My MX5!

[JoeyD]

200SX isn't as cheap or reliable. And probably more rust prone.
It was mainly for over winter - the hardtop latches were goosed, so for £50 they were worth a shot. Will be re-trimming my old soft top for summer time, do miss having the roof down!

 

[Goodj]

Nothing rots faster than a drop-top Mazda mate
In the world of boosted coupes, 200SX or a Silvia would be boss.

Mohair soft top fella, do it. Never needs doing again then. Especially if you're doing the work yourself it's almost silly not to

 

[Euan94]

So nearly made it home. Now in a layby after a coolant hose splitting. Not a great start.

 

[Steve]

Heres a photo of mine ready for Silverstone next week :wink:

 

[Euan94]

Got it home now, just need to get the right hose and possibly get a silicone one as I presume they are better than standard. It's a right bugger to change though. Goes from somewhere around the back of the inlet manifold to the rear of the block, no space to work on it!

When it was working, it was awesome, I just can't wait to get it fixed and drive it again.

 

[Philip.]

Broken already

Least you're home now though!

 

[Euan94]

Yeah I'm gutted, at least it's just an old hose though.

I think it won't have been used much over winter so will the hose has probably become brittle and then I've done a long journey and it's been to much. That's what I'm hoping anyway. It split when I was full throttle joining a duel carriageway so would have been under some pressure.

 

[JoeyD]

Is it a coolant hose for the heater - one that goes through the firewall? They're a really common issue as oil tends to leak from the back of the engine out of the cam angle sensor (worth checking if you've got a leak there) or cam cover; oil gets on the hose and it degrades over time. Not usually an issue but I imagine there's not a lot of space with the charger in there! You can get silicone ones from MX5Dan on mx5nutz (or his website fast5.co.uk) HTH.

 

[Euan94]

I've just got a couple of pictures. It's the other side on the inlet side unfortunately. Not sure which hose I need but I would like to get one asap and then change to silicone in the near future.

Can't seem to do the pictures so I'll try again soon.

 

[Euan94]

Try the picture again. The first shows the hose itself, doing a 90 degree bend. The second shows the area where the hose is behind the inlet manifold.

Plus one when it was working

 

[sofaboy]

If P5 rails are a little rich, just find a mk2.5 in a breakers and get all the underbracing from that, as it does exactly the same thing but isn't shiny.
Given it's hidden under the car anyway,
No problem is found.
Perma hard-top? I know it can be, but why? Just buy a 200SX Surely? @JoeyD

What?! how on earth does any of this make sense?

Frame rails vs mk2.5 bracing is a mega no brainer, one of them actually does something and it isn't the mk2 stuff.
Also how is a perma hardtop anything like a 200sx?

Pass the crack.

On a side note this looks like a cracking car! shame about the coolant hose but these things happen hey!

 

[Euan94]

So it turns out lots of people describe the changing off this hose as the most awkward job you can do on a 5!

You can either remove the inlet manifold, which is apparently an absolute arse of a job, but gets you access to the pipe

Or go in from the underneath but still have no space to work.

Still, replacement hoses and jubilee clips coming tomorrow and then I can attack it with desperation to drive the car. I may result to using a borescope from work to help though!

 

[Philip.]

£10 says that's possible without taking the inlet off :wink:

 

[Euan94]

Yeah it should be. You can reach the oil filter so can get round to it, I think it's just a real pain to undo the clip with pliers when you can't see anything.
Hopefully the jubilee clips will make it easier to do up once the old ones off.

(Hmm is it worth £10 to take the inlet off?!)

 

[Philip.]

Just give it a go, stick your arms down there once and see if it's possible.
If you think you'll be able to get everything on and off okay, do it properly.

 

[Euan94]

Yeah I'm giving it a go tonight so I'll update then. It'll be worth the skinned knuckles to get it running.

 

[Waitey]

I changed that hose at the road side. Its not hard. Bloody MX-5 people do like a drama.

Must be all the sand in their vaginas.

 

[Euan94]

Haha that's good to hear, all the mx5 guys say its a nightmare job that takes hours so I'm hoping that's exageration.

 

[Euan94]

So the hose is on, was a right pain but just went in from the top and used some locking long nose pliers and didn't need to take the inlet manifold off thankfully. I'll fill the system tomorrow and then go for a drive!

 

[Euan94]

This has now escalated to a fucked head gasket.

At least I think it's that, smoke out the exhaust and its running like a tractor.

 

[Euan94]

So it's 100% the head gasket.

Time to give it to a garage.

 

[Philip.]

Sure it wasn't fucked when you got it?

 

[Euan94]

Yeah pretty certain, I followed my dad on the way home and gunned it past him a few times and he didn't notice any smoke at all, ran really sweetly as well.

