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Fancied a track car while my Mini comes off the road for some surgery. Having had 2 MX5s previously and not liking them, I decided I better get another. Went to look at a rough auto, but decided it wasn't cheap enough to warrant the work of converting it to manual. Saw an ad pop up for an Eunos roadster not far away. Strangely I bought it from the person I sold my last mx5 to, excactly 1 year later. It had a bubbling arch, but sills looked ok. It had no MOT and desperately needed front pads. I can't find the pictures I took from when I got it. Changed the pads and found a seized caliper so rebuilt that, noticed front springs had snapped. Took it for an MOT anyway. It failed on the springs, and brake imbalance on the back, inspecting the struts I found oil had curse word out of the struts as well, so found some cheap second hand ebay coilovers, just to get it to pass MOT. Changed the rear discs and pads and found knackered rear calipers as well so rebuilt those as well. State of rear calipers. This is it after the coilovers fitted. Failed MOT a couple more MOT's on handbrake imbalance after loads of time adjusting the calipers I got it to pass. Radiator was weeping when I got it, so stuck some putty on it and did a trackday with captainbland08 from here. Heres me driving it Heres him driving it. The radiator blew up, so I just kept filling it up with water, and then going back out on track.
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Last Edit: Feb 21, 2017 10:15:04 GMT by minimad69
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Took radiator out, and ripped air con radiator out. No picture but it came out in around 307 pieces. A brand new radiator off ebay was £32!! I can't believe how cheap parts are for these cars!! You'll also notice, I'm not interested in spending too much money on this thing. On the video of me driving, you can hear a loud clunk and then I pull in. That was the battery falling out of the tray in the boot, because everything was rusted. Still need to fix that somehow. I bought some XXR002 wheels for it, because they came with good Toyo T1R tyres, on the track I really struggled with grip. never seen 21MM wheel nuts before that came with the car, but they don't fit the XXR wheels. So I bought some tuner style Allen nuts (off ebay) and got the wheels fitted. The rear are wider and didn't fit very well, so I hammered the arches a little bit. This side needs a little bit more. A bit of car fell out on this side. Looks cool though, and with these tyres on it sticks like curse word to a blanket. Which was the main idea. I've done a couple of other jobs on the car, but havn't got any pictures at the moment. The cheap parts I had fitted to my mini will be passed onto this thing. It's already got the dished mountney steering wheel fitted, and will soon receive some of the mini's 52mm gauges. Next trackday is booked for 4th December at Anglesey circuit, again with Captainbland08 in his diesel truck. I hope to be making it faster with some more power and lightness soon.
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Get some spacers for the front and it'll look great on the new wheels!
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Thats the plan, but i won't be spending much money, so will wait for some cheap second hand hubcentric ones.
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Nov 11, 2016 19:24:34 GMT
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Serviced it, changed the rocker cover gasket as it filled 3 and 4 plug holes with oil. Fitted harness bar. Fitted new seat. Removed my "style bar" or whatever they're called. And fitted a 4 point rear cage. And did another trackday, this time at Anglesey. Again with captainbland08 from here. Towards the end of the day my front brakes started making a noise, still performed well. So assumed the pads were low. When leaving the pub, the pad fell out completely on the drivers side. So had to go home on a truck. You can see the tape on the rear window, which split and cracked at the trackday. When waiting for the truck to arrive, I noticed the water pump was leaking, so I had to wait with it not running in the cold. I've ordered new discs and pads for the front, ordered the bits for oil feed for the turbo. Will order a water pump soon, and try find an arch panel to replace the rust. The Toyo T1R tyres transformed the car compared to the last track day, it was so much fun and kept up with and overtook some much more expensive machinery. So I'm thinking of selling the XXr wheels, and using the money to get some even better tyres. I've got videos but my internet sucks and takes over a day to upload one session of track.
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Taking care of business and thrashing on a budget. Love it. Beat that thing silly!
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It did a tank and a half of fuel on the track, and the revs never really dipped below 5k. Shame about the water pump, but it wasn't bad, would undoubtedly got me home, The brakes getting low were mainly my fault. The budget is starting to creep up now, which is a little annoying.
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Last Edit: Dec 7, 2016 20:22:53 GMT by minimad69
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Jan 18, 2017 17:58:56 GMT
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Took the number plate off, looks like a happy frog. Didn't like the weird offset non dished front XXr wheels. Found another set locally, but they're red. Now black. They've got corroded dishes, but i don't care. They've got more dish. Sticker number plate on. Brake shields are almost gone. New teeny tiny brakes. Woops, new wheels didn't fit. I did get my arch roller out and bend it all back, turns out there was some filler in the drivers side wing........ it fell out. Took the car for a thrash, gave it a proper bashing. The clutch slipped a bit when trying to light up the rear tyres, so that'll probably need doing soon. Chucked some super unleaded in it, ready for attaching the turbo.
