darve Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 Now then the original plan was to carry out this little upgrade whilst waiting for the dvla to complete my registration but they were much much quicker than I expected! 8 day turnaround in fact. Ever since driving my westie I've been a little disappointed with the power so have always had this upgrade in the back of my mind, and thought sod it, I'll just do it So the car at the moment has a 1.8 standard mx5 engine run by an omex 600 ecu, custom (nothing fancy) intake and a westfield 4 into 1 exhaust. And onto the upgrade....... Blink gas flowed head and re-profiled cams and a set of adjustable cam pulleys So a few weeks ago I got hold of another head/cams and sent this off to blink to work their magic. Great service from blink and quick turnaround. great price too they have the package on the traders section but as I have the omex I don't need the engine management bits and pieces. Head came back on wednesday. Fitted the cams and pulleys this evening. some pics below. Engine is coming out tomorrow night as whilst in there thought it was an ideal time to fit a lightened flywheel while I'm at it I got a spare flywheel from the same breakers as the head and sent it off to a local machine shop who have lightened it by about 20-25%. will keep the pics flowing and am booked in at NMS next friday for a tune up and full geo Looking forward to seeing the results Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTR2Turbo Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 Looking good. Also important to make sure that the exhaust manifold flange and gasket mate to the head well without obstructing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darve Posted October 10, 2013 Author Share Posted October 10, 2013 do you mean convering the port David? if so I've just checked the gasket and it's fine. no idea about the exhaust itself but gary was the first to have this work done and not heard he's had any problems 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTR2Turbo Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 Yep. hopefully fine but quick and worth checking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KugaWestie Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Mine was fine Looking good Dave, nice bit of engine porn!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darve Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 busy evening, Christ it looks messy at the moment with cables etc poking everywhere sorry if I run you a bit late Mark exhaust ports are fine David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark (smokey mow) Posted October 12, 2013 Share Posted October 12, 2013 busy evening, Christ it looks messy at the moment with cables etc poking everywhere sorry if I run you a bit late Mark that wasn't late for a Friday Dave I hope you made a video of the engine being removed Good work have you managed to get the head off yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darve Posted October 12, 2013 Author Share Posted October 12, 2013 no video and was nowhere near as quick as you need to pop to halfords and get a 12 point 12mm socket before I get the head off. plan is to change the flywheel, put the engine back in and then swap heads. busy day I def need a bigger garage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KugaWestie Posted October 12, 2013 Share Posted October 12, 2013 A normal socket works fine on the cylinder head bolts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darve Posted October 12, 2013 Author Share Posted October 12, 2013 ive only got 6 point sockets and it wasn't happening Gary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KugaWestie Posted October 12, 2013 Share Posted October 12, 2013 Ahh ok, fair enough. Dont forget to clean off the top of the block nicely before putting the new gasket and head on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darve Posted October 12, 2013 Author Share Posted October 12, 2013 engine is back in and head changed over. not a day without its problems! stud on engine mount rubber sheared off at very low torque tigger to the rescue actually taking the one off his car to get me tothe rollers. thanks mate problem now it's the cam belt tension is too loose and the tensioner is at its max. must be because the belt path is shorter after the skim? thinking about it I was on max on the adjuster before. not sure what to do about this one. belt has only done 1000 miles. Gary, I think you have the same pink belt as me where abouts are you on the tensioner? you can see how loose the belt it's below Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLiNK Motorsport Posted October 12, 2013 Share Posted October 12, 2013 Definately not correct! The only reasons the cam belt can be slack are given below - each need eliminating one by one unfortunately: (1) Cam Pulleys are the wrong diameter (2) belt has stretched (3) Idler pulleys are incorrect or Mounted wrong (4) Block deck has been skimmed massively The head has had a relatively mild skim and tensioner should have plenty of room for adjustment. Since it was right accross before the head was fitted (Which is wrong) I would go with 3 & 4 as the most likely culprits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KugaWestie Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 My Lovely pink Cambelt has probably done around 2000 miles, and is not that pink anymore I have just been out in the garage and whipped the bonnet off, my tensioner is a fair way over but looks like it has a few spare millimetres in it. Fraser can you remember if it was tight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darve Posted October 13, 2013 Author Share Posted October 13, 2013 im respnse to Frasers post 1) identical 2) ive had the belt off and measured it (appreciate it won't be accurate) and I got 1182mm outside diameter. eurocarparts says the belt is meant to be 1161mm but I dont know if that is inside diameter or not. same number of teeth 3) tried an oem adjustable idler from Mark and the adjustment is actually less on that one than mine 4) eekkk hope not! next step is to get hold of an oem complete timing kit and see what happens. client has cancelled on me so can now scour the whole of Essex to get an oem kit. need to ideally sort tomorrow morning as Im away until late Wednesday night at work on Thursday and then NMS friday! ho hum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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