Mx5 Rocketeer V6 Conversion Project

[tr7v8]

573 said:

Lewis's Friend said:

Thanks - the green is actually just an unfortunate by-product of using EBC Greenstuff pads. The carriers are orange too. Still, I guess it wont take long for the pads to turn black with filth anyway, so then the two-toneness will be incidental!

The more unfortunate by-product of using those pads is that they are utterly pants. They bite worse than cheap motorfactor pads yet if you take the thing anywhere near a track they'll overheat and crumble to dust in minutes.

I have had them on various cars, all heavier than an MX5. Including a Alfa 156JTD SW & my Porsche 944. All were fine & stood up to fairly quick driving. Including a few track sessions in the 944.

[Accelebrate]

I think EBC had a bit of a dark period with quality or quality control which has tainted a lot of peoples opinions of the brand. Hopefully, that's all behind them.

[ATM]

Accelebrate said:

I think EBC had a bit of a dark period with quality or quality control which has tainted a lot of peoples opinions of the brand. Hopefully, that's all behind them.

I recently put yellows on my 3 series touring and they're great. No problems at all.

[Lewis's Friend]

Greg_D said:

looking at how much effort you have put into the undercarriage, have you heard of cryo blasting?

i don't know much about it, but rumour has it one can blast all sorts of crud off things like the diff housing/bushings/wiring without taking everything apart and it end up all spangly looking with minimal time/outlay. apparently it's golden for things like wheel wells/gearboxes/diffs etc.

i'm no expert in it, but it's got to be worth a google...

I haven’t heard of it I confess, I’ll have to check it out.

I did originally plan to clean up and polish the diff, but when it came to it I didn’t want to slow the build by that much (plus it’s a horrible job!).

[Lewis's Friend]

Re. the EBC bits and bobs, I’ll report back when it’s on the road. Hopefully they’ll be a performance revelation and I’ll never have to change them!

[Coakers]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Very good standard of work. It is a much needed shot of motivation for me too!

[8bit]

Accelebrate said:

I think EBC had a bit of a dark period with quality or quality control which has tainted a lot of peoples opinions of the brand. Hopefully, that's all behind them.

I've had a couple of sets of Red Stuff pads on my XKR now, no issues at all, even stood up fine to track days.

[Lewis's Friend]

Right, time for another update.

Work has been progressing, but not as fast as I would like. I think that's partly because it feels like I'm almost there in terms of having her back on the road, and then every setback seems even more frustrating than usual.

Sadly for me, I recently bled the brakes with the help of Beloved. This ended with me snapping a bleed nipple off in the nearside rear brake caliper. Extremely vexing...! Particularly as I have no one else to blame but myself. I was just a total klutz. I can't get the stub out either, so have chosen to buy a breakers caliper and have it refurbished (again). Of course that takes time, so I must possess my soul in patience until it returns. Ah well...

In better news, my front bumper has moved on, as can be seen here mid-way through flatting.

IMG_2825 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

And here it is back from my buddy, and fitted to the car.

IMG_2844 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

This is totally as it was when I picked it up, so has not been flatted or polished in any way. The clear sits just as it left the gun! I'll flat and polish it up when I do the rest of the car (which is filthy now), but fitting the bumper a) made me feel like some progress had been made and b) keeps it rigid and easier to rub down.

And another picture, just for good measure..

IMG_2845 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I've also sorted out my new wheels. I thought I might keep the original set on for a while, but on closer inspection the tyres where cracked and rubbish, so new wheels and tyres it was! I originally wanted Enkei Apache II wheels, but when I ordered them, I discovered that they've stopped making them in Mazda PCD (4x100), so had to change my plan.

I've gone for Japan Racing JR6's. Not my first choice, but they're growing on me.

IMG_2838 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

And I ended up getting Yokohama AD08R's fitted to the wheels. Now I just need to finish the brakes, so I can fit the wheels and get driving!

IMG_2840 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

And that's the end of this minor update. Mainly about how not to bleed brakes!

[Super Slo Mo]

Cracking project, I’ve been following this one for some time, I love things like this.

I’m really sorry to be pedantic though but you have your gear ratio terminology inverted: a 2.93:1 ratio diff is a higher ratio than a 4:1.
It gives a higher output speed for a given input speed, that’s how we refer to a gear ratio in terms of ‘high’ or ‘low’.

It’s not based on input speeds because your input speeds (or range of input speeds) are fixed.

Your output speeds are entirely dependent on the gear ratio (and of course the ability of the engine/power unit to drive it).

[Lewis's Friend]

Super Slo Mo said:

Cracking project, I’ve been following this one for some time, I love things like this.

I’m really sorry to be pedantic though but you have your gear ratio terminology inverted: a 2.93:1 ratio diff is a higher ratio than a 4:1.
It gives a higher output speed for a given input speed, that’s how we refer to a gear ratio in terms of ‘high’ or ‘low’.

It’s not based on input speeds because your input speeds (or range of input speeds) are fixed.

