mitch_f1's mariner NA6

[mitch_f1]

14-6-10
So I had a little bit of a panic with an empty clutch master cylinder reservoir, and possibly air int he clutch line. But I didn't have the kit to bleed it, so i just topped it up, and it managed to sort itself out on the way down, which was nice. Still going to have to bleed the old fluid out; it looks a bit black...

Anyway, was a great day; on my first session out I did a 1:16.78, and was completely stoked. The next (passenger) session I got the driving instructor in, and he helped A LOT. THe second timed session was plagued with traffic, and only a 17 was done. The last timed session I went for bust. I had Broady behind me, and after a few laps I had Mitch in his red NA8 in front of me. That was very fun; we are all pretty equal in terms of times now. Mitch was pulling away a bit on the straight, and after turn 2. I also had a kind of big lose on one lap mid-session at the fish-hook. Best time of that session was a 1:16.73, so not much better.

There is still a couple of places I know I can improve on; turn 2 braking area, and that bloody fish-hook are still giving me troubles. I do, however, know how to fix it, and I just need to practice it more. Once I have fixe dup these areas I rekon I could get 1.5-2seconds off my PB. I also almost have heel toe down pat as well, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Overall quite stoked, and was a spectacular day. Very very cold on the way down (ice and frost EVERWHERE), but it warmed up for an almost perfect day.

Vids will be up after exams

[mitch_f1]

27-6-10
So i took the MX5 up to Newcastle today to photograph a car. Took the hardtop off, and cruised up heater full blast. Was really nice. I pretty much can't lsiten to the steroe any more, with no headrest speakers, and shitty door speakers you can't hear it, even at full blast. I also discovered a wobble at about 110, which seems to be a lateral wobble in a wheel/s, but I didnt notice it with the hardtop on the way back from WP, so going to have to get to the bottom of this.

Also, on the way home it was dark, so I wanted to put the soft top up, but it wouldnt close; apparently not putting it up for like several months makes it shrink. So i had to drive back topless, which was coooolllldddd, it also started spitting as I left newcastle, but luckily it didn't amount to anything. Overall, nice day

Will have WP videos up soon

[mitch_f1]

17-7-10
So just did my first trackday at MDTC. Was heaps of fun; first time on the circuit, and the lines took a bit of getting used to, as they are a lot more complicated than WP or EC where if you screw up a corner you can still recover; if you screw up a corner at MDTC you are paying for it for the next 3 or 4 corners.

It all started off very tentatively, as you do, and progressed from there. I was quite suprised to learn that I can rev match my downshifts now. I don't know what happend, but I stopped thinking about it, and just did it, and it worked really well. Same with my general smoothness, which kind of just happened. I think maybe the initial glee of being racing has finally worn off after like I guess 4 or 5 trackdays Hopefully now I can get into the 1:15/16 around WP now.

I started going through turn 5 (right hand down hill) with just a tap of brake, then towards the end of the day I had a little lift and was full throttle through it. Also took me a while to work out how to do the last corner onto the straight, and I tried heaps of lines and clipping points, and found that a really late turn in with very low mid corner speed and really only accelerating when the car is pointed out of the corner worked best, but I am lighting up in the inside wheel a lot there, which was annoying.

In the 2nd last session my lap times (hand timed from the video I took) were 49, 48 seconds for my 11 laps that I did. So I am completely stoked with the consistency that I have attained there.

In the last sessions I rode shotgun with the turbo red NB (sorry, I forgot your name), and was suprised to find that he was doing exactly the same lines as me, except at turn 4 (right turn going uphill) where his entry was a lot wider. I tried this on my next and final session and it worked a treat, the car didn't bog down as much, I carried a bit more revs and speed through the corner, and that showed in my times, which were all 48s with a lone 47s in there over my 6 laps.

So to finish the day with a 47s lap I think I am pretty stoked, but I don't really have anything to compare it to? A guy with a R33 GTST reckoned he was getting 46/47s (with his ipone) so I guess that getting a 47 is pretty good. Overall great day, and I love MDTC, if it goes it will be a very very sad day.

