mitch_f1's mariner NA6

[Jace]

I look at coil-bind as your cars way of telling you to lower it.

[mitch_f1]

That is a pretty good mantra Jace ;)

So went back to get a touch up on the wheel alignment. As suspected the front lower control arm bush on the rear passenger side is slipping, as the toe went from 0 to +2.6mm, whereas the other side remained at +0.5mm. So I guess new bushes may be on the cards somewhere down the track. TBH though I don't think I will. I have spent enough on this car as it is, and it is not a major worry as yet.

Booked my hotel for the weekend as well; staying at the Alpine Heritage Motel so kind of excited now to do 2 back to back trackdays, also a bit daunting.

[mitch_f1]

SO, the weekend was full of mixed feelings. I shall elaborate:

Saturday
Left the house at 5:15am, and on the M2 I had cooling problems again!!! This time of the opposite kind. Just before the tunnel in Ryde a 40 zone started, and continued for about 3-4km. During this time my coolant temp went up to about 110*, which is about 20* more than the fan on temp, and 30* more than my on track temp!!! So I sped up to 60 (don't tell any one), and went up to 5th gear (was in third), and it slowly started to cool down. Didn't have a problem since that, so no idea what happened!??!?!

Anyway, got there at 745, secured my ideal garage (first one in the second row), and proceeded to admire some of the awesome cars that turned up for the event. Here are a few of my picks:
This epic 240Z, which gets dríven twice a year by an owner that lives in England. Such an awesome car!!!!!






VW Golf mk1, which wasn't so stock (had a turbo'd late model engine)



E30 with an SR20DET swap, done almost entirely by the owner (in his 20s). It is a very very fast car, but unfortunately the owner was having issues on the day, and retired in the second session


This R33 GTR which had had stacks and stacks of money poured into it. Like not even joking, it had all of the top name parts



Random favs








NO FUNNEL!!!!!! Kidz got skillz!!


Overall the day went pretty well, and was hot, but not super hot. I couldn't break the 1:15 barrier though (i did several 1:15 dead), which was really frustrating. I also tried leaving it in third for the final turn and coming onto the straight. I noticed that I was shifting into fourth at about the same point, so I'm not sure how that went (will have to look over racechrono data). I tried a few things, including playing with shock stiffness and tyre pressures but I still can't get it to handle right, so I've no idea what I am doing wrong!!



Sunday
MX5 days start A LOT earlier (garages were almost full at 745!!!!). They are also run very very differently to CC days. I think in the end I got about half to 3/4 the track time I get on a CC day, but then the groups are a lot more evenly matched, so I never had a problem with slower traffic, and only on a couple of occasions did I have to let people pass, so that is absolutely to it's benefit as I was having problems all day at CC with traffic that would not move over (including an evo who thought he was all that and was gunning it down the straight and leaving me right on his tail all the way from turn 3 for about 2 or 3 laps!!!). First session out I had a really weird creaking sound, so did 2 or 3 exploratory laps before pulling in to check the tightness of everything, but it was all tight. I still have it, and I have no idea what it was. Through the day I could not break out of 1:16, which was even more frustrating because I was doing 15s the day before. Spewing!!! Before leaving I put my tyre pressures up to 31psi (were still slightly warm, otherwise I go 30 cold). I went with Hayden, Dom, and Dean to the Merino servo, so Hayden could put air in his (the compressor at WP was taking way too long and was a bit tempremental). I thought I would check mine again, so I put the servo hose on mine and it read 50something PSI. I looked and I thought to myself nahhh, couldn't be. I borrowed Dean's analogue gauge (I have a digital one), and it also read 50 something!!!! I was shitting myself! So dropped them all back down to 31psi. This means that the tyre pressures that I was reading over the weekend are liekly to have been quite inaccurate, which could explain sh*t times, and understeer, but I am not sure.

Also, on the drive home I have decided that I may have an exhaust leak somewhere, as it is has that kind of noise now. Made it almost all the way home flawlessly (I passed only one HWP, which was nice!!), all the way till about 10min from my house when I stopped for petrol. Got back in and went to start it, and nothing, not even cranking, not even whirring of starter motor; just nothing. I turn acc on and the shift light has one light on, indicating a dead battery. sh*t. So I went into tthe servo again and luckily the legend behind the counter had some jumper cables, and a passer by was able to lend me his battery for a moment. So I made it home in the end.

