10 August 2021 Took a few days off to collect my thoughts. I rechecked the exhaust and there was a small bit of blowing at the downpipe joint so I took the exhaust off cleaned it up, cleaned the O2 sensor as well and put it back together. No noticeable difference. So purely out of desperation I decided to redo the timing and see if I could make any difference that way. I stripped down my spare engine to see what that timing looked like but to me it looked like it was aligned off a tooth. I stripped down my engine and checked the VVT unit was locked and correctly aligned as per the Mazda workshop manual (which it was). I redid the timing and this time I aligned the sprocket teeth with the top edge of the alignment mark with the engine at TDC. Reassembled everything again and started it up, that certainly made it run smoother and didn't seem to be misfiring like it was. I had to adjust the throttle stop to about 3%TPS to get it to idle. I ran the engine up to temperature and then tried to clear the soot out by running it at about 3000 RPM which certainly got it nice and hot, maybe a bit too hot, as the soot caught fire! Turned off the engine before my bin was melted. I'll have a look tomorrow at the spark plugs and see what condition they are in. 11 August 2021 Pulled the plugs out again and they are still black with soot. I suspect this is a result of the base map supplied with the Canems ECU. Picked up a very lightly used exhaust centre section (without silencer) and rear box locally for £40. The MX5 2.5 exhaust rear box doesn't seem to easily fit in the rear space so I will need to come up with another solution, I'm reluctant to spend over £300 for the Jetex box while I'm not working. I can either resell the back box or keep it and cut the angles off to use with another box. 18 August 2021 Took the Mazda wheels off and bolted the new wheels on, I needed 4 2.5mm washers between the front wheels and the hubs to clear the sports brake calipers on my donor. On the rear I just needed 1 washer. Really pleased how they look, had a quick look at how the spinners will fit, I will need to make up some sort of spacer so they clear the nuts but until I get the correct spacers in place I can't finalise that. 23 August 2021 Didn't do much on the car last week as I needed to do a fluid change on the TVR ready for a weekend of hard driving at Millbrook Proving Ground. Got the front and rear body mount brackets drilled and on the car. Added some foam on the front mounts (cut from a yoga mat), glued on with hot glue for now. The rear mounts I modified an engine mount so one side was rubber and used the other end to bolt it to the bracket. This is just a starting position and I plan to add additional layers of rubber to achieve the desired body position. Next I will round up some volunteers to help me with the first fitting of the body.
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2 August 2021 Picked up the wheels from being painted, and they look great. I've had them painted in a matt silver which I think echos the old Dunlop racing alloys quite well. Tyres are ordered and I will get them fitted on Wednesday. In the garage I started going round and tightening up all the suspension bolts (with the car lowered on to its wheels. 3 August 2021 Completed going round the suspension bolts. Found a problem with my rear anti roll bar links that wouldn't tighten (both sides which is strange). Not quite sure why, I think the threads have stripped which will be annoying as they were brand new. At the moment I'm stuck with the drop links attached to the bar, the nuts turn but don't loosen so I will have to figure out to remove them. Hopefully it is just the thread in the nut which is gone so if I can remove them without damaging the links, new nuts should sort things out. 4 August 2021 Got the tyres fitted to my wheels and I think they will look great on the car. Did a quick test fit but the will need some spacers as the backs of the wheels rub on the brake caliper. Could not get the nuts to come off the drop link so resorted to cutting them off and ordering some new ones. Got to work reconnecting the engine so I could start it up again and double check the oil leak is fixed. Reconnected everything again and started it up but it was running really rough. Spent a lot of time trying to figure out what had changed but didn't get very far. 5 August 2021 Back to basics to check things over. Compression test was good 180-190psi on all cylinders. Spark plugs were very sooty so there is a fueling problem of some sort. Cleaned and gapped them. Spoke to John and we decided the idle control valve is suspect. I've ordered a tested second hand one but I did bench test applying 12v to the pins and it opened and closed as I believe it should. I tried running without the idle control valve (so it is closed) but that didn't help the engine when on part throttle. I checked for sparks on all the spark plugs which seemed fine. In the end I decided that the only thing that I'd changed since starting it up last time was that I had removed the timing belt when I changed the crank seal. Tomorrows job then is to check that I have timed the engine correctly. Drained the coolant and removed the radiator in preparation. 6 August 2021 Stripped down the front of the engine to check the timing alignment and everything looked fine, double and triple checked the alignment including checking the cam lobes are in the correct position in replation to the cam sprockets. I pulled the top off the plenum and checked the wiring to the injectors and also checked for fuel leak (I powered up the ECU which primed the system). No issues found. Pulled the O2 sensor from the exhaust and that was very sooty too. I did a bench test on it (check for voltage output when heated with a propane torch). Initially it was very slow to respond until the soot burned off after which it seemed to work as expected, so I reinstalled it. Reassembled the engine and did some more checking of the coils and spark plugs but could not find anything out of specification. I restarted the engine and initially it seemed to be working correctly and seemed to be idle roughly and would accelerate but still not as smooth as it should. Then the engine wouldn't start at all. The LED on the front of the ECU started to flash red which is an error condition. And I could hear the relay in the loom clicking on and off. According to the manual it could be any number of things from interference to wiring or earth issues. After turning the ignition on and off a few times I could not get it to power up at all and even my oil light would not light up. Something really confusing is going on, possibly there is a problem with the wiring loom but I'm not sure what it could be, and what has caused it to fail. I think I will have to go back to basics on the wiring and maybe pull some of it out and check my work again. Time to pack up and have a glass of wine I think. 