Mx5, Chapter 2

The American · Postby **The American** » Tue Jan 07, 2020 7:38 am

RS2000 wrote:The integrated ball on the end of the factory gear lever is also different. The approximate diameters are:
5 speed & early 6 speed levers - 15mm ball with 19mm bush.
Late 6 speed levers - 18mm ball with 22mm bush

MR gear levers have one size integrated ball, with 2 different od bushes to suit.

You beat me to it, by days!

The American · Postby **The American** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 9:11 am

Bolt check done. Ready to be back on the ground and plotting its next breakage! :roll:

The Bunnings furniture trolley with two Mx5 scissor jacks bolted to it and small ratchet strap through on of the jacks and around the transmission, altogether made for a fairly straight forward 1 person home garage transmission swap.

The other excellent hack was to wrap the universal joint for my 1/2 drive in masking tape. This doesn’t stop it from flexing as needed, but stops if from flopping madly when you’re trying to get it onto one of the top bell housing bolts.

Next time, I would drop the exhaust first.

Magpie · Postby **Magpie** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:19 am

The American wrote:Ready to be back on the ground and plotting its next breakage!

What is your event schedule for 2021

The American · Postby **The American** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 9:45 pm

Magpie wrote:
The American wrote:Ready to be back on the ground and plotting its next breakage!
What is your event schedule for 2021

No idea. I have put an EOI in for the Goldrush Hillsprint again this year. I’d love to do some of the more distant (from me) events like the Legend of the Lakes in Mt Gambier.

By late 2021, I should be toward the end of putting together the other car....

The Green Goblin · Postby **The Green Goblin** » Sat Mar 07, 2020 1:59 pm

Awesome little car and thread man.. you've been on some great adventures.. very inspiring. how does the car hold up at circuit driving - repeated thrashing?

any specs on the engine build, e.g. turbo, forged items, power output etc.?

Cheers,
Jas.

The American · Postby **The American** » Sun Mar 08, 2020 7:36 am

The Green Goblin wrote:Awesome little car and thread man.. you've been on some great adventures.. very inspiring. how does the car hold up at circuit driving - repeated thrashing?

any specs on the engine build, e.g. turbo, forged items, power output etc.?

Cheers,
Jas.

The engine has Arias 8.5:1 pistons, Carrillo H beam rods, ARP fasteners, ID1000 injectors. The turbo setup is an AVO kit with a GT2560. It makes 191kw on E85, which is essentially the limit of the turbo/hot side parts.

Eventually, things break with hard use. Axles, gearbox, PPF have all broken at some point.

If I used it for longer events (circuit) cooling would need attention I think - this has not been an issue for sprints and hillclimbs.

The American · Postby **The American** » Wed Mar 18, 2020 7:57 am

The White Mouse has been back together for months now, but was stacked behind piles of interior bits from The Black Rat, and parked in behind a few things that were a pain to move. The Black Rat left on Saturday to get the cage started and finally the opportunity to extract The White Mouse presented itself.

I realise now that the old 6 speed had been showing subtle signs of impending failure for some time in the form of a tendency to creep when in neutral. The new-to-me 6 speed is very nice to shift compared to the reluctance I had gotten used to with the transmission that broke.

While a breakage is no fun, this really isn't too bad given the amount of use I have had out of it over the last 5 years. Lots of hard launches on A050s...

The American · Postby **The American** » Sat Dec 05, 2020 4:31 pm

9 months later I went for the second actual drive in this, this year. From my place to the Red Cedar picnic area on the western side of Mount Glorious is an 86km round trip. At 6am it’s a nice road to be on.

Hooray for convertibles and turbos!

The American · Postby **The American** » Sun May 23, 2021 9:39 pm

I’ve entered the 2021 Gold Rush Hillsprint at Mt Morgan. It’s going to be a level up on the first two events with the course extended to 3000m.

The White Mouse will have a dust off and some fresh fluids all round. I need a dust off as well.

There should be a good number of Mx5’s there this year.

ManiacLachy · Postby **ManiacLachy** » Mon May 24, 2021 9:42 am

Somehow I missed the last few posts in this thread. Good to see the White Mouse is still mobile and getting some love, even a little competition use. The Black Rat has big shoes to fill when it's time comes!

