Project I have got the bug!... Moogs Motahs

[gm]

I'll have a look at mine when I get in from work and post a few pics - those coolant hoses are probably 5-6 years old so ready for a change.

[gm]

I suspect the reason there aren't many photos of this is that it's a bugger to take them in such a confined space

 

It looks like you need to move the cooler nearer to the front of the car, the brackets should line up with the captives shown here

 

 

The cooler passes underneath the chassis rail and attaches on the wheelarch side of the rail, passing back through on the diagonal to the area in front of the radiator (blue line represents the chassis rail)

 

 

The tricky bit is getting the open ends diagonally through the gap in the corner

 

 

One end of the cooler attaches just under the reservoir

 

 

I can't see where the other end attaches without crawling underneath but it must be pretty close by

 

As you can see, mine is pretty shoddy but doesn't leak so is being left alone for now

 

 

[The Moog]

Thank you very much - your a gent. Will have another poke and prod today.

[Christine]

Mmmm , scalped knuckle day then !

[The Moog]

The sun shone, the rain stayed away and with mild cold I cracked on this morning

 

GMs pictures were an inspiration as I had been looking too far back to mount the cooler.

 

First things first off with the undertray. Bolts and screws are rusty but being Japanese they still unscrewed

 

Located the mounting points and where it had to thread through the chassis rail. That was a fiddly job threading it through.

 

Boom - it fits. I gave the nuts a quick spray to stop them rusting .

 

The cooler was sort of rubbing on the metalwork

So improvised shield created

 

Pipes popped out in engine bay

After some fiddling and putting pipes on different parts it is all plumbed in.

 

That looks like it will rub on alternator belt but when the PAS reservoir is bolted down it gave a fair amount of clearance.

 

I have taken to using hose clamps which are great - much less hassle than jubilee clips and less likely to over tighten.

 

The cheap hose clamp tool I bought hasn't fared well. Probably worth splashing out for a good one.

 

 

So just waiting for new coolant hoses before fluids (should be wednesday) and then test run.

 

 

EXTRA INFO

 

This is for anyone thinking of fitting a PAS cooler to MX5

 

Mounting points on front cross member.

Easiest way is remove radiator

Drop undertray including side wheel trim

Thread the pipes through the chassis rail at the side - bit fiddly and need 3 long arms

The coolant pipes will pop out straight under the PAS reservoir

Bolt to front cross member and also at side of chassis rail by reservoir

Connect pipes to steering rack and refill

Reattach radiator and undertray

[gm]

nice one, glad that the pics were of use.

 

imagine the fun* you would have with the radiator still in place

[The Moog]

My new cool hoses turned up today

 

I was very excited as it means I could put the car back together before autotesting on sat.

 

First off to Halfords for coolant and clamps.

 

Back home and all hoses wrangled on, radiator back in. Something was leaking - tightened all the clamps but then spotted this

 

 

Everything undone and yep little hole

 

After many swear words expoxy applied and left to cure

 

Will attempt to get it all back together after work tonight

[Stanky]

Is there enough slack for you to push the pipe further into the silicone hose and cover up the pinhole/ push the hose on extra far so the epoxy is held in place by the hose?

[gm]

blue hoses ?

 

what a pain in the arse but at least it's an easy fix. you could cut a ring off the old hose and clamp it over the hole if the epoxy doesn't work ?

[The Moog]

Nope sadly not. I am hoping a day in the sun will make it rock hard!  If not tape will be applied - it only needs to hold for saturday. 

[The Moog]

Well the poxy expoxy didn't work. I think it was a bit old.

 

Of course I only found this out once the car was back together and filled with coolant.

 

So all back apart and tape applied to fix it (getting good at this)

 

Fill up with coolant and start car..... And yes ... Another leak appears a bit further up in pipe.

 

Nothing for it but all apart again and judicious use of tape to seal it.

 

After letting it idle there aren't any drips.

 

 

Took it for a run - the power steering cooler is getting warm and no leaks obvious there.

 

Fingers crossed that is it ok for tomorrow.

[The Moog]

Crossed fingers isn't enough.

 

Day started well enough with this

 

Get to Autotest and we have a nice bunch of mazdas.

 

Oh what's this

Pipe still leaking so that wasn't a great start to the day.

