Messages

Evening all, Finally started to work on my fd in the last day or so and just about to pull the box and tranny out to do a few bits on it and tidy up the engine bay.

While its out and complete with gbox and starter i want to check its going to run and do a compression test as it hasnt been cranked over in well over a year and half!

Any tips or tricks for cranking a rotary that hasnt turned for a long time? Ive drained the oil but is it worth  putting some more in there?

Cheers

Update about this thread,
 
Sadly we have had to withdraw selling Gen 2 track rod ends as we have found all of our suppliers now have no stock and they have been discontinued :3Confused
 
As per a post on this thread we actually bought a pair for a 1990 MK1 MX-5 to double check and found that sadly even though they visually look the same the hole that screws onto the track rod itself is only 10mm and not the 12mm required for the Gen 2
 
Sharing this so nobody wastes any money

Well your wrong. there are 2 track rod ends for mk1 mx5. one is m10 one is m12.
 
These will fit people ill get you the part number in a min

yes mate mark1

just had a quick look. na mx5 ones look pretty much identical!!! length, design, threads all same the same!!

Might be worth a shot as mx5 ones are really cheap

i work at ecp so ill have a look and see what i can find tomorrow mate

Im working until 4pm might pop up after

Cool i live in Wboro but my unit is in burton latimer. Ill prob be needing your help over the next few months if thats ok mate

hi mate, nope its in dunstable. Heard you are pretty local though? Ive put the deposit on it now

i havent got 3k at moment. Only interested as it was up for 1300 with some spares but ive got him down to a grand. To be honest i should really be sorting my r33 and bike out first but this court my eye

Evening all,

I went to view a fd3 tonight. Its a complete car minus a few bits and bobs but it currently doesn\'t run.

The guy brought it as a bare shell a few years ago to build up as his daily but he lost interested and gave it. He brought the running gear from a chap on fduk and saw it running before it was removed from a crash damaged car and it ran and drove fine.

However when he put it in his shell it wouldnt run properly. It was start then cut out after 15-20 secs. He put a power fc on it and ALL the sensors were only showing 4volts? He checked earths but couldnt see anything up and thats when he gave up. So its currently got the inlet manifold, intercooler in a box in garage and its now missing the air pump and power steering pump everything else seems to be there and in good condition.

Is the wiring a common problem on these things? earths,sensors,loom? could it be something simple or be deadly?

Apart from that its all there apart from missing some interior trims, exhaust, dooor handles and headlamp covers and the paint is abit tatty

Is it worth a punt?? Ive got him down to a grand. Sound good?

Cheers

Miles

very interested in the turbo mate. Send me some pics if poss.

Miles.potn@gmail.com

cheers

Ok mate thanks. Should it need any throttle tO start?

Yeah I checked everywhere. I\'m used to rusty nissans so no where to check lol.

So the engine starting prob and low idle doesn\'t really matter to much? It did drive fine apart from that. I didn\'t do a hot start as I forgot.

Yeah he said it was running around 280ish. Seemed to pull well. no flat spots or anything.

Nope no paper work. He said

It has pineapple racing apex seals, changed by Kevin Schmidt of Rotarded industries based in chicago. he is a very good friend of mine, he done the engine when he was visiting over a year and half ago.

its done 57k to date. rebuild was at around 45k it didnt need anything, the rotor housing were all in spec nothing was warped or in need of skiming,  but i still got the center piece machined both sides and put new apex seal from pineapple racing, the waterseals were good. i only done it because like i said my mate done it for me for free because i had plans of putting bigger turbo and stuff just wanted to be on the safe side

I checked all the sills, turrets, chassis legs, boot, engine bay etc. Looked all good really.

I will change the fuel filter straight away. He says he changes the oil every 3-4 months with mineral 10w40. oil and water levels were good.

Im sure its a turboII. Heres some pics.





Thanks for the help Mitch:Thumbsup!

I have a Knightsports chip in mine, seems spot on boost wise and the mods that have been done are correct so it looks like they know what they were doing, the car should be at around 280ish up from the heavily restricted 200bhp mark.

Do you have full paperwork for the rebuild? Check to see what seals were used etc, if the builder was going via pineapple racing it might have some HD waterseals which are apparently very good. Did he say why it needed a rebuild after only 45,000 miles? My FC is on 89k miles with compressions of 7 still.

Check for rust on the front and rear sills and on the rear of the arches as thats where they usually go, also look at the front just infront of the radiator there is a pipe, its the power steering cooler pipe, usually rusts and gets a pinhole leak, not a massive issue, just check to see what condition its in.

Also check the oil level - the engine is ment to use oil as it uses a total loss oil system, best to top up with 10w40 mineral. Also check the radiator, the stock temp gauge isn\'t the best, basically if it rises above half its already overheated, the 2 things that kill rotaries are overheating and running lean on fuel.

I would definatly recomend changing the fuel filter.

I would also get some photos up of the car and the engine bay, are you sure its a turbo II and not just a turbo? Is it UK spec or US spec?

Hi mate. Yeah thought as much. Thats not really to much of a prob.

Battery did look abit old. Was a crappy halfords one.

Its boosting to 12psi. Its got a knight sports ecu or chip. walbro pump, Bov of kind. Will chuck that in the bin anyway. Exhaust, filter. He did say the fuel filter needs changing.

He said it had a rebuild last year. But only changed the apex seals. Replaced with pineapple racing ones by some guy called  Kevin Schmidt of Rotarded industries based in chicago

Its done 57000miles. rebuild was done at 45

Hi there, the rear getting water into it is probably some blocked drain holes or a perished seal on the rear hatch.

The car can take a few seconds to start, depends on how good the battery is, might be worth replacing as it might be quite old.

This might just be a simple adjustment of the TPS or a small vac leak - the rubber hoses etc can perish and cause all sorts of idle issues as the solinoids are mainly vac operated.

You need to ask what is is being boosted to, 0.6 bar is standard boost, 0.9bar is max boost on stock injectors, running the engine lean on fuel will cause detonation and will basically damage the engine and will need a rebuild, ask the guy what chipped ECU/ECU its running, if its still stock, walk away if its been boosted.

Walbro pump is good, I had a Walbro pump in mine, if its not got a resistor mod or an aftermarket FPR it will run very rich though.

How long did the guy idle the car for? Hopefully the car wasn\'t revved from cold

You need to go to a specialist for the compression tester, ie mazda or a rotary tuner, you CANNOT use a piston engine compression tester, they don\'t work as there is 3 readings from the 3 faces of the rotor, so you should get 6 readings and they will state the RPM, 8-9 = new engine, 7-8 = very good engine, 6-7 engine is still ok for a while, below 6 = getting close to rebuild time. Key is to have even compression over the faces, so if it was say a 7,7,4 on the rear rotor there would be an issue.

Hope that helps