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Feb 21, 2017 23:01:09 GMT
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Just added how much i've spent on the car. I think I'm going to be sick! Anyway! progress is being made. 7 Stripped a loads of nonsense off the engine. I have since cut the water line running underneath the Test fitted the turbo. Did a hole. oil return drilled and tapped. Turbo has been clocked. Most of the parts have been ordered. Need to make stuff to make it go choo choo now.
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lightyearman
Part of things
GYJDM - Grimsby based Japanese car club - Find us on Facebook
Posts: 639
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This is right up my street, well done sir You drilled the hole in the sump in situ? Am I being daft, but what about bits in the sump?
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'89 Honda CRX siR Glassroof Flint black fully restored track beasty '90 Nissan S13 Pignose - pass the mig wire '86 Mini - matt orange, 13" Wellers, Project 2018 '97 LDV Convoy home built camper/tramper van '04 Saab 9-5 Aero HOT. Anyone want it? '91 Honda VFR400 NC30 17,000 km from new '87 Honda XR80 4 stroke baby crosser '03 Mini Cooper S - honestly, they are fun... '15 VW T5.1 LWB daily brick
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Feb 24, 2017 10:12:27 GMT
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that's what the oil pick-up strainer and filter are for :-)
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Feb 24, 2017 20:54:39 GMT
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This is right up my street, well done sir You drilled the hole in the sump in situ? Am I being daft, but what about bits in the sump? Yup, swarf in the oil probably. I'm sure it'll be fine. Ha ha theres some filters in there somwhere. Started to strip the engine to do the water pump. This job is a pain in the ass!! Continuing with the trend of spending minimal money on curse word parts i bought an eBay water pump. Which was wrong. Had a weird extra tab on it. SO I cut the tab off. Now I realise that there are different variations of the mx5 engine and this just won't work. So now I cant send it back. Hour journey to a eurocarparts with one in stock and sorted. Going back together with new aux belt. Lost lots of bolts and screws for the covers. Probably going to fall off and throw the cambelt. Fitted these bigger injectors from a 1.8 car. Got a cheapo FMU to fit from amazon. No instructions, no fittings other than whats pictured. Don't even know what thread fittings to buy to hook it up. THANKS AMAZON!! Going to tear the power steering out, as it's right in the way of my boost pipework.
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Didn't plumb in the ICV valve properly so it didn't run. Can't see it, but it's now plumbed into the boost pipes so the AFM reads the airflow. The air filter lives under the passenger headlight now so cant put the lights down. It works!!!! Running around 5ish PSI. Hard to tell on my china gauge. It pulls hard but you have to be very nice to the clutch or it slips.
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Nathan
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,626
Club RR Member Number: 1
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Awesome. Gotta love a boosted MX5 engine...I am biased.
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Lovely.
I have designs on a colleagues 1.8 Mk2 when she's ready to sell - either boosting or charging it, why did you pick boost? Cost?
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no such thing as "cheap" it's just a less expensive way👍 I've lost count of the times I've told myself it'll be a cheap conversion/modification and it ends up costing ten times as much
So I like your spirit Keep up the good work
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1992 240 Volvo T8 1955 Cadillac 1994 BMW E34 M5 (now sold ) 1999 BMW E36 sport touring x2 1967 Hillman imp Californian "rally spec" 1971 VW bay window (work in progress) 1999 Mazda 323F 1987 Jaguar XJ12 All current
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no such thing as "cheap" it's just a less expensive way👍 I've lost count of the times I've told myself it'll be a cheap conversion/modification and it ends up costing ten times as much So I like your spirit Keep up the good work This car was meant to be cheap. but costs soon spiralled out of control with things like rollcage, 4 sets of wheels, seats, coilovers etc. Nearly all second hand though. The turbo conversion actually cost me around £300 give or take. I got the manifold cheap, the downpipe was made by captainblan08 on here and the turbo off ebay. The majority of the costs was intercooler, boost pipes and all the clips, clamps, gaskets, hoses, fittings etc. Lovely. I have designs on a colleagues 1.8 Mk2 when she's ready to sell - either boosting or charging it, why did you pick boost? Cost? I chose to use a turbo as I had one in my garage that was lined up for my mini. Funnily enough, I was actually enquiring about a supercharger kit for it, when the fella mentioned he had a turbo manifold he wasn't using. He made it himself and said I could have it for £50, and he'd re-flange it for my turbo. It's rough but it works. I have an exhaust leak on my manifold, so need to stick a new gasket in there. I'll see if I can get the face skimmed on it as well as tidying up the inside of it. There is quite alot of penetrated weld restricting the flow. So hopefully I'll see it spook a bit earlier. Currently quite high around 4-4.5k RPM. Wired in my headunit properly now so it doesn't drain the battery and got my AEM wideband all plumbed in. Car runs rich when driving normally, which I was expecting with the larger injectors. And veeeery rich under boost with the rising rate fuel reg. I reackon I could go back the original injectors or remove the FPR. I don't think I need both. But better to be safe than sorry I guess.
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Your radio's even telling you that you're over budget
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