This ain't no build thread!

[chiefmg]

They're definitely nice. Honestly I'd probably still be using my old corded one, but the chuck stopped working and I couldn't find a new one to fit (they upsized the shafts). So, I went cordless.

[chiefmg]

Here is how the PVC pipe looks in place:



You can see the two Velcro strips I used to hold in in place. They aren’t tight enough on their own, but once the top fabric is laid across and cinched down everything stays in place. Here is a close-up shot of the finished product:



I’ll get an outside shot of that once my new thermostat shows up and is installed so I don’t have to worry about overheating things.

[chiefmg]

Didn’t get an early start in the thermostat replacement today due to rain. Finally dove into it this afternoon. Here is the thermostat I bought from Supermiata:



Their site states that you can use a Motorad/Stant 45849 (for 195 degrees) but as you can see I was sent a Gates. Not sure if they changed this or what. Had I seen that information (towards the bottom of the parts list for the reroute) I would have bought one locally. In any case I now have a couple of numbers to use for the next one.

Here is the sealant they use, I got this from AutoZone:



I removed the thermostat housing after gaining access by removing my shock tower brace. Cleaned the old sealant off using a putty knife, brass wire brush and some alcohol. Getting the snap ring that holds the thermostat in place out/back in was just as much of a PITA as I remembered. The old one didn’t appear to be stuck but I can’t say that it wasn’t when it was hot. Got the new thermostat in place, gooped up the sealing surfaces and assembled the housing. That’s all done now and waiting 24 hours for curing so I can fill the coolant.

[chiefmg]

Put the hose back onto the thermostat housing and filled her up using my Lisle spill-free funnel (if you don’t have one, it’s a great tool). Started her up to bleed the system, once that was done I shut her down and removed the funnel. Had a little coolant spill from that. Put the radiator cap back on and started her up again as I wanted to make sure the cooling fan was coming on. While waiting for that to happen I noticed some vapor coming off the radiator in back. At first I thought it was from the spillage, but a closer inspection showed the radiator cap was leaking. That explains a lot. New cap has been ordered so just have to wait for that to arrive.

While I had everything removed I went ahead and pulled all the plugs to inspect the cylinders and make sure I didn’t have any coolant inside. Gapped the plugs to 0.035 before installing. There was some corrosion in the plug wells from water ingress so I used a round brass wire brush to clean that up, then blew out the wells with compressed air. Wiped down the outside casing of the COPs before putting them back in too.

[chiefmg]

FedEx showed up earlier than normal today. I had already filled everything with coolant and bled what I could. Here’s a comparison of the old and new radiator caps, old one on the right:



You can see the groove in the blue gasket, if you squint hard you might see the groove in the black gasket. That was obviously enough to allow leakage. Put the new one in place and then went for a quick shakedown cruise. Everything looked good.

As promised I took another distance shot to better show the fitment of the bikini top with my little modification:



It lays a little flatter front to rear. I would have to compare to another top to see how tight one is that was made for a specific car but I don’t have any flapping so I figure it’s good.

[chiefmg]

Did another school pick-up run yesterday and the temp gauge was slowly rising as I was sitting in line. Didn’t see anything amiss when I got home. Today I decided to make sure my fan works so I rigged up a pigtail to connect to the fan connector and then used my old battery charger for a constant 12v supply. Fan runs as it should.

Final component that I hadn’t looked at was the fan relay. If you haven’t ever looked for it, it’s tucked away under the passenger front fender outboard of the fuse panel over there. It’s under the black protector you can see in this picture:



After removal of multiple other pieces you end up with this:




The fan relay is the one closest to the firewall. Note, you have to pry really hard to get it off the mounting bracket, so hard I was afraid I was going to break something. Made another pigtail to test this with/without power. The relay switched as it should and I saw continuity when the relay was closed. Got everything buttoned back up. The only other thing that could be affecting the cooling system is the temperature sensor (well, that and the water pump but that doesn’t seem to be the problem).

While under the hood I checked around and saw the clutch fluid was a tad low (probably from when I changed it before MATG) so I opened the cap to fill it. There was some crud in the bottom so I sucked it all out and filled it with fresh.

Took a drive to do some auto-tuning and to run a data log (to check the coolant temperature). Noticed the AFR was a lot different between the wideband gauge and what Tuner Studio was seeing (gauge was richer). The only thing I changed that might have caused that was to set my wideband input to a different AEM model (to see if that did anything for me). So I recalibrated the MS for the model I was using originally and that brought the readings into line. I don’t really understand that as the voltage settings for the two different widebands are the same, but at least it’s working well now.

[—Bryan—]

So the fan relay did nothing for you?

[chiefmg]

So the fan relay did nothing for you?

