Cus' NA6

[Cus]

What is it YOU cleaned?

Compared to the work that's going on over in your thread: nothing. I've cleaned nothing, and done nothing!

[Cus]

Inspired by STM, I got to work on the bigger half of the intake manifold this afternoon.

My previous glowing review of the ansell gloves continues ... I did loose the thumb off the right hand, but that was after approximately 6 hours of cleaning over a few sessions. I went back to the disposable ones, and they lasted all of 15 minutes before I was looking at bare skin again.

Before:


After:


Before:



After:






I only managed to get the top-half of the IM this clean:


More than clean enough for the girls I go out with.

Looks like I'll be moving in about a month. The new house will have a shed! woohoo!

[Cus]

It's Saturday night, so that can mean only one thing: ITS DATA ANALYSIS TIME!

Figure 1: The executive summary of all fuel put through little red, missing 2 tanks worth of data in 4 years.


Figure 2: The decline of fuel economy.


I have no 10L/100km tanks in the first three years of ownership. Two last year out of 48 fills, and 2 so far this year out of ... four fill-ups.

I think it's getting a bit sad.

[Cus]

Got my MCAs back! Huzzah!



Three things:

1) I got a sticker! I do love stickers!
2) I hope "jordan" is the work experience kid, because that's somewhat adorable. If they're a fully-grown adult, less so.
3) I really hope "Rngineer" wasn't a mistake, and they have a red-head engineer they refer to as a Rngineer (ranga-neer)

In the end I got the rebuild/upgrade for "Under Warranty" plus $250, plus $50 for cleaning, plus $50 for freight, way under the $600 originally quoted - so I can't really complain.

In the quick blast up and down the street to make sure the wheels didn't fall off, they felt ... different. I was hoping to get them back a little quicker so I'd have a better A/B comparison, but I was on the stock suspension long enough to get use to it.

Time for an excursion to see how well they deal with these Quality Central Victorian Roads (tm).

[Cus]

Moved house, kinda - there's still some things to move, but the new tennant in my old house is my sister, so she's babysitting my BP and the heavier of my tools for the moment.

It's not to the house I was planning on moving to, it's the girlfriend's parent's house, but it has a huge shed, and a pit, and a radio in the shed, and an assortment of what can only be described as "random stuff" - a giant anvil, band saw, ceiling-mounted MIG welder on a boom, every imperial nut and bolt you could need to build any 60's-era Australian car.... I like it.

I celebrated by changing the oil & filter for (hopefully) the last time on the B6 engine. And attaching the exhaust to the extractors properly, i now have two 14mm bolts and 14mm nuts, of the same length! ... not that I'll need them for long, but the old gasket was a "bit" how-ya-doin and was getting a "bit" loud.

Moving further away from work seems to have had the added benefit of improving my fuel economy - the car actually gets out of warm-up enrichment now.

I might actually crack 400km from this tank - a far cry from the 350km tanks I've been getting lately. Time will tell!

[StanTheMan]

Far out Cus....LOL
Ibe been staring at my BP4W...but actually finished relieving the cam follower guides & put some valves & spri g into mine on the weekend.
Babysitting tbe BP....i just soooo laughrd my head off.
Love your work

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[smy0003]

'I tried to clean your shocks but I couldn't really, you try.'

[Cus]

FIIIINNNAAALLLLLLYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

I put all the accessories back on to move it, and finally roped someone with a ute into helping me move it.

After getting it to the shed:


After doing some incredibly dodgy activites with a jack, blocks of wood, ratchet trap and a hoist:


Now, time to do things!!

[Cus]

Let the games begin!











Fuckup number the first:














This might have something to do with the previous mess - no gasket...







Fuckup number the second - I'll just pop the oil paa... no i won't



Some bits:



Some Mess:


The oil that dribbled out was pretty sticky. The timing belt was pretty fresh, but the complete lack of water pump gasket didn't help anything.

I'm open to more knowedgeable opinions on what to about the cylinders - I wanted a look at the bearings as well, but ... I'm an idiot

I'm starting to have "while I'm in there" thoughts. It's scary!

[ManiacLachy]

What did you do wrong on the oil pan? I can't see it. Those VVT bolts are known to strip, kinda sucks though when you're trying to turn it super slow and carefully, muttering "don't strip, don't strip, please don't strip!" - and then it strips!

Remind me, what's the plan for this engine build? Rods, pistons, or just a clean and refresh?

[Cus]

Two of the bolts holding the engine to the stand are attached to the oil pan
It didn't even dawn on me until I went to pull the oil pan!

The plans are clean and refresh, but it all depends how the main bearings plastiguage. If they're in spec, slap it back together with fresh seals and such, if not, use that as an excuse for some love from a machine shop.

But I'd rather not right now, it's going into my NA6 chassis, which will need all of the wiring updated to run the VVT and extra bits, so I'd rather put in an engine that didn't need to be run in.

[ManiacLachy]

Ahhh, I see it now. Doh!

I'd be doing rods at a minimum if I were in there. That way you can turn up some boost, nothing excessive, and be happy in the knowledge that nothing will bend. Actually, if I were in there I would be in all sorts of financial trouble.

[Cus]

Actually, if I were in there I would be in all sorts of financial trouble.

Therein lies the problem!

My game plan is approximately as follows:

Buy VVT 1.8
Install VVT 1.8
Make all of the things work (VVT, knock sensor, 36-2 trigger, etc)
Do supporting mods (Flex fuel, big injectors, fuel pump, fuel reg, other things)
Buy Turbo
Install Turbo
Enjoy car
Get bored
Build bottom end
Wind up boost
Scare myself and passengers
Turn boost back down
Build top end (cams, port work, etc)
Turn boost up more than last time
Continue to be scared, turn it back down.
New transmission solution (BMW Swap)
Turn boost up more than last time
Continue to be scared, turn it back down.

...repeat last 2 steps for for several years until "be scared" stops happening, then as they say, it'll be "done" - but this is a multi-year plan of financial idiocy, and the girlfriend wants to buy a house, so there's going to be a long-term hiatus on the plan at some point while we do that. I kinda want to get to step number "Enjoy Car" before we buy a house, but ... that won't be my decision haha

To give you a timeline, I think I'm at 6 - 9 months at the "Buy VVT" step - it wasn't until I got it home and actually had a look at it (it was in my sister's shed for a while) that I decided to put a "refresh VVT" step in between step #1 & #2 - so as you can see, I'm in a huuuge hurry!

The basic idea is to only do things once along the way - If I need to do bearings now, then I'll do rods and pistons and get it balanced. But that'll turn it into a longer-term project before it actually gets into the car - AND I want to get it in the car and make the electronics work. I know it's not really hard, but I'd rather end up with a car that's not running right on old internals than one that's got gremlins on a multi-thousand dollar engine that needs to be broken in.

So I'm very much sitting on the fence, leaning towards "she'll be right" and slapping it all in on the existing internals, and hoping the state of the engine is more cosmetic than not.

[bruce]

Squeeze 'Sell car' into a random spot in there!

[Cus]

Nah, this one will be mine for the foreseeable future, road trippin in little red got me through some pretty dark times!

I'll probably have it until internal combustion engine cars become illegal ... or if I loose an arm or a leg - what's the point of an MX5 if you can't use a clutch or need power steering?