no guarantee that it will work so could be a huge waste of time. |
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Post by Zed. on Jun 8, 2021 22:24:52 GMT
To clarify what I was talking about I threw something together in fusion (obviously the edges would get seam welded): The idea is that the hole on the top will have an AN fitting (or barb) to run a vent probably back to the cam cover? and then the angled hole on the bottom will take an AN fitting (or barb) to drain somewhere into the oil pan The benefit is that is may help with any oil foaming issues and it may help with routing the oil drain. The downside is that I've got to design and fabricate it and there's no guarantee that it will work so could be a huge waste of time. worth a try?  Rich. |
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nix
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Post by nix on Jun 9, 2021 10:37:59 GMT
Yeah I'm happy to give it a try, what's the worst that could happen. Zed. so vent to the cam cover and not a catch can? I'm used to wrenching on old Nissan RB's and SR's and normally we chuck the cam cover vents into a catch can so was thinking along that line. Although that'll be a pain with the Bimmer engine as the covers are plastic so no option to weld AN fittings in. |
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nix
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Post by nix on Jun 10, 2021 12:29:35 GMT
Ok so over the past few days I've been wrestling with diffs and subframes. First up I threw the diff in the modified subframe and all looked good except it looked like it maybe sat a bit too high in the subframe. My concern was the axles contacting the subframe at full compression but I couldn't be sure without throwing it all in the car.  So I went about taking the whole rear subframe and suspension out of the car and it didn't want to play nicely. The 2 Bolts on the subframe came out nice and easy without much of a fight but the 4 studs would not move. I broke them loose with the breaker bar and then tried the impact to get them off but nothing, so I switched to the air impact and still nothing. I drowned them in WD-40 and still nothing, so I applied some heat... a lot of heat... with an oxy-propane torch and after getting them nice and toasty and burning all the crap off threads I was able to spin them off with the air impact. After that I unbolted the arms from the subframe and took the entire suspension assembly off as a single piece and moved it over to the modified subframe.  at full compression the axle did actually clear the subframe... just. So I moved on and bolted it all back into the car without any real drama's initially. I realised though that the flange at the front of the diff was making contact with the metal heat shield thing under the fuel tank. I took some further measurements and decided that I could drop the diff down by 20mm and still be comfortably in the 1-3degrees needed to keep the propshaft joints happy. I pulled it back out modified the mounts and put it back in for a test fit:   The angle of the photo makes it look tighter than it really is but it fits. All in all the diff is 40mm higher than when I originally mounted it and there is still enough room to get the exhaust round it so I'm happy. I need to drop it all out again and finish welding the new mounts so I'll probably do that tonight. Once that is all done I can take final measurements for the prop shaft and get that sent off and I can make the mock up axle to send off. Once that's done everything mechanical is kind of out of the way! Further along in my project plan I will be overhauling all of the suspension in this car so I think at that point I'll likely make new tubular subframes to replace the modified ones (front and back) |
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nix
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Post by nix on Jun 11, 2021 14:28:02 GMT
So the new axle adapter plates arrived today. I had these made from S355J2 which is a medium tensile steel with good Impact and shock resistant properties even at massively sub zero temperatures meaning it should up nicely as part of the drivetrain. I now need to tap all of the outer ring of holes so that the axle can bolt up to them.  |
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nix
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Post by nix on Jun 13, 2021 20:46:28 GMT
It's been a good productive few days, I spent Friday night and most of Saturday working on the clutch pedal assembly. It took a bit of trial and error but I managed to install the Tailgate McNoIndicate master cylinder on to MX5 clutch pedal assembly. Now why go to the trouble to fit a Tailgate McNoIndicate clutch master? Well because of the engine angle there is now an engine where the clutch master would have been and the Tailgate McNoIndicate clutch masters sit inside the footwell of the car. Originally I'd tried to mount the master on the right of the pedal but when I test fitted it, I found that it clashed with the steering column so had to move it to the left side and it ended up working out much better.    The pedal still has a full range of motion and it also fully actuates the clutch master, I'd taken a bunch of measurements from the pedal Tailgate McNoIndicate pedal box to get the angles and offsets correct. So I've got get a line made up that goes from Tailgate McNoIndicate's quick disconnect fitting on the back of the master to a standard M10x1.0 fitting for the clutch slave. After that I decided to get the fuel system sorted out, so I ran new AN-6 stainless braided Teflon lines for the feed an return and I needed to route them round to the opposite side of the engine bay to avoid the exhaust so they run up into the tunnel and over the top as far away from the exhaust as possible. I may build a steel heat shield to cover them in the tunnel (also to protect them somewhat from anything hitting them). The lines are all held in with rubber lined P-clips so they are nice and tight to the tunnel and nice and secure. After that was out of the way I decided to get the fuel pump installed. This was nice an straight forward, when I ordered the pump I'd made sure that the dimensions where similar enough to the stock pump that it should just bolt in and it did. The only thing that I had to do was splice the connector so cut and joined the wires (I crimped the wires instead of soldering them as its supposedly better but We'll see) and then cover in electrical tape and fuel resistant heat shrink.  