snshami's Green LE NA8

[snshami]

Looks like you're having a lot of fun tinkering with the car =)

Re the exhaust tip, you should be find on the street... That being said below is what happened to my exhaust tip after a track day at Winton. It melted the bumper bar and the plastic stuck to the exhaust tip... Excuse the terrible photo...

It is fun. Every boy needs a toy

Your bumper bar melting looks bad closeup but can you see it from a standing position when you look at the back of the car. Melting certainly created the clearance it needed

[bensale]

It's not too bad actually. I cleaned it up and you can see how the bumper bar has been re shaped on the right side. I got some of the melted bumper off the tip, but a lot of it is still there.

[snshami]

Had a great club run today. The Mex performed flawlessly. 'Twas super fun ...

[snshami]

REAR SHOCK CHANGEOVER

My rear shocks were showing signs of needing change. The car was leaning too much on very hard cornering and shimmying slightly over potholes as well as bottoming out a few times on dips while travelling at speed.
Anyway I got some KYBs from Rare Spares for $210 a pair, bought some stands, borrowed a trolley jack, spring compressors and torque wrench from friends and proceeeded to do the job.

Overall the shocks took about 30 minutes each to get in and out of the car. The only complication was needed to source new hardware that attaches the shock assembly to the shock towers in the boot.

The outcome is a car that rides far better, with less drama and better low and high speed ride.

I chose KYBs to keep the feel of the car standard.

I followed a great guide on the internet about safely raising an MX-5 onto stands. There is a trick to it to prevent the car from being damaged.
http://billswebspace.com/Raise_Your_Miata.pdf

The car safely on stands:




The compressed spring"



Everything all nicely torqued up to spec:

[snshami]

Out and about on a club run

[Kev05]

Very nice and excellent write up. Gave me a few very good ideas on what mods to do to mine.

[snshami]

I'll document the timing belt job I did. There is some duplication from my previous posts because I asked a lot of questions while I did it and got a lot of awesome help.

Anyway here is the engine before I started:




AND THE TOOL SET





AND MOST IMPORTANTLY THE PARTS:



I bought the kit from Miatamecca (a very well respected Ebay seller and also a prominent authority on MX-5s. He has done some great youtube videos that I have embeded below.

Anyway the kit includes:
Timing Belt
GMB Idler and Tensioner Pulley
Bando Gates Timing Belt
GMB Water Pump and gaskets
Mazda heater return pipe o ring
Mazda Crank Seal
Mazda Cam Seals
Mazda Rocker Cover Seals
Mazda Cam Angle Sensor o ring

I bought seperately the following:
Bando Alternator Belt
Bando PS and AC Belt









Other great videos I checked out include:

[snshami]

Another good source of inspiration was http://mx5unleashed.com/tech/timing-belt-mx5.html and a great exploded view http://forum.miata.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=138843&d=1332087642

I started by removing air intake pipe along the front of the engine, then the lower plastic undertray then draining the radiator and removing it. I used a bucket to catch the coolant so I can dispose of it later. I tried taking photographs at every stage

Here it was before I started



After step 1



and after removing the radiator. You can see from the image below how much extra room one has to work with. I consider this essential and would have damaged the radiator for sure if I hadnt



Then it was the turn of undoing the two bolts that hold the coil pack on the rocker cover and removing the rocker cover




These bolts were really hard to get at and I managed to round off the head of the one on the passenger side. On 93_Clubman's advice I reached around the back and found the third bolt that attaches the coil pack to the block. After undoing this I was able to remove the rocker cover with the coil pack attached. After that removing the rounded bolt was easy.



I used glad wrap to cover the exposed valvetrain

[snshami]

Here is another great resource http://www.miata.net/garage/timingbelt.html
And a list of torques http://www.miata.net/garage/torque.html


Anyway, I continued taking parts and covers off the front. Before that the PS/AC belt came off after loosening three bolts on the PS pump. After that the water pump pulley and the cover below it.





