I am surprised how well this car looks like after polishing. You did a good job!

 

I am surprised how well this car looks like after polishing. You did a good job!

Ditto - gives me hope for my "rolling restoration"!

 

Not long swapped my VLSD out for a type 1 Torsen, so much better. The VLSD ended up with so much lash in it, sounded terrible on over run. It only took about 4000 miles With the turbo on to ruin it!

I now understand why the Torsens are so sought after, man it worked well on the track the other day.

Good luck with your plans

 

I am surprised how well this car looks like after polishing. You did a good job!

Thanks, it's surprising what a bit of elbow grease can do! Make sure you wax it afterwards or all your hard work goes away

I am surprised how well this car looks like after polishing. You did a good job!

Ditto - gives me hope for my "rolling restoration"!

Cheers

Not long swapped my VLSD out for a type 1 Torsen, so much better. The VLSD ended up with so much lash in it, sounded terrible on over run. It only took about 4000 miles With the turbo on to ruin it!
I now understand why the Torsens are so sought after, man it worked well on the track the other day.
Good luck with your plans

Yep, I've been through two VLSD diffs now and that's just with a normal 1.6

 

I've been doing some research in the evenings as to some wheels to get a bit more grip on track. I love the Panasport but the 14" tyres aren't the stickiest ;-). Undecided between 15 and 14" rims as I have a set of Daisies behind the shed which I could just stick a set of Nanking NS-2R tyres on. Or do I go for some 15's where the choice of tyres is a bit more varied. Compiled this list of wheel weights as I want to keep the weight down.
My experience of driving bigger wheels has been mixed, on my old mk2 I had a set of 15" Rota RB's with 888 tyres on it which stuck like glue but gave a horrible tramlining experience on the road. I guess that's because they were a lot stiffer sidewalls than the normal tyres and almost square in profile. Interestingly I think the MX5 is more sensitive to this as I've driven an Elise on 888's and it felt fine. In contrast the mk2 sport wheels with road tyres on the same car behaved great on the road. My current mk1 feels nice & light on it's feet compared to the clumsy 888 shod mk2.

Here's some comparisons of wheel weights - interesting to see where the Daisies come in the chart, and OEM Sport wheels from mk2

16" wheels
Mk2 5-spoke 16 x 6.5 - 7kg

15" wheels
Compomotive ML 15 x 6 - 8.1kg
Rota RB 15 x 7 - 6.5kg
Mx5 Phoenix mk2 Enkei wheels - 15 x 7 - 6.5kg
Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 15x7 - 6.2kg
Rota Slipstream 15 x 7 - 5.9kg
949 racing 6UL. 15 x7 - 5.9kg
Mk2 Sport 5 spoke (Enkei) - 15 x 6.5. - 5.9kg
BBS mk1 15 x 6 - 5.4kg
Enkei RPF1 15 x 7 - 4.4kg
Rays Volks TE37 15 x 6.5 - 4.3kg

14" wheels
Daisies 14 x 5.5 5.6kg
Mk1 7 spoke (solid spoke) 14 x 6 - 5.2kg
Mk1 7 spoke (hollow spoke) 14 x 6 - 4.9kg
BBS mk1 14 x 6 - 4.8kg

It looks like Mazda knew what they were doing with the mk2 sport wheels even today they hold their own in the table and are cheap as chips used. I'd love to find to 15" Panasport ideally but I've been keeping an eye out for over a year and none have come up for sale

 

Hmm, I wonder if I add a reply whether the rest of the missing posts would appear...

and they have! all three pages of them

 

And now for some more wheel fettish news... I managed to source a set of mk2 sport Enkei wheels (15x6) in pretty good condition for £60 so it seemed to be too good to pass up. One wheel has a brand new tyre, the others are past it. I thought in the interest of science I would weigh the wheel with the new tyre and compare against some of my other wheels.

