I've had my 1st gen for a few months now while occasionally tinkering with it. I've come to the conclusion that maybe I should do a few mods to it to lighten the car up and remove any as much engine strain as I can.



So the first few things I had to do with it when I bought it were put a new muffler on because the old one was trash and had holes every where in it. Brakes, fluids (still need to check my diff oil), new exhaust gaskets, etc. Boring stuffs.

The other night I was under my car tinkering and I bumped my air split pipe that comes out of the converter and it snapped right off. So what did I do? I cracked all the nuts of the cat and hallowed it out till I can make a straight pipe.







I didn't get any pictures while hallowing it out, but I did make a large mess on my garage floor.

 

Last night I ended up pulling out my AC since it didn't have stuff in it and I never use AC to begin with, even in my other vehicles. I like the summer heat.

Condenser pulled out (I think thats what it's called)


So much space in front of my rad now.


Then I started working on braking loose the bolts on the compressor. Ended up smashing my knuckles pretty hard when the first bolt came loose after putting all my weight into it.
I now have a pile of AC stuff. Everything is still intact, didn't bend the piping and fins at all.

 

Than I decided to clean and de-rust my battery tray and underneath it. Found all sorts of leaves and acorns and things. Along with a bit of rust under it. Sanded off the rust and sprayed it with paint to help protect it.

The blue spots are where rust was starting to form around the bolt holes.


Battery sanded and painted.

 

After the drive home from work today I popped the hood and noticed smoke coming from the exhaust manifold I believe, it smelled kinda like oil, it was much smoke but enough to see. It hasn't done that before, at least not to my knowledge. Would this be a sign of a problem?

 

PB Blaster probably soaked into the metal.

 

Think that could be it? I've noticed a good amount of grease and oil under the intake right around where the exhaust comes out. I'll be put the front end on stands tonight and spray some degreaser and powerwash the area so I can be sure where it's coming from.

 

Just degrease it and drive it until it stops smoking. If it doesnt stop then you have another problem.

 

Found out that it's oil from the omp leaking and getting on the stock exhaust header. Started premixing yesterday just in case. Later this week I'll be making a block off plate for it and remove it entirely. I can use aluminum for that can't I? Also I believe my engine has started missing recently. It no longer idles unless I set the screw for a high idle around 1500 rpm. It sounds like it's missing and acts a bit sluggish on the road. Would this be a sign my timing is off?

Here's a link to a video of the first start today.

 

You didnt drive with a non functional OMP did you? Check your plugs and wires. Try swapping the L an T ignitors and see if it helps.

 

Why not just repair the OMP? Putting a new gasket on it and new line couplers should fix the leaking entirely. i recommend having he OMP. You can use vacuum line for new couplers.

 

I finally got around to replacing the omp gasket, or rather I put one on, there were no signs of the old one?? Anyway, I cleaned the area around the omp and the omp it self but I am still leaking oil from it? Did I miss an o-ring or something that could help?

 

the issue is not with your omp. it had one o-ring that seals it. you have a leaking front cover gasket and as you drive, the air is causing the leaking front cover gasket's oil seepage to get onto the exhaust. a very common problem now that our engines are getting up there in age.

 

So to replace that, I can still keep the engine in the car while working on it correct?

 

to do it properly the engine should be removed and placed on the flywheel.

 

Sweet, sounds like a plan for when I garage her this winter. I plan to go ahead and replace all the gaskets and seals in the engine while its garaged. One last question though, Will driving it like this hurt anything? I do check my oil everyday before start up.

 

not to highjack, but I'm going to replace my flywheel, sounds like I should replace this gasket while I"m in there? What does OMP stand for?

 

Oil Metering Pump. Its the little gizmo attached to the front cover with small hoses and an actuator arm going up to the throttle. Id block that rat bastard off and premix. Its cleaner.

Also Id like to reinforce the statement about changing the front cover gasket. If the engine isnt sitting on the flywheel, there is a good chance the bearing will get out of place. After that its bad news bears.

Great looking FB !

 

Rub a antifreeze soaked rag on the spots beginning to rust and it will stop the rust dead in its tracks.. Ive done this for years and it works great.. Just have to keep up on it every few months but its not much effort to stop rust.