The American · Postby **The American** » Fri Jul 16, 2021 10:21 am

No pics or video here this time. If you want to have a look at some of the runs or some photos, I'm posting them up on my Facebook page (link in signature below). Also check out Blend Line TV that streamed the event. They are gradually posting up the runs of some of the top cars.

It was essentially two years since the last time I drove the car competitively, and I'm rusty.

The White Mouse did manage 4th in class and 52nd in a field of about 170, but I was still well behind Peter and Ben Barnes in Peter's blue naturally aspirated NA.

To improve, I need to be more confident in my brakes, smoother through the corners and willing to gather more speed in the available straights: In other words, more practice and seat time required all round.

My best time was 1:59 over the three kilometer course. By contrast, Ben Barnes managed a 1:52 (14th outright). The outright time was 1:45 by Dylan Cothill (Skid Control) in an R35 Skyline.

The White Mouse ran fine, except for some cooling system niggles. I had replaced the coolant and flushed the system before the event, along with all new fluids elsewhere. At the end of each run, it wanted to puke coolant out of the overflow bottle. Thankfully, no exhaust in the coolant and no coolant in the oil. It turned out the radiator cap had stopped holding any pressure, leading to overflow. It now has a new Stant 22psi cap, and it's happy again.

The American · Postby **The American** » Mon Oct 11, 2021 6:48 pm

Some years ago, I had my first real collision with trackside objects in the form of a tyre bundle at the Oakey Street Sprints.

The results were not pretty:

The oil cooler was smashed off, and went under the front wheel. Amazingly, nothing severed or leaked, but it was the end of my event (which I happily won the class).

Before the incident, the oil cooler I had fitted looked like this:

It wasn't a bad arrangement, but it was probably as vulnerable as a front corner mounted oil cooler could be, and it relied on a rivnut attached to the underside of the headlight surround, which proved too delicate when subjected to this kind of attack.

I have had the parts sitting here for over a year, and have been distracted with the other car and had not gotten back to replacing the oil cooler. With the QLD Super Sprints coming up in November, and the prospect of some longer track stints, I found some motivation. I did not have a TIG last time, and this tool made it much simpler to place the cooler in the available space.

Note that this time, it is only mounted to the rail and does not rely on the shelf above for support, and is still much sturdier than the last configuration. It is also angled backward and away from the corner of the car which should buy a little more grace in the event of a similar incident to the last.

Bracket mounted to the cooler:

Bracket positioned in the car:

Cooler and bracket mounted in position:

You may note there is a fan pack attached to this version, as I do not intend to rely on ducting. With the white car's track duties drawing to a close soon, I have an idea to refit the fog lights (this is part of the thinking behind the fan).

The fan will eventually be triggered either by the factory fan or a temp sensor in the oil lines.

Next job is to make up and route new oil lines.

Daffy · Postby **Daffy** » Tue Oct 12, 2021 3:24 pm

The fit looks good mate.

greenMachine · Postby **greenMachine** » Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:30 pm

The American wrote:You may note there is a fan pack attached to this version, as I do not intend to rely on ducting. With the white car's track duties drawing to a close soon, I have an idea to refit the fog lights (this is part of the thinking behind the fan).

What's wrong with mounting it parallel to the chassis rail, or is there not enough room when the steering is at lock? That would get it further away from casual contact. You will need to screen the inlet side to keep as much crap out of the fins as possible?

The fan will eventually be triggered either by the factory fan or a temp sensor in the oil lines.

I wouldn't. What is wrong with your ECU doing it, you will want to log oil temp, so make it work for its living. Otherwise, yes, a temperature switch in the oil line. Water temp, that is a coolant fan switch triggering the oil cooler fan, just noooo! They are two different values, and will heat up at different rates.

:mrgreen:

The American · Postby **The American** » Tue Oct 12, 2021 10:32 pm

greenMachine wrote:What's wrong with mounting it parallel to the chassis rail, or is there not enough room when the steering is at lock? That would get it further away from casual contact. You will need to screen the inlet side to keep as much crap out of the fins as possible?

I wouldn't. What is wrong with your ECU doing it, you will want to log oil temp, so make it work for its living.

For the first Q, there’s not enough room above the intercooler pipe to fit it flat against the rail. It is well forward of the plastic inner guard and wheel.

For the second Q, you’re quite right. Using the coolant fan is a silly idea! The ecu doesn’t currently receive oil temp so a sensor and ecu connection is needed - I do want to learn how to do these wiring things!