Your output speeds are entirely dependent on the gear ratio (and of course the ability of the engine/power unit to drive it).

Thanks for the kind words.

And don’t feel the need to apologise for correcting errors. I’m always ready to be told I’m wrong!

[Super Slo Mo]

Me too, but PH has a bit of a reputation for people picking up tiny spelling, grammatical or technical errors and I really didn’t want to come across like that .

Anyway, keep up the good work, looking forward to the updates.

[MX6]

Good to see the progress. I really like those new wheels, they look period correct on the MX5 and a lot more muscular with that dish to them compared to the original rims...

[Lewis's Friend]

MX6 said:

Good to see the progress. I really like those new wheels, they look period correct on the MX5 and a lot more muscular with that dish to them compared to the original rims...

Thanks. I think Mx5’s can pull of a number of different styles of wheel to be fair. But I wanted to go down the more retro kind of route.

[MikeDrop]

Lewis's Friend said:

More progress to report...!

I have got all of the bits and pieces back from the powder coaters. It's been very nice working with clean parts for a change.

IMG_2725 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I spent a while as soon as all the bits were back, cleaning threads and bores etc and generally making sure nothing would catch me out on reassembly (some hope, but that was the aim anyway).

I then, as the weather has been a bit rubbish and I have started working a day shift for the first time in about 10 years, found I had no time where there was natural light to work on the car in the week. So I took the only action possible, and moved the press into the kitchen to get bearings and bushes installed! Very comfortable...

Rear bearing going in:
IMG_2734 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Rather messy kitchen:
IMG_2736 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I've now installed all of the bushes aside from the droplinks, and installed the rear bearings. Also the front ball joints are in and torqued up. This is not a very photogenic process, though did take a while - hence not may pictures of different bushes being pressed in.

I have managed to get the rear subframe installed too, which again, doesn't make for exciting photos but has freed up some space in the living room!

IMG_2739 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Next is the roof replacement, which all being well should be in the next couple of days. So progress is slowly being made...

7

I will be attacking the suspension on my Mk1 soon. After some research, I'm praying to the suspension gods that my front upper ball joints are in a n ok state as I've heard they are a massive pain (and not entirely cheap). How were yours? Did you replace them with new? If so, how did you go about that?

[Lewis's Friend]

MikeDrop said:

I will be attacking the suspension on my Mk1 soon. After some research, I'm praying to the suspension gods that my front upper ball joints are in a n ok state as I've heard they are a massive pain (and not entirely cheap). How were yours? Did you replace them with new? If so, how did you go about that?

Sorry, only just seen your message.

I didn’t change the upper ball joints as happily they seemed ok. You can buy IL Performance uppers, but as you say, it seems like a massive pain. Otherwise, new wishbones, which is a bit more coin.

[Lewis's Friend]

Right, time for another update, even though nothing momentious has happened. Still waiting for the rear caliper to come back so its mainly little jobs I've been doing...

First of which was to flat down the clear coat on the front bumper. Sadly time and weather have meant it's still in this state, but soon it will be polished!

IMG_2851 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I've also made a front mount number plate holder. You can buy these quite cheaply, but I have some time and some sheet stainless kicking about so thought I'd make one. I suspect the bought ones have a slightly more polished finish, but it works! My downfall was that my vice-mount metal folder wasn't man enough for the steel, so I had to fall back on vice and hammer...

IMG_2847 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I've also had to respray the rear number plate plinth, as I ruined the paint trying to get some badge sticky stuff off. It did give the the opportunity to fill a couple of holes in it for locating a badge though, so not all bad.

Foolishly I didn't take many during shots, so this is just the finished article.

IMG_2857 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

IMG_2859 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

So that's it for now...

[ECG1000]

Nice work! Keep them updates coming.
I like your new wheels but also realy like your old wheels too. Are you keeping them both.

Do you think this will be done in time for early summer?

[Lewis's Friend]

ECG1000 said:

Nice work! Keep them updates coming.
I like your new wheels but also realy like your old wheels too. Are you keeping them both.

Do you think this will be done in time for early summer?

Cheers, that’s good of you to say.

Wheel-wise, the old ones don’t feature very much in my plans I confess. The tyres are properly knackered, and I’m not buying new ones for it. I don’t know whether to keep them as they’re original, but given how much I’m changing, probably not worth it...!

I’m planning on having it driveable in May. I hope. But that’s without the engine swap. Just pure Mazda!

[Escy]

When are you planning on starting the engine swap?

[Lewis's Friend]

Escy said:

When are you planning on starting the engine swap?

I’m not quite sure. The kit should be being delivered end of the month(ish). But I want to drive it as is for a while and troubleshoot any issues I might have as a result of the refurbishment I’ve just done before starting the engine work.

But in answer to your question, I’m thinking maybe late summer. But much depends on how it runs/remedial work it needs (hopefully not much), and how much I enjoy driving it in the sun as standard. Because I’m sure we’ll definitely have loads of sun this summer...!

Edited by Lewis's Friend on Friday 13th April 09:10