Spanner and Hammer Speed Shop

It was high time I finally got the MX5 finished and back together, so I have had a few days on it and we’ll it’s back to where it was….bugger.

As a summary it is a 1.8 VVT bottom end with my original mk1 head. Now the logical thing to do would have been to put the complete VVT unit in, but I did not want to add additional wires and change by ECU. Besides I had a skimmed, cammed, flowed head and I like a challenge. I had it all together and working, but it was tappetyleaked oil from the back and coolant from the water inlet……that was 7 months ago.

So I stripped the car down again and discovered that the oil leak was the CAS. I had deliberately left it loose(the cam cap and the long bolt) as I was going to adjust the timing…. Oil pi**ed out the back and ran down the block and out the bellhousing drain hole. Simple fix

The coolant leak turned out to be because I painted the mating surface and the paint was porous and allowed the coolant past the bolts as a weep. Stupid schoolboy mistake. Still it turns out that cleaning it up with a wire wheel in the drill while holding it between my lags was a bigger mistake…… it slipped, caught my shorts and nearly drilled my nuts off! Ouch! Refitted with an OEM gasket that has indents to locate it and blue hymol….perfect.

I had it all back together and it fired up. Oil leak and coolant leak fixed, but still rattled. Italian tune up fixed the tappets, but then it sprung another oil leak and I cried.

Today it is still in bits, all the belts off, cam gears off, rocker off and I have timed it it up about 8 times so far…… and I hopefully fixed another oil leak!

Some 23,610 clicks on the advert and the Carbeque is sold.🥲🥲🥲

Off to make an Mx5 based bar at the new house out of the arse end of one……wonder where there is one?

Occasionally I could be accused of over complicating things, for instance…..

My father wanted a 23mm socket on a 2’ bar, so I duly purchased a 23/21mm socket and tried to center up and weld in a 10mm mild steel rod. I knew cantering would be a challenge but I figured on welding in some flanged nuts to fill the 21mm side and then pillar drill a suitable hole and then to weld the rod into this. It may have worked, we shall never know, but I also knew it was on the p**s and wrong.

Thinking about it I then ordered some 21mm wheel nuts (Kia I think) which filled the socket perfectly and allowed the rod to centre up a lot easier. I was about to weld the nut into the 2nd socket I have purchased when I realised there was no need. I also realised he already has a 23mm socket and that I did not need to purchase a second.

So moral of the story…… simplify the plan and if the first one is no good don’t be scared to say you did a crap job and do it again.

Post 2 of 2 of Christmas present making.

Previously I mad a cow model from a USA style post box and ply wood for my youngest brother……but alas the weather had taken it’s toll or rather it’s woodern legs. So a new cow was needed.

A classic gas bottle based sculpture coming up.

Now that we are past the presents I can share a few other things I have been making……as they were presents.

Anyway 1 of 2 posts updating what I have been making. First up a manikin like I made before out of washers, but here made with 2p’s!
2p’s are not all copper, most are an iron based alloy that you can MIG weld. So here is the build…..

Seasons Greetings to all our followers.

Chaz & Mark.

This is the replacement for the Abarth.

BMW Z4 M Sport 20i, 66k miles, full BMW service history, all the options ticked and with the full BMW extended warranty.

I had been looking for one of these for a while and had some pretty specific requirements, ie a manual with all the toys including iDrive, premium leather and as many of the other opinions as I could get.
Initially I toyed with the 6 cylinder models thinking that the 30i M Sport would tick all the boxes.

The 35i and 35iS (300 & 340 bhp respectively) looked good options too but the only ones of those within my price range were leggy examples with well over 100k on them.
I like the idea but not the potential running costs and repair bills.....

I drove a 30i and a 23i (confusingly the 23i is the 2.5lt straight six based on the 3.0lt six pot) and nice as they were manual versions with the right spec for me are few and far between.
The 23i puts out around 190bhp and the 30i around 240bhp so enough power to play with.

That got me onto looking at 4 pot cars (18i, 20i and 28i) all of which are 2lt turbo motors. The power on these is 150bhp, 190bhp and 240bhp for the 18i, 20i and 28i respectively.
So the power of the 20i is pretty much equivalent to the 23i and the 28i is equivalent to the 30i. Get a 20i mapped and they go reliably to 250bhp so equivalent to the 30i.

I drove a 28i and 20i and to be fair liked them as much as the six pot cars. With similar power, less running costs and more nimble handling due to the lower weight of the 4 pot over the 6 pot I opened up to considering the 4 pot cars.

