Great reading, keep it up!
Well it was a slightly hectic friday night and saturday morning this weekend! - my brother had an offer to swap his 200sx for an r34 skyline but he’d only finished re-painting it into white last week and hadn’t flatted or compounded it so there we were busy wet sanding the entire car until 11pm friday night followed by an early start saturday with the finishing and polishing compounds!!! (the guy was turning up at 1pm). We literally just finished as the guy turned up! … after mutual test drives and poking around cars the guy was up for doing the swap!!! … my brother took his 200 for one more run round the block since he noticed the boost gauge had crept up slightly (hit 16psi when it should only be 14) and wanted to dial the controller down a little to be sure … as he pulled up the gauge dropped to 0 … and smoke out the exhaust … yep, dead turbo 
Obviously the skyline left shortly after. A bit of mooching around and feeling a bit gutted for the boy I finally got my a$$ in to gear and got a crack on with doing some more bits on the 5 … and even had the girlfriend out there too!
Had a couple of bits to get done - exhaust (yeah, again!), compression test (hmmm - mixed feelings on the results), ecu idle reset and check the ecu for fault codes.
First on the list was the idle reset since it’s quick and easy - had a quick read up of the how-to on here and away we went … warm up the car, jump the GND and TEN terminals in the diagnostic port and turn the screw on the throttle body left or right to achieve rpm required. I guess purists could argue the accuracy of using the dash rev gauge for it but hey, I don’t have an external unit so somewhere around 8 to 9 hundred on the dash will do! 
After that I decided to check the ecu for fault codes but I wanted to do it slightly differently 
Since we’re planning on doing some tuning (don’t really count the de-cat as tuning!), I figure it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have something a little more than the jump wire and an led wedged in the diagnostic port - if nothing else it’s useful to be able to see the led lighting up as the key is turned without having to run around the car! I also figured it’d be kinda handy to have something I could leave in the car pretty much permanently to use as and when I wanted … seemed simple enough - bit of wire, an led, a resistor and a couple of switches … how hard could it be?! 
So I busted out the soldering iron and got busy with a few bits I’d picked up from the local car spares place. In the meantime, Maxi (my better half) got started on the exhaust again (more on that in a mo). The idea for ecu fault codes ‘device’ was a length of wire jumping GND and TEN with a switch in it and the same for the FEN and +B terminals but including the led. The idea of the switches being to make sure the circuits could be ‘broken’ when finished with therefore enabling the unit to be left connected. The first attempt failed! - I picked up a 12v led thinking (ok, assuming - the mother all!) that the signal output would be 12v since it’s a car … turns out the voltage out is actually around 4v so it wasn’t enough to light up the led! … bu99er! Fine, well, after friday night and the saturday morning antics I decided to call it a day on that! Opted for cleaning up and checking in on Maxi to see how she was getting on!
The exhaust … again!!! Well some may want to give me some stick here since ‘technically’, the exhaust was fixed by a girl 
The joint between the de-cat and the rear section basically didn’t mate up properly and the result was a rather nasty blowing noise sounding similar to a saxo plus, due to the lack of interior a rather strong smell in the car 
… long drives result in a rather relaxed outlook on things! I already knew the cause since I suspected it might be a problem when I fitted it but had hoped to get away with it - the two flange-faces were slightly different angles resulting in a slight gap at the top of the joint. Had hoped that the gasket would seal it if I did the joint up tight enough but obviously not! So, with the 5 up on ramps and Maxi armed with a ratchet, a spanner, two new gaskets and some exhaust gunk went under and attacked the joint - both bolts dropped, two of the rubber mounts dropped off to allow the pipes to be moved about (she had a little bit of help but they’re always a battle and this was her first exhaust job ever!), both faces pasted up with gunk, a gasket put on each face (yes, we’re making a gasket sandwich for now - rear exhaust section is going to be replaced so we’ll look at the joint face again another time) and then some more gunk pasted on each gasket face. Pull the two pipes back together, do the bolts back up (little bit of help there to make sure they were RFT), pop the rubbers back on and then start it up to let it idle for a while to bake the gunk … job jobbed! - worked like a charm! Gotta say, pretty stoked with her to be honest - her first proper job on the 5 (and more than that, her first proper job on any car) n she got stuck in and nailed it
Called it a day at that point - the idea of a curry and a dvd at that point seemed too good to say no to!