In all 3 plastic pieces make up the timing belt cover. I took off the remain two but before I did that I inspected and marked the cam sprockets



As you can see from the above image 19 teeth separated the two marks on the inlet and exhaust cam sprockets. As you may also noticed the belt was quite loose maybe because of belt stretch.

A view of the crank sprocket which was at TDC



After this I removed the cam sprockets. They were probably the tightest fit and needed my son to help me hold each camshaft with an adjustable spanner. I also removed the black plate below the camshaft sprockets.



By the way I tried the trick of holding the two camshafts with two spanners and a C clamp. After messing around for 20 minutes I gave up. Its a stupid idea and needs 4 hands and is completely unnecessary because as long as you follow a few very simple principles putting the belt back on and aligning everything is dead easy.

Then after removing the odd hoses and cables in the way I attached this great bracket that allowed me to tie the crank to the alternator pivot point to stop it rotating. The bracket was lent to me by a forum member. Anyway it can be bought from http://www.rennenmetal.com. It made removing the crank bolt surprisingly easy.



After removing the crank bolt I wiggled a steel hub off the front of the crank sprocket and took out the key. After that the crank sprocket came off easy

All the while I had been dreading undoing the crank bolt the most. All I did was use a good sidchrome 21mm socket and a breaker bar with an old vacuum cleaner pipe over it to make the moment arm about 1m long. Then I carefully braced myself and pulled. The bolt moved slowly but surely. I removed the seal by carefully drilling in it and inserting a screw and pulling. On reflection its something I would advise great caution in. It is probably a better idea to apply a screw driver wrapped in duct tape on the outer periphery of the seal near the top. If you scratch this area it will probably not leak while if you scratch the crank deep enough it can leak.




After that the water pump came off. It was fairly easy including undoing the bolts for the inlet pipe.



To pull the inlet pipe forward so I could at the O ring on the heater return pipe (directly behind it) I undid the pivot bolt on the power steering pump and moved it out of the way. Changing the O ring was easy.

After cleaning the mounting surfaces I added gasket silicon to make the gasket stick to the new water pump and installed. Before I did that I pushed the inlet pipe back towards the fire wall so it would engage with the heater pipe.

Then I pushed the new seal in. Before I did it I applied some oil on the inside of the seal and the slightest bit of oil on the periphery. I then pushed it in by hand and then lightly tapped it till it bottomed out.

.

Then came the black cover with the timing marks that fits under the cam sprockets. Then I fitted and torqued the idler pulley and then the tensioner pulley and spring. I pushed the tensioner pulley as hard to the left as possible and lightly tightened the bolt.



After this came the cam sprockets. At this point I made sure the crank was at TDC and installed the crank sprockets back on the end of the camshafts using the little pin as a guide and making sure I was installing the one I had taken off the inlet cam shaft and same for the exhaust side.



At this point both the cam shaft pulleys were slightly askew. Following the advice from miatamecca I turned the crank sprocket to line up with the mark above it so it was at TDC and wrapped the timing belt around it and held it in place with folded cardboard stuck under the crank sprocket. Then I fed the belt under the idler pulley making sure there was no slack between the crank and idler. Then holding the belt in my right hand I used a spanner to turn the exhaust cam sprocket so its marks lined up and placed the belt over it. Then I held the belt on to the cam sprocket. At this point the belt was taut all the way from the crank to the exhaust cam sprocket. Then using my elbow to place pressure on the exhaust cam sprocket I used an adjustable wrench on the inlet cam to move the inlet cam so its markings lined up placed the belt over it and held it with my left hand. I counted the teeth between the markings on the two cam sprockets they were 19. Then I fed the belt around the tensioner pulley and loosened its bolt. The spring pulled any slack out of the belt. At this point I let go of the belt and pushed against the tensioner pulley a bit more and tightened it. Then I checked the marks



They all lined up. The next day I turned the crank clockwise four revolutions to make sure the belt was properly located. Then I installed the key and the pulley and torqued the nut.