MK2 Enkei (15 x 6) new tyre 14.1kg

Original Daisy (14 x 5.5) worn tyre 11.9kg

Panasport (14x6) nearly new tyre 12.3kg

All of these wheels are known for being quite light, the probable reason for the Daisy being 400g lighter than the Panasport is the fact that it's an old worn tyre. In reality I'd expect the daisy to be marginally heavier than the Panasport with an equivalent new tyre. Difference between a tyred 15" mk2 Enkei and a 14" mk1 Daisy is therefore about 1.6kg (or about 15%) so not a great amount but enough unsprung weight to notice if you're a spirited driver I'd say.

Now it comes to offset, took a picture from the same point for each wheel lining up the centre swage line to make sure the photo angles din't lie

5.5" daisy (ET45)

6" mk2 Enkei (ET40)

6" Panasport (ET 31?)

Although there's no offset marked on the Panasports there is a '31' marked in one of the serial numbers, it looks like the wheel sticks out about 15mm more than the Enkei's so it's likely to be 31mm.

Here's a slightly odd shot with the car having a wheel identity crisis!

And for my own peace of mind this resolves the question in my head whether 14" 8-spokes or 15" 5-spokes are more classic on a mk1 B)

 

I like the 8 spoke ones the best.

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Love the car, especially with the Panasport's. If you ever think of selling them please let me know (PM me)

 

I've been doing some research in the evenings as to some wheels to get a bit more grip on track. I love the Panasport but the 14" tyres aren't the stickiest ;-). Undecided between 15 and 14" rims as I have a set of Daisies behind the shed which I could just stick a set of Nanking NS-2R tyres on. Or do I go for some 15's where the choice of tyres is a bit more varied. Compiled this list of wheel weights as I want to keep the weight down.
My experience of driving bigger wheels has been mixed, on my old mk2 I had a set of 15" Rota RB's with 888 tyres on it which stuck like glue but gave a horrible tramlining experience on the road. I guess that's because they were a lot stiffer sidewalls than the normal tyres and almost square in profile. Interestingly I think the MX5 is more sensitive to this as I've driven an Elise on 888's and it felt fine. In contrast the mk2 sport wheels with road tyres on the same car behaved great on the road. My current mk1 feels nice & light on it's feet compared to the clumsy 888 shod mk2.

Here's some comparisons of wheel weights - interesting to see where the Daisies come in the chart, and OEM Sport wheels from mk2

15" wheels
Compomotive ML 15 x 6 - 8.1kg
Rota RB 15 x 7 - 6.5kg
Mx5 Phoenix mk2 Enkei wheels - 15 x 7 - 6.5kg
Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 15x7 - 6.2kg
Rota Slipstream 15 x 7 - 5.9kg
949 racing 6UL. 15 x7 - 5.9kg
Mk2 Sport 5 spoke (Enkei) - 15 x 6.5. - 5.9kg
BBS mk1 15 x 6 - 5.4kg
Enkei RPF1 15 x 7 - 4.4kg
Rays Volks TE37 15 x 6.5 - 4.3kg

You have the weight wrong on the 949 wheels.. the 15x7 is 4.85 kg. Even my 15x9s weigh less than 5.9kg each.

Interesting that you found the same tram-lining issues that I did. I ran a 205 A048 on 15x7 and it was horrible. I switched to 195 R1Rs that ride like street tires but matched the A048s in grip. They worked best on 15x8s, which imho is the wheel size you should be looking at. Wider wheels allow for slightly lower running pressures, which for me resulted in more grip and more even temperatures. 15x8s or 7.5s will work with wider 195s, 205s and 225s, covering the entire useful range.

 

I've been doing some research in the evenings as to some wheels to get a bit more grip on track. I love the Panasport but the 14" tyres aren't the stickiest ;-). Undecided between 15 and 14" rims as I have a set of Daisies behind the shed which I could just stick a set of Nanking NS-2R tyres on. Or do I go for some 15's where the choice of tyres is a bit more varied. Compiled this list of wheel weights as I want to keep the weight down.
My experience of driving bigger wheels has been mixed, on my old mk2 I had a set of 15" Rota RB's with 888 tyres on it which stuck like glue but gave a horrible tramlining experience on the road. I guess that's because they were a lot stiffer sidewalls than the normal tyres and almost square in profile. Interestingly I think the MX5 is more sensitive to this as I've driven an Elise on 888's and it felt fine. In contrast the mk2 sport wheels with road tyres on the same car behaved great on the road. My current mk1 feels nice & light on it's feet compared to the clumsy 888 shod mk2.

