What have you done today/recently to your 5?

[Zed]

thought I'd replied to this sorry

I was going to ask if your car had been underwater due to all the corrosion, then I noticed your location in the UK. I bet the underside and all your suspension components are covered in rust.

thats about correct, this is a jdm car that was imported to UK in 2000 so has fared better than an equivilent 1991 UKdm car - that would probably be doomed

Rich.

[Zed]

thought I'd replied to this sorry

I was going to ask if your car had been underwater due to all the corrosion, then I noticed your location in the UK. I bet the underside and all your suspension components are covered in rust.

thats about correct, this is a jdm car that was imported to UK in 2000 so has fared better than an equivilent 1991 UKdm car - that would probably be doomed

anyway, done some more on the silver heap....


fitting a vw polo rad


crossflow & twinpass, also narrower than the normal NA item...

Rich.

[manga_blue]

roughing the blend, the miss-match had the manifold ~3mm higher than the heads port, not a bad thing as shaping the port-roof is better than the port-floor

My BP05 head had a 5mm diagonal mismatch between inlet manifold and head, leading to a 30%ish reduction in port area - far too much to correct with porting. I had to oval out the manifold bolt holes (a lot) and drill dowels into head and manifold to make them line up for assembly. Exhaust manifold wasn't much better for either OEM manifold or JASMA aftermarket. Reamed out the manifold holes and sleeved them to get a match there.

[manga_blue]

That head is looking really good!

still have the exhaust to finish though (why I want to cut another head to check thickness )

I wouldn't worry about cutting through. Exhaust ports are usually thicker and there are very little, if any, gains to be made in opening them out anyway. All you need to do is just remove any obvious casting faults, bowl under the valves a fraction and make sure there's no overlap with the manifold. Having exhaust ports smaller than the manifold holes is no issue, you don't need to blend them. You have a nice rough finish on the inlet ports, exhaust ports gain (at least in the short term) from finer polishing

[MonkeyBritchers]

I've gone a little crazy over the last few months...
Fitted a duck tail, short console and tombstone from Carbon Miata. A Mazdaspeed side brake lever and Roadster scuff plates found in Japan. Chassis rail reinforcement, gear and side brake boots, vintage style window switch, door striker covers and vent rings from Jass Performance and AC vents from a 3rd gen Eclipse.

[lucmor444]

Some nice updates MonkeyBritchers

[ManiacLachy]

The car is looking good, Monkey!

[plohl]

26-28/3 - raced at morgan park,
3/4 engine removed
the rest of April -
Pull head and sump off current engine
build new bottom end with high compression,
strip, clean and check head
assemble engine,
engine dyno,
install engine,
take engine back out cause I forgot the clutch release bearing
chassis dyno
20/5 - General Practice at QR - exhaust manifold broke, fitted spare, got other one welded
21/5 - Rd 3 Production sportscar championship, Qualified p2 in class by 1 tenth, fitted newly welded headers, set a new pb around national almost every session

[MonkeyBritchers]

Swapped the gauges for Revlimiter JNCs, Jass Performance independent deep rings and needle caps bought on Yahoo Auctions Japan for the princely sum of 1 yen.

[Lokiel]

plohl - I was about to bitch about how mush hassle it is install a QMax coolant re-route while the engine is installed (doing it now and am on a break).

Thanks, you've made me feel better.

PS: If you do want to do the QMax coolant re-route with the engine still in the car, start by ripping out everything back there, you CAN'T work around it, there's very little room!

[plohl]

PS: If you do want to do the QMax coolant re-route with the engine still in the car, start by ripping out everything back there, you CAN'T work around it, there's very little room!

Oh yeah man! Nick and I are building a replacement vvt engine for his car and will do the reroute whilst it's out of the car. Hope you get it together alright!

[Lokiel]

Which re-route kit are you using?

The FM kit is better because it routes the coolest water through the turbo, QMax routes it after it has been run from the back to the front of the engine.

After watching the FM installation guide I realised there was no way in hell I wanted to install it, their rear block is bigger, way too much plumbing back there which is already crowded and my existing TSE EFR6258 stainless steel water lines look too "cool" to replace.

I used a real gasket on the block rather than using the gasket-maker provided by the QMax kit - I knew it was going to take a LONG time with multiple attempts before I'd get it installed. Not sure how long the gasket maker takes to cure but I knew it would end up coating everything as I fumbled it blindly into place and got the nut and bolt on. The rear/lower nut was surprisingly easy to get on and tighten thankfully - the top bolt was MUCH harder, partly because the hose was now pulling it away.

I put the large hose on the block before installing it since some people reported that it was nearly impossible to fit after the block was installed.
This also helped because it prevented the block from falling down behind the engine (like all my spanners and sockets did).
Twisting the hose helped orient the block while I worked from the other side of the engine since the block stayed in place.

I didn't complete the job but got the block fitted so will finish up tonight.

That white clip on the firewall REALLY p i s s e d me off when removing the original block, I could barely get my hand/arm in there in the first place and it was in the perfect position to shred my hand and wrist as I worked blindly to remove the rear nut and bolt:



View from the other side:

[plohl]

Great pictures!
He was leaning towards the qmax kit.
Yeah, I looked at the FM kit as well and agree it looks pretty sh*t to install. I like how the qmax has a circlip for the thermostat.
Keen to hear how it bleeds up when you get it finished!

[greenMachine]

I've got one too, but it is still on the shelf. Was thinking it might have to wait till the rods get done, but when the heater core gets replaced that might give me a bit more room to play with ...

[Lokiel]

I kicked myself for not getting the 180*F (82*C) thermostat after watching a youtube guy in Arizona was using one in his setup due to the heat in Arizona - Supermiata supplies the 195*F (90*C).

I'd replaced the OEM one at the front with a 78*C version years ago since QLD gets bloody hot in summer and had forgotten about it.

I've ordered a couple of 180*F thermostats from Jeggs since S&H was more than the cost of a single unit (unfortunately I couldn't think of anything else I needed) and will redo it on the weekend (if anyone wants an 180*F thermostat for the Supermiata housing, let me know and I'll split the cost with you).

I'm still doing a few other modz in the engine bay so temporarily hooked up the water lines for a leak test - and found the rear leaked

I think I'll just use a gasket rather than the provided sealant on the rear, it had probably cured too much or had gaps formed by the time I'd managed to "fanangle" it into place, retrieve the spanners/nut that dropped through to the ground, and secure both the nut and bolt on the rear.

Probably just as well it leaked since I may have been tempted to just live with the warmer thermostat, it's a bugger to fit with the engine in place.