Operation TLC

[bruce]

An insult (to others) disguised as a compliment.

[sailaholic]

If Sunbaker wasn't a troll I'd feel offended.


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[Magpie]

I would not be offended, that’s right I have shopping cart ITB's

I guess there is a difference between buying Jenvey's from REV9 and Competition Systems. One is a Forum Sponsor and the other is not.

[gslender]

There is big, no HUGE difference from assembling it on your stand to actually making it all work in the engine bay. The hard work begins once you get it installed in the bay along with all the other parts... I for one will be keen to learn how some of the challenges are overcome.

G

[ndragun]

Well up here in Brisvegas - when we weren't lying in the pool playing "Spot the F18" in 40 degree heat (I won... resoundingly... under 4 year old children are crap at spotting fighter jets at altitude...) we were deciding where to mount the vacuum blocks and lines. And even with Barack and Vladimir well and truly on the way home, I can still hear the jets on patrol. Maybe the jets don't want to land... I agree...

ANYWAY. The vac block will mount under the throttle bodies. The filter plate makes a good mounting point for just about everything really... We'll mount the vac block and IAC here. And MAYBE also the fuel reg.





Equal length vac lines to the block, and then a separate line to the ECU, and a main line out to the brake booster. As per previous piccies.
I love how I now embody the spirit of NASCAR;

[ndragun]

We're also thinking about how to mount the catch can. Given all the intake stuff is deleted now from the hot side of the engine, we'll mount it basically around where the old filter box used to go.



It will vent to atmo and we need to include the non-return valve in the line AND basically reverse the PCV channels that are already bolted into the rocker cover. Thoughts?

[gslender]

Those vacuum ports on the ITB didn't work for me. They basically allowed air past the butterflies regardless of being blocked off. In other words, I had to put the idle screws back and drill/tap the manifold.

One of many things you find out after you start the engine!

G

[ndragun]

Finally summonsed the stamina to pull out the dash last night and reveal the wiring horrors beneath. Enough electrical tape to give mrpham nightmares...
Back in the early days, I had a "Black Widow" alarm system put in, which has generally been working semi-ok up to now. The biggest mistake though was a microwave sensor in the centre console that would go off at all hours. So its coming out...

Anyway - managed to gut it last night without breaking a single bit of plastic... Miracles do happen;



The rats nest that was (barely) zip-tied to the steering column;



And then we stop for a midnight snack;

[ndragun]

Will be dropping the engine in this week to start work on the wiring. In the meantime though, engine bay has been gutted, cleaned and painted. And then almost immediately spilt brake fluid all over it when only just touch dry... so now needs another coat

I've also had the brake lines modified, proportioning block relocated and a braided clutch line made up straight from the master cylinder to the slave. To be honest there isn't really going to be much space gained, and I've still got an A/C line to run right through the middle of it, so if anything we've just neatened things up a little.

[gslender]

So not gonna do anything to the clutch master to make more space?


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[ndragun]

Possibly... That clutch master cylinder actually looked pretty shot when I stripped everything out, so its about ready to be retired anyway. I may just use it as-is until later down the track...

I've really just got to get on with dropping the engine in and wiring up right now, rather than pontificating over hydraulics.

And still wondering about this anyway;

Stay tuned as there are a few people on here looking into the space solutions and hopefully something will come from this. Good news is MX5 Plus is going to be testing a solution on my car in a few weeks and hopefully this will become a product line for them!

Maybe I can convince MX5 Plus to put a tease photo into this, gslender's or my build thread

I'd hoped to get out to MX5 Plus's open day on the weekend to have a poke around and ask a few questions but I had a house full of screaming 4 year olds high on birthday cake to contend with.

[ndragun]

Engine is in hurrah. Black is the new black;





The plumbing is pretty much all done - cooling, vac and fuel. The damn radiator is causing all sorts of headaches. Being a thicker crossflow unit, its causing problems with the A/C piping which may require a bit of re-routing. The fan shroud (but not the fan itself thankfully) also obstructs the thicker racing beat sway bar that's going in, so will probably need to be cut as well. And of course the top radiator hose isn't long enough and so we need another... SO tempting to just chuck the old radiator back in and be done with it, but will persevere and solve the problems instead...

Anyway... to be honest, I'm pleasantly surprised with how much room there is on the cold side. The biggest problem is the A/C line running through there which most of the ITB guys don't have to contend with, but even then its not that bad. We could just either re-route it or cut the troublesome solid part out and use a bit of flexible hose... I was expecting way worse than this. We can easily get away with 40-50mm longer trumpets... May need mesh filters and/or a different style airbox though. Anyway... something to toy with later.





Granted though - the pipercross filter backing plate is awfully close to the clutch reservoir and could well strike it when the engine is rocking, so we'd benefit by moving it. And I am concerned about the fuel hose rubbing against the sharp edge of the backing plate round the back there and eventually cutting it - which would be all sorts of nasty. So we'll replace it with a stainless braided line.

Finally, I'm also using a Works Engineering oil filter re-locator that's not really working out terribly well. I'm not easily finding a decent place to mount it and the pipework and fittings are too cumbersome. So will likely do away with that as well and either just stick the filter back where it's supposed to go, and/or use a better filter re-locator and oil cooler setup.

Anyway... getting there.

[Okibi]

Looks awesome!

[ndragun]

It's always so dark (and late in the night) by the time I get round to taking photos, so here are some day time ones;





And the troublesome A/C line;

[ManiacLachy]

Man this topic is NSFW! Such sexy!