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Mk1 Eunos 1.6 Project

27K views 183 replies 39 participants last post by  Zed.  
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hello, this is my third MX5 after a break of a few years whilst I restored an old Karmann Ghia. I've had a mk2 & a mk3 but always fancied a red mk1 :)

It's a '91 Eunos Roadster which I picked up as a project car for myself to tinker with this winter. I'm hoping there's not too much major to address the sills and arches all look really solid, ironically this is the fifth car I viewed all of them a lot more expensive than this but all had signs of rot or bad previous repairs to the sills.

The vendor was a nice chap but didn't have much of a clue about the car so hadn't advertised any of the extras that I found when I viewed it.

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So far I've found it has an ARC chamber, stainless steel exhaust manifold and I believe the whole system (although it was a bit hard to tell in the mud!) a quickshift is fitted (which I hate), plus some sort of adjustable suspension (you can see dials on the bottom of the shocks) Aircon seems to work but time will tell, interior is a bit dirty but not ripped or torn, plus the vendor threw in the hardtop which is a little rough round the edges but a bonus.

The car hasn't had much use (or love) over the last year that the previous owner had it, but seems that owners prior to that have looked after it well.

Initial tasks are:

- A tappety engine turned out to be low oil which seems to have gone away by it topping up with oil and giving it an Italian tune once warm ;-)

- A few of the belts seem to intermittently squeal - so will work my way through replacing those

- General oil change, plugs, service etc.

- Unknown age of cambelt - plan to change this along with water pump, various gaskets, camshaft & crank seals etc

- There's a suspension rattle (quite a lot) but the steering & suspension seems to be quite taut so I suspect it's the ARB droplinks or similar - investigate &repair where needed

- Replace quickshift with normal one

- Paint - give the whole car a good mop to get rid of the classic red paint oxidisation

- Hood - seems sound but the rear has a loose flap that needs attention - if it doesn't leak I will leave it alone until the weather gets warmer then I will have a go at replacing if necessary

- Drivers door has slightly sagged so needs adjustment, ordered some of the solid door bushings to go on at the same time

- Front number plate plinth is cracked - may replace or even move to below the grill

- Replace stereo with something that doesn't have buttons the size of grains of sand and that I can actually read without having to pull over and squint at it. (honestly who designs aftermarket stereos these days? Makes me wonder if they have ever driven a car)

- Replace the naff 15" wheels and ditchfinder tyres with a set of Panasport 8-spoke wheels I have squirrelled away in the garage

- Fit front & rear lower chassis braces (need to check it doesn't have them first)

No doubt after getting to know the car in the next couple of weeks there's be more…
 
This weekend replaced the quickshift with a standard lever (much nicer) will replace the boots when I get round to ordering them as it's only a 20 minute job, tried to track down the suspension rattle and discovered the GAB Super suspension looks like it's pretty ancient and may need replacing. All the droplinks look ok which was my initial thought on a quick fix! Adjusted the drivers door striker plate, Also replaced the headlamp vent with a standard headlamp, discovered why the hardtop was creaking - three of the four nuts holding the back mountings have fallen out :)
 
Did some more work this weekend:

fitted the new hardtop fixings

new front number plate

oil service & filter

air filter

plugs

replaced some missing bodywork fixings from the front bumper opening, found a broken wing support

replaced gearshift boots, changed the gearshift oil

fitted the new refurbished Panasport 14" wheels, it's the first time I've ever upgraded the wheels on a car by downsizing. What a difference they have made:

Old 15" with worn tyres = 16.3kg each

New 14" wheels & tyres = 11.6kg

That means the 15" wheels are 50% heavier than the 14's !! took the car for a brief drive and it feels much nicer, you can notice the difference in unsprung weight and the old suspension is clonking a lot less.

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Discussion starter · #6 ·
Just a note, tyre weights can vary massively, the difference you are seeing may be quite heavily affected by the different tyres.
True, but I'm happy either way heavy tyres or wheels :)
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
plus the panasports look mint :thumb-up:
Doesn't yours run gold Panasports? I read your build thread it looks amazing with the interior :) I have a spare Momo Prototipo wheel which I bought for my Ghia but found too small for the old steering. I will probably use it on the MX5 after seeing how well it goes in your car !
 