Wrapup: Overall I am happy that the car and I survived the weekend relatively intact, but i'm not gonna lie, I was really quite disappointed with my times. But, there is always next time.

I hope everyone else that went had a good time

[Jeo]

Sucks about the battery but was good to meet you today Mitch. Don't be too upset about your times, you'll figure out your setup soon enough.

[mitch_f1]

Thanks mate, was great to meet you too. Hope you can get your tyre sorted?

Also, forgot to mention that I had a drive of Ivan's car (one of the circuit club guys, who has koni yellow, kings, torsen, advan neova's and thats about it), and that was a totally different experience. For one he didn't have power steering, two he didnt have harness or bucket seat (really makes a massive difference), and also his clutch was not as worn as mine. Stalled it in pit lane as a result I was also really suprised at the amount of grip that the Neova's had, as I've never really dríven on good sport/street tyres on the track. Thanks again Ivan for letting me drive it, I really hope I can let you have a go in mine at the next day.

That experience made me think: I think that the best mods that someone can do if they race their car regularly is seat and harness and also the shift light. The latter means you don't ever take your eyes off of the road, you just wait for the flash!!

Also, I am loving the fact that I can do 18L/100km on the track, and about 8L/100km on the way to and from the track!!!

[Gmi]

Car looks awesome in real life. Do you drive it as a daily? Never really see it around in st Ives.

[mitch_f1]

Thanks mate was nice meeting you today. I don't drive it as often as I should. My Cressida is my daily. MX5 comes out once every week or two (not much more than the cressida actually, which gets dríven maybe 2 or 3 times a week to work - go public transport!!) Also, I don't think I have ever seen yours around the area either ;)

[Hjt]

(I passed only one HWP, which was nice!!)

Totally didn't see this car, Sorry i left you and Dom behind as I was falling asleep and needed to increase my speed to stay alert(?) I met up with Deen for the trip home~

Also sorry about your battery, any little issues you will sort in time!

[mitch_f1]

2011.12.04-wakefield-77 by Tiit Saul, on Flickr

[mitch_f1]

I decided to clean the car after the recent barage of trackdays a few weekends ago. In the process of doing so I found a phantom sticker, which could only be seen due to the angle of the sun on the fender. Here is a picture in which it are barely visible:



I traced over it in this one. Basically it says RECARO SPECIAL:


Made me kind of excited, because it meant that my car had some kind of history; at some point someone cared for this car as much as I did to put a sticker on it!!

For a while now I have fixed my overflowing powersteering reservoir with the classic cable-tied-on-sock around the cap. But speaking with Jeo at the recent MX5 club day, I got brought to the attention of a kit which you could buy (admittedly for an automatic transmission), which would fix this frustrating issue. Jeo had one that cable tied through the air con condensor, but being that I don't have one any more, so I wanted to find one which I could bolt to a bracket instead. I found that Davies Craig had a kit, which had a RRP of like $280 or something, so I went to ebay and hunted around, and they all seemed to be about $100. I decided to call supercheap, and they had the davies craig one for like $80!!! Cheering!!!!

I started off by draining the dirt coloured excuse-for-powersteering-fluid from the reservoir, and removing the stock cooler (which sits behind the front bar for maximum cooling efficiency ) To fit it I found some alumium corner in the garage and cut it to bolt between the condensor mounting tabs. I had initially wanted to do it on top and bottom, but I could have had to cut recesses for the hoses, and the tabs are offset on the top, so that was put in the too hard basket. Instead I made a tab from the top right one to the cooler. The kit is pretty awesome, it comes with everything you need, including the hose. Of course I was about 10cm short..... So I went around trying to find some more; auto1 in Chatswood came to the rescue for that one. To bleed it, I filled the reservoir, and then started the engine and held it on lock for a few seconds at a time to activate the PS pump, then just topped up as necessary.







I also decided to remove my sway bar end links, as they are clacking and I wanted to replace them. While they were out I took it for a drive up to Hornsby, and the ride was amazing, it was infinitely more comfortable. This made me think that I had the sway bars incorrectly adjusted, which could also be explaining my chronic understeer at WP. So I set them back to the factory dimensions and put them back in. I also decided to take a bit off of the bolts so that I could put them into the softest setting (adjustable whitelines). This worked really well for the rears (the coilovers are chunky and so do not allow room for the insertion of the bolt), but not for the fronts, as it still misses out by like 5mm. So I am stuck with the possibility of either shaving down the head or I actually do not know what else. So I put the front one on the middle adjustment, but it is giving me strife because at the stock length the sway bar end plate is within 1 or 2 millimeters from the UCA, so I had to shorten it to get a bit more clearance.





