"KIMI" - The RPM 1st Gen S2 (with bits of S3...)

[spoddy]

lucky man, i\'d love to get my hands on an fb to tinker about with and put back on the road. my father got his 300d w124 merc back, great job done on the rusted chassis and rear arch near the mudflap. all rust cut out and new metal welded in and mechanic put this black waxy stuff on, made a great job of her. now just to rebook mot and get her on the road again, but for £80 welding costs, not bad. sorry not fb related but was impressed with the work so now know someone who could repair an fb etc if i got one.

but if you ever hear of anything let me know.

[David Nock (RIP)]

I\'m still watching Spod.

I used a Triumph Body Specialist to repair the back reinforcing plates on my FB. Glad to say that any proficient body repairer can deal with \'em they\'re so straightforward.

[shaunwil]

I plated mine up last year on the drivers side on both sides. Seems to have stood up quite well.

Shaun

[Casey]

Arrgh...

Went to Halfords yesterday to pick up a list of stuff we needed, including some antifreeze. Confronted with about ten different products, all eth-glyc based. Can someone advise on the "correct" one(s) to use and the ones to avoid? I recall reading "don\'t use the red/pink ones, only blue?"

What\'s the difference, anti-corrossion additives?

Anyway, here is the Halfords product range, advice would be much appreciated!

Halfords Anti-Freeze

[David Nock (RIP)]

My advice is to forget Halfords for this Malc. The best in my opinion is \'Bluecol\'.

Find some at motor factors in 5litre size. May be difficult to find but it\'s worth it. That size will last then for 2 or 3 changes.

Change every 2/3 years or so...then next time the old coolant is drained out of the car it will still be clean and blue.

Used this stuff since 1964. Used it in the FB\'s for the last 25 years.

Dave

[HypoThermia]

Is this the stuff David? http://www.bluecol.co.uk/index.cfm?product=61

We had another look at the car today and unfortunately once the rad had been drained and been disconnected it it became clear that there wasn\'t  anything other than water in there :confused: Very heavily silted up to be sure, but still water. Looks like we\'ll be doing a very thorough flush of the engine! We did flush out the rad with a garden hose, but that\'s only part of the system. Its still disconnected as we don\'t have a cooling fan connected back on yet.

Thanks for all your help so far as well... very much appreciated. We\'re all enjoying working on the car and learning as we go...

Malcolm has an update on the oil seal for the back axle - I\'ll let him spill the news...

Ian.

[CHC (RIP)]

Bluecol everytime :InLove

[David Nock (RIP)]

Is this the stuff David? http://www.bluecol.co.uk/index.cfm?product=61

Ian.

That\'s the stuff Ian.....Link repeated; another plug for my favourite.

[Casey]

^^Thanks David and Cliff for the Bluecol advice. Crikey, I\'d forgotten that brand, which I remember using on my very first car back in the 1970\'s, but I didn\'t know it still existed! I will order some; no stockist near me so have found some online, about £23 for 5L delivered.

- Report of work that Ian (Hypothermia) & I did yesterday....

1. Ian carefully dremeled out the high spots in the rear axle bore ready for the new oil seal. I had some Loctite gasket sealant ready to go on, but we removed the new oil seal from the wrapper to test fit it and, ARRRRRGGGGHHHH, it was found to be loose in the bore! It’s diameter is about 1mm less than the original one!! So it seems I have two different oil seals and they are BOTH the wrong ones! Gutted, to say the least, that this prevented us from reassembling the rear axle. I’ll get onto Tim at RX-8 Motors tomorrow and see if he can now identify which is the correct seal. I wish I’d test fitted it earlier.....
2. The radiator is out. Top hose came off easily, the bottom two hose were a real pain, especially as some of the clips had rusted up solid! The radiator was then thoroughly flushed with a hosepipe to clear the totally BLACK liquid & silt that came out for ages (see pic). We then attacked some rust spots on the rad mounts with angle grinder and dremel. I just need to clean the rad up of some dirt and it’ll be ready for a coat of black Hammerite on the tanks and mounts. We’ll then leave it out until the electric fans that Will66 has ordered are available to fit.
3. We filled the gearbox with Race Synth 5 oil (~1.5 litres), so that job is now complete.
5. We used my brand new “Clarke” bolt extractor set to try and remove one of the (non-critical) rear seat bracket mounts. Hmmm, that didn’t go well. We tried making the extractor starter hole with the supplied HSS 2mm drill bit but it hardly touched the bolt â€" we maybe got 1-2mm hole at best. That drill then snapped! I had a titanium 2mm drill which then did the job much better. We then used the extractor tool and it too SNAPPED before the bolt moved, leaving part of the extractor in the bolt we were trying to remove.Hey-ho, we\'ll have to give up on this one for now! An interesting experience using a tool we’d never used before!
6. We had a look at cleaning up the “new” set of wheels (with the set of Michelin tyres); “Wonder Wheels” didn’t do anything much, and the dremel tools didn’t really work either (and would have been really slow). The wheels will need some aggressive polishing with an electrical tool and "compound" of some type. I’ll experiment a bit on this one.....
7. A small drop of oil has again collected on the engine sump. As we had degreased this area previously, Ian and I have identified the oil is either coming from the drain plug or the OMP situated just above the drain plug. I’ll clean up and degrease the area again  so we can investigate further. This is much easier now with as, with the rad and fan removed I can almost step into the gap between the front of the car and the engine!
8. We started to angle grind the rust from the rear bumper, probably about a third done I guess, before we decided to call it a day....

