Kugawestie's MX5 SDV Build Thread - Now An Upgrade Thread

[KugaWestie]

Yes Gary. Heading up some time late Sunday morning.

See you there then

Are you taking your Westy and putting a for sale sign on it?

[TIG Brother]

Yeah for sale sign is all sorted and ready to put in. Have we decided on where to have mx5 corner?

[Captain Colonial]

For Sale cars will be parked in front of the main tent, so head there please.

[KugaWestie]

I am feeling much better now after my recent hospital visit, so have been carrying out some minor upgrades

First up - front indicators

Then I found a pot of blue hammerite in the paint store, so decided to paint the letters on the grille whilst the nosecone was off

I picked these stickers up at Stoneleigh

And finally, a storage net

It is definitely true - A Westfield is for life, most definitely. You never stop tweaking, changing, upgrading etc

[Nic Chase (NICO) - Shropshire & Mid-Wales AO]

Looking good Gary, plenty more to do

[KugaWestie]

Looking good Gary, plenty more to do

Thanks Nic - its never ending isnt it!

[KugaWestie]

I have been through a few frustrating weeks with the car, so I thought I had better update you all

After Stoneleigh I noticed that I was getting some oil in the coolant expansion tank, but the coolant was not getting into the engine.

My first thought was that the oil cooler had gone, so I bypassed this. No improvement.

So after several sessions of draining coolant, flushing the system, refilling and test driving, the problem was getting gradually worse.

It eventually got to the point where the coolant was expanding through the complete depth of the coolant expansion tank and out of the top of it.

So I decided that It must be Head Gasket Failure.

There was nothing else for it but to strip the head off and see what was there.

I managed to get the exhaust manifold off in situ, but there was absolutely no way I could get to all the inlet manifold bolts, so the head came off with the inlet manifold intact.

This left the top of the block and gasket exposed

Plenty of caramel to be seen, especially on the inlet side

Next up was to strip off the inlet manifold, and then out with the cams and followers from the head

Then It was a pressure test (all good) followed by a five thou skim on the head

I then re-assembled the engine, filled it up with fresh oil and plain water with a degreaser was added to the cooling system. A test run followed and upon return to the garage for inspection, I noticed a coolant leak on the front of the engine.

Further investigation the next day pointed towards the water pump, so there was nothing for it other than to strip down the front of the engine again to remove the water pump.

I decided to just replace the water pump, so ordered one and waited for it to arrive.

Whilst the front of the engine was stripped again, I decided to discard the old thermostat housing. All it was doing was housing the cold start temperature sensor, so I came up with a modified arrangement.

From this

To this

The water pump arrived last weekend, so I fitted it and put everything back together again on the front of the engine. I am now well experienced in timing up the engine, having done it a few times in the last few weeks!

I refilled the cooling system again including a degreasing additive, and gave it a test run. The leak at the front of the engine was cured.

Finally, during the course of the week I drained down the cooling system again, and then flushed it all with a hosepipe now the ban has lifted.

A final refill of the cooling system with new antifreeze mixture last night meant I could give it a proper blat out today.

I am relieved and pleased to say that the car is running great again, and touch wood all looks well with HG/Coolant/Oil

[Dommo]

Nightmare! Good you've got it sorted in time for errr... summer...

[TIG Brother]

Mazda - supposedly one of the most bomb proof engines ever?!

Yeah until you install in a Westfield. Haha

[KugaWestie]

Note the modified thread title - I have been upgrading!

[KugaWestie]

First job was to remove the velcro strips that were holding the crash pad in place, it did not feel like a proper job to me, so I ripped it all off and the fixed it to the scuttle using some rivnuts and button head bolts

Whilst the crash pad was off, I loosened the dash off and picked up a switched live feed - more to follow on that later.

[KugaWestie]

Sometime ago, I picked up a high level LED stop lamp for fitting to the rollbar, so this was the next little project.

First up - holes in the rollbar for fixings and cables. Before I get flamed - I dont intend to race the car

Once I got the first cable fed through, the second was easy

The casing all fixed in place - tapped threads into the roll bar

I joined into the rear brake light loom in the rear arch area

And the cables running up into the bottom of the rollbar - complete with a dob of silicone

The finished article

[KugaWestie]

Next was to fit these that I recently found on EBay

A 6.5mm hole drilled in the headlight mount bracket, and they fitted on lovely

I then picked up my swtiched live feed that I ran in when doing the crashpad, and Voila!

Daytime running lights .

As I used a switched live feed, they are on whenever the ignition is on, but independant to the headlights

They let off more light than I was expecting - this was taken in the garage, all doors shut, no lights on, so more or less pitch black

Might not be to everyones taste, but I like them, and if it helps me be seen, all the better

[KugaWestie]

Having discovered that my inner CV boots had split on the drive shafts, this was my next task.

I did post in the Techie section to see if anyone else had encountered this, so a little mod was required at the same time.

Not too many pictures of this, as I did not want to get the camera covered in grease!

This is a photo taken of the CV boot during the build, before it split. as you can see, it is very close to the chassis tube above it

Firstly, I removed the drive shaft where it connected to the diff. In order to do this, I needed to undo the hub assembly and swivel it out enough for the drive shaft to drop through the wishbones.

To stop the CV boot rubbing in future, I needed to get the diff lower. so after lots of grunting, groaning and swearing, plus the use of a crowbar I managed to get a packer in position on both sides of the diff

I then reassembled the inner flange connection, and rebooted it. I think I am fine for clearance now when you compare the photo below to the first one in this post

[KugaWestie]

And finally, boys will be boys