[snshami]

After that it was all a matter of putting everything back together again. First was the crankshaft boss and nut. Then the crank pulley. While taking the pulley off I managed to round off one of the bolts. I found replacement bolts from Pick-a-part. The 90's Ford Festiva (uses a Mazda engine) used the same ones on their pulley. Anyway I have a few spare in case anyone needs them.

One thing I did before putting everything back together is give everything a good clean. My engine or most of it now sparkles. After that came the covers and the water pump pulley and the belts (making sure they were adjusted correctly). Then all the hoses and other connections and finally the rocker cover and spark plugs. I followed the Haynes manual for the correct bolt tightening sequence and for where I needed to add some Silastic.

Here is a good guide on rocker cover replacement.



Anyway after that I replaced the radiator and hoses and connected the battery. The final moment of truth was upon me.

I turned the key

and

the car started first go (which was a relief but also a bit of an anticlimax)

[93_Clubman]

The final moment of truth was upon me.

I turned the key

and

the car started first go (which was a relief but also a bit of an anticlimax)

Great stuff, & even better that you don't have to back track to fix anything - just enjoy the driving pleasure! Well done all round.

[snshami]

The final moment of truth was upon me.

I turned the key

and

the car started first go (which was a relief but also a bit of an anticlimax)

Great stuff, & even better that you don't have to back track to fix anything - just enjoy the driving pleasure! Well done all round.

Thanks for that.

I thought I would add a few words about how long it took me and my thoughts on the level of difficulty. First thing I should say that there was this mental block about how hard the job is and how easily it can go wrong. To balance that was the great encouragement and technical help I got from many of the forum members. I even pm'ed a few at 12 at night and actually got a response so thanks for that. I started the job on Sunday and finished on Friday. Sunday I spent 5 hours. That day I got everything off but had managed to round off two bolts. So I wasted about an hour and a half to fix that. Monday I spent two hours but rounded one bolt which wasted another 30 minutes. On Tuesday I spent around 2 hours, Wednesday 2 hours and Thursday 2. Friday was just 1 hours. In all it took me 14 hours.

When I look back and wonder why it took so long. Firstly I wasted at least two hours recovering from rounded bolts. Then I wasted about an hour trying to take short cuts like work with the power steering pump in place and then undoing it anyway. About two hours were wasted trying to figure out how to undo things properly, sorting parts into lots and tagging them. About 30 minutes were spent taking photographs. 30 minutes on the computer asking for help and around 1 hours doing extra research to make sure I was doing things right. I spent around 1 hour at least cleaning parts and the engine and 30 minutes trying to line the camshafts up using the silly adjustable spanner trick. Then around 1 hour in double checking things to make sure I was assembling things properly and would not have to back track.

That's 9.5 hours I would not have to repeat if I did it again. I estimate it would take me 4.5 to 5 hours to do it again. If I was an expert mechanic I would have the right lighting, would know exactly how to place tools so I can find them again and just work faster because I was more confident I can see how some people say it is a 3 hours job for the experts.

So to sum it up its not technically difficult at all.

And if you have done this or something similar before it will take you around 5 to 6 hours. If you are over careful and relatively new at repair work like me it will take double that.

[kazman]

Brilliant write up mate, the timing belt on mine (also a BRG NA8 LE ) is due for a change in a couple of months and you've convinced me to have a crack at it myself. I predict this will be my bible for the process haha, cheers

[NitroDann]

I even pm'ed a few at 12 at night and actually got a response so thanks for that.

Anytime mate.

I assume you did what I suggested and all was good?

Also.

WELL DONE.

it feels damned good doesnt it.

People often ask how I learned what I know and most of it comes from getting on the net, listening to really clever people and then trying myself.

Dann

[snshami]

Brilliant write up mate, the timing belt on mine (also a BRG NA8 LE ) is due for a change in a couple of months and you've convinced me to have a crack at it myself. I predict this will be my bible for the process haha, cheers

Kazman, by all means have a crack at it yourself. It is a nice feeling to stretch yourself a bit and do it successfully. As for the bible thing, all I did was learn from all the smart people out there and make a few tweaks myself. So it is hardly a bible but thanks for liking it.