The Black Rat

[SIB]

Very sorry to hear that. Hope something comes up before too long.

[ManiacLachy]

That's a bit rude. I hope they gave you a golden handshake to match the inconvenience?

If you need a hand on the spanners, please let us know. I'd be happy to come shine a light and talk turbos!

[Daffy]

I received an email from the engine builder this week. It’s all assembled and ready for collection. Hooray!

In other news, my employer brought forward my retrenchment date from 26 Feb to 18 December. Shed time coming my way.

Into it! Use all you can to your advantage while you can and cross them bridges as you get to them mate!

[The American]

That's a bit rude. I hope they gave you a golden handshake to match the inconvenience?

If you need a hand on the spanners, please let us know. I'd be happy to come shine a light and talk turbos!

Into it! Use all you can to your advantage while you can and cross them bridges as you get to them mate!

Very sorry to hear that. Hope something comes up before too long.

Thanks fellows! 2021 will be a good year, just not quite as I expected. Lachy I may take you up on the offer!



I ended up using NxtGen Engineering/Tremaniac Racing to do the machine work and assembly. I sourced all of the parts from loads of different places. They were happy for me to strip down the engine myself, and so I essentially delivered to them a box of new parts, a box of parts that are reused, the crank, block and head. They measured up the crank before I ordered the main bearings, and a second set of rod bearings were needed later to get the clearances they wanted.

The clutch is still on its way, and I'm planning to drop the [broken] gearbox off to Mr Transmissions on the Gold Coast on Friday. The gearset is not done yet, but should be shortly before or just after Christmas. Plenty to do!

I still need to source coils and a couple of orb fittings for the fuel rail (and who knows what else!).

[The American]

The clutch arrived last week, and this morning I dropped off the exhaust manifold and exhaust housing from the turbo to be ceramic coated inside and out. I should be just about ready to start reattaching the engine accessories and manifolds.

I had been hosting photos for this site on Flickr but I am nearing the 1000 photo limit before I require a paid subscription to upload. As a result, I’m being more selective of photos I post here. I don’t really need a web hosted photo service, other than for this site....

I had planned to use the same filter relocation set up on the Black Rat as is on the White Mouse, however, there are two extra items that need to find a home on that side of the engine bay: coolant reroute hose and remote mounted coils. The oil lines to the cooler from the filter/thermostat block also need to be flipped to face the other direction. Here comes some creative use of realestate.

[The American]

One of the fail points in the Mx5 drive line is the differential housing, and its built in break point in the driver's side arm. From time to time, cars with higher torque outputs break these arms, usually through the notched design weak point, illustrated nicely on Daffy's Problem Child here: https://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=73496&start=390#p940250

In Daffy's case, when the arm broke it appeared to allow enough misalignment of the half shafts for one of them to turn itself into something out of a Tough Mudder medical tent.

The naturally aspirated FC Rx7 has a diff housing that is dimensionally similar and accepts the Mx5 7 inch diff. It mounts the diff in the same location as stock, and has the benefit of much stronger arms and no notched design weak point.

From what I can gather, most people who have these diffs throw them away in favour of the stronger T11 diff center which is also available as a factory LSD. I put a WTB post out on various rotary facebook groups, and eventually got a reply from a Bloke who claimed to have one. A photograph confirmed the item was the correct diff, and after we agreed on the princely sum of $50, I became the new owner of an RX7 diff housing complete with a very worn open diff and a pair of stub axles. The Bloke, who lives ten minutes past Woop-Woop out the back of Brisbane, wasn't home when I arrived to collect the diff, but all of the pieces of this fortunate mystery came together when his father (who had been arranged to meet me for the transaction) described him as a 'bloke who doesn't throw anything away'.

The diff itself was an open center that still had all the right bits in all the right spots, but had clearly spent a lot of time single pegging. It, along with the axle stubs, is somewhere amongst the scrap metal at the local dump (apologies to any blokes-who-don't throw-anything-away reading this - and FYI/heads up, I saw a ford pattern trailer wheel with a brand new tyre on it down there too which is clearly still good *wink wink* ).



It needs some Mx-5 axle seals and mount bushings, and will eventually find its way into the Black Rat's hind quarters.