Now there's so much smoke on throttle you'd fail to miss it.

Seller also didn't hang about when he took me out in it so it wasn't like he was trying to hide something.

 

[Euan94]

Currently looking for an engine for this. One of the guys from beaniesport came out to see me and whilst we think it's the headgasket he's also worried that the tappet sounding noise that wasn't there before might point to more serious problems.

As a result it will hopefully cost me similar to swap the engine as it will to do the head gasket. Plus it will obviously cost me more if we were to take the head off and find its got more serious problems.

Losing the love and I've had it less than two weeks. I'm sure it will return when I can drive it though

 

[Goodj]

so hows that welsik boost y0! going for you then fella?

:wink:

EDIT: Time for an S-VT Transplant then....
EDIT 2: Except you cant now, because you'll need a mk2 loom to hook it into.

 

[Philip.]

Bad news dude!

My mate replaced his miata engine last year, got his new block with a cool manifold on it for about £100.
I've asked him where he got it from, had a great rep.

 

[Euan94]

The only good things is its just incredibly bad luck and nothing to do with the boost (which was awesome)

The supercharger also wouldn't work easily with the s-vt so it's definitely out

Would appreciate you finding where he got his engine from as there doesn't seem to be many about at the moment.

 

[Goodj]

The only good things is its just incredibly bad luck and nothing to do with the boost (which was awesome)

The supercharger also wouldn't work easily with the s-vt so it's definitely out

Would appreciate you finding where he got his engine from as there doesn't seem to be many about at the moment.

Nothing at all to do with boost, not at all.
Nothing works EASILY with S-VT, you'd need a newer version of Megasquirt of Hydra. But the benefits are apparently rather good for lite-boost options.
I'll also check with my man in Peterborough who's got sheds full of MX5 parts

 

[Philip.]

His was just an eBay purchase apparently, but the guy did full breaks every now and then.
He said check Autolink or Junk Yard Dog. :up:

 

[Euan94]

Nothing at all to do with boost, not at all. :wink:
Nothing works EASILY with S-VT, you'd need a newer version of Megasquirt of Hydra. But the benefits are apparently rather good for lite-boost options.
I'll also check with my man in Peterborough who's got sheds full of MX5 parts

It wasn't! Just an original hose that split open. The ones that no one changes as they are an arse to do.

Didn't help that I drove it along a duel carriageway for a bit trying to work out if it was steam or water off the road as it had just been raining. I'll proabbly stop straight away next time.

 

[Goodj]

Ah! Coolant hoses, fair enough, blowers don't do massive temperature increases.
If it was one of those ghey fan-in-the-exhaust things, then there'd be no hiding from the facts of tuning.
Still, it's a bugger, hope you can get it up and running without too much grief.....failing that, I'll take the blower kit off you

 

[Euan94]

Yep, I'm almost annoyed its something just unlucky as i want someone to be angry at. Can't be angry at the previous owner as its just not something you can predict, although i still want to be.

Autolink want 480+ delivery for an engine, which is more than i had hoped!

You wouldn't want the charger though as you'd need to give up your air con!

 

[Goodj]

Nah, you can get alternative pulley kits.....From 949racing, I think.
I'd need an ECU too, to run my valve timing.

I'll ask The guy over in P'boro what he's got, 480 for a 20yr old, mass-market block is mental. I'd expect you're paying scene tax. MX5OC purchases are tax-free

 

[Euan94]

Mine actually runs on a jackson racing powercard so I'm not sure you'd even need an ECU, not that it matters as i will not give up this charger!

Yeah i thought it was a bit much, I'm hoping to get a quote from another breaker on Nutz called autocheck tonight but I'd appreciate any more contacts.

 

[Goodj]

Nutz = Maximum scene tax.
Imagine how CS overvalues trendlines, it's exactly the same principle. Also, its amazing how many UK-registered cars on there are, somehow, an import. ultralol
I guess they were sold in Reading, exported to Hiroshima, then sent back.

 

[Euan94]

Haha, imports are cooler aren't they? JDM flair is the holy grail.

 

[Philip.]

There's a couple on eBay for about £300 mate.

 

[Goodj]

Haha, imports are cooler aren't they? JDM flair is the holy grail.

yes, because a car imported 10yrs ago wont possibly have any rust.
The only good things about an Import:-
- higher rev limit on S-VT
- Split-fold sun visors so you have an option between being blinded by the sun or having no view of the road (I've even gone so far as to fit these)

 

[Euan94]

Yeah I'm keeping my eye on ebay but I'm hoping to get an engine from a hopefully trustworthy 'forum company' if i can.

I don't think mines got split fold sun visors? definite import as all the mileage is in KM

 

[Steve]

Pm Rodders he will know someone.