My First MX5 Project
Discussion
Hi guys this is my first project and I have brought a Eunos Roadster NA 1.6 on a J plate for £450 I wasnt expecting much when I brought it. The advert said that the valve stem seals were gone and the paintwork had seen better days these were all the problems, I went to view the car at night and purchased it after having a look at it and a quick go over. I got the car home and I looked at it the next morning and was impressed at what I saw the sills and arches appear to be rust free and the whole underside is undersealed and according the the gentlemen I brought it off (who had owned it since it came to the country) had been undersealed since it came to the uk. And it looks like it has had no welding through out its life.
my plans for the short term is to get it running right so the cylinder head comes off the gaskets are ordered, Everything came off pretty easily without to much hard work and then I pulled the valves out of the head and realised that the valve stem seals were to blame, What were supposed to be rubber had now turned to brittle bits of plastic so I am guessing thats the reason I was burning abit of oil also the headgasket looked abit perished and as though oil had leaked through into the cylinder. so whilst the head was off the car I stripped it down then had a bit of a clean and tried to decarbonise the inlet and exhaust ports with a wire brush attatchment to my drill this worked well considering I didnt have mush battery left in my drill I also cleaned the bit of metal that sits in between the valves. After all that was cleaned I sent the head to dave rushton in burslem for a skim that cost £42 and I was really pleased with that. I figured whilst doing a top end rebuild on the engine I may aswell replace everything now instead of having to do it in another 6 months. So I have ordered a Nipparts water pump, New alternator belt, A new timing belt will be ordered along with new head bolts and a genuine Mazda rockercover gasket and whilst the oil filter is in sight I may aswell change that.
My plans for the car later on will be:
Coilovers
MX5 parts exhaust
Black style bar
Black dished alloys
Full respray
Wooden nardi steering wheel
Leather seats
my plans for the short term is to get it running right so the cylinder head comes off the gaskets are ordered, Everything came off pretty easily without to much hard work and then I pulled the valves out of the head and realised that the valve stem seals were to blame, What were supposed to be rubber had now turned to brittle bits of plastic so I am guessing thats the reason I was burning abit of oil also the headgasket looked abit perished and as though oil had leaked through into the cylinder. so whilst the head was off the car I stripped it down then had a bit of a clean and tried to decarbonise the inlet and exhaust ports with a wire brush attatchment to my drill this worked well considering I didnt have mush battery left in my drill I also cleaned the bit of metal that sits in between the valves. After all that was cleaned I sent the head to dave rushton in burslem for a skim that cost £42 and I was really pleased with that. I figured whilst doing a top end rebuild on the engine I may aswell replace everything now instead of having to do it in another 6 months. So I have ordered a Nipparts water pump, New alternator belt, A new timing belt will be ordered along with new head bolts and a genuine Mazda rockercover gasket and whilst the oil filter is in sight I may aswell change that.
My plans for the car later on will be:
Coilovers
MX5 parts exhaust
Black style bar
Black dished alloys
Full respray
Wooden nardi steering wheel
Leather seats
Jimmy No Hands said:
Nice buy! Someone sell me a £450 MX5..
They are out there. I just bought a mkII 1.8iS for 500 quid. It's a cat c write off so needs a bit of panel beating and a VIC check. My advise is to look now, before the snow melts and the sun comes out. They seem rather price sensitive to the weather
StevoCally said:
Think I saw you between Great Haywood and Sandon on Sunday, looked very tidy.
wont be me car isnt ready for the road yetUnfortunately the car wont be ready for the road until the 27th of may then all going well I will be living the dream in the 5 at the moment its just sitting down the driveway tormenting me.
good news on the mx5 rebuild me and my friend had it running yesterday but we had a few problems can anyone help out -
1. the ignition timing was abit out (think I just need to get that timed up and have a fiddle with the cas)
2. Very noisy tappets dont know why just did a oil change before starting it for the first time
3. On start up it burnt alot of oil like a white/blue smoke but died off after awhile dont know if this is becuase oil will have gotten all around the exhaust when we were rebuilding it
4. we turned the car off for some unknown reason tried to start again and just had a ticking sound when you tried to crank it over but didnt sound to me like starter motor (I have read other threads and it sounds like a flat battery)
any help would be appreciated thanks shaun
1. the ignition timing was abit out (think I just need to get that timed up and have a fiddle with the cas)
2. Very noisy tappets dont know why just did a oil change before starting it for the first time
3. On start up it burnt alot of oil like a white/blue smoke but died off after awhile dont know if this is becuase oil will have gotten all around the exhaust when we were rebuilding it
4. we turned the car off for some unknown reason tried to start again and just had a ticking sound when you tried to crank it over but didnt sound to me like starter motor (I have read other threads and it sounds like a flat battery)
any help would be appreciated thanks shaun
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