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Hmm, cam seals appear to be leaking even though I changed them last winter....
Well that explains that. I swiped the cams from my friend's bad head, they have much nicer sealing surfaces. Anything I need to know about swapping cams other than what is in the FSM?
Next was to change the rear main seal. Seriously, here too? The hell was done to this engine? I am not pulling the crankshaft, so ordered a timkin kwik sleeve for it.
Also got the throttle cable bracket mounted. Turns out they made the holes slightly further apart on the NBs. Easy to fix.
And I picked up a chunk of metal at the local scrap yard to make a nicer cam seal install tool.
I really don't know why, but every spot there is a seal in this engine is just slathered with RTV. It is getting really old and I am starting to think the PO just loved the stuff...
Anyway, that stud needed to come out for the rerout install. I tried everything and it wasn't budging, so time to break out the big guns.
Not bad for my second time ever touching a welder. Glad I didn't try to do this in the car.
Next was the rear main. Changed the half moon cause I had to take the thing around it off to clean the surface up as best I could. It turns out you cannot install one of the repair sleeves with the crank still in the engine, just not enough depth. We will see if the seal seals or if it just hemorages oil and I throw this engine off a cliff...
Made a nice coolant block off plate. Used a bunch of things I learned from watching the Clickspring youtube channel and I am super pleased with it.
I couldn't get the manifold to downpipe flanges to seal, so I made them seal... Made a bit of a mess because the wire would not feed consistently, after I figured that out (the spool had slightly unwound while the machine was sitting) I made some ok welds, not bad for my first time actually trying to lay a bead I think.
And today, we got the engine back in. What a PITA. It just did not quite want to get to where the mounts would line up. There must be some trick I am missing. Ended up taking the driver side one off, attaching it to the subfram and then using some jacks to align the motor until we could bolt it back up.
Nice job man!
I just hate to see all that good work go to waste for a supercharger....
So far, I like the driving feel better than the turbo ones I have driven. But the idea is, I can just pull the super off, drop an mani and a downpipe in, and be turbo just like that. Even doing the intercooler setup with being able to go turbo in mind. The big issue is the crap head on the 1.6, but whatever. If I can make 180 at the rear I will be happy for a while, though I really want to try for a 200+ glory run just to see if the m45 can manage it on a 1.6. (gonna get all kinds of flamed for that.)
Nice fabrication skills. Wish I had access to a mill and lathe, I used to work in a machine shop and would love to make some miata parts.
Since we are going down the same path, any idea what intercooler you're going with? I've been torn between the Vibrant 12800 and the Precision 350. Not sure how hard it will be to shoehorn them into the NA chassis.
Nice fabrication skills. Wish I had access to a mill and lathe, I used to work in a machine shop and would love to make some miata parts.
Since we are going down the same path, any idea what intercooler you're going with? I've been torn between the Vibrant 12800 and the Precision 350. Not sure how hard it will be to shoehorn them into the NA chassis.
The machines are my father's. He payed less than $1k for both (mill was used) and they take up little space. They are not the highest quality, but they get the job done.
For the intercooler, I grabbed one of the 2.5x5x27 ebay ones that had the offset fins inside. So i will be no help with that choice. Should be a picture of it somewhere in this thread.
The rerout is a tight fit. Glad I did that outside the car...
Except the coil pack hit the temp sensor. Fixed that.
Tried my hand at grinding a tool for work for doing steel and aluminum. Works much nicer on larger things than the little triangle carbide insert ones we have.
Had to take just a sliver (0.5mm) off the centering rings for the corrado rotors. They caused the 5mm wheel spacers for the BBS wheels to sit proud of the rotor face.
Test fit the new radiator....
Made the second throttle cable for the dual throttle bodies. It's 89" long.
First bits of the intercooler piping. I am stealing Aidandj's routing.
Also made a super high tech tool to persuade the headlight mount back into place from the deer hit.
Spent the day working on my car and mentoring my friend through a radiator change on hers. We did an oil change, brake check, parking brake adjustment (whoever did the last adjustment tried to adjust it using the cables....), and changed the belts yesterday. I looked at a 1993 black with tan for her two weeks ago and OKed the purchase. It is rough around the edges and has a hole in front of the passenger rear tire, but is more or less rust free everywhere else (Which I am a bit baffled by, little surface rust on suspension, but the body is clean). 117k miles, $1684 out the door. The car is about as close to bone stock as you will find a cheap one of these. KYB GR2 on the front, tires, pads, spark plugs, plug wires, one coolant hose, and a non zip roof with glass and defrost. Everything else on the car is what it left the factory with. It will be a good car for her to learn on and her boyfriend to use when he visits (he went halfsies on it, but is overseas for a few years, cheaper than renting when he visits.)
I am a little confused by the junk yard wax pencil on the valve cover, but whatever else was done was done a long time ago. Compression is good, 175-180 all across. Needs all the usual miata things, should be a fun project for her. I am giving her all the parts I am taking off/upgrading on mine as she needs them, so the radiator that went in is the one I was running the last few years.
I also managed to finish the intercooler piping on the driver side. That was a puzzle, had to get around the PS fluid resivor (I had moved it a bit, but it wasn't enough), then past the lower radiator hose and the sway bar. I am very glad I chose to do 2" on that side. I got it though (have some aluminum pipe on the way to replace the temporary exhaust pipe bit).
03-12-2017, 09:50 PM
I swiped the cams from my friend's bad head, they have much nicer sealing surfaces. Anything I need to know about swapping cams other than what is in the FSM?
Seriously, here too? The hell was done to this engine? I am not pulling the crankshaft, so ordered a timkin kwik sleeve for it.
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Mine is low mount. And my new routing is all one piece.
