Emily's 04 VR SE

[emily_mx5]

Haha I did a little drift today, was quite proud of myself haha.

Nah the red one is a pile of rubbish atm, waiting for parts then I'll bring it to you to fix how loud it is haha.

[PaulF]

I'll bring it to you to fix how loud it is

That had better mean you're bringing it to him to make it louder. Or to install a turbine-shaped muffler.

[NitroDann]

install a turbine-shaped muffler.

Dann

[emily_mx5]

Haha I will throw money at Dann for turbo when I'm close to full liscence.

I must remove twin cannons asap, I get a headache from the drone in 5 mins of driving.

[Black_Penguin]

I'll bring it to you to fix how loud it is

That had better mean you're bringing it to him to make it louder. Or to install a turbine-shaped muffler.

[emily_mx5]

I'm getting quick, 30 mins from complete to this haha

[emily_mx5]

So bit of an update!

I bought an unregistered aussie delivered 1995 NA8 that needed *lots* of work haha.

Day 1: arrived on a trailer, half the street thought they'd come and sticky beak haha


First things first was to get it running:
This is how the boot came...


Luckily I had a full battery mounting kit let over from the wreck I parted out


Had power, all lights worked etc, however only starter motor clicking could be heard.
Upon closer inspection found the ground wire to be sheared lol


So made a new loom with an easy disconnect terminal.


New vented batter aswell; All better!


Now we have it perfectly healthily turning over but wouldn't catch.

So I checked spark, had spark.
jumped the fuel pump with the diagnostic box, had fuel.

So I checked under the ecu plate...


yeahhhhhhhhhh fun.
after i cut the piggy back out, and 2 other relays and some weird ground eyelet and other messy exposed wiring, it started first time

Dear god the noiseeeee. its sooooooo loud. like, unbelievably ridiculously loud. 3" twin cannons will do that.
Luckily mr NitroDann is awesome, and fabbed me up this BEAUTIFUL 2.25" stainless system.

Before:



After:






New gaskets and exhaust hangers all round


Also swapped in my Mazdaspeed headers, not before ceramic coating them!


Took out these dodgy rusty ill fitting ebay extractors


Its still quite loud but managable, and not droney or raspy!
Lots more to come!

[Okibi]

Great update!!

[PaulF]

Looking forward to seeing where this goes. Maybe it's worth starting a new thread?

[emily_mx5]

nah i'll keep this thread going, mods feel free to change the name haha.
Its more about me than the car i'm in, plus they feel really similar anyway, both 1.8L with intake + exhaust modz.

[Lokiel]

nah i'll keep this thread going, mods feel free to change the name haha.
Its more about me than the car i'm in, plus they feel really similar anyway, both 1.8L with intake + exhaust modz.

If you're taking suggestions, what about "Emily - it's all about me!"

[emily_mx5]

Okies so now that it was running all well and good, was time for a big service!

Oil and filter


New silicone hoses and new coolant


New thermostat and ecu temp sensor


New spark plugs and ignition leads



I also decided I wanted to put aircon in. Felt really pov spec without it haha.
Quite a frustrating job that i wouldnt do again haha.

2nd hand of this forum, was not impressed, missing stuff and compressor squeals


Dash out to put evap box in


Also put in fan and heater core, because it was missing, because race car?

also got rid of this really weird "coolant re-route" bypassing the interior heater core, lol why?


Front bumper off to put new rad and air con condensor in.


BTW I do everything on the street, as I dont have a garage anymore, it really really sucks and everyone is always so nosey!

Here is me inside the engine bay, when the rad was out haha


Compressor is really heavy and awkward, but possible to get in, just have to move the power steering well out of the way.



Got a new receiver/drier and all Orings changed by the autoelec, and fresh gas. So nice to have it all working

[hks_kansei]

Check the heater core isn't leaking.

It's a common trick that you jsut bypass the heater core if it's leaking (since it's a sh*t of a job to replace it)


you can do a rough (really rough) pressure test on the core by blocking one port and attaching a garden hose to the other (using hose clamps etc)

Mains pressure is about 80psi peak from memory.

[emily_mx5]

Nah the core was taken out.
As was the fan and carpet and door cards.
Some weight saving bullshit I dunno.
Previous owner was an idiot, as usual.

So I bought all new 2nd hand stuff from Mania and put it in, all working well with no leaks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

[kenson]

Nice work Emily - putting a lot of us to shame when it comes to DIY.
On the street too!

If we had a forum photo of the year award, I would nominate this one: