'99 Miata - Not My Problem

Started the day cleaning. This is why I don't take money to fix things. Nobody wants to pay me to spend time cleaning just becasue it bothers me to put things back together dirty, and if I didn't charge for the hours cleaning (or coffee drinking) I'd make something like $3.18 an hour for wrenching. Cleaner now. With no evidence of old leaks I can spot new leaks. Lovely. 

Then I pulled the oil pan off. it was pretty glued on there. The oil looked good (if a bit dirty) but there was a staple in the bottom of the pan. That's a new one. I did run the pan through the parts washer. It's squeaky clean. 

Pulled the oil pump and water pump off. They look fine except for where that jackass broke the oil pump. Sorry about that spacecadet. The oil pan bolts seem to be the only ones so far that were torqed appropriately and not just to 1 billion foot pounds. Iron blocks are good for this sort of wrenching. 

And it's time to clean up. This is why I work alone. People would beat me with a deadblow mallet if they had to live like this. 

Most of the parts decisions are delayed for a bit. No hurry and I've got a distraction coming home tomorrow. 

And that's why I rarely take wide angle photos. 

Careful composition is the key!

FYI, the oil pan IS literally glued on with RTV.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

And it's time to clean up. This is why I work alone. People would beat me with a deadblow mallet if they had to live like this. 

Most of the parts decisions are delayed for a bit. No hurry and I've got a distraction coming home tomorrow. 

Too bad the shop photo contest is over... this should be a winner.  also, this makes me feel better about the mess lurking in my own garage.  twmblt's reaction was: 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

You need a tool cart and a trash can. Those two things made an enormous difference in my ability to keep after myself. NOT to say I’m neat or orderly now but it’s much better. 

Tool cart like this would work:

"Most of the parts decisions are delayed for a bit. No hurry and I've got a distraction coming home tomorrow. "

Hmmmmm.....let me guess GMC Savanna......dark bluish as I recall...numero once.....where oh where to park them all........

In reply to 759NRNG :

I think it's black, lacks a sunroof, and currently only has 5 manually operated forward gears

sleepyhead said:

In reply to 759NRNG :

I think it's black, lacks a sunroof, and currently only has 5 manually operated forward gears

Accord coupe? uh mustang? M3?

Motor_Mouth said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I used blue loctite.  But it was old.  I recently threw it out and bought a new one.

And, again, everything was torqued to spec with proper click type torque wrenches.  The only one not recently calibrated was the 1/4" drive.

That staple makes me mad.  I took that pan out of the box from the machine shop and installed it immediately.   I'll have to be more careful with stuff I get back from them now...

What was the spec on the crank bolt? There are two depending on the year of the engine. All 1.8s are the same, but just in case you pulled a spec from a 1990 manual or erroneous internet guide it would be good to know. 

Motor_Mouth said:

Seth, how do the external engine bolts look? I polished them all and re-plated them with Caswell's Zinc Chromate plating kit.   I'm wondering how they held up.  That was my first time using their kit.

I'll take some pictures when I clean them off. For now they all look oily. 

And I don't want you to take any of this personally. The car held together until Pete started driving it. Ain't no work that stands up to Pete.  The thread is me venting, not blaming, I've worked on too many cars to do that. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Motor_Mouth said:

Seth, how do the external engine bolts look? I polished them all and re-plated them with Caswell's Zinc Chromate plating kit.   I'm wondering how they held up.  That was my first time using their kit.

I'll take some pictures when I clean them off. For now they all look oily. 

And I don't want you to take any of this personally. The car held together until Pete started driving it. Ain't no work that stands up to Pete.  The thread is me venting, not blaming, I've worked on too many cars to do that. 

So, I need to run a P71 for the year I get spacecadet out to OneLap?

In reply to sleepyhead :

Man... My new ST has all the signs of a comfortable way to One Lap. Just gotta get a upgrade done for the front brakes... probably look info doing the RS front caliper swap if I get really serious about tracking it. It's been phenomenal. 

Although I drove hot laps on the old PCA TT course at Mineral Wells Yesterday in a water to air intercooled supercharged S2000. 405 at the rear wheels and screaming Honda noises are REALLY fun. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Thanks for that. The car has about 250 autox runs on it.  That's not exactly an easy life for a car.
 

FYI for anyone who's reading this thread for info - we use Right Stuff RTV for the oil pans.

Work has started! 

It took us a bit of chatting and standing around the motor to decide exactly what was desired. If we believe this will fix it (and we do) then we should fix it in such a way that we want to run it on track and AX for the next 50k miles. That means upgrading to the 2001 oil pump. That was ordered, along with a brand new crank bolt, the outer part of the pulley and some other stuff, and it all finally got here. Oil pump first. 

I got into the habit of laying out the calipers with them opened to the right gap for sealants. Mazda says a bead 1-2mm thick. That's really small, I think I got it though. All bolted on and torqued to 17 ft-lbs. 

The afternoon is busy (and I had to run out and get new RTV for this part) so more will wait until later. Not like this is a hurry up project anyway. It seems that the lift makes things easier, but it also makes them slower to get done. 

Trying to approach this like the R63 and do a little bit and do it properly every day. Lots of coffee. Lots of looking around. Which leads me to this little guy. It's the sensor above the oil pressure sensor and I don't know what it it, but it looks broken. Is it broken? What is it? 

And after that I put on the new water pump. I have to say that I LOVE having the parts washer to run bolts and things like the water pump neck through. 30 seconds and things go from oil covered good to factory fresh. I should have gotten a parts washer a very very long time ago. 

That's the knock sensor, not sure if it's broken or not.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

We were discussing a parts washer yesterday. What do you have and what do you look for in a parts washer?

Stampie said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

We were discussing a parts washer yesterday. What do you have and what do you look for in a parts washer?

Indeed, enquiring minds wish to know

The internet says that's about what knock sensors for the Miata look like. This one is a little gross, but as far as I know, no knock sensor codes so it must still work. I don't want to be the guy who has to change it with the motor in the car, that's for sure. 

As far as parts washer, I have the HF one that comes with legs. I filled it with low odor mineral spirits which cost almost as much as the parts washer itself, but holy moly do they just melt oil off everything. 

Yeah.  That's what it looked like when I took it off and ran it thru the parts cleaner.  I bet it's still good.  

 

Spent a few minutes cleaning up the old sealant. I need to stop by HF to get a small brush to clean out the bolt holes before I put it all back together. 

Next question, what is the procedure for installing the plug that covers the unused distributor hole? The old one was not quite sealed at all with RTV and I'm trying very very very hard to make sure the motor doesn't leak when it's back together. Drive it in nice and square? Use sealant? I can't find it in the service manual I have. 

De-lurking (is that still a thing?) just to say this: Seth, you sold my subscription last year with the R63 thread. Reading through this and finding Keith Tanner himself commenting just means I need a three year extension.

A bit of RTV around the lip, that's all it should take.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Roger, thanks. 

In reply to davefla :

I'm glad you found us. Keith is legit. If you haven't found his build threads about his personal (non Miata) cars, you really should. The dude loves cars.