To update this thread jobs done so far are:

- Cambelt + tensioners

- water pump

- Camshaft & crankshaft seals

- all belts replaced

- coolant flushed & new thermostat

- Miester coilovers

- all disks, pads, one new caliper (rear stuck on)

- foamectomy on drivers seat

- removed drivers arm rest on door

- wheel replaced with Momo Prototipo

- front radiator cowling replaced

- brake fluid flush & change

- plugs

- oil & filter changed

- alignment bolts un-siezed or replaced

- new clutch slave cylinder, fluids flushed

In the middle of replacing both top & bottom ball joints on front suspension, took the car to WIM Amersham for a geo and they weren't able to set it accurately as there was too much play in the balljoints - probably good they found that out! plus all the rear adjusters were seized :-(

The foamectomy + smaller steering wheel + removing the door arm rest has given me lots more room to drive the car (I'm over 6')

One side's ball joints changed - what a pain that was on a 26yr old car! looking forward to doing the other side now!

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Discussion starter · #14 ·
It has all 4 centre caps now, I managed to find some Saab 9-5 caps that were almost the right size and changed the stickers to Mazda ones, still a whisker too small so I wound some ptfe tape round the fittings and they went on nice and snug. cost about ÂŁ12 in total off eBay.
 
Both sides ball joints now replaced, plus new anti-rattle kit for front brakes seems to have stopped most of the rattles from front of car :)

After a trip to Wheels in Motion where they couldn't complete the alignment, I've now freed off all eight alignment bolts so a return trip is due for them to hopefully complete the job. Two replacement bolts, (one I had to angle grind off to replace !)

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Discussion starter · #17 ·
Booked into Skuzzle Motorsport for a replacement clutch in May, the high biting point and stiff pedal are too much of a warning sign for me to ignore after replacing the slave cylinder and it not making any difference :mellow:
 
MOT passed today with no advisories, good excuse to take the long way back from the MOT station :) looking at the MOT papers, it looks like the past owners have only done 1100 miles in the past 4 years!

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Discussion starter · #19 ·
The trip to wheels in motion sorted out the geo now, just drivers caster is a tiny fraction of a percentage out now, probably due to a worn bush but I'm happy as the other 99% is a lot better :)

Next job is to replace the heater hoses and do something about the one that runs just 5mm away from the RS*R manifold and has caused the rubber to expand and weep. Might try a combination of heat shield and routing the pipe slightly further away. After that I can fit the TDR exhaust blanket and make my home grown induction system I've been collecting bits for :)
 
TDR manifold blanket fitted this evening after some small small alterations due to the o2 sensor in the manifold. Also fitted a new rigid heater pipe & O ring as the old pipe was corroded, I took the opportunity to heat the pipe and bend it about 3/4" further away from the RS*R manifold as the original heater pipe was too close (new rubber hose fitted also).

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Evenings this week have been taken up with fitting a home-grown K&N induction kit. I know there's a lot of these for sale out there but none that I could find that fitted my car's setup. The mk2 factory brace combined with ARC chamber & JDM RS*R manifold meant that I was better off making it myself. So I ordered a few bits & pieces:

- Jass 3" AFM adapter

- various bits of 3" alloy tubing & silicon

- K&N 3" filter

I removed the air box and mocked up some brackets with cardboard that would use the airbox mounting points, then transferred these over to 30 x 2mm steel strip (plus a bit of alloy bracket I had lying around ;-) )

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Then attached it to two of the threaded holes in the chassis box section;

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it's now attached with two bolts into the threaded front of the AFM (one was previously unused) and two of the studs at the rear.

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I'm pleased with how sturdy the bracket has turned out, I've seen a few home grown ones that seem to be quite flimsy and with the weight of the ARC chamber hanging off the AFM I was a bit concerned it might wobble about.

Next job is to trim the 3" 90 degree pipe & fit the filter, The TDR blanket seems to be working nicely in deflecting manifold heat away from the engine bay, so I'm not too worried that the filter will suffer from heat, plan to site it round about the same place the OEM funnel used to be anyway.
 