Still having touble converting video to a editable/usable format, so no videos yet until I can figure something out.

Oh and a lil pic I took on the way down:

[mitch_f1]

15-8-10
So, went and purchased the set of RPF1 Enkei's that a fellow forum member had for sale. Well, I put them on today (in an attempt to study.....joking), and went for a little drive. Byt the time I got back it was almost sunset, so I took some pics. I am probably not going to keep the wheels, just waiting for mate to tell me if he wants them, otherwise they will be back up for sale. Figured I really shouldn't own another set of wheels that I don't really need. ANYWAY, enough rambling, now for some pics:

[mitch_f1]

1-9-10
So i sold the RPF1's onto Nemo, who I think is on here??? But i sold them in favour of upgrading some suspension components, so now I am doing a bit of research. I am looking at getting either Tein Flex, or custom valved Koni's with some better springs (unsure what kind yet). Thoughts? If anyone in sydney has a set of Flex's in their MX5 please send me a PM, iw ould like to come for a ride some time please

So yeh in terms of updates I got a NOS K&N panel filter from the US for the wholesome price of $36USD back when the exchange rate was high 90s. SO put that in just now. Haven't yet gone for a drive but don't expect much of a difference. I also have bought some solid hangers, which I will attempt to install tomorrow. But when they say solid, they really and truely are solid, i was a bit suprised by that.



But, also a bit of a funny pic. I pulled up the other day next to a bush fire truck, and the top of his tyre was level with the top of my head. A bit scary




Also got the circuit club wakefield event this weekend, which I am very much looking foward to. Although rain is forecast which is a bit urgh.


12-11-10
SO I bought some MOTHERS aluminium polish with the intention of polishing the lip of my wheels, but aparently they are clear coated, so that was a no go. Instead I had a go at the carbing strut brace, and the results were amazing. Here are some examples.

Before:


After:




Before:


After:


And that's just with my terry cloth. If I had one of those ball things they that make I rekon I could get rid of most of those superficial scratches you can still see. It could potentially be so reflective that it might blind you.

[mitch_f1]

16-11-10
So for a while now I have wanted to get an aluminium radiator for two reasons. Firstly because this car does a lot of track work, and so far none in the summer, so in preparation for summer I thought it might be a good idea to upgrade. Also, it's a 20 year old car, and turns out it sorely needed it. It was also going to be my reward for finishing exams on Thursday. So after researching it a lot, and reading owners reviews and comparisons, I decided to go for the 42mm ASI radiator; as 52mm is just overkill.

This was my reward package for finishing exams


I also decided (on one of the stupidest days to make such a decision; it was a very hot day) it might be a good idea to remove the air con at the same time; I figured I've never used it before, don't really intend to use it (when you have 70kW, you notice the drain from the compressor), and it's a blood convertible; if you want air con, take the top off. Then of course there is the weight benefit

So started off by heading up to see Chris (ByeEvo) at Hornsby Auto Electrical Services on Hunter Street (thanks again mate) on Friday to get the air con de-gassed. I noticed when I popped the hood that the radiator cap was hissing and it was dribbling a very small amount of coolant down the front. Thought nothing of it. But as I was fooling around while Chris was doing his thing, I noticed that the overflow hose was blocked for about 10cm of its length...not good.

I later cut the hose in two, and found this in the middle. No wonder it was hissing. It's a miracle that the top tank didn't blow with all the pressure


Which when extracted and dried, looks surprisingly like rust


So when I got home I set to work. I started by draining the radiator, and that's when my problems started. The fluid that came out initially was green as it was supposed to be, but then it quickly went dark brown. Kept flushing, and it kept being dark brown. Thanks to all the help I got in the workshop thread (see Poo Brown Coolant), it was diagnosed to just be a rusty radiator. Not too much of a problem, so I took the bastard out.

