Project Domes shonky autos - Car that lived by the sea in Scotland in rust shocker*

[Bren]

A skeleton wanking in a biscuit tin springs to mind.

[cort16]

The duratecs in these mx5's seem to be an absolute bork fest. I presume dome has some cunning plan to stroke it using the crank shaft from a Bongo Friendee or something?

[Supernaut]

1 hour ago, dome said:

So, I'm buying this for the engine, yeah?

 

Oh.

 

That made me say "Oh, fucking hell!" out loud.

Top purchase!

[dome]

It's a nice day, let's get the roof down.

[Supernaut]

1 minute ago, dome said:

It's a nice day, let's get the roof down.

I bet even the roof rattles like a bastard, too.

[big_al_granvia]

i am guessing cunning plan involves thee backplate of the engine being removed then bolted to the back of a (now) former fwd duratech or possibly a t5 lump from a focus st, the same t5 that powers so many ovlovs and dome tries to claim associate membership of the svm

[big_al_granvia]

as for the ma5da, it goes to andy lamont motorsport for eventual build into a trackday/drift car, or possibly ma5da supercup as run by the brscc

[dome]

49 minutes ago, cort16 said:

The duratecs in these mx5's seem to be an absolute bork fest. I presume dome has some cunning plan to stroke it using the crank shaft from a Bongo Friendee or something?

Plan will involve a Mazda 6 with 2.3 or 2.5 engine using the rwd parts from this car. I've gone halfers with my mate who will break the rest of it.

But the main thing to do is get the engine and box out and squint really hard at it to make sure it'll all fit in the Manta before welding starts.

[Split_Pin]

Is that the engine from an MPS? I heard they GLF.

[dome]

1 minute ago, Split_Pin said:

Is that the engine from an MPS? I heard they GLF.

MPS is turbocharged, not sure if it's the same basic engine or not. This is(was) 160bhp 2.0 NA

[Fraz]

42 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Is that the engine from an MPS? I heard they GLF.

Can confirm - Mazda 3 MPS REALLY shift down the road. 

[Fraz]

2 hours ago, dome said:

So, I'm buying this for the engine, yeah?

 

Oh.

 

Brings back bad memories of the s4 ☹️

[320touring]

3 hours ago, dome said:

It's a nice day, let's get the roof down.

Doubled the skip capacity:)

[dome]

Back to my mates unit and up on the ramp for a squizz 

Don't buy Japanese cars from Scotland kids.

This is more what I'm after-the mx5 5 speed box is much smaller than the 6 speed version so hopefully will fit in the Manta tunnel. 

Interior isn't bad and the body panels are ok apart from one door, it should break well hopefully.

[Supernaut]

Wow!

Did you have to drag it out of the North Sea before loading it into the trailer?

[Split_Pin]

Jesus wept that is ripe.

The Manta is 100% better even as it stands!

Hopefully the gearbox will be suitable for your Manta.

[cort16]

Mazda MX-5's rusting non stop from 1989 - 2014

It's amazing that they've never learned their lessons regarding rust really.

[big_al_granvia]

well the mx5 was meant to be an interpretation of the classic british sports car, triumph spitfire, mg-b etc, seems they interpreted the rustproofing bit too literally, thats well crusty

[Barry Cade]

Let's hope with later ones they learned how to properly rustproof a car from Fiat.

There's a sentence that'd make beer come down your nose.

 

[Minimad5]

If you get stuck and need a engine, I have a Eunos 1.6 here with ECU. Just needs a sump but ran well when last in the car

[Jim Bell]

10 hours ago, dome said:

I've gone halfers with my mate who will break the rest of it.

Isn't the rest of it already broken?!

[sutty2006]

I’d be tempted to look out for a 5 speed tunnel for that. It’ll be a treat that’s for sure! 

[dome]

33 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

I’d be tempted to look out for a 5 speed tunnel for that. It’ll be a treat that’s for sure! 

Is there much difference in the tunnels apart from shifter location? 

This is the reason for getting an engine now, I want to see what it's going to take to make it fit before I go any further

[dome]

4 hours ago, Minimad5 said:

If you get stuck and need a engine, I have a Eunos 1.6 here with ECU. Just needs a sump but ran well when last in the car

Thanks but this is a totally different engine and box to the MK1/2 MX5s

[Minimad5]

9 minutes ago, dome said:

Thanks but this is a totally different engine and box to the MK1/2 MX5s

Yeah I was just suggesting if you end up binning it off, yet want to keep the MX5 route, then feel free to pop us a P.M as this would fit (might even have a gearbox somewhere too)

Keep us updated with progress 😎

[sutty2006]

1 hour ago, dome said:

Is there much difference in the tunnels apart from shifter location? 

This is the reason for getting an engine now, I want to see what it's going to take to make it fit before I go any further

4 speed the hole is a few inches further forward of the bulkhead as the 4 speed is a shorter gearbox. Failing that you will just have to modify the linkage or lever. There is a few folk that put the 5 speed into a 4 speed tunnel and make a weird linkage to suit. 

