man I should get a steering wheel like that for my FC..

 

Clokker, since that miata wheel has an air sack, will it work with the S5 vert with air sack and clock spring?

 

It's a Mazda6 wheel actually and I have no idea if it's compatible with the vert system.
Possible, maybe even very possible, but my coupe has no airbag and I've never looked into it.

 

it actually should be, you will probably need to use the Mazda 6 clock spring instead of the Rx7 one, and or do a little wiring.

 

My air bag module doesn't work so I'd just need the horn through the clock spring.

Very exciting.

 

I finally realized a little "mod" I've considered for years, not a big deal- may not even work- but potentially interesting and certainly more universally applicable than the usual weird stuff I do.

Every year (usually twice) I have to roto-root the hatch drains because they fill up with all sorts of vegetable matter:


It's not a big deal but I've always worried about puncturing the drain tube and considered ways of preventing the problem in the first place.
On a whim, at my local cigarette store- which like every other store in CO does a brisk trade in "smoking accessories"- I asked if they sold pipe screens and oh yeah, they certainly did.
Options were coarse/fine mesh and stainless/brass.
I chose the fine stainless:




The five pack was 88 cents.
Dropped right in the recess around the drain, a bit of Goop around the edge to hold it in place.


This mesh may prove too fine and not allow water to drain quickly enough (there's not much I can do about it getting covered up with debris, but this is mainly intended to keep the tubes from getting all clogged up anyway), I'll find out later when the goop has set up a bit.

So there you go.

 

The TSA Has A 95 Percent Failure Rate For Finding Bombs And Weapons

The best legacy of the Bush Administration or the greatest?

 

They are 100% effective against Holley carbs though, so there's that.

 

That'll teach those terrorists!

 

Had S. stuck it down his pants, no questions would have been asked.

 

If you can stick a Holley 4-barrel down your pants, they don't fit right.

 

And here we are again:

 

HEATHEN!!!! BLASPHEMOUS!!! Sorry, fending off these bastardo black flies. Season is in swing again. Clean under that bonnet though. :Thumbs_Up:

 

Thanks but it's clean only because it's never really run.
Which hopefully changes now.

Prior to fitting the new intake, we had some oil leaks to address...this engine has some design issues that almost guarantee seepage and this is the third attempt to fix them. Fingers are (perpetually) crossed.

During disassembly I discovered a problem that I'm not sure how to fix.
The flanges on our intake and exhaust manifolds are different thicknesses and that's not good because half of the clamping comes from washers that span the two flanges.
Our washers tighten down on the exhaust flange but not the intake.
I'll be pondering this as I continue putting her back together, the manifolds are the final things to go on, so I have some time.

Meanwhile, today I haul our POS exhaust down to a shop so they can re-expand the slip joints with their hydraulic mandrel. I hate this thing but it's what I've got to work with, so we'll make do.
After she's running, it's back to the shop for a cat and at the same time they'll cut out the slip joints and weld in flanges but they need the car to do it right, hence the convoluted sequence.

I hope to use the same trip to track down new hardware for the manifolds, ours is mismatched and ugly.

I hope to button up the block by tonight so all the sealant can cure for a few days as I finish up the rest of the conversion details. The fuel system (pump & FPR) must be changed, the throttle cable shortened and the engine harness modified.

Wheels down by Friday.

That's the first week of my housesit/car orgy, the second week begins by trying to track down the cabin leaks. Our monsoon spring has exacerbated the problem and it must be solved.
That's the plan at least.

 

Dude, we went from extreme drought with lakes 20-30ft low and running out of water to flooding in a month.

I have never seen that much rain in my life!

 

We finally had a totally sunny, rainless day...first I recall in quite a while.

The Z limps towards completion, problems abound.
I took the headers/y-pipe to an exhaust shop where they will reform the slip fit joints.
Hopefully I can get the exhaust to hang properly, or at least well enough to be driveable.
I hate this POS.

The new gasket for the oil pan had shrunk and barely fits.
I gooped the pan flange, laid on the gasket and put the 31 bolts through the holes; hoping it will cure in position and not shrink back when the bolts come out for assembly.
I'll find out in about an hour.
If it doesn't work, I'll just delete the gasket and use sealant.

With the oil pan installed I'll basically be back where I started Saturday (hopefully with a leak free block) and can start on the carb conversion.

While installing the crank pulley I discovered that the outer sheave (AC pulley, I think) comes off (the two inner sheaves are bonded to the damper) and that might just give me enough space to fit the Volvo efan I have.
That would be nice, I hope it works.

I soldier on.

 

Well, my first housesitting/Z flog stint is over and I'm back home for ten days when I return for three weeks.
The laptop I use over there is such a POS I've effectively been rendered mute...possibly to all our benefit.
But I'm back now, baby!