Sunday comes and I get woken up early by my bro - doing his cbt test (beginner motorbike for those that don’t know) and he found that his photocard driving license had expired so there’s me getting up to deliver his passport for him so he can do his test! There’s a maplins not too far from where he was though so it wasn’t a total pain - get a few bits for round 2 at the ecu code reader! Eventually got back to the pit and got a crack on with making the reader. A quick test with a multi-meter showed I’d got it together right (after making a mistake along the way - kinda put both legs of the switch onto the same track and then wondered why the switch made no difference! - doh!!!) so hooked it up to the car - switches on, ignition turned to pre, led came on, led went off, no flashes after. So assuming my box is doing what it should, ecu has no fault codes!
couple of pics of the box for anyone interested …
inside (yeah, my soldering leaves a bit to be desired!) …
from the outside and all labelled up …
Last thing of the day was the compression test … there seems to be various methods to doing the compression test and not being a pro, I couldn’t say which is best or right! Instead, I’ll say how I did it …
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Warm up engine then turn it off.
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Pull all ht leads out of the rocker cover and remove the spark plugs (taking care not to burn yourself since they’ll be hot!)
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Disconnect the crank sensor
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Put the pressure tester in cylinder one (the one closest the crank pulley)
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Get the person helping you to press the accelerator pedal to the floor and hold it there then, turn the ignition key to crank the engine.
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You’re watching the gauge - tell the person helping you to stop cranking the engine once the pressure gauge stops rising.
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Write the reading down, release the pressure from the gauge (IMPORTANT! - should be a button on it somewhere) and then move on to the next.
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Depending on the results you get, you may want to do a ‘wet’ test which is basically the same but putting a small amount of oil down the spark plug hole first. There’s plenty of explanations online for the reasons why so I won’t get in to that
So, the results …
Dry : (1)140 (2)145 (3)140 (4)146
From what I’ve seen on a few forums, these figures whilst reasonably consistent are a bit low so …
Wet : (1)180 (2)185 (3)180 (4)188
Guess I’m looking at worn rings then … any input would appreciated though
Couple of pics of the compression test (by the time I got to taking pics I was on to the last one and yes, it’s a pretty cheapo gauge and adapter lol!)
The crank sensor disconnected - located to the left of the coil pack …
The gauge fitted in the spark plug well …
Slightly closer view …
(note the button on the right side underneath the gauge - that’s the pressure release on this gauge)
So there we go! Another weekend, some more stuff done! … and another job added to the list! 
Oh and of course the “Diagnostic unit” can be used to do the ecu idle reset too by just setting the first switch on and leaving the second one off - multi-purpose! 
As usual, great reading, keep it up m8!
ok well … after another quiet spell it’s time for another update! … been a busy boy between trekking most of the way up the country to go and watch my mates first drift event of the season (which didn’t go as well as hoped if we’re honest but hey, round two’s coming up so it’s all to play for there!) and doing a couple of private jobs for people to make a little bit of pocket money Two things to say here : 1) the fella running the mx5 in jdm allstars this year - if you’re reading this, what happened??? Had really high hopes of seeing you do well but it looked like you struggled with that first bend … even though I was there supporting my mate, there was some secret mx5 support going on there for ya!!! (will be for the next round too but ssshhh! ) anyway, onto number 2) who at bmw decided it was a great idea to make the front bumper on the new 3 series stick out so far?! I mean seriously, it’s worse than jimmy hills chin!!! Sticks out so far it’s virtually impossible to get it on a set of ramps (well, my old ones anyway!) and then, obviously the same ‘guru’ thought, I know! We should cover the whole underside of the car INCLUDING the jacking points in plastic so it’s impossible to jack and stand it too!!! Oh yeah, bring on the bmw only servicing!!! … humph! rant over … oh and bmw? - couple of good old fashioned 4"x4" blocks of wood did what I needed so nerh!!! 
Anyways, on with the 5 … hmmmm you know the expression “it never rains but it pours”? yeah? well that expression was made for this car!!! Some of you may have noted one of my more recent posts about compression test results … I’ve been fairly convinced that our 5 was down on power and something just didn’t feel quiet right. Combination of ‘ass’ dyno and gut feeling. So I spent some time chasing it … should’ve known I wouldn’t like what I find but hey, sometimes you just have to deal with it eh?