Poo brown coolant


For those that don't know, this is what the inside of a rusty radiator looks like


Setup for coolant flushing and reverse flushing



At this point I got distracted again and started to rip out the air con stuff. I started by undoing and taping all the fittings. Then I removed the condenser, and then the hard lines. Removing the hard lines was the worst, because I was trying to preserve them in case I wanted to re-fit them in the future. It was near impossible to get them out without bending them in some way, but I got there after a lot of cussing. Then I removed the compressor, which is a heavy SOB. Didn't realise how heavy it was when I was undoing it, so I undid the last bolt and it promptly fell, luckily into the power steering lines, which stopped it from falling on my chest. So I promptly bolted it back up and repositioned myself to remove it with dad's help this time. I also removed the bracket at the same time. Because I was possibly going to refit it, I put all the bolts back into the block to keep the threads clean.

Removing the fittings going through the firewall into the condenser box


I didn’t take pictures before removing the condenser, but these are the hoses that connected to it



All these hard lines in the firewall had to be removed


And their continuiations though the engine bay




They had to come out the bottom of the car, as it is the only way that they would fit. This is the easier passenger side hard lines


I also removed the fan for the air condenser, because some time soon I will find a slim fan to replace it, and hard wire it into the termofan so they run together


Heavy bastard compressor, and its bracket



Bolts back in their holes in the block to keep the threads clean


So that was the end of Friday. Saturday was a nothing done day, because I was working. On Sunday I set to work removing all the piping for the cooling system. Before I purchased the car one of the heater hoses coming out of the firewall broke and was replaced, as were the two hoses coming out the bottom of the thermostat housing, and the hose linking the water pump to the bottom radiator hose. The rest of them had all kinds of rusty crusty sh*t inside, and so needed to be replaced. I took off all the lines and pipes and fittings that I could and flushed them with the hose as best I could before re-fitting them. On the advice from the helpful people in the aforementioned thread I also did a reverse flush (was completely new to me), and I also flushed out the heater box until I was getting clear water coming out the bottom radiator hose. So at this point I was a bit stuck, and couldn't do anything until Mazda parts opened on Monday. In taking off all the lines I also found that part of the hard line from the heater to the water pump had rusted through, and so needed to be replaced. The things that needed replacing were one of the heater hoses from the firewall, the top and bottom radiator hoses, and the hard line. Overall not too bad, but also not expected when all I wanted to do was swap radiators.

Nice little crust on the inside of the bottom radiator hose


Hard line rusted through


That didn't take too long to do, so I amused myself by also removing the headers to remove the heat wrap which was beginning to tear. I also found some time to heat wrap my ARC intake.

Nicely wrapped if I do say so myself. I only wrapped the back because the air coming through the radiator will cool the front, but the back is sitting tight up against the engine with little to no air flow



On Monday morning bright and early I called up Mazda, and got a grand total of $200 for all those parts (plus an exhaust manifold gasket because I took it off for better access). Thought it was a bit much, so I called up auto1 and got told prices almost half those from Mazda, but I had to wait until the afternoon for them to come in. The only thing they couldn't get in was the heater hose, so I gave in to Mazda on that one, but again, had to be sent from Melbourne, so wouldn't be here until Tuesday (today). I also called around about 20 wrecker’s yards before 9am trying to find someone wrecking an NA6. Apparently we are all good drivers, because there were not any in Sydney. When Mania opened at 9am I gave them a call, and luckily they had one there, so I went up to get it. For $15, wasn't too bad, but it did need an o-ring, which I got from Mazda later, for $5!!!!!!

I got a bit bored waiting for the parts to arrive, so I thought I'd give a go to removing the condenser box and the air con blower. Was an absolute prick of a job, but I did it. My main reason for removing it was not for the weight savings, but because I needed a hole in the firewall to put a temperature sender through. I had got an Omori water temperature gauge a little while back, and was waiting for the opportunity to fit it. In the end I didn't because the hose that came with it was for an NA8, and I didn't want to have to cut up the new one. Also because I didn't have time to wire it up, nor did I have a mounting point for the gauge. So I have shelved that for a later date.