I went for a drive just now to the Hills to help Nemo remove his soft top, but when I came back my temperature gauge was reading 120*C, which is stupid cause I was driving very easily, and it is a very cool night, and I recently checked the thermostat out of the car and it functioned perfectly. I turned the ignition on, but the fan didn't come on. Over the space of about 5mins I watched it go from 120*C to 80*C to 100*C, so I am now pretty sure that the temperature gauge is fuxxored.

[gobsmax]

I'm sure that's a circuit club sticker

[mitch_f1]

smart arse ;)

[mitch_f1]

Small update:
-I am having cooling system troubles (see engine forum)
-I have managed to get rostered Sunday Monday and Tuesday as my RDO this/next week, so I am doing the clutch/flywheel starting Sunday. I am going to use this opportunity to fix my exhaust leak which is getting steadily worse (pretty sure it is in the headers), replace rear main seal and front gearbox seal.

If anyone wants to come by and lend a hand you are more than welcome to, there is probably going to be multiple points in which I could use a hand or two. Come by whenever; I anticipate working on it pretty much most of the day, but shoot me an sms if you want to come by.

[mitch_f1]

So today started well. Got everything together and realised I have no geabox oil.... Run up to Repco in Hornsby and pick up 2.5L of Penrite SIN gear oil...for $60 I also grabbed some threadlock blue, which I lacked at home, and a replacement top radiator hose (like my fourth one )

Started the day by removing the headers to try and locate the exhaust leak. After jacking up the car I started it and had a good listen and feel, and it is definitely coming from the flex joint, so I think that a new one will be on the cards.


I then got to removing the shifter and draining the turret oil, because I didn't want it spilling everywhere if the gearbox was to tip over. The gearbox was also drained, which provided a major suprise, and a good source of future worry for me; a metric tonne of shards on the magnet. This is as it came out of the car:


Gave it a wipe with a rag:


Nice coily shard on the rag:


Cleaned plug:


Also found another potential exhaust leak waiting to happen in the header to cat gasket:


Also some condensation in the header, which I thought a bit weird???


Noticed a bit of oil below rear of gearbox, but I think that this is from the turret, as it starts up around that area, rather than the rear seal.


Next up was removing the drive shaft, which is just 4 bolts at the rear, after which it just slides out. Note to future attemptee's: applying park brake really helps. I almost rounded one of the 12mm bolts trying to hold it in place while attempting to remove the 14mm nut The gearbox shaft had no oil on it (yay), but is there supposed to be this much oil on the diff end???






The book says to remove all the electrical connectors, so I started to take this one out before I realised that there is a bullet-type connector up the top of the gearbox. I hope I havn't broken anything?


Next I started removing all the bell housing bolts, which suprisingly came away very easily, except the two which I had put back in after removing the stock exhaust (silly me..).


At this point Hayden decided to drop by, which was perfect timing as I was just about to start extracting the gearbox There was a bit of frustration, but it came out fairly easily I guess. Bit of manipulating things to get it out, as we chose to pull it out the back of the car. I would like to say that the sight that greeted me was a suprise, but it really wasn't.








Starter motor looks a little drowned








So it took about 2 cans of degreaser and several large rags to get it cleaned out, but I finally got there tonight. I thought this crud looked like the stuff they squeeze out of smokers lungs on the anti-smoking campaigns.


Came up pretty nicely:





So here is my to do list for tomorrow:
-remove old pressure plate and flywheel and clean everything and discover the mystery that is my current clutch
-remove old rear main seal (if there is anything left of it)
-install new RMS, front trans seal and gasket, new flywheel, clutch and pressure plate, as well as 949 braided clutch hose
-try to get the new temp sender location organised while I have the gearbox out, as it provides superior accessability to that area around heater hoses.
-enjoy my new car

[Hjt]

So here is my to do list for tomorrow:
-remove old pressure plate and flywheel and clean everything and discover the mystery that is my current clutch
-remove old rear main seal (if there is anything left of it)
-install new RMS, front trans seal and gasket, new flywheel, clutch and pressure plate, as well as 949 braided clutch hose
-try to get the new temp sender location organised while I have the gearbox out, as it provides superior accessability to that area around heater hoses.
-enjoy my new car
-install boost pressure gauge
-install shift light