 

It's now spring and I have had a new job for a few months. Been saving up and ordered my first part for the spring. I ordered a Bonez race pipe the other day to replace my cats that have holes all over them. It should be here later today. I hope I'll be able to break the bolts/nuts loose on the manifold fairly easily but seeing as how it's rusty, I may drill them out?

 

Got everything off after the header without breaking any bolts or nuts. I let it soak in PB blaster for a bit and tapped on the nuts with my smallest hammer, the broke right loose. The first pre-cat was packed full. I couldnt even see the honeycomb inside of it from the front. I can't imagine that's normal? I'll have a few pictures up here in a bit.

 

I've been busy with work lately but I have fixed several problems recently. Figured out exactly where my oil leak was coming from. It was coming from the bottom OMP line. The little rubber boot had a large crack in it. Used some vacuum tube and fixed it. Replaced almost all my vacuum hoses as well.
I also can't figure out why I can't seem to set my idle correctly. I cant get it below 1300 rpm, could it be my timing?
I am still suffering from engine temps that slowly rise while stopped. I've got a new thermostat in, I replaced the radiator a month after I got the car, and I've replaced belts.
Any ideas on what else it could be?

 

The inside of the first cat. I don't think it should look like that.



So I bought this a few months back and tossed it on.



Sounds fantastic and feels like I set a few horses free getting rid of the 3 cats. Although the other day I apparently broke a gasket between the pre-silencer and the header. Made driving the car very unpleasant as a lot of the sound was coming out from under the hood. Also installed a taurus efan last week. My highest temp since I installed it has been 186* sitting in lunch time traffic. It no longer creeps up.




Relay has big 10 awg going to it with a fuse and ground on shock tower.



And did a bit of painting while I'm waiting for a new clutch master (currently leaking and peeling paint from fire wall) and exhaust gaskets. Will need to get a new brake master as well at some point since it's leaking from the reservoir.

 

So this thread has turned into more of a personal progression thing to keep me motivated on this car every time something goes wrong. So last fall, there was a bunch of road work being done on my way to work for a couple of months. During this time they would occasionally open the road for a few days then close it again. Every time they did that there was a series of new ruts they cut out for the full width of the road and they were about 2 inches deep by 12 inches wide. I hit one of these at speed on accident and broke the brackets off my radiator. This jarred the hell out of it and it started leaking. I soldered and patched it but the leak came back worse recently. I decided to order an aluminum radiator to replace it.

The damage...





The bracket on this side is gone completely.

 

The new radiator from Mazdatrix. It's very shiny and super light weight.



The brackets on this had to be trimmed in some places for it to fit correctly. Nothing intense. I'll grab some pictures later of what needed cutting.





Also, this seem to sit further back then the standard OEM radiator. There isn't much clearance for my fan any more. The pulley for the power steering may have to come off. I'm not sure about it yet because there is still 2-3mm of clearance.

 

Progress has been slow. I started to have a bunch of issues with it that all seemed to pop up at once. First, my intake manifold started to leak coolant and it was seeping up and onto the top of the intake/engine. Drove it like that for about 2 weeks and it was mostly 'okay'. Then suddenly my brakes went bad. I discovered this on the way home from a trip to the hardware store. When I got home I smelled something metallic, like it was really hot. I traced it to my front drivers side wheel. It was burning hot to the touch. Turns out my caliper seized up and was frozen in place. Needless to say, that ruined my pads and rotors. The left side was also rubbing a lot. My battery also decided it didn't want to hold a charge anymore.

At this point I decided to side line the seven and get something I knew I could depend on not to fail. It's very important for me to be at work every day. I went on down to a local dealership and picked up a 2014 Frontier Pro 4x the same day, this was last July.

Fast forward about about 6 months (or exactly). I've recovered from the financial impact of buying a new vehicle and have started working on the seven again. It looked lonely siting in the garage by itself all that time, it needed some love. I decided to tackle some of my bad wiring, removed the rats nest completely (I left it partially intact for a few things), and replace the battery.

Now we are at the past month or so. I took many many pictures but my SD card decided to corrupt on me and I lost most of my progress pictures.