So that afternoon I went and picked up the top and bottom radiator hose and the exhaust manifold gasket. Kind of gave up after that, and didn't really do anything that day besides beginning to put things back together.

Car was left like this



So today (Tuesday) I went and picked up the final hose, and a thermostat gasket (the one from auto1 was adhesive and about 2 sizes too big-it overhung the housing, plus there is like a $2 difference between aftermarket and genuineNOTE TO OTHERS, BY THE GENUINE ONE), and also order in an exhaust manifold gasket (just one, because the other one had a 3 week backorder, and at the moment there is only one on it, and it's done fine so far).

So got home and went to it. I started by refitting the thermostat with the genuine gasket (much nicer fit). Because the old one was stuck on (came off in about 5 pieces), I had to get a flat blade first to remove it, and make the surface smooth again, not too much of a hassle. Also replaced the hard line, and attached it to its brand new hose buddy. Fitted the headers back on. In removing them I managed to remove a couple of the studs from the block, which was a bit annoying, but I figured if the nuts are stuck there, then putting them back in and torquing them with the nuts still on it wouldn't make much of a difference?? I put the Auto1 manifold gasket in while I wait for the Mazda one to arrive.

Because I had removed the air compressor for the aircon I also needed another accessory belt for the power steering pump. I had never done anything like replacing a belt before, so it was all new to me. I slackened all the bolts on the PS pump and fit the belt over it. I started finger tightening the tensioner bolt until I had the recommended 8-9mm of depression, and then torqued everything up. I was quite pleased with myself here, as I had always thought replacing belts was quit difficult. Although, that said, I think the accessory belt is one of the easier belts to replace. ;)

So all the hoses and fittings were back in place. I put the intake back on, and realised that the silicone joiner was about 1.5cm too long, and that there was dead space between the end of the intake and the manifold itself. So I removed that 1.5cm in order to give the radiator and fans more room, which was also a massive hassle because silicone hose is not the easiest to cut in a straight line. Put the intake chamber on and then tried to fit the radiator, but it wouldn't go on because of the intake. So off the intake came again, and then the radiator went in, but now the intake wouldn’t fit...sh*t. Had to take off half of the width of one of the fan supports to get it to fit.

Trimmed silicon joiner


Bit of a tight fit





It is hitting the sway bar a bit, but this shouldn’t be too major, it will wear out eventually, and I really couldn’t be bothered taking everything off and putting it back on



Trimmed fan bracket


All fitted up


Washer spacers


So it was all fitted up and ready. The driver side radiator mount was off by about 3-5mm, so I filled it with a couple of washers, which did the job nicely, and now there is a nice even gap along the radiator support bar to the radiator. At this point I was ready to go. I checked everything over about 20 times before beginning to fill the radiator. I was using the Toyota Genuine coolant, as I’ve heard it’s pretty good, and I had a 4L bottle of it. Just as I started pouring I remembered the plug was only finger tight...that was close. So I continued filling until it was just under the inlet.

Checked things over again about 20 times, looking for leaks and the such. All looked good, so I started the car. Initially it was very noisy, and sounded a bit like a tractor, but I think that is because it spent the whole day with its front on jack stands, and the oil may not have had time to drain back to the front of the engine. As the car was running I kept topping up the coolant as it went down. I think overall I put in about 7 or 8L of coolant in a 50/50 water/coolant mix. As it got up to temperature there was still a bit of a clicking coming from the intake cams, which I have yet to diagnose; might have been there before, I am unsure. Might just need some of that magic Subaru Upper Engine Cleaner. As it got up to temperature coolant started dribbling out of the sender on top of the thermostat; I hadn't tightened it. Luckily that was the only thing I had left finger tight, so I think I did well.