Here's some comparisons of wheel weights - interesting to see where the Daisies come in the chart, and OEM Sport wheels from mk2

15" wheels
Compomotive ML 15 x 6 - 8.1kg
Rota RB 15 x 7 - 6.5kg
Mx5 Phoenix mk2 Enkei wheels - 15 x 7 - 6.5kg
Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 15x7 - 6.2kg
Rota Slipstream 15 x 7 - 5.9kg
949 racing 6UL. 15 x7 - 5.9kg
Mk2 Sport 5 spoke (Enkei) - 15 x 6.5. - 5.9kg
BBS mk1 15 x 6 - 5.4kg
Enkei RPF1 15 x 7 - 4.4kg
Rays Volks TE37 15 x 6.5 - 4.3kg

You have the weight wrong on the 949 wheels.. the 15x7 is 4.85 kg. Even my 15x9s weigh less than 5.9kg each.

Interesting that you found the same tram-lining issues that I did. I ran a 205 A048 on 15x7 and it was horrible. I switched to 195 R1Rs that ride like street tires but matched the A048s in grip. They worked best on 15x8s, which imho is the wheel size you should be looking at. Wider wheels allow for slightly lower running pressures, which for me resulted in more grip and more even temperatures. 15x8s or 7.5s will work with wider 195s, 205s and 225s, covering the entire useful range.

Thanks for the correction, this information is not easy to find!

Love the car, especially with the Panasport's. If you ever think of selling them please let me know (PM me)

Cheers, they are my favourite wheels I'll let you know if I come across some more

 

Got the flywheel for the 1.8 lightened and balanced with a new clutch at a local engine builders. Weighs 6.8kg according to my bathroom scales, most of the weight they took off was removing the band from the outside of the flywheel plus scooping out some of the rear. Hopefully should see an improvement and worthwhile doing whilst it was out anyway :thumb-up:

flywheel face just needs a light going over with an emery cloth

 

Dam, Can't get the nearside hub nut off tried a 1/2" breaker bar, a 3/4" breaker bar with big extension, plus air gun impact driver.
I don't hold out much hope for the driveshaft coming out of the nut is giving this much grief!

Anyone got a push-in type driveshaft and hub with decent wheel bearing they want to sell?

 

Slight alterations in the project plans, but bear with me... I've always thought that the best standard MX5 I've ever driven was a friend's white mk2 RS. It had the urgency in gear of my early 1.6 NA but with more power and a much revvier engine than the standard NB I used to have and felt noticeably quicker. I've done some research and I think there's a number of reasons:

1) The six speed box combined with a 3.9 diff (rather than 3.6 on a mk2.5) puts gears 1-5 almost identical ratios to the gears 1-5 on my 1.6 NA which has a 4.3 diff. That means 6th gear is in effect a motorway overdrive. This differs substantially from the mk2.5 where all the gears are taller.

2) not sure if the mk2 RS does have a lightened flywheel, as internet research shows some did come with one, others not. Certainly my mate's car felt like it did!

3) The NB RS had a higher rev limiter and supposedly a better inlet cam

So it struck me that I should try and make car that has the best of both worlds - the mk1 body, but with Mk2 RS mechanicals. It's not going to be exact but I'm going to try and capture the essence of a NB RS in my early mk1

so far I have acquired:

- 3.9 torsen diff from a 10AE

- 6 speed from a 10AE

- 1999 NB 1.8 engine

- lightened flywheel

- 1.8 brake carriers (to be safe)

The plan is to install that lot and get it running with a ME221, then once any kinks are ironed out send the head off to Blink for some work & fast road cams. I did consider hunting down an old RS engine but I figured the Blink stage 1 kit does the same thing but better.

I'm rather looking forward to it

 

The removal has started...