[The American]

The IGN-1A coils may end up in this spot, subject to clearance to a few other things that need to find a home.



There are a few reasons I decided to use these coils. Firstly, they are know to be the bees knees of coils and are certainly overkill. They are cheaper than D585 (LS truck) coils. My engine is a VVT engine, and the valve cover does not play accept common COP solutions, including the next best thing R35 GTR coils. The GTR coils might be useable, if the valve cover were machined to remove the posts that the factory VVT coils mount to, but I have not found anyone who has done this, and I don't wish to pioneer.

The IGN-1A coils require a bit more wiring to drive them, somewhere to mount them and plug wires to suit. They should deliver all the spark I could ever need with this car.

[The American]

I pressed on with the fuel system during the week, including fitting the Walbro 460 fuel pump in the tank and removing the in-tank fuel pressure regulator.

I didn't get to finish fitting the fuel pump as a few things did not go to plan.

1) I stuffed up the crimp for one of the weatherseal connector terminals, and with no spares in the fitting kit, I've had to order and wait for another one.
2) I fumbled the fuel pump after I had refitted the factory fuel pump sock, dropped the assembly and tore the sock, so I am also waiting on one of those to arrive in the post.

Removing the factory FPR, leaves you with nothing to attach a hose to, to return the fuel back to the bottom of the tank as the factory set up does. You could cut the FPR mounting flange off and attach hose to the pipe. I used a FPR adaptor and a hose barb with a length of hose to extend the return back to the bottom of the tank.

The pipe that the fuel pump attaches to with a short length of hose is too long to allow enough vertical space for the Walbro 460 and needs to be trimmed. A very small pipe cutter is good for this, and there is just enough room to get it around the pipe. I took about 30mm off the pipe. The hanger also does not nicely fit the larger diameter pump, and you need to secure it from sideways movement another way. I used a 57mm stainless hose clamp to clasp the pump to the hanger.

The Mazda parts dept I called, told me that the filter sock would be 'months' to receive, so I ordered one from Amayama. Once it, and the replacement crimp terminal arrive, I will pull it all back out and finish the job.

[PaulF]

In Daffy's case, when the arm broke it appeared to allow enough misalignment of the half shafts for one of them to turn itself into something out of a Tough Mudder medical tent.

This wasn't a mental image I needed, but it certainly left an impression.

The Mazda parts dept I called, told me that the filter sock would be 'months' to receive, so I ordered one from Amayama.

You might be waiting a while from them too. My last couple of Amayama orders took quite a lot longer than quoted.

[Daffy]

The IGN-1A coils may end up in this spot, subject to clearance to a few other things that need to find a home.



There are a few reasons I decided to use these coils. Firstly, they are know to be the bees knees of coils and are certainly overkill.................The IGN-1A coils require a bit more wiring to drive them, somewhere to mount them and plug wires to suit. They should deliver all the spark I could ever need with this car.

These are one of the best upgrades I’ve done in the Problem Child! Prior to when I had the fab9’s in, the plugs were gapped at .5 with the occasional blow out issue, with the IGN-1A’s the NGK (R)pfr7b plugs are now gapped for a big spark at .8 and no blowouts. Feel free to touch base if you want any more info with how Daz set up mine mate.
Seeing the pictures of the old diff setup just made my wallet groan

[The American]

Feel free to touch base if you want any more info with how Daz set up mine mate.

Thanks Daffy! Where did you get your plug wires from, or did Daz make them up?

You might be waiting a while from them too. My last couple of Amayama orders took quite a lot longer than quoted.

My last few orders from Amayama have been slow too. Partsouk has been ok. At least they both post, and you don't have to muck around with a visit to a dealer! Calling a dealer parts dept is usually just hoping to that they just happen to have one when I am desperate!

[The American]

some blackness for your eyes

[Daffy]

The ceramic coating looks awesome! As for the black wires, that was someone Daz organised from Sydney to make up... touch base if you need more info mate

[ManiacLachy]

some blackness for your eyes

Looks great, some good progress happening over there! Did you coat the DP as well?

[The American]

Looks great, some good progress happening over there! Did you coat the DP as well?

I plan to eventually. I bought the manifold as part of an early group buy and before the DP was available. Now Trackspeed aren’t making them so this will be done when the rest of the exhaust is made.