Everything was okay, so I went for a couple of runs around the block, and came back to check for leaks. All dry. Only problem now was the fan was not coming on. After two runs around the block, and sitting still running for about 5 or 10minutes at operating temperature I would have expected the fan to come on. I have yet to fix this issue; still waiting for it to cool down.

Also, somewhere in there today I attempted to clean the overflow bottle. I took everything apart in it; the lid was in 6 pieces including its inlet and outlet. Got a small wire brush to clean out the insides of it from all the red rusty sh*t in there. Cleaning the inside of the overflow bottle was a massive nuisance. I tried everything mentioned before; luke warm water rocks and Jiff, degreaser and water, CLR and water, and a couple of other household cleaning products, all with rocks as well. None of them did much. Ended up getting out a wire brush and got everything within reach of the lid, which wasn't much.

Before


During


After


So all in all it was quite an experience; I learnt a lot. I learnt about flushing of radiators and cooling systems, I learnt about the removal of air conditioning, and I also learnt about the replacing and tensioning of belts, and of course about replacing radiators. Overall I am quite pleased with myself having accomplished it all by myself with no help It feels good.

Sorry for the massive post, I got a bit excited.

Next thing to do in regards to cooling is to block up all the holes around the radiator, so that air flows more efficiently through it, rather than around it.

[mitch_f1]

17-11-10 9am
So I've focused my attention on the thermosensor to diagnose the origin of the fans not switching on. I have removed it from its housing, and while plugged in, and while the ignition is set to 'on', I have imersed it in just under boiling water for about 30seconds, and the fan has not turned on. I think it is safe to say that I may need a new one????? Please correct me if I am wrong, because it should be turning the fan on at 81deg C, but does its functioning have something to do with being in its housing?? I am waiting for dad to come home to show me how to use his ohmeter so i can test it for continuity.

17-11-10 12pm
So thermoswitch is broken, which means new thermoswitch, which is $140 from mazda. Also there is a coolant leak, which means coolant drain and refill, which is expensive...DAMMIT!!!!

17-11-10 2pm
So I ended up getting the thermoswitch for $130 from Mania ($10 saved..wooo), and fixed the leak by putting a proper hose clamp on it (the hose is barely 12 months old, and the pipe was fine, and I know this because I inspected both thoroughly).

On the advice of an autolec we think it might be an air pocket under the thermoswitch which sits in the top of the thermostat housing. So I am letting it cool down now, and then I am going to run it with the thermoswitch lose so that fluid will start to dribble out the top, and while this is happening I will tighten it; effectively bleeding the system. Fingers crossed it works.

17-11-10 3pm
So I tried this bleeding of air, and still no fan. I just spoke to the mechanic at Mania, and he thinks it might be the thermostat, which kind of backs up what the guy at Auto1 was saying, in that thermostats don't like being out of water for long. The only thing that is kind of stopping me is that if the thermostat was jammed closed then no water would be getting through the radiator, but the radiator was getting hot. If the thermostat was jammed open water would be going through the radiator making it take forever to warm up, and it warms up within 5-10minutes, which isn't right for a large volume cooling system such as with a 42mm radiator...?? Thoughts?

17-11-10 5pm
So letting the car cool now to install the thermostat (at $25 that is one factor that is eliminated). Dave, the Mania mechanic also made the point that it might just be that good at cooling that it doesn't reach the 90degC... Will see.

I mean I took it around the block a couple of times in 2nd holding it at about 3-4000rpm for the 5mins it takes. When I got back, no fan?

17-11-10 midnight
Well i've bought the termoswitch now anyway, as that eliminates one problem, and the old one was, well, old.

I have shorted the wire and the the fan comes on, so the wiring is fine. The last thing to try is to replace the thermostat. After that I am all out of ideas. Dad, however, did raise the possibility of vapour lock, which I may investigate further.

18-11-10 11am
So thermostat is changed, wheels are changed, oil is changed, coolant is reused (still looked brand new so didn't want to waste it), and car is packed. Just getting some food before putting the dust tray back on, and then I will be all ready for tonight at the EC twilight event.