I was just testing the existing relay to make sure it was working (it was). It's hard to tell if the cooling fan is running because the supercharger snout is right there with lots of spinning belts etc. I have used a piece of paper to check the fan was running but that was with the A/C on to get both fans operating. I just wanted to work my way through the cooling system and check components.

[chiefmg]

Had another issue with the coolant temperature rising. Tested both fans again, it seemed that the A/C fan had more flow than the cooling fan (both are the same fan). I figured there was a chance that the cooling fan took a good dose of the supercharger oil and maybe was not operating at full output. So, I ordered a new Spal fan from Summit Racing. FYI, when I originally bought the fans back in 2011 they were $65 each. Now they are $89.

While waiting on that I had a hard think about the supercharger. With an upcoming trip I didn’t want to worry about having it fail so made the difficult decision to remove it for now. I have been working on that over the past couple of days. I got the stock intake setup I bought a while back from storage and proceeded to remove everything, right down to the intercooler. Doing this was a little bit of a PITA because of the bending of brackets for the A/C condenser I had to do when installing the MP62. This has to be done, mainly for the A/C receiver/drier as otherwise you won’t get the condenser far enough out of the way to keep the radiator from hitting it. I found that two nuts holding the receiver onto its bracket had gone missing at some point and the body of the receiver showed signs of rubbing on the intercooler bracket bolt (luckily hadn’t worn through). I did have to buy a new upper radiator hose as I had cut that one down for the radiator being moved back 4-5” for the intercooler. The air temperature sensor wiring had to be extended for the same reason. I also couldn’t find the throttle cable bracket I had fabbed up for when I sent to ‘charger off for repairs a while back so made another. I have ordered a stock replacement for that from SNS Mazda Parts, since I don’t know just how long I will leave it in this configuration. Luckily I did still have the upper mounting brackets for the A/C condenser (next time I will put all that stuff in a baggie and label it). While I was underneath I cleaned all the supercharger oil that had coated a lot of stuff (power steering pump, A/C compressor etc).

I took her out for a shake-down run, will have to do some tuning but she ran well. Going to take some getting used to not having the instant-on throttle response of the ‘charger though. Sucks not having that sweet whine either. I have to do some thinking over my way forward for power enhancement, whether it is getting the supercharger looked at, going turbo or maybe even an engine swap. Rest assured if I do that I will stay in the Mazda family.

[HarryB]

Having to do all that work sucks, especially when you are left with less power. Nevertheless, it was the sensible thing to do and I would do the same. However, if you ever consider a swap, I would suggest looking beyond Mazda engine offerings, there are much better options out there (although MZR/Duratec is a very underrated platform)

[chiefmg]

Thanks Harry. I actually could have left the ancillaries in place as I have before but decided since it would be some time before I decided on my way forward, I'd remove everything.

If I decide to engine swap I'm leaning towards a 2.5 KL. I'll have to see if Crap Engineering is still making parts for that. I did some research today for supercharger repair, Jon Bond Performance is now charging $975. Given that I used them the last time and it hasn't held up I don't think I'll go with them. A parts kit alone is close to $500. I'll figure something out.

[—Bryan—]

I mean, you could do a KL, but the Honda J-Series beckons...

[chiefmg]

Sure, if you're paying.

Ya' know, you have a donor parked right next to the Tick...

[—Bryan—]

Sure, if you're paying.

Ya' know, you have a donor parked right next to the Tick...

The thought has crossed my mind. They are SOHC, but run like a sewing machine.

[chiefmg]

Had another episode of the temperature gauge going up without the fan coming on. Last thing to try was a coolant temperature sensor. Picked one up locally and installed that. On that shake-down I was surprised to see that the coolant was getting colder. Best guess is either it was the wrong one, or a manufacturing defect. Pulled it today and went back up to the local place, explained what went on. They double-checked that the number I gave them crossed correctly to the part number they sold me and it did. Despite electrical items not normally being refunded after use, they did so and said they would damage it out. I have another sensor coming from Amazon.

Received the throttle cable bracket and installed that, I didn’t realize that it is tilted to feed the throttle cable into the throttle body at an angle (not something I have ever looked at on a stock Miata). Alex at SNS also included a sticker that had MATG on it so that is now on my tool cabinet. I put the cable through the two holders along the firewall so it stays where it should. While I was under the hood I lubed the wiper linkage with this dry lube:



I also used the same to lube the antenna mast after cleaning it with alcohol.

I went ahead and removed the stock radio with my aux in cable in favor of the Nakamichi I had installed a while back. It’s more radio than I really need but figure it will work out better for my trip with Bluetooth capability. I did send off the old double-DIN 626 radio I originally installed when I bought her to see about getting the cassette deck repaired and a Bluetooth module installed at this place: https://sites.google.com/view/bishop...tereo-rep/home That will give me an in-dash 6 CD changer, cassette player and the Bluetooth. Should cover everything I want and let me listen to my old cassettes. I’ll let everyone know how that works out.