TII - Comments please

[Ricco_04]

Just typed out a big reply but lost the server!  Still can’t get back on now so good job I am doing this for the 2nd time in Word!

Anyway, yeah been having fun :cool  Thank you also for the comment’s  The scary part for me is to come now!  I always say “any fool can undo a nut and a bolt!”

I kinda like the smell of Gunk (don’t hurt me!)  Sure I will hate the smell soon!  Is Gunk the weapon of choice?  I was going to try and use a part’s washer (no not the Mother or dishwasher! ) which I assume uses parrafin?

As for the plate’s, the first one needed a very gentle tap and came away on the 1st tap and broke the seal to the next housing, winner!  The rest of the housings just came away by hand â€" guess I was lucky there.  Luck seem’s to be something I have been having with this engine.  Since I removed the 54mm jobbie it’s all gone without hitch and everything has been what I expected (touch wood!)

I think I will need to replace at least one of the housing’s as I can see the chrome has started to come away, just before the exhaust port.  I expect to have a few throw away job’s as after all the engine did have 116,000 miles on it.  Also interesting to see the level of buildup on the rotor’s (although I have nothing to compare it to) as the owner always’s used fully synthetic oil (first 4 years was owned by Mazda so assume they used mineral) but that’s another subject!

So looks like I’m gonna grab a cuppa and get back in the garage for another hour or so to pick out the old seals and start trying to clean up what I can so I shall leave you with the pictures, of course, it would be rude not to! :Giggle

(And I have just come back in now - was about an hour eh! :Giggle )

[Ricco_04]

Well, I haven’t done that much since my last post but here goes anyway:

Took all of the water seals out of the housing’s and the only suspicious thing I could find was this tiny lack of seal in the picture below.  I, of course, checked on the opposite housing to see if it had got stuck there but it wasn’t.



I also found this interesting ‘clump’ in one of the waterways.  Some kind of build-up, feel’s all sandy & held together with a little oil & coolant:





This is the damage around one of the exhaust ports â€" think it’s pretty much a throw away job?



Poor seal?



Asked the chap in the garage at work today if I could use his part’s washer to which he said no problem!!  So I have put 1 end plate, 1 Ali housing & 1 rotor in a box to take with me tomorrow.  Now comes the problem! When I was sliding one of the housings off the bench I forgot about one of the parts which sticks out, which caught on a rotor and promptly fell on my foot!!!  

I think I now hold the record for the most number of swear words inside of 5 seconds!  Unfortunately this has caused damage wher the apex seal sits, which you can see on the pic.  I was really annoyed with myself for doing this & I know roughly how much this cost new (if you can even still get T2 rotors!)  Oh and I also took a chunk out of my big toe which decided to soak some of my sock in claret! (Don’t really care about that, just for the rotor! :rollin)





So without even measuring anything I know I need 1 rotor (unless it can be fixed) and 1 Ali housing (also unless it can be fixed!)  It’s making me think of changing my plan and buying a 2nd hand 13bRew from an FD and using that  - haven’t even looked at any cost’s though! :rolleyes:

Well,  I’ll get those part’s washed as best as I can tomorrow :King

[dhracer]

bump :WaveBye interesting read :Thumbs-up  How are you getting along now?

[Ricco_04]

Thanks for asking fella sorry to say that since my last post I have not really done a fat lot.  I can never seem to save up enough money to get anything done.  More than once I have contemplated breaking the car as more than half the car is in boxes ready to be shipped out - but I couldn\'t possably let myself do that! :chat

Anyway, I gave the engine bay a good clean up (again!)  There is just sooooo much room in there and it crying out for a N/A 20b! I wish!

Discovered that there was a tiny leak coming from the rear wing so that has been removed and the mounting holes have been plugged up.  Rear carpet has been removed and it\'s spotless underneath! :chat



The passanger arch has had every last bit of rust removed and a good few coats of underseal to protect it.  I have also removed a few more rust spots from around the bay (about 6 areas) those have been primed and painted to stop it coming back - when its ready it will all be sanded down and painted again anyway.

Rust removed from bonnet and door hinges.  They have been repainted and refitted.

I started to take the subframe off the front but man I am either weak or the bolts are too tight!  Also going to look into fitting the Saxo lekkie steering to eliminate the standard heavy job and the weird assist that comes with it.