Took it for a quick ride around the block, and still no fan, but I am starting to think now that it might be more to do with the amazing cooling power of the new radiator?

18-11-10 10:30pm
Bloody hell this car is starting to piss me off.

So was going great tonight. The first session was a write off, because I couldn't remember the lines, so had to relearn them. The second session was about 3 laps long because of a car that had to be removed. In the 4th session I went out for about 2 laps, on the second lap I accidentally hit the limiter coming down to the last corner, and then just as I came onto the straight some water sprayed onto my windscreen. I hit the wipers, but it just smeared. At this point I thought oh sh*t, so I shifted to 5th and rode down the straight. Didn't think it could be dumping coolant because it was only a little spray, and if something major had happened it would be a lot more. Kept on the inside all through 1 and 2, and then pulled over after 2 after noticing water creeping up my bonnet, and had to get towed off.

Came back in and there was coolant everywhere; I had lost about 1L. Seemed to be from where the top hose connects to the radiator going on the splash patterns. So cleaned it up, topped it up, and went back out in another session for a couple of laps. Noticed a few drops of water on windshield, and came straight back in. Found a little pin prick leak in a hose right under the intake manifold this time. With the help of Ben (not sure of your name on here), we took it off and replaced it with the coolant overflow hose, which worked fine all the way home.

Only other hiccup I had was just outside eastern creek when rocks kept getting stuck in between my pad and rotor and causing a hell of a racket. Took me a little while to figure out what the heck was happening. No idea how they got in there though.

All in all, a bit depressing, but yeh, it could have been a whole lot worse. I think now there are just two hoses that need to be replaced, which I hadn't noticed under the intake manifold. But I am going to leave it for a while; the car has pissed me off too much after going so hard to get it ready for today.

[mitch_f1]

6-12-10
Also some pics

So after Eastern Creek, where the top radiator hose started leaking (had stupid stock clamps on), and earlier when the middle radiator hose started leaking (again, stock clamps), I replaced all of the spring clamps with worm drive clamps. I also replaced the last two hoses which I had missed (one of which broke at EC), and installed a mechanical Omori water temperature gauge.

Originally I had intended to put the gauge down where the pocket under the stereo is, but because I couldn't find a blank plate anywhere, and because the gauge came with the naked eyeball which fitted the gauge perfectly I ended up with that. To do this I needed to drill a hole in the vent to run the cable through. First I drilled a pilot hole with a 5mm bit, then got out the 19mm bore bit because it needed to fit the sender through it. This is what it looked like:


I then wired up the gauge. To do this I used the wiring from the light in the ashtray, which being that it is not used, I stole the clip and wiring from that to supply the gauge.


I ran the cable down to the driver footwell (can see it below to the left of the picture. The front of the car is to the right, and the direction it is taken is pointing towards the passenger dash from the driver footwell).


I ran it around the bottom of the heater box making sure that the wire wasn't interferring with the cables for the heater box.


I ran it through the hole in the firewall from where the hard lines from the aircon condenser was, and then past the outside of the airbox, and underneath the intake between the engine and intake, and to the top radiator hose.










I pointed the gauge back because I didn't want it interferring with the hood at all, and being that there was room I figured why not. I cut the top radiator hose in the middle of the straight section and put the housing in there. I had to cut two semi-circle holes in either end for the stalk of the T-junction. I also had to cut a bit off of each end of the hose possibly because the t-junction made it longer (doubt it, because I didn't add length, or remove hose here), or because it was just made too long (was a repco brand)

Really happy with how it looks; it almost looks factory.




But then when I went to start it up, as above, I couldn't get any water to go through the top radiator hose, and I was getting water spewing out the exhaust:



Please, any suggestions as to what might be causing this will be greatly appreciated.


7-12-10
So, I had ran out of time yesterday to do anything, so I just left it until this morning.