[dome]

So on Saturday we set out to strip down the MX5 and get everything off it that we could-space was at a premium so it needed to be gone ASAP.

I started on the interior whilst Stu started stripping panels and getting ready to drop the front subframe out with the engine attached. 

 

Pretty quickly it looked like this.

With it being so rusty underneath it was decided to forego the subframe bolts and go for a more, err, direct approach to removing the engine and back axle.

Reciprocating saw ahoy!

Up she goes, with very little left attached handily...

Believe it or not the engine and loom came out untouched. The recip saw was also applied to the rear arms as they were fucked. The diff should be worth selling on though, being an LSD. 

 

With the engine and box safely deposited in the back of the Kangoo we could continue harvesting the MX5 for anything worth saving.

I carried on with the interior. I have no idea how much loom it will take to get the engine to run so I took pretty much all of it, along with the ignition barrel and pretty much every sensor I could.

Coming out

And stripped

If anyone needs any Mk3 MX5 parts you know who to speak to!

 

Suitably stripped the MX5 shell was dragged away ready for the crusher.

 

 

 

Not a bad days work!

[dome]

Quick update on the rest of the fleet

MR2

We ended up having our first 2 track days of the year in quick succession. I gave it a quick oil change before the first one, gave it a quick check over and fitted it's new, shiny track tyres.

Here it is ready to go, along with the support vehicle

 

And at the track

 

Another pic

And it seemed to go down well at the track 😁

New coilovers and track tyres have made a big difference as has fitting a set of EBC Yellow Stuff pads, the car is now way faster than us instead of just a little bit...

I think over the 2 track days we must've done over 100 laps of Knockhill between us.  The manifold developed a slight blow after the first one, I've welded it back together and bought another 2zz manifold with a view to having another attempt at cutting and welding it to clear the MR2 subframe the same as the previous one. Hopefully I'll be able to make a better job of this one!

Manta

Talking of welding, I started assembling the rollover jig for the Manta, I was quite happy with this weld.

 

Only about 20 more to go then i can safely* hang the car off it.

I've not touched the Manta for a couple of weeks, i hope to rectify that soon. Plan is to strip down the front subframe and remove the old 2 litre engine, then trial fit the MX5 engine to the subframe and ideally back into the shell see how far off fitting it is.

I'm blindly optimistic as they are both similar sized 4 cylinder engines with the engine mounts in roughly the same place. We'll see though. The transmission tunnel will definitely need a new hole cut for the gearlever, no big deal though as the original hole was in a silly place-too far forward. 

Range Rover

This has been wafting along quite happily. I did notice a couple of weeks ago it appeared to be marking it's spot a bit more than normal so had a look underneath in an attempt to find the leak. Oil mainly, but also a bit of coolant more worryingly. 

Nothing conclusive there, just quite a lot of oil distributed all over the engine bay so it must be dripping onto the pulleys at the front.

 

I sprayed it with some degreaser and gave it a blast with the hose, I'll definitely* revisit it soon to see if the source of the leak is apparent. There's still one rocker cover gasket to go but I'm pretty sure there's oil coming out of somewhere else. 

 

Coolant wise there was some telltale signs of leaks around the lower radiator connection and also on what I think is the transmission cooler thermostat. I still have a big pile of orings from the set I bought from the US so changed over everything I could find. I can't recommend this enough to folk with older BMW engines. 

Here's one of the old orings, you can see how it's profile is no longer round

 

And the new one fitted

Much better!

Have another(bad) picture

The new green oring has been installed in the coupling ready to go back on. BMW don't seem to list a lot of the coolant hoses any more. The hoses themselves aren't usually the issue, it's these orings. 

Back together and bled and it's still using a wee bit of coolant-I'm super anal about checking it though so I've never actually had the low coolant warning come on, only dropping a wee bit in the expansion bottle. 

The aircon doesn't work which is a shame. A quick dab on the valve shows no pressure in the system. I'm not sure whether to risk regassing it or to actually try and find the source of the leak and fix it properly. Although, by the time i get round to doing it the Scottish summertime will be over...

 

[dome]

Did a wee bit of work tonight on the Mantas front suspension. 

Mr Scary long front spring, meet Mr. Grinder. 

The condition of the parts is bloody good for being 40 years old. Brake backing plates are in excellent nick and the bolts undid without a problem. Still got the other side to do, them pull the engine off and trial fit the Duratec

[dome]

Bit more done today. Firstly, the other side of the front suspension was stripped down leaving the bare crossmember. 

Then I could remove the old engine and box from it.

Once that was done I got the new engine and box out of the Kangoo and sat them side by side to see how they compared

Not too dissimilar overall.

In for a penny, in for a pound.

Obvious things are sump will need changed and the oil filter may need relocated. 

Most importantly thought the gearbox fits in the tunnel, although as you can see from the side by side pics the shifter hole will need to be relocated. This was to be expected.

Duratec M8. The Manta fans are going to love* this