Satisfying progress on the things that did go well, but everything is taking a lot longer than originally anticipated - no surprise there then

[spoddy]

the common hold up being rust lol.
bolts rusting up, having to drill out, but sure it will be worth it in the end.

don\'t give up and take your time and it\'ll be done right first time.
are you going to pre-mix the fuel when you get the car going?
been reading how important it is, even with the modern rotary engines.

[Casey]

I got the wrong seals the first time round too

We seem to have "bettered" you Shaun! As you can see from the last report, we now have the wrong seals twice :o

Have now emailed Tim at RX-Motors with photos of the failed and incorrect parts in the hope of identifying the correct one.

Having gone through the 1984-85 parts microfiche it may be we have the 1985 rear axle, not the original 1983 one, as this is a different part number again..... The line diagram of the rear axles are identical, as are MOST of the part numbers, except the oil seal, so maybe this is it

How many oil seals could Mazda have used for the same application over a 2 year period :confused:

As a "hedge" I also popped into my local Mazda dealer (walking distance from my home) and spoke to the guy at the parts counter. We chatted for ages as he is a bit of a rotary enthusiast. He put me on to Paul at Mazda Braintree (not far from me either), who has "been around a while" and it was thought might be able to help better. I\'ve since spoken to Paul and he\'s been very helpful on the phone and has gone off to try and find out what the correct part number might be.

[shaunwil]

Thought there was only 2 types of seals ! At least it isn\'t your daily driver :Giggle

Shaun

[Casey]

^^Thank goodness it isn\'t a daily driver! I just hope the new part number I\'ve found is the one. Surely there can\'t be any more types out there!

are you going to pre-mix the fuel when you get the car going?

Hmm, spoddy, interesting question - one I was saving for later, but as you\'ve raised it....

There is huge debate about this in the RX-8 forum. Some (minority) now use premix in their RX-8\'s.

What is the view of the RX-7 Gen 1 owners on this? I\'d be tempted to say we should pre-mix. If that is the concensus, what oil and what concentration? Has anyone removed the OMP and relied solely on premix?

Is there any danger of clogging up the carb through pre-mix?

[David Nock (RIP)]

The axle should be S2 as you\'ve got S2 wheels, 13" with bolts. I remember they\'re bolts on Kimi.
The S3 uses 14" wheels with nuts onto studs in the half shaft, so the only chance of an S3 axle housing is if the diff and half shafts were changed over at the time of reshelling, rather than the fitter pulling all the suspension apart to change the complete axle assemblies....quite possible I suppose, as an easy fix, always assuming S3 oil seals will fit the diameter of S2 shafts.

I use Pre Mix now with a working OMP, because of the engine\'s age. I use Millers KB2T at a premix into the tank of 250:1. That\'s 80ml per 20 litres of fuel. He smokes a bit on start up but that quickly clears. No clogging up occurs.
I figure that it\'s a belt and braces to prolong engine life at this time.

Plenty folks use Pre Mix with no OMP. I think the mix goes up to 100:1 in that case....anyone confirm that mix?

Dave

[Will66]

I have been pre-mixing my RX8 since I got the new motor, seems to like it.  Either Protek-R or Motul 710.  I figure it can\'t hurt particularly given my penchant for "rigorously exercising" the engine once it\'s warmed up nicely.

Whilst I will not be driving Kimi with such abandon, I reckon it would be a good idea to preserve the motor.  We\'ve got no compression figures for her but we got her up to running temperature and shut her down, left her for five minutes or so and then restarted her, she fired up almost instantly without any choke so the signs are reasonably positive.