This morning I started by bleeding the system. First I opened the thermofanswitch up, as it is the highest accessible point in the cooling system. So that was nice and lose. I ran the car for about 10mins. I then noticed that the coolant reservoir which was on low before has emptied, which was a great sign. So I filled that back up, and held the revs at about 2000rpm for a minute or so before water started pouring out the thermoswitch. Took the car for a blast around the block, and when I came back I let it idle for a while. Soon as the temp gauge read 91deg C, the fan switched on. So I am a happy camper once more. The thermostat seems to be functioning fine, I now know that the thermoswitch is perfectly functional. But most importantly, I now know that my cooling system is pretty much brand new now, so that will be I dunno, relaxing I guess, for the summer track days to come.

So now I just need to work out my operating temperatures, and to get rid of the tap water in there now, and replace it with coolant.

I think I've realised as well that part of my problems at EC might have been airlock, as Ben suggested, because that was the first time it had been dríven hard since I put the rad in.

On a similar note, just went for a drive, and the omori gauge wasn't reading anything. Thought it might be airlock, so I gave it a few blasts and got nothing. Got to a 90zone and was cruising along, keeping an eagle eye on both temp gauges, and all of a sudden factory gauge bounced up to H, and Omori came to life and went straight to 90. Needless to say I was like ƒü¢k!! Pulled straight over, shut it off and popped the hood. Must have been another lot of air coming through, because I squeezed the top rad hose and it stayed closed like it had vacuum, and also the reservoir bottle which was previously full was now empty. Luckily I had some water in the boot, so I put that in, the top radiator hose rebounded to normal, and off I went again with no more troubles.

Just letting it cool down, and then going to remove tap water, put coolant in, and profit

Also replaced the air condenser under dash with this 200mm ducting

[mitch_f1]

11-12-10
So I went for a drive on Thursday and the temp gauge was working perfectly. Went for a drive tonight and it is not getting over 30 despite the fact that after sitting at idle for a while the fan switched on (indicating water temp was 91). I have NFI what is going on. Going to try and bleed the system again tomorrow morning and see if that does anything. If not, any suggestions???

12-12-10
So just had a better look at the issue, and ive noticed that the temp gauge doesn't go above 40deg C, and its temperature changes don't seem to have any pattern (for instance, under acceleration or whatever). I took the gauge out, and noticed that the screw in the back of the gauge was little bit loose, and that when jiggled it would move the face of the gauge. Could this mean that the gauge is not sealed any more, as a mechanical gauge should be? Why has it broken now, and not Thursday when I was driving it; nothing has changed since?!?!?!?

[mitch_f1]

30-12-10
So yesterday went to a MDTC practice day with Max. Was a perfect day with temperatures in the high 20s, a nice cool breeze and unobstructed sunshine almost all day. There was also very few cars there. The car performed well without missing a beat. The powersteering fluid started to overflow, but I think that the o-ring in the cap might be old and rotten, so that is getting replaced. Hopefully isn't too much of an issue. Going by timing from the video I was doing consistent 48sec laps with a couple of 47sec ones thrown in. I think I have also worked out what makes a 47sec lap; I accelerate later in the last corner on a 47sec lap, so I don't get the wheelspin coming onto the straight. So next time I am going to try this more consistently and see if I can do consistent 47sec laps and maybe a couple of 46sec laps. I also paid a bit more attention to tire pressures. I was running 30psi hot up front and 31psi hot up back. The inside and middle of the rears were up at about 73degrees with the outside of the rears at the high 60s. The fronts I can't remember exactly, but was a similar story but with mid 60s on the inside/middle. Is this what it is supposed to be like, or should I have consistent temperatures accross the width of the tyre?

When I got home I realised that I had left the heater on full hot (smart cookie here was wondering why the air was hot), and whether it was related or not, sprung a leak in my middle radiator hose, which I hope is just a worm drive clamp which isn't tight enough. Gonna look into that a bit more soon enough.