Busy weekend fitting a TRlane roll bar, I'd forgotten how long these things can take, by the time everything was back together, carpet trimmed etc. it was a good 8-9 hour job. I shouldn't have been surprised as I seem to recall the Hard-Dog roll bar I fitted to my old mk2 took just as long :whistle:

After watching the CarThrottle video of them fitting a similar roll bar to 'Phil' and screwing up the seatbelt bolt alignment, I took my time and made doubly sure that all was in line so the spacer worked and the bolt tightened correctly. There was also quite a gap either side of the feet brackets to the seatbelt towers (over 1/4" each side) but reading on the TRlane website it said this was normal due to shrinkage if you had a harness bar. The solution they said was to just fit it with even gaps and use the side bolts to pull the gap closed. I didn't fancy that much bending on my car so I made up some 3.5mm spacers out of scrap alloy so the bending would be minimal. It fitted nicely after that.

I didn't drill any of the holes from above like some of the write-ups, instead I used a long punch & hammer to mark the holes from above, then used these as a guide to drill from below in the wheel arch. This seemed to work well.

Very pleased with the way it looks, doesn't seem to restrict the seats and my head even fits below the line between windscreen frame & roll bar.

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Rather than trying to drill the impossible bolt hole at the back fit a punch into a socket extension, whack it with a hammer to make a hole then drill it properly from the under side.

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Thanks for your comments guys, I can report that if you are thinking of fitting a K&N filter with an ARC chamber - don't bother... the combination of aluminium chamber, and the K&N filter makes a rather weird resonance sound at certain revs, a bit like a box full of angry wasps !

I can only assume that the sound waves just bounce off the arc chamber, through the metal AFM, then through a short metal pipe & out the filter acting like an aluminium trumpet! with none of the usual plastic crossover pipe to dull some of the sound.

Oh well, we live & learn :driving:
 
Discussion starter · #26 ·
Haven't updated this thread for a while, been to busy driving!

Machine polished the remaining pieces of the car, visited a few shows.

after polishing:

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At a local show:

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Fitted a Japstyle front lip, and an original Eunos badge from a fellow Nutz member :)

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Made a bolt-in seat frame adaptor for an Elise 111s seat (which has more padding than the normal Elise seat) see separate thread http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=362922&hl=

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And this weekend the inevitable happened, my only immobiliser keyfob stopped working and of course the company that make them is long gone... So only one thing to do, rip the thing out and fix the wiring :baseballbat:

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Pleased to report that it all went back together well and I was able to trace the wires and re-join them to the original loom. Although it didn't go completely smoothly as when I took the instrument cover/cowl off two out of the three fixing tabs snapped off :( I looked on Mx5parts and nearly fell off my chair when I realised they wanted ÂŁ99 for a replacement bit of plastic! So out came the Araldite and glued it back on without fuss.

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Discussion starter · #27 ·
Lots of bits & bobs being addressed over the winter, ended up changing the entire exhaust system for a new manifold (MX5parts) plus silenced decat & Cobalt exhaust. It's still bedding in so the noise keeps on changing. Definitely think the manifold is noisier than the RS*R one though.

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Had a some grief around lining up the exhaust tip but think I've managed it through the use of Jubilee clips on the exhaust box hanger.
 
This week's job is replacing the old radiator (pretty sure it's the original one judging by the stickers) and various hoses. Some of them had started to weep, the bottom rad hose was bulging alarmingly! and I had a leak from either the drivers side of the radiator or one of the hose underneath the manifold.

This seems to have been the culprit for the leak under the manifold. A previous owner had been running the engine without antifreeze so the rusty water had eaten away at some of the hose barbs. I cleaned this one up enough to put a new hose on it with a tighter jubilee clip than the previous OEM spring clip.

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Also took the chance to replace the thermostat housing gasket which had been weeping for a while (the cardboard was saturated when I removed it!) replaced with a new gasket coated with silicon gasket compound each side to try and prevent the same happening again.

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Discussion starter · #29 ·
Added a 25mm spacer for the steering wheel made from a solid alloy block. It's quite nice as it uses the same bolt holes (just longer) and is machined so that it accepts the Momo horn button without needing the flimsy metal insert the standard mx5 boss uses. I found it on line at a Ferrari specialist http://www.superformance.co.uk/mondial/steering.html

Very happy with the results as it's really helped the driving position because I can now get my knees under the wheel as opposed to each side of it :)

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