First, the FC.
I pondered options for my bad Godspeed rad and finally decided to risk another Chinese aluminum unit. $135 shipped, took three days to get.
It is a stunningly nice part- even discounting the price, I'd not be suspicious if it said Koyo on it (it doesn't). The only "flaw" is the filler neck/bung is at a slightly weird angle, it doesn't quite sit horizontal with the rad installed, but it's not a problem and otherwise, it's fine.
I replaced the thermostat at the same time and Sprocket has gone back to cool running.
YAY!.

Also, those little screens I put in my hatch drains are too fine, they got blocked by dirt right away.
I'll go with the coarser screen next time I'm at the cig store.

Moving on to the Z, which is where I spent most of my time.

Jeez, I did so much **** I can hardly remember it all.
The engine is now totally resealed- oil pan, timing chain cover and valve cover.
If it leaks anything this time I don't know what we'll do, I was as careful as I could be.

I dealt with the manifold flange issue by mildly grinding down the high spots on the exhaust flange (not the sealing face, the outside) till they were even with the intake flange. All the mounting hardware was changed and I believe we're now good.
I took the y-pipe in and had the ends reshaped to fit over the header outlets but the rest of the system is still crap, not sure where we'll go with it.
We should just get a decent system but S. can't afford it till the fall, so I'm kind of in limbo.

The carb is at a shop being rebuilt.
I'm not sure why but everyone seems to think rebuilding a 4-barrel Holley is too tricky to do at home and frankly, I'm happy to offload the responsibility on someone else.
Before I took it in I modified the throttle cable to fit, so that's all ready.
Fuel system has been changed to low pressure pump and FPR, so that's ready too.
Just need the carb so I can begin the intake fab.

Ours came with a low profile 9" filter (recommended by Arizona Z) and it fits fine and probably flows OK but is located directly under the hood vent. When it rains you may as well be pouring water right down the carb throat.
Ok I suppose for a weekend/toy car but not a daily.
The intake is a prime project for my July work session.

The engine harness is done.
There are only seven wires now, most of the work was removing all the ECU stuff.
I considered a number of routing options but ultimately decided on the simplest/most straightforward and it came out nicely, I think.

The biggest project was converting to the efan.
Typically, it took me three times to get it right but I'm very pleased with the final result.
It's tight, but you can change the drive belt without moving anything and the shroud comes off the rad in about two minutes...it's actually easier than stock and frees up a bunch of space.

I used alloy sidepanels fom an Mac G5 to make the shroud, a triumph of repurposing I'm inordinately chuffed about.
Clever girl.








Monday I'm at the junkyard to (hopefully) procure some Volvo fan wiring and parts for the intake.
Supposedly, the carb will be ready Tuesday and progress will resume.

So, things are happening.

 

Wow that fan really is a tight fit.

that intake looks like it "flows" poorly since the carb will sit on top and the air has to make a hard 90 and then ANOTHER hard 90 to get into the combustion chamber.

I admire your attention to detail with the cleanliness of all the wiring and routing. Any tips?

 

You have no idea, that's why it took three tries to get it right.
With the final version there's actually enough room to weasel the drive belt on without moving the fan or rad.

Yeah, those intakes had just come out when I had my old Z and I thought the same thing.
Apparently, so did a lot of people....enough that Arizona Z published all sorts of dyno data to disprove the doubters.
It's such a clunky/old school engine design that the wonky intake path is probably not a big factor. Far worse than the flow path is the fact that the intake manifold gets cooked by the exhaust header directly below.

Lots of weed, multiple retries and a good selection of junkyard widgets.
The Japanese like very tightly controlled engine bays; they use lots of neat molded hoses where American cars have stuff just casually draped wherever...early Hondas (pre-cats) had monstrously complicated emissions (seriously...I'll bet there are a 100' of vac lines) but they're all molded/fitted and appear very tidy.

I was also aware from the beginning of the overall "look" I was after (basically, "**** compulsive steampunk") and once the aesthetic began to develop, further additions were fitted to suit.

Rearranging engine bays is one of my favorite aspects of car building.

And lots of weed.

 

maybe thats what im doing wrong clokker. not enough puff .
after scraping a load of goopy gunk/high quality compost out of that space by the rear window last week, your solution really struck a cord with me. bloody good idea!

 

I'm jealous. Lot's of puff...

Must be nice to not have to hold or get a job.

 

Well yeah, it's nice enough.
The entry fee is aging though, so there's that.

 

The nice thing though is even though you age, you can still enjoy and drive a fast car. Unlike extreme sports. I dont foresee myself in my 50's attempting 360 tail grabs off of 40 foot jumps on a snowboard.....

 

I was thinking the exact same thing about that intake but then I figured since the engine doesn't even have cross a cross flow head, probably doesn't matter anyway.

I am honestly shocked by that engine has the super old school and inefficient 2 valve stup. Hell, chrysler was already using cross flow heads when that Z car was made!

 

that manifold should flow ok, like everyone has pointed out, the engine doesn't really flow much, and secondly, the carb will want some plenum area anyways.

if it fits under the hood, you might want to try an open carb spacer, they add plenum volume, which seems to help power