So, first up was a block test … that didn’t go so well courtesy of our manky water (haven’t had the time to flush it through yet) - trying to suck up some vapour from the rad to watch the blue liquid turn yellow (to signify contaminant) and we got a big splurge of manky brown water surge up and make the blue liquid turn … well … brown really … yep … definitely contaminated! with manky brown water anyway! Wrote that test off and moved on to a coolant system pressure test - all good, not leaking off anywhere (didn’t get time to get any snaps of this unfortunately - blagged a favour from a friend at his garage but it was a bit rushed being as it was nearly hometime and I think he was less than impressed at the rad water filling his block tester anyway! 
).
Having already done the compression test with less than ideal results the next on the list is the leak down test … this turned out to be a learning experience being as I’d never used one before! I did some man maths a few weeks back when I decided we needed to do this test and reasoned that it was going to cost me at least an hours labour, maybe even two for a garage to do this test for me since my mates garage doesn’t have a tester. Man maths applied equalled that I may as well buy the tester myself since I have access to an air compressor anyway which is the other thing you need to use the tester. Fleabay hunting returned a Sealey unit delivered to my door for £66 … that’s only a pound more than one of the local garages charges for labour! done deal! It even came in a nice carry case too! … it’s the simple things eh?
Anyway, on with the test! …
Step 1, remove the spark plug and get the first cylinder to TDC (so that intake and exhaust valves are both shut) … there’s a proper tool for doing this apparently … I don’t have that. However, I found a 3/8" extension bar gently inserted down the plug well into the bore does the job quite nicely It does require a second person that you have some faith in to watch the bar since you’ll be underneath the car turning the ratchet on the crank …
(you’ll only hurt your hand if you try turning it from above … voice of experience here … no more to be said )
Once you’ve got it to TDC, the next step is to get your tester in …
some things you might notice here …
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the rad cap is off - this is because I suspected a head gasket failure - with this test, hg failure should result in bubbles in the rad
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the really eagle eyed will notice that I am in fact a complete moron on occasion … I thought about not ‘fessing’ up to this but ultimately decided it was too amusing not to tell people about it - there’s me with my new shiney leak down tester hooked up (the next step after the pic above) wondering why I can’t see bubbles in the rad, i’m not hearing air in the oil filler … or anywhere else for that matter and was starting to think i’d been done over on fleabay with a dodgy tester. Ultimately gave up for the day and resigned myself to trying again the following day thinking that the other possibility was that maybe my mates compressor was being weird. A little later on the ‘einstein’ / ‘homer simpson’ moment hits me while I was in the shower … DOH!!! - see that metal bar that’s going down the bore? Anyone recognise it? Yep, it’s the extension tube from my compression tester … yes … it’s got a valve in it
It seemed like a good idea at the time - nice solid fixture into the plug well … ah well, lesson learnt!
Following day the leak down test is retried! - WITHOUT the compression test extension! Guess what? … it worked! … and gave me some frankly, fairly cr4ppy results I think I’d prefer not to have had …
Tester fitted as it should be …
Notice the lack of extension tube? This is good! You may also notice the oil filler cap removed … this is not so good 
This is, errrhhhh … the air’s not coming out where I was expecting it to … errrrhhh … where’s the air goin then? … ahhh cr4p. I REALLY didn’t want the air to come out of there … For those of you new to leak down tests, air coming out of the oil filler cap / dipstick tube equates to the piston rings being shot … like I said, ahhh cr4p.
cylinder 1 …
ok … well that’s enough to know I’m not looking at a happy ending already … let’s make the day worse then …
cylinder 2 …
sweet! ok, looking a bit better maybe … still a little leaky but hey, it’s still in the green! …
cylinder 3 …
hmmm ok … well that sucks. Fine.
Cylinder 4 …
Well that wasn’t much better either now was it?!
In fairness, number 4 may actually be a little better than it’s showing on that reading since it was a little while before I got to that one so the rings did have some time to cool off a little. Either way though, at best, we’ve only got two half reasonable readings there … so now I know … the gut feeling and the ‘ass’ dyno were right … the decision now is rebuild or new block?! meh.
On that note, gotta run - work is unfortunately calling
Great read had me laughing out loud in places 
. So whats happend now? have you stripped down the engine or has the project been canceled?
Steve.