This gave me a much wider variety of cars to choose from (although the manuals are far fewer in numbers over the automatics) and it was a case of narrowing down the piant colour, interior colour and the rest of what I wanted which absolutely was not anything with cream leather which scuppered a good few cars!

The one I settled on just happened to be in North Glasgow (the one you want is never close!) and Mark was good enough to take me there hang around for two hours whilst the deal was done and follow me half was home.

Hell of a first journey in the Z4 that was!
Having purchased the car we filled up and I drove from Galsgow to Cambridge in one hit.
Seven hours on the nose.
This alone gave me the reassurance that I'd brought the right car!
It returned 48mpg at a steady 70mph on cruise and I got out and walked into the house with nothing worse than an stiff right ankle (I have broken it three times and it twinges a bit after a long drive)

Plans for the car are simple.
Update the infotainment to add Android Auto.
Drive and enjoy.
All very well in principle I know..........

So, that's pretty much everything done on the Abarth that I wanted to get done. Apart form a couple of badges that I am debating over Fio is finished.

It's been an enjoyable and fun car to own and I do love hooning about in it. Reminds me of some of the quick Minis I owned in me yoof...

Next car already brought so as much as I love the car it'll be up for sale shortly, as small as it is I can't fit three on the drive.....

Full spec with all of the work done will be in the advert that will be posted shortly....

Not much on at the Cambridge end of the S&HSS this weekend.
I did manage a bit of kit upgrading though.......

Project Abarthstard. "Oiled up!"

So the time has come for the Abarthstard"s oil service. Whilst I am at it we'll to the cabin filter and a set of plugs......

Mini update no. 1

Some of the folks who have followed the S&HSS will remember that around 5 years ago Max brought his first car. This is a barn find (a real one) classic 1980 Mini Clubman which had been stood since 1999. The car has been in storage with us since we brought it and due to circumstances we have now lost the storage space.

This means that we need to get it to a watertight and sealed up state so it can live outside thus giving me space to work on the Elise.

The Mini is a very solid car only requiring front floors, flitch panel and outer sills to make it structurally sound for an MOT.

It also needs a clutch, clutch master and slave cylinders and a brake master cylinder.
Over the next few months I'll be doing a lot of this work.

The first job was to see if the motor was okay and if we could get it started.

Project Abarthstard. Episode "Is that it now then?"

So, having removed and sold the red leather Tourismo interior and modded the subwoofer the Sabelt interior was fitted.

Project Abarthstard. Episode "New boots, refurbished wheels and a subwoofer on a diet"

Although the original Essesse wheels on the car were in good condition they really needed a refurb. Having swapped a set of Supersport wheels for a new never fitted set of Michelin PS5 tyres......

Project Abarthstard. Episode "Really!"

One of the things I wanted to do with the Abarthstard was to put in a decent stereo. Having looked at the Chinese offerings I decided to go for one of established players and came upon a company called Dynamic Sounds. After having perused their Web shop I decided that if I was going to go for a DABS head unit and wanted Apple Car Play & Android Auto it ought to be the wireless version. I settled on a Kenwood DMX7722DABS which Dynamic Sounds supplied with all the gubbins to fit it in the car ensuring full compatibility with Blue & Me. Best thing about it is that the reception for BBC Radio 4 is exceptional.

Bit of a catch up from the Cambridge end of the SAHSS on Project Abarthstard.

Bonnet lift kit and Forge turbo inlet pipe.
The bonnet lift kit was recommended to me by Tim Collins. He had fitted one to his car and was suitably impressed enough to suggest I fit on too. The kit is made by Dark Designs and costs £50 which I think is reasonable.

Back on to the Engine table project made out of the old MX5 engine and including an exhaust manifold lamp. It has taken us a bit of time to get an exhaust manifold and back together to finish it off.

We had the feet and the supports made last time, so first up was to assemble this to see the height and then sort the glass.

Cardboard aided design was extensively used. As was using paper and dirty hands rubbed over the block face to locate the bolt holes that will carry the glass. With a suitable bit of card we found the centres and then overlayed the paper rubbing to transfer the bolt hole centres.

The lamp is a Mk2 (NB) exhaust manifold that is welded to a bit of angle iron mounted to the back of the block. We used two of the water pump mount holes, again using dirty finger rubbed over paper to trace the outline and the bolt holes relative to each and transfer to the angle iron.

Holiday, kids, work, wife……they all get in the way right
So today was the first time in the garage for a while, with a few jobs to do.

The youngest’s panda refused to start the other day from his place of work, meaning Dad to the rescue with a jump…. But the underlying reason needed fixing….. and an MX5 needed finishing.

