Miata: Warmer today, so back into the garage. Started by checking the clearance on the intake valves, all were very tight. Pulled the cam and measured all the shims. Did the same for the exhaust side. Basically everything was overly tight so I am going to have to get some shims. I figured out what all I will need, going to hit the dealer tomorrow to get them ordered.
Miata: Back at it again, got the shims on order first thing this morning. This afternoon I decided to start with the steering wheel to see if the hub was going to need any modification beyond moving the turn signal cancel mechanism bushing. Amazingly, I didn't have to do anything else to get it mounted.
I haven't rigged up the airbag resistor yet, I need some smaller StaKons than what I have on hand.
Started putting things back on the engine with the intake side first. Got the manifold and injectors back on. Put the radiator hose on my reroute at the back of the engine. Installed the extended studs for the supercharger mounting bracket and tightened the remaining nuts on the exhaust manifold, only to find out one of the nuts was stripped. I am guessing that happened when I was working on getting the stock studs out of those three locations on the new head. So that put a crimp in getting anything else done today. I'll hit Ace tomorrow to see if they have a fine thread metric nut I can use. In the meantime, she's asleep for the night:
Miata: Ace let me down so it was back to the dealer. Gave the guy the part number, he typed it into the computer and then disappeared in the back. When he came back he had the five nuts I asked for in his hand. Best part? He didn't charge me for them. That made my week. Got home and used two of the nuts, that got the exhaust manifold finished. Put the manifold blanket in place and installed the supercharger mounting bracket. That was pretty much it for under the hood, as I want to leave myself as much room as possible to get the timing belt back on once the valve lash is set.
Decided to look at what I needed to do in order to connect the horn and driver's airbag resistor. Cut the wire off the factory steering wheel, added some extra length with soldering/heat shrink and then put a disconnect on the end. That should take care of the horn.
Unfortunately the resistor wouldn't fit into the airbag connector, so I am going to pick & pull tomorrow to see if I can find an blown airbag with the connector on it to use as my bypass.
Miata: Went to the junkyard this morning. Found several donors but then also discovered I neglected to bring a 10mm socket with me (to remove the airbag). They didn't have any to lend so I shot back home, got the socket and then returned. Donor car was a 1999 Protégé, but there are several choices around that year for the same connectors (that I know of). Got home and commenced to put it all together:
That gave me a plug and play airbag resistor. I also picked up a horn connector so I could put my stock wheel back to as it was for quick swapping (wish I had thought of this before cutting the horn connector off yesterday). Everything is now connected for the wheel, the test will come once I have everything back together and have power on the car. No word on my shims though.
Miata: Couldn't really do much else today, so connected the battery (which is on the charger) to test my steering wheel controls. Horn works, turn signal cancel works in both directions and the airbag light goes out as normal. I'll have to see once I can drive her if the airbag light will stay out or not, but right now I'ma happy.
Miata: Very pissed off. Did not receive my valve shims in time to get her back together before heading back to work. I stopped by the dealer today and they had all of them except for one. Why not call me and let me get what you had? Kind of a moot point anyway as my digital caliper decided to die. So, I put some parts back into the engine bay for protection and then sadly walked away. Stay tuned in another couple of months.
Miata: Got home last week and made it in to the dealer on Saturday. Guy went right back and got the last shim. On vacation now but will be posting more next week so stay tuned...
RX8: wish I was as reliable
IS THIS PITTSPEED? :(
I have one for sale...Originally Posted by fatti03msp
RX8: wish I was as reliable
Miata: Home Tuesday, took the day off yesterday to rest from our 12 hour drive. I did go to the dealer yesterday to order a new undertray, my old one slipped under the garage door while I was closing it a few months back and got damaged. Today I started off slow by washing the wife's car. While I was doing that the dealer called to say the undertray was in so once the car wash was done I headed up there to pick it up.
Getting home it was time to dive back in. The exhaust camshaft had some surface rusting, probably as a result of some weird weather before I went back to work. I cleaned that up with a brass wire brush, some non-marring Scotchbrite pads, WD-40 and elbow grease. PSA, if you are going to have your camshafts sitting around for any period of time I would recommend coating them with some sort of preservative like grease.
I had made up a sheet with all the shim measurements when I tore things down, and I couldn't find the damn thing. After some frustrated searching I found I had left it inside the factory manual. With that in hand I started in getting the exhaust cam set up. Put the shims in that I calculated needing, installed the cam and then checked the clearance. A couple were a little tight but the rest were fine. Next up was the intake cam. I used more of the new shims here, unfortunately they were all tighter than the exhaust cam shims. I'm going to go ahead and try running it as is, I don't really expect any issues.
Once that was done it was install the new cam seals, cam sprockets and then the timing belt. Put back all the little covers for the timing belt, installed the spark plugs then installed the valve cover with a new gasket. All torqued properly of course (it's really hard feeling the in-lb wrench click when it's on a lower setting). Put the accessory belts on and tensioned those. Routed the intake hose where it needed to go, then installed the supercharger. Radiator was next followed by the location cover up top. At that point I decided to call it a day, I needed to reclaim my battery charger from one of my sons so I can get her started tomorrow. I didn't take any pictures because it's all work I have done before.
Still to go is putting on the lower radiator hose and some fasteners on the bottom, including the new undertray. Front shock brace, cowling cover (I'm going to wait on that until after a test drive) and filling the cooling system. Then, test drive!
'81 RX-7, '00 Miata SE, '06 RX-8 (wife's), '15 CX-5 GT AWD.
Miata: Got back into it today. Finished hooking up the radiator and other bits and pieces. Jacked up the front end and put my nifty filling funnel on the radiator. Had to go to the store for some more antifreeze. Once everything was full I went to start her up, only to find that the battery was low. I had it charging on a low amp setting overnight but when I checked it was only at 8.5 volts. Tried starting her anyway using the "Start" setting on my charger with no luck. I went ahead and set the charger for a higher amp setting to see where that would get me. Tried again a little while ago, still without success but the battery is up to 11.5 volts without the charger connected. Given the battery is 5 years old and my schedule I figure it is done for, so another battery is ordered. The charger is still connected in case I can get it back up enough to get her started to burp the cooling system.
And for all of those who are visually driven, you have seen pictures of what she looked like stripped so here is one as she sits now:
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