But enough talk, some videos:
Following max:
[youtube]rsI5HL2YPKw[/youtube]

Following a young girl driving a WRX who was doing actually really well.
[youtube]6gKUGdiT9Ms[/youtube]

The second last session of the day (battery died for the last session)
[youtube]9T-21PpMu-A[/youtube]

[mitch_f1]

So I have learnt another valuable lesson. Watch for hoses contacting hot surfaces. The leak in the radiator hose was caused by the hose contacting the headers, which weren't heat wrapped, and so it burnt a nice little hole in the hose. So lucky, as it could have been A LOT worse:



So I spent a few hours wrapping the headers on new years day, and resulted in this:




Then got a new hose and put it back together, but the hose is still really close. The hose is pushed on as far as it would go, so can't move that any further. Would it be possible to wrap the hose in the same material??


I guess as well, the hose was fine while the headers were wrapped before, and that was with a few track days, so I guess it shouldn't be too much of an issue with the heat wrap back on??



I also had the problem of the power steering fluid overflowing a bit through the dip stick. This was fixed by a bit of rag and cable ties:




Really sorry for the post bomb. But that is my car from beginning to now

[mitch_f1]

Cool car man. How many Km's does she have?

When I got it, it had a touch under 88,000km. Now it has 96,000km

[CheyneX5]

Wow, thats incredibly low...

Nice chunk of updates too, you have great taste. Im into all the JDM bits too. My car is still a work in progress right now, jus trying to get a few things right.

I look forward to seeing more

[RawSouth]

Awesome posts mate!

Its been a damn good read

[Guran]

This thread is a great read. It's a credit to you Mitch!

Looks like you've had plenty of dramas with getting your cooling sorted . It sounds to me like you've got a blockage somewhere in the system. That would explain the vacuum you got in the top hose, and the leaks springing out from the stock-clamped hoses. The waterpump is obviously working away like mad, but the water isn't flowing properly. You had plenty of rusty crap in there, so it wouldn't surprise me if you still haven't flushed it all out. I suspect the best way to solve it is to pull it all down again, and flush water through every component individually at every entry/exit point (in both directions). It's the best way to be absolutely sure. And make sure there's no air gaps anywhere in the system when you're refilling with coolant mix.

You should never leave tapwater in there for more than a flush - it'll keep on corroding your iron. It should have deionised water and coolant, which not only serves to reduce the freezing point and raise the boiling point, it is also a corrosion inhibitor. A 50% mix is excessive. Using too much ethylene glycol reduces the specific heat capacity of the coolant, thus requiring increased flow rates in same system comparisons with water. A 33% mix works fine in our climate (1 part coolant : 2 parts deionised water).

I hope to see you at a few MX-5 club trackdays at Wakefield in the near future! Next club trackday is 20th February. It's a great opportunity to gauge your track performance against other drivers in similar spec cars. Plus you can get plenty of useful ideas/advice on how to iron out those gremlins in your car.

Entry Form
Regulations

As for your tyre temperatures on track, you should be aiming for even temperature across each tyre face (not necessarily the same temp on each tyre though). If the outer shoulders are cooler than the middle and inner shoulder, it a sign that you're not working the tyres hard enough. Dropping the pressure by 1psi at a time will make the tyres roll more in the corners and should bring the outer shoulders up to temp.

You asked earlier about toe settings on the front. It is very easy to set this yourself and is a fun job when you have an hour or so to spare on a rainy day. All you need is to set up string lines and use a good quality ruler (preferably a finely graduated metal ruler with a square end). I use black cotton which is nice and fine, plus it's easy to precisely measure against a ruler. There's a how-to guide on miata.net:
http://www.miata.net/garage/alignment/index.html
Adjust the toe by loosening off the lock nut on the tie rods and rotating the tie rod in or out. Once you're nearly there, it's a good idea to give the steering a good turn from lock to lock, so that it settles the mechanism - and then re-check it before locking off the tie rod.