 

Add to that about 2/3 through the day PAS started making funny noises it wasn't great.

 

Topped it up at NJGLeeds garage and steering back to normal.

 

Although by time got home this had started happening.

 

It is suspiciously coming from the PAS Cooler.

 

I am hoping that it is user error and I haven't tightened something but I think it might be a hole.

 

Rad will have to come out - new coolant pipe and then potentially remove the cooler or find alternative.

 

On flipside managed to get from a start time of 1.04 down to 58 seconds over the course of the day.

 

Only issue was that stopping on the line at the end was a challenge - might need to take a look at brakes sooner rather than later.

[The Moog]

Not user error - cooler has sprung a leak and this was masked by coolant leak.

 

[Zelandeth]

Ugh...this perfectly exemplifies why when I took the entire engine bay apart on the Lada, as soon as I ascertained that all new pipework and fittings were available at no massive cost from the factory, that I was just going to replace the lot. Just saves so much hassle in the long run.

 

Metal coolant pipes were the single biggest thing I had trouble with on the Cappuccino as well. Seem to recall a lot I wound up pulling off and replacing with 10mm copper microbore heating pipe, which I established was "close enough" to do the job. It was that or pay ludicrous prices for pre-formed steel.

[The Moog]

Ugh...this perfectly exemplifies why when I took the entire engine bay apart on the Lada, as soon as I ascertained that all new pipework and fittings were available at no massive cost from the factory, that I was just going to replace the lot. Just saves so much hassle in the long run.

 

Metal coolant pipes were the single biggest thing I had trouble with on the Cappuccino as well. Seem to recall a lot I wound up pulling off and replacing with 10mm copper microbore heating pipe, which I established was "close enough" to do the job. It was that or pay ludicrous prices for pre-formed steel.

Funny you say that Mr Njgleeds suggested that I replace the cooler with copper pipe as quicker and a known quantity.

[Zelandeth]

Especially as stuff like this is now readily available.

 

Link here

 

Fully copper versions exist too. The sort of thing I keep in the toolbox as it's a bloody lifesaver occasionally!

[gm]

That sucks - but at least it held out during the autotest, did you take any video of the runs ? Ive only done a few but they have all been immense fun, I really should make the effort to do more.

 

That flexi pipe that zelandeth links to might be a good plan, would you need to make a flare on the ends though ?

[The Moog]

Didn't do any videos as they always look slow and quite boring.

 

A new mx5 cooling pipe is about £150 which is silly. So copper maybe the way forward.

 

Mr Tickman said that the one pointed out above may suffer from work hardening so probably best to stick to copper.

 

I can then use the mounting points in the front (and the p clips) - running hose from resorvoir and feed from pump. Mr Njgleeds might even have the pipe for me.

 

 

As a displacement activity from marking dissertations I took all the gubbins out again. Hoses stuff full and then rubber gloves for protection.

 

[Zelandeth]

Flare on the ends is probably a good idea - bit I never had any issues on any of the cars I've done this with. Just make sure you use decent hose clips and you should be fine.

[rainagain]

That sucks - but at least it held out during the autotest, did you take any video of the runs ? Ive only done a few but they have all been immense fun, I really should make the effort to do more.

 

That flexi pipe that zelandeth links to might be a good plan, would you need to make a flare on the ends though ?

I replaced a low pressure pipe on my OH’s pas system with copper tubing, I soldered an olive on each end to give the pipe clamp something to grip onto.

[The Moog]

One of the minor irritations on the 406 is that the fuel flap doesn't open on the lever.

 

Pull handle and this happens

 

The previous owner used a screw

 

Which didn't work so well. Onto eBay and purchased a massive pack of springs

 

I only needed one but didn't quite know the size.

 

Suitable place found

 

And boom

 

So anyone in Lancs needs to borrow a spring then let me know... I have 199 for you to choose from.

[The Moog]

Mx5 tickling today - big update with pics (if they work)

 

So last time we left it sitting in the naughty corner after doing little wees from PAS and Coolant.

 

Let's start with PAS Cooler. A replacement steel one is about £140, which seemed a lot of money for a bit of metal. As mentioned previously copper tubing was the way forward.

 

Some 10mm pipe ordered from eBay for princely sum of £8 delivered, plus some 10mm olives and 2m of reinforced fuel hose. Total was £17 all in.