I stupidly didn't order a replacement fuel sock and the one that came with the AEM pump wouldn't have fit so I threw the old one on. I'll have to pull it back out at some point and change it as It's probably the 20+ year old original one. I've got a fresh cylinder of Argon so I'll probably crack on with welding up the last bits of the subframe and getting the exhaust welded up. |
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nix
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Post by nix on Jun 15, 2021 8:41:53 GMT
So I didn't really get much time on the car yesterday but I did have enough time to pull the diff back out and spray some paint on the subframe where I had to make changes. I also designed and plasma cut the top radiator brackets so I'll get those finished today most likely. I also measured up for the new clutch line, Originally I'd wanted to make this myself but it seems that the Tailgate McNoIndicate quick disconnect clutch hose fitting is only available as a crimp on fitting. So I did some searching and found a company called BRT Motorsport that does custom lines made to order and they had the Tailgate McNoIndicate fittings in stock (No affiliation or anything just found them on google). I ordered a 1250mm braided line with a Tailgate McNoIndicate fitting one end and a 90degree M10x1.0 swivel fitting the other end. The order total came to about £33 for a fully assembled custom braided line which is less than I've paid for "off the shelf" braided clutch lines in the past. The braided lines you get for Tailgate McNoIndicate's only replace the rubber flex section down by the slave cylinder which is only about 150mm long and costs range from about £30-£60 for just that bit so £33 is a cracking deal!
Hopefully that will arrive later this week and I can cross another thing off of the list and that will the clutch hydraulics done
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nix
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Post by nix on Jun 15, 2021 9:52:26 GMT
So I need to order the little circlip that holds the clutch line into the back of the master cylinder, I did some research and found the part number (21521165451) then I searched the part and found that it costs anywhere up to about £20 for a tiny little circlip!
Holy crap, what the hell 😂
Best I could find without ordering from eastern Europe was about £15 (It would have been about £12 from Lithuania or Latvia without any taxes applied). I guess I best get used to stupidly expensive Tailgate McNoIndicate specific parts...
What's even more annoying is when we replaced the gearbox on my brothers mini last week, the new gearbox came with a slave cylinder still attached to it and it had a circlip still in it... Its the exact same part number but I threw the whole thing away without thinking 🤬
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nix
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Post by nix on Jun 15, 2021 10:54:05 GMT
Unrelated to the engine swap I've been considering the JASS Performance hardtop brackets (Front, Side and Rear) as my hard top never comes off, I might be a girl but I've never liked convertibles with the top down... It just ruins my hair 😂. Also the both front catches on mine seem to be shot and don't stay latched, I had both come undone once whilst on a spirited drive, Thankfully the side catches held on long enough for me to realise and find somewhere to pull over. So has anyone used the JASS Performance brackets? and if so any thoughts on them?
I kinda wanna get an idea of if its worth it the money as a full set is just over £110 with delivery from autolink or about £95 direct from JASS
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Post by swordspork on Jun 15, 2021 11:54:35 GMT
I've got the jass side brackets, they are good and solid. I don't have the front ones as my stock latches worked fine.
I think they save quite a bit of weight as the Mazda latches are quite hefty. Later on I got the more security conscious bolt set from jass but the bracket worked absolutely fine using the stock fittings that held the original latches on.
If you have/are thinking of getting a roll bar you need to consider if they will work with the jass side brackets. When I got my GC fab roll bar I spoke to the bloke and he said some of the fixed brackets don't work with the roll bars.
I think they are worth it if you don't take the roof off.
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Post by Zed. on Jun 15, 2021 12:42:58 GMT
Unrelated to the engine swap I've been considering the JASS Performance hardtop brackets (Front, Side and Rear) as my hard top never comes off I kinda wanna get an idea of if its worth it the money as a full set is just over £110 with delivery from autolink or about £95 direct from JASS lotta cash for 6 bits of plate... but, if you cannot make such them maybe they're a bargain  Rich. |
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Post by scottydugg on Jun 15, 2021 12:46:36 GMT
If you're not in a hurry for them they do pop up on the Facebook pages second hand intermittently.
I find if my front latches pop open after spirited driving, they need adjusted so they latch a bit tighter.
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