Clean up all the battery contacts and the earths, new battery and then on the MX5, refit the de-cat pipe and till the gearbox with oil.

It has been far too long since the last post and progress has been erm…..slow.

List of little jobs and then a bit of mission creep to fit a wideband controller.

Spoiler alert, it fired up, but ran ritch so decided to go down the wideband controller route.

I was determined to fire it up today……what could possibly stop me now right, home stretch and only fitting new parts? Well today was 2 steps forwards and 1 back kind of day, in the main trying to sort the linkage. I knew i could not fire it today though as i wanted the ECU looking at to reset a number of settings, but could do everything else right?

Well I won’t lie, I believed it would fire up today….. but alas it still fights me.

Started out easily enough, basically torquing up various mounts etc and then moving on to adding back the various cables and pipes before fitting the ITB’s…. Simple hey? Nope we lost an hour or so trying to sort the stripped thread on the clutch slave cylinder and a further hour of so faffing with linkages and getting WOT adjusted……but next week!

This weekend was an epic milestone, the sodding engine is back in! From getting on the crane to in the car on the mounts and PPF….3.5h of fighting!
How people say they do this in a few hours is beyond me!
Today, 2 days later…….I ache all over, from manhandling a gearbox on my chest into the tunnel and from repeatedly rolling on the floor. Sam Biggs, I could not have done this without your help, 100%.

It has been quite a while since my last update, and much progress has been made. Not withholding Goodwood Members meeting, Bicester scramble and GnT getting in the way!

We left it with me braking mail bearing support Plates or windage trays…. Let’s continue.

Still feeling pretty please with myself...

I am clearing decks this week so i am trying to get a load of jobs done that will eventually give me more space in the shed.

I have two sets of MINI Cooper S R98 Ronal two piece split rims. I stripped them a while back ready for a refurb and snapped 8 of the titanium fasteners despite being ultra careful.and using a fair bit of heat to soften the thread lock.

So today was the day to try and remove the part of the faster left in the rim. Fortunately most of the ones that snapped did so leaving enough thread poking out to spin a nut on.

I got onto Ebay and picked up some titanium nuts (M7 x 1) and some titanium tig wire.

This is the result.

A few little jobs on the Abarthstard this afternoon...
Dark Ice DesignBonnet strut kit and Forge turbo intake pipe.....

Oil service time for my R55 MCS.
Mine has the BMWised PSA N series engine (N14 in this case) which are renowned for using a bit of oil.

Mine uses around 250ml every 2000miles.
Due to this being a DI engine (and therefore prone to coking up the inlet tracts as pretty much all DI engines do) the general recommendation is to bin the MINI service intervals and change the oil/filter every 5000 miles which I stick to.

The logic being that the cleaner the oil the less combustion crap gets caked on the inlet valves via the PCV system.

Project Abarthstard. Episode "Are we there Yet?" TFT Dash Display.

My Abarth is an S3 and you need to be careful when selecting the TFT dash. You need one of the latest ones from the S3 range before the face-lift to the S4. The later ones from the S4 do not have the same level of backwards compatibility.

The mileage on the replacement can be set cottectly as long as the one you buy is lower than the existing one on the car (you can only add miles not take them off)

Once fitted the mileage will flash and not all the functionality will be there as you need a Proxy Alignment to update the data/settings on dash to match that on the car's Body Control Unit.

This was done by a guy called Tim Collins from the Abarth Club in Heartford who lives in Welyn Garden City. As well as the Proxy Alignment he also switched off the function that brings on the 4 way flashers if you brake to hard!
Tim is a top gent, very helpful and explains exactly what he's doing and why.
The whole process took about half an hour.

The new dash is approximately 1000 times better then the old one and really gives the inside of the car a lift.

So I think it is fair to say that today was 1 step forward and 4 back, Arse!😡

Plan was to take off the VVT head, clean up the block face and add the modified original rebuilt head, add new crank seals and build up the clutch pack and timing belts/water pump, finally adding the gearbox ready for install back in the car next week. Simple……

Well the crank (flywheel) end seal did not want to come out so I removed the housing and found a previous owners Liberal RTV addiction along with worn sump half moon gasket and the spring from the crank oil seal around the crank.
So whip off the sump and clean it all up and refit……that is where it all went wrong!

Turns out the original crank oil seal housing has suffered corrosion and scored the crank. Oil soaked wet and dry has cleaned up the crank, but I will be reusing the housing from the blown engine.

We did flush the gearbox and clean loads more parts….. oh and the clutch alignment tool I purchased at practical classics yesterday does not fit!

Some days I should just stay in bed.

And I have man flu!