The westfield delivery van turned up and with the driver’s help, I unloaded everything into the garage and conservatory! The build begins on Thursday when I have a few days off work.
Chassis Delayed… Again
So my kit was due to arrive tomorrow but I received a call this afternoon from Westfield. My chassis still hasn’t been shot blasted and powder coated so it is delayed again, probably until around Tuesday next week.
Getting very frustrated with these delays and organising everything only to cancel and reorganise!
Chassis is ready… almost!
I was meant to be collecting my Westfield kit tomorrow but unfortunately the chassis is running late and it will be around 16th before it is ready. Westfield are looking at delivering FOC now so it isn’t all bad, but I want it to hurry up and arrive!
Engine Rebuild and Other Prep
Finished putting the engine back together with intake manifold, injectors, coil pack etc and filled the engine with oil. It is now ready to be attached to the gearbox and put in the car.
Next I started to clean up the diff case until my battery went flat. It turns out there is actually metal left in there..
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Need to finish cleaning the diff and uprights but the 7th of October is getting close!
Engine Rebuild Continued
The next stage was to reassemble the engine and all the auxiliaries, starting with the water pump, thermostat housing and then the cam belt.
I found it very difficult to get both cams and the crank all aligned at the same time whilst the belt was tensioned properly. Initially, I tried to follow all instructions by feeding the belt onto the crank pulley, then up past the idler onto the exhaust cam, then the intake cam and back round. The engine had previously been timed to 14 degrees and I don’t know if this made things worse but the cams wouldn’t stay in the correct position due to loading the valve springs.
I managed to fit the belt by fitting to the cam pulleys first, keeping the marked points 19 teeth apart (luckily I measured this before I took anything apart!) using a socket on the pulley bolt to rotate each cam as necessary, then feeding the belt down the exhaust side to the crank pulley and pulling the belt over the tensioner and locking it in place.
Once this was done, I followed the procedure to tension the belt properly and proceeded to fit the various covers.
The next step was to fit the pulleys, thermostat, alternator, starter motor and heater outlet.
Once done, I cleaned up the flywheel and clutch cover and then fitted the clutch which was very easy with the alignment tool.
I then cleaned out the intakes which were a bit oily and put the intake manifold back on with a new gasket.
That is now up to date with my progress. I collect my car on 7th October and before that I need to finish the engine rebuild, rebuild the brake calipers and clean up and paint the suspension components/diff that I will reuse.
Head Gasket Replacement
The next step was to clean up the head gasket surfaces ready for replacement. I did this using razor blades and scotch bright pads. The block took much longer than I had expected, multiple hours spread over a week or so. I was dreading doing the same for the head but when I did, it was much easier to clean up and took less than an hour.
I made sure everything was completely clean, with no dirt or dust in the cylinders, then put the new gasket on, replaced the head and torqued up the head bolts.
Cam Cover
I cleaned up the cam cover inside and out, painted the outside in HT paint and then sanded off the top of the lettering, I’m fairly happy with the result.
Part way through cleaning. After painting. Internal faces cleaned up.
Painted and with letters sanded.
Pistone Ring Replacement and Engine Rebuild Starts
I replaced the piston rings one piston at a time, then reassembled before doing the next piston. After the first 2 pistons, the engine became quite tight. I finished replacing the other rings, put the pistons in and it was even tighter to turn over.
I spent some time trying to look up how tight and engine should be with new pistons rings and struggled to get a clear quantification of what counted as too tight and what was expected with new rings. I thought something didn’t seem right so kept investigating and a friend (thanks Tom) measured an engine at his work which was 15lb-ft for crank rods and pistons only. This was much lower than I had experienced so there was definitely a problem but the engine seemed to get tighter with each new piston ring so I believed it was ring related. I started to remove one piston at a time and check all the tolerances (I had checked a few initially but all seemed good so didn’t check the rest.). All tolerances seemed good although the gap in the old piston rings were towards the upper limit.
Then I realised that I put one of the con rod bearing caps on the wrong way round. Doh! After correcting this, the engine turned over freely with the 15lb-ft of torque being about right! I felt pretty stupid but it was an easy fix and I couldn’t see any damage to the bearing faces.
Once all was together, checked, torqued and rechecked, it was time to make sure the sump mounting faces were clean, add some gasket sealant, replace the half moon gaskets and then put the sump back on. Once on and left to dry for a bit, I stood the engine back up by myself with a bit of manoeuvring.
Getting the Engine Number into the V5
With the MX5 body at my parents in Norfolk, my Dad wanted the scrap it and so I had given him the logbook. I then realised that there was no engine number in it…
I made the image below to send with a request to get the logbook updated. I think my dad sent the logbook without this image and the logbook got updated fine so they are obviously more relaxed about it than I had realised. Once sent off, the updated logbook arrived about 2 weeks later.
Engine Parts 2 and a Possible Problem
My next step was to remove the spark plugs. When removing one of these, I found water. There was definitely water on the outside of the spark plug. There was also some water inside the cylinder but I think this was caused by me removing the spark plug and allowing the water to fall in. I don’t think there was water in there before but I have no way of knowing. My intention is to replace all the gaskets anyway.
I then followed the instructions for the crank and cam positions before removing the timing belt. I also made my own marks and took loads of photos to help when it goes back together.
The next challenge was removing the head bolts. “Use a standard 12mm socket” it says but I just couldn’t get it to fit. A larger socket went on but would have rounded the bolts. After a lot of thinking, I came to the realisation that my idea of a standard socket was a 6 pointed one but a standard 12mm 12 pointed socket fit perfectly!
Once the head was removed, i got a good look in the cylinders and could see the water which I believe I let in when taking the spark plug out.
To test the piston rings (one of the cylinders had slightly low compression but I couldn’t remember which one as it was so long ago that I tested it) I put some oil in. The next morning, 2 cylinders were completely empty(1 and 4) and the other 2 seemed unchanged (2, 3). The 2 that retained the oil, kept it for several days until I cleaned them out. Not completely sure how well oil should be held but the difference suggests to me that something isn’t right!
Once cleaned up a little, I turned the engine on it’s side and then removed the sump.
Not sure what this is on the oil pick up (it seemed like little bits of plastic) but it can’t be good!
The piston rings weren’t very clean and the oil control rings were completely flush with the piston.
I then cleaned up the sump, baffle, oil pick up, pistons and replaced the piston rings. Pushing the cylinders back in initially presented a challenge but slowly worked out the technique using the piston ring compressor and tapping the piston in with the handle of a rubber hammer.
New piston rings in place
Kit's Kit Car 