7 August 2021 Spent some time checking connections and cables and found the main battery cable that was bolted to the rear chassis had an open circuit. More probing found that cable itself was fine and even through to the bolt going through the ring terminal was good, there was a break somewhere between that and the rest of the chassis. I couldn't understand how, but I unbolted it made sure it was clean and that there was some shiny metal in the bolt hole and reattached it. Initial testing showed a good solid connection from the battery to the rest of the chassis earth points and the engine. I was able to turn the engine over on the starter but then it stopped again and measuring the resistance there was again a high resistance in the same place. After trying various things I made up a completely new battery earth wire with some thicker cable and ran it from the battery directly on to the engine block. That seemed to fix the electrical problem and I have been able to start the engine but it is still not running right. Hopefully I can speak to Dave at Canems next week and see if he can help me decipher the output from the ECU and point me towards a likely problem. 10 July 2021 I remembered that a friend had dropped off his collection of cleco fasteners ages ago, I dug them out and used them to fasten the gear lever surround to the front gearbox cover. They made the job of aligning things so much easier. Then I started looking at the rear tunnel section but thought I should fix the lower rear panels in place first. So trimmed the 3 panels and fitted them with Cleco fasteners too. Managed to get all 3 panels in place almost ready to rivet on. I need to drill holes in the rear panels to allow the handbrake cables through and I want to have some grommets around them to seal the cabin. I also need to figure out a way to seal under the gearbox tunnel to prevent spray and dirt coming in to the cabin that way. Also need more 2-4mm drills I'm getting through a fair number drilling all these holes. 12 July 2021 Did some trial fitting of the upper bulkhead panels. They need to be trimmed/fitted after the bodyshell is in place but they overlap the lower sections so I wanted to get them in position with some locating holes drilled. Got them positioned, and secured with Cleco's, the bends needed adjusting and a bit of trimming was done at the edges so the panels were sat flat to the chassis. 14 July 2021 Made up a template for the panel that will seal between the transmission cover and the chassis. Made up a plate and then spent a lot of time trimming and bending it to fit. It will need some sort of rubber seal to fully close the gap but happy with the result. I pop riveted it in position and sealed with Tiger seal. I looked at the handbrake cables where they pass through the rear bulkhead I drilled a couple of 25mm holes in the centre panel to fit some bulkhead grommets I have and they seem to fit quite nicely. Also took the oil pressure sensor off and sealed the threads with thread-lock which should stop the leaks (hopefully). 16 July 2021 I've decided to get on with positioning the bodywork so I can start to position everything around it. I've sent the wheels I bought to be repainted in matt silver and once they are back I will get the tyres fitted. In the meantime I've ordered an electric winch that I will hang up on the joist and use to raise and lower the body as needed while I am getting everything lined up. My plan is to get some friends to help lift the body on the chassis and roughly locate it then figure out how to support the shell so I can lift it up and down with the winch. My current solution of boards through wheel arches won't work anymore. I'll probably need to build some sort of frame. It will probably be a week or 2 before the wheels are ready to fit so I will get the electrics for the engine connected again and check if I've managed to fix the oil leak, and hopefully there aren't any more. 27 July 2021 I've not been able to work on the car very much the last week or so. Despite being off work, I've been doing some part time work and DIY jobs around the garden. The winch has arrived and I've bought some wood to make a lifting frame and to help mount the winch. In the meantime I've started working on getting the seat mounts sorted so I can drive the chassis up and down the drive. The MX5 runners need modifying so they can be mounted flat which I did by carefully bending the ends in my vice. One corner couldn't be easily bent due to the way it is formed. I made a cut with my angle grinder to allow it to be bent. I also had to trim the locating dowels and the ends of one of the runners so I could get a socket on the bolt. I need to mount the seats further back so I can get a nice driving positions so the runners can't bolt directly to the lateral chassis rails. I've cut some 5mm flat bar that the runners can bolt to and then the bars will bolt to the lengthwise chassis rails, inside the runners. I also cut some 40mm sq sections of the bar and drilled an 18mm hole in them so they could sit on the raised locating holes on the runners. The holes in the runners are just over 14mm so I've ordered M14 HT bolts and nuts to attach the runners to the bars. Wheels haven't come back yet so I need to chase those up. 30 July 2021 Got into the garage and finished off the drivers seat mounting, happy how they've worked out. The mounting plates need trimming, shaping and painting to make them look tidy. I've used M10 bolts through the bars and chassis rails to secure the seats to the car. Now just need to do the same on the passenger side. Wheels are due to be picked up on Monday so need to source some tyres next week. I'm going to buy Avon ZV7 in 205/60-R15 which is about 7mm smaller in diameter than the 195/65-15 originally designed for the kit. The Avons are also relatively quiet, which I think will be important with an open top car like this. 1 August 2021 Cleaned up the edges of the bars for the drivers seat mounting and then painted them with etch primer and satin black paint. Made up the mounting pieces for the passenger side and drilled those. They are ready to paint once the drivers side ones have dried overnight. Cleaned up and polished the steering wheel so I can get that mounted properly. Need to tidy up the little covers for the spokes and refit those. The horn push supplied with the boss kit does have the same wiring connector for the wire that is in the boss. Looking online it seems they are all like that so I will need to make those fit together. I'll also need to fix up something for the slip ring on the back of the boss. |
AuthorThis is my first kit car although I've messed about with cars all my life. Archives
November 2023
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