After the thread of someone doing their bodywork (sorry I cant remember I think it was T2Rew?) I decided to have another go at my rather terrible attempt.  I have to say I THINK I did much better than I did before! (not hard though lol)



I know they are all arty farty jobs and no proper decent work has been done, still, I thought I had done more though! I will have to get my act together!

I had a guy supposed to come round a while ago to do the rust underneath but because of the recent weather we had to call it off.  I must get in tough with him because once that\'s done then I can put the wings, nose cone and bonnet back on and have some space back in the garage!

[TiddlesRX7]

Wow thats a whole lot of work you\'ve done and still got to do. I have a front splitter on mine that needs repairing as it is cracked. Was it a hard job to do? I have never worked with fiber glass before.

[Ricco_04]

Wow thats a whole lot of work you\'ve done and still got to do. I have a front splitter on mine that needs repairing as it is cracked. Was it a hard job to do? I have never worked with fiber glass before.

Cheers for the comment\'s  It is a lot of work but if I had a proper garage with some space I dare say it would have been finished a while ago!

Anyway, bit of a blunder by myself on regards to repairing the splitter.  Fiberglass doesn\'t go well with polyurethene - as in it will not hold!  Why I tried to use fiberglass I cant remember but it was a bad idea :rolleyes:  .  I will have to find out the proper way to repair it which will be a job for the future as I have been doing a fair bit of work on the FD.

I\'m sure someone on here will have the knowledge when it comes to repairing polyurethene?

[Ricco_04]

While the FD is in the bodyshop I have been done a bit of bodywork and thought this could do with an update.

Both driver and passanger wings, both headlight covers and the bonnet have been sanded blocked, hi-build primed, blocked and sprayed with several layers of base coat and clear laquer.  All but one of the wings have been wet sanded and polished.  Quite pleased with the results for a first attempt

Irons where all within tolerence although one only just - I have decided to get all 4 surfaces lapped and buy 2 brand new rotor housings.  Just need to source the rest of the rebuild kit etc.

Headlight covers

Before picture:





Wings









Bonnet with the good old bye bye paint job!









Picture of bonnet day after, just before I wet sanded it - just need to polish it up, been doing it all by hand but I really need a reasonable mop to take the strain out of it!

[grinder]

very very very impressed matey - keep up the good work ( and the pics ! )

[Brett]

Looking good

[Ricco_04]

very very very impressed matey - keep up the good work ( and the pics ! )

Thanks mate - i\'m kind of a succer for taking pictures :spank

Looking good

Ta fella

[Grizzly]

May be worth having a chat with Carl about this, i believe he can repair rotor damage like that.

[Ricco_04]

May be worth having a chat with Carl about this, i believe he can repair rotor damage like that.

Cheer\'s fella  I did indeed pay Carl a visit.  He had offered to repair it FOC which was really cool of him.  While he was doing that I had the workshop tour (talk about kid in a sweet shop! :Laugh )

[Ricco_04]

Done very little to this car but thought I would stick up a couple more photo\'s!  The plan for the car has changed dramatically as I have now decided to do a complete stock rebuild.  As this is a uk car that will also mean 2 cat\'S!!!

I have decided to do this because basically it has come down to ££.  I want to keep the car running standard ecu and with it the 95 ron fuel.  It at least means that in the future I can still decide to change my mind but for now I won\'t have the expence of a complete exhaust system with new turbo, manifold, external wastegate, fuel pump, fpr, ecu, injectors and mapping.

All I need really is a replacement standard turbo, or would you guys advise on getting mine rebuilt? :confused:  (anyone had a stock one rebuilt??) From memory, there are no cracks, just a bit too much shaft play.

I would also need a stock manifold as mine has a few cracks - or can these be repaired.  I have no idea if thats a silly question but might as well ask. :Thumbs-up

Anyway, I decided to get the exhaust from under the car, take off any rust and repaint it with very high temp paint.  They where not that bad to be honest but I wanted to get a little bit more protection on them.



I had also send my plates off to Pip\'s to have them all lapped.  There was 1 face which was on the limit of out of tolerence and the rest where fine.  As I am using 2 new housings and obviously a brand new rebuild kit I thought it would be a good idea to have all 4 faces of the plates lapped.



Anyway, I need to look at buying the rebuild gaskets & seals.  Then I need to sort out a turbo and manifold

[TiddlesRX7]

MMMMMM shiny bits. Looking good.

[t2rew]

i got a crack free manifold and a good turbo. i also got a hks inlet. make me an offer