 

Slight alterations in the project plans, but bear with me... I've always thought that the best standard MX5 I've ever driven was a friend's white mk2 RS. It had the urgency in gear of my early 1.6 NA but with more power and a much revvier engine than the standard NB I used to have and felt noticeably quicker. I've done some research and I think there's a number of reasons:

1) The six speed box combined with a 3.9 diff (rather than 3.6 on a mk2.5) puts gears 1-5 almost identical ratios to the gears 1-5 on my 1.6 NA which has a 4.3 diff. That means 6th gear is in effect a motorway overdrive. This differs substantially from the mk2.5 where all the gears are taller.
2) not sure if the mk2 RS does have a lightened flywheel, as internet research shows some did come with one, others not. Certainly my mate's car felt like it did!
3) The NB RS had a higher rev limiter and supposedly a better inlet cam

So it struck me that I should try and make car that has the best of both worlds - the mk1 body, but with Mk2 RS mechanicals. It's not going to be exact but I'm going to try and capture the essence of a NB RS in my early mk1
so far I have acquired:
- 3.9 torsen diff from a 10AE
- 6 speed from a 10AE
- 1999 NB 1.8 engine
- lightened flywheel
- 1.8 brake carriers (to be safe)

The plan is to install that lot and get it running with a ME221, then once any kinks are ironed out send the head off to Blink for some work & fast road cams. I did consider hunting down an old RS engine but I figured the Blink stage 1 kit does the same thing but better.

I'm rather looking forward to it

What about a turbo?

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Turbo? it's personal choice but I love the way it drives normally aspirated and a turbo will change that

 

Managed to find the time yesterday to get the engine & box out with a mate The load leveller device on the engine crane made it much easier than I thought it was going to be. What I also found when I split the engine & box was that the bellhousing and most of the gearbox was covered in oil so it looks like it's been leaking as well as burning oil. Just as well I took it out when I did.

 

Hugely satifying pulling an engine. Never tried leveller will use next time hopefully not anytime soon when i put an engine in.

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Another piece of the jigsaw, a 1.8 NA alternator with a ribbed pulley so it fits the mk2 engine

To do list:

- fit new alternator to 1.8 with 1.6 bracket (may need modifying) enlarge wiring loom ring terminal

- transfer over oil pressure sensor

- transfer water temp switch & water gauge switch to back of engine (remove the three wire sensor)

- replace flexible fuel lines on 1.8 (as this is a mk2 not a 2.5 they are both push fit rather than fancy connectors)

- I have decided to take another look at the crank oil seal at the crankshaft end and if it looks OK I will leave replacing it. I've heard horror stories of new ones being fitted slightly wrong and starting a new oil leak. Interestingly I have spoken to two MX5 specialists now and they both said to leave well alone if it's not leaking. When I removed the flywheel there was no sign of oil on the back of it or on the crankcase.

- figure out a way of blanking off the exhaust side of the EGR pipe (I have already fitted the EGR blanking plates to the engine side)

- refit lightened flywheel, clutch & bearing

- fit new release bearing & arm, bolt up new 6 speed box to engine & fit starter motor

- rewire CAS wires to 1.8 cam sensor & crank sensor

- I'm keeping the 1.8 coilpack but will need to sort out the plugs between looms

- 1.8 TPS also being kept, may need to transfer plugs

- Fuel rail, as this is a '99 UK spec engine it still uses a return fuel system (unlike the US mk2 Miatas from 99 or the UK VVT engines which use a returnless system) so I should in theory be able to keep the mk2 fuel rail intact.

- keep the 1.8 engine mounts, fit with the upgraded mazda competition mounts I have on the shelf

- remove charcoal canister, I'm reliably informed you can re-use the two wires for it to power the VICS system which is nearby it in the engine bay

- Fit an ME221 & vacuum pipe (with modified resistors) to control it all

Still debating whether to fit an AEM wideband as it's not FI and intend to have the car set up properly on a rolling road.

 

Just read the whole thread. It's an inspiration to anybody wanting to bring their car up to scratch (myself included). Actually, you make me feel a little bit guilty I haven't done all the things I want/need to do over the last couple of years. Of course I've plenty of excuses! :lol:

Keep up the good work, really looking forward to the engine build - n/a,standalone & light f/wheel with a sorted head and cams should be really sweet, it would be my choice too. Rock on!

