Chris' Mazda 323F V6

[hoodedreeper]

Its been a busy Sunday having spent majority of the available daylight working on the 323F.

I begun by removing the strut brace, airbox, battery/battery tray and radiator slam panel.

I also unbolted the battery earth bracket, fuse box, coolant expansion tank, power steering reservoir to gain more access to the painted areas.



I then brushed on some Gunk Ultra Degreaser and wiped clean with a damp microfibre. This stuff is great for engine bays, unlike regular Gunk, it doesn't require you to hose it off only a damp cloth.



I did the best I could, it's not 100% clean but its a vast improvement from before considering I only removed the minimum.



I got the car up on axle stands so I could drain the coolant. The old stuff was an awful yellow/green colour. The system at work had 2 suppliers list both red and blue coolant. I played it safe and kept with the green variant.



The collapsed radiator hose was replaced along the other upper hose, all of the coolant hoses received new jubilee clips. I also installed a replacement intake hose and vacuum solenoid.



I also gave the air box, battery tray, battery cover, coolant and PAS reservoirs a degrease. The brackets and radiator panel were wire brushed to bare metal and sprayed in Satin Tough Black paint (I've been using this for quite a few years and love it)





With everything back together it was finally time to see if the vacuum leak was fixed. Thats when I discovered the battery clamp bolts wouldn't tighten any further and were loose on the battery terminals. I tried jump starting it using a spare battery but I think both are in need of a charge.

Until next time...