 

So first attempt to start making the pipe - I decided to replicate the main run of the old steel pipe.

 

I used plastic hose to follow the layout of the steel version and get the lentgh. Then got the pipe benders out (first time of using them)

 

I was too busy focusing on the bend ignoring rest of pipe and ended up with

 

Fucksticks. Replacement pipe would be another £7 or from Screwfix £20. Instead I got some solder rings, cut off the kink and made this

 

Pleased with myself I trial fitted it, it slotted straight it

 

You can see where I have ended the pipes earlier than the steel version.

 

I had tried soldering on olives then slipping fuel hose over but it was far too difficult.

 

Instead I went for just straight pipe.

 

Warming it first

 

On and clamped

 

The hose was so much easier to use than the old steel pipes.

[The Moog]

Coolant time now.

 

I couldn't find a new coolant pipe online as places seem to be out of stock, so took the chance on a £10 secondhand part.

 

Old one

 

New secondhand one

 

Wasn't in the best of shape and was a bit crispy inside but miles better than what I took off.

 

Outside was given a wire brushing and stacked with wire wool, whilst i had a cunning plan for inside.

 

End taped up

 

Goop poured in

 

Other end taped

Then slowly rotated the pipe ensuring that all the rust treatment went every where inside.

 

After 10mins of that drained it out

 

Coated the outside with rust convertor

 

This left a white film once it had dried. I gave it a good brushing then sprayed it with some primer I had knocking about, leaving it in the sun to dry.

 

Once that had gone off a bit I hit it with artic white paint I had sitting in garage from the Corsa.

 

To speed up the process I also applied a little heat gun action

 

Another couple of coats like that, then taking advantage of missus Moog beingat work I lobbed it in the oven for 30 mins to bake

 

Out and cooling

 

Was pretty pleased with the outcome, hopefully it is less likely to rust through now.

 

Starting to refit the coolant hoses

 

All topped up with fluids and then a quick blezz over to see Mr NJGleeds and no drips!

 

 

In total including fluids I reckon it cost about £50 to fix both things - hopefully not something I will need to do again.

[gm]

Excellent work there - so much effort put into that coolant pipe, it should last forever now

[The Moog]

Last night I ended up in a rabbit hole on the internet looking at Speediunio.

 

It is a DIY engine management system that you can add to the Mx5. It allows for more control over engine including a wide band sensor.

 

Loads of info online about how to set it up and use, including some base maps.

 

Quite fancy having a go at it, more as a learning experience than anything else.

 

An additional benefit is that once you move over to the system itis the first step to turbo/supercharging.

 

Anyone else had a try with these?

[The Moog]

Drinking and buying is always quite interesting. A box from China came today that I don't remember ordering.

 

 

It's a set of tpms for the mx5. I vaguely remember thinking they might be a good idea to see if they do track pressures and temps. Checking eBay it was only £29 or so.

 

The module itself is tiny... Size of packet of fags

 

Apparently is solar powered and can be run off fag lighter.

 

Instructions are usual mix of interesting sentences.

 

 

So far they look alright. Will fit it at the weekend and update this accordingly.

[gm]

Looks interesting - I take it the tyres need to come off to fit the sensors ? Will they be robust enough for track use ? I guess there's only one way to find out

[The Moog]

No they replace the tyre caps. Have a locking ring and the instructions say they are race proved with any truck or car.

[The Moog]

Fitted them today

 

So in the box are four sensors.

 

They come with locking nuts to supposedly stop theft

Plastic cap off

Locking nut on

The screw sensor on

 

Turned unit on and bingo (apologies for shit photo. The direct sun made the screen hard to read

 

So big number is pressure and then the small number is the Temperature of the tyre. These are adjustable to psi or bar a s f or c temp.

 

Took the car for a spin which show tyres to be

 

 

You can also set high and low alarms on temperature and pressure.

 

And don't seem too bad on the tyre valves.

 

Overall I am mildly impressed. Shame the screen can't go brighter, but will be interesting to see how hot/what psi tyres on autotest and track get to.

[The Moog]

The rover 800 saloon I was offered a while back has been wafted in my direction again.

 

It is H plate 820i I think. Has a coolant and oil leak. I think it is in Sheffield so might have a drive to look at it first before working out how to get it back to mine.