 

Just read the whole thread. It's an inspiration to anybody wanting to bring their car up to scratch (myself included). Actually, you make me feel a little bit guilty I haven't done all the things I want/need to do over the last couple of years. Of course I've plenty of excuses! :lol:

Keep up the good work, really looking forward to the engine build - n/a,standalone & light f/wheel with a sorted head and cams should be really sweet, it would be my choice too. Rock on!

Thanks :thumb-up: good to know someone is reading the thread.

Took the opportunity today to tidy up the subframe that was thick in oil, then treated some surface rust on it. Now the rest of the engine bay looks dirty I'm going to have to clean that too !

Started working on the new engine today, changed over the water sensors, removed the small core plug from back of the block for one of them, then tried to replace the mk2 oil pressure sensor with the larger 'real' mk1 sensor only to find that the OEM knock sensor was in the way. A quick bit of research has assured me that it seems safe to just remove it from the engine as the NA didn't have one anyway...

(Knock sensor is the one at the top with the thick black wire coming from it)

Also spent a while playing with the coilpacks and the brackets. I decided to keep the 1.6 coilpacks if I can to minimise any changes to the car's loom. At first I did some alterations with a grinder and made up a quick alloy bracket to fit the 1.6 coils into the 1.8 bracket. This didn't give me enough clearance away from the block so I then though I'd try using the 1.6 bracket and making up some funny shaped adaptors to fit it. The 1.6 NA bracket bolts to the head, whereas the 1.8 NB top bolts direct to the rocker cover.

1st attempt with NA coils in NB bracket

Second attempt with adaptors to make NA bracket fit NB engine

Much happier with this approach, looks more factory even if I did waste a chunk of time doing it twice

My last job today was to take a look at the Flywheel oil seal, it looks pretty dry round there, a bit grubby on the block in places but no oil around the seal so I'm thinking leave well alone <_<

 

Some interesting questions over what seems like slightly different fuel hose sizes (see separate thread) https://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=384169#entry4497855 when I removed the inlet manifold it confirmed that the 1.8 UK NB cars did in fact run a return on the fuel rail which is good news. However my plan to re-use the 1.6 NA injector harness has changed due to the fact that the 1.6 injector plugs crumbled when I took them off the old car! So I'm now stripping the NB injector harness back to modify with the NA 1.6 loom plug. Both the NA & NB MX5's fires it's plugs in a wasted spark configuration and only has three wires across the four injectors (one wire is common) which means the same signal to squirt petrol into the cylinder goes to (4+2) then (3+1)

Whereas the NB loom has five wires (one common) so I need to wire them up to mimic the 1.6 sequence.

It's strange that the injectors fire in a different sequence to the plugs as one of the fuel injections goes into a closed intake valve, but apparently that's by design so it's ready to be drawn in later in the 4-stroke sequence. It's explained quite well here: https://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=15264

And an update on the flywheel oil seal, when I looked inside the gearbox bellhousing from the 1.8 car it's full of oil :wacko: so my supposition that the oil seal was good is now only a 50/50 chance that it was the crank oil seal or the gearbox oil seal. So it looks like i will be changing it after all.

 

More progress this weekend, replaced the flywheel oil seal with the help of a new seal removal tool

Fitted the newly lightened flywheel & clutch with my makeshift centring tool

I'm a big fan of my new flywheel locking tool

Trial fitted the newly bought mk1 1.8 alternator and bracket

Swapped over the electronic speedo sensor for a 4.1 manual one, also swapped the reverse light bullet connectors on the box

Fitted a new Cam cover seal, and swapped over the nice chrome cover bolts from the old 1.6 engine, fitted the CAS sensor to the exhaust cam and extended the wiring by 6" or so

And fitted the gearbox...

Just need to fit the new engine mounts, then waiting for a replacement injection loom (my connectors snapped getting them off), some 5/16 fuel injection fuel hose, and a inlet manifold gasket on back order from MX5parts.

 

looking great.

Keep it up.

LIDDERS