Hey steve,
glad you enjoyed the read so far! … you’ll be pleased to know it’s not cancelled 
… well … so far anyway lol! Myself and the wifey had a few talks about it and made the big decision to go for broke on it. She’s always wanted a modified car anyway and of all the options, rebuilding it and doing it up seemed like the best … in theory at any rate 
Funnily enough I was only thinking the other day that I should get around to resurrecting this thread so I guess this reply is as good a opportunity to do so as any!
I’ll do a proper update in the coming week or two with some pics as well - a lots changed!
It has to be said, progress has NOT been as fast as i’d have liked but in fairness ‘project 5’ has turned into somewhat of larger job than we first planned so 6 months on we’re in a very different place to what we’d expected!
Like I said, the project’s not cancelled but we had to look at things carefully and think about it seriously so I broke the ‘project’ down into 3 core sections - engine, bodywork and handling. Obviously the first question is do we carry on with it or simply get another car?! Well that was answered simply - wifey loves her mx5 so another car wasn’t an option and another mx5 is yet another unknown so better the devil you know as it were! The engine was a tricky one to make a decision on - there were potentially a lot of problems with the current engine (turns out that’s actually a bit of an understatement!) but with the price of 2nd hand engines being more expensive lately and re-con engines being silly money, we opted for better the devil you know again! Bodywork was a relatively simple decision - get hold of a few replacement panels to make life easier and get busy with the prep work! Having access to an air compressor does make the decision to take on spraying a little easier! 
Then finally there’s the handling - reasoning that most old and low-ish priced mk1’s are all likely to have knackered bushes and tired suspension made that a simple choice of devil you know again so, all in all the decision was made and ‘rory’ as he’s become known is getting the full make-over treatment!
First task was to get the engine out and crack it open to find out what the problems with it were … hmmm … well this didn’t seem like such an issue until it actually came to doing it! Has to be said, it was a cr4p game! The first hurdle was a call to my mate to borrow his engine hoist to be told it’d blown a seal so was out of action. Fine. Old school it is then! Those of you that know what this means will already be chuckling at the idea of that on a driveway. Those of you that don’t know, the short version is - detach everything as if you were hoisting the engine out but instead of the engine coming out the top of the bay, you’re going to jack the front of the car up and take it out through the bottom instead. Here’s the next few problems - firstly, even with blocks of wood on the jacks etc we couldn’t get the car high enough and secondly, the initial plan had been to try and leave it on the front frame assembly and use the wheels to allow manouverability. Well, the wheels idea was just a no go period so that all came off. Then I found I had more chance of seeing the queen busting out the moonwalk on national t.v. than of ever undoing the gearbox bolts 
Desperate times call for desperate measures so … with all of the front stripped down (no bumpers, wings, wheels or geometry) and supported on axle stands, I bolted a 4 metre long uni-strut bar up underneath the front chassis rails, located a home made dolly that i hoped would be strong enough and then called a couple of mates to come help me. While they were on their way, I dropped the prop shaft off and supported the rear of transmission on an axle stand aswell as lined the jack up under the sump with a suitable block of wood to protect it. The boys arrived and the plan was explained : engine and transmission were coming out as one piece. Drop the engine mounts and lower the jack down so that the main part of the engine sat on the dolly and then a combination of physics and brute force should allow me to remove the axle stand supporting the rear of the transmission and lower it down so the whole assembly sat level on the dolly … this part of the plan went well! 
The engine and transmission were off the car and on the dolly so all that was left was to get the car high enough to get the engine and box out from underneath it … here’s where the guys realised what their job was two on each end of the metal bar bolted to the chassis rails and on the count of three, LIFT! After some swearing (mostly directed at me), we had success! The whole assembly was out from underneath the car and I was able to push the whole lot into my garage.
I’ll skim this bit for now and do more detail with the next post and pictures. The basics are, the engine itself was absolutely filthy covered in a mixture of oil, shredded rubber and belt-slip spray which actually turns out to be one of the most amazingly adhesive products i’ve ever seen! - it took me over a week with wire toothbrushes and thinners to get the bl00dy stuff off! 
Once it was clean enough to actually work on and get apart, I came to the conclusion I was pretty glad I’d decided to do it - I already knew the rings were shot courtesy of the compression test, my thoughts that oil was getting into the water were also confirmed although not in the way I’d expected - I figured the head gasket was shot which it almost was (certainly didn’t have much life left in it!) but it actually turns out that gaskets by the oil and water pumps had breached, the front and rear main seals were also knackered and had been bodge repaired once before, several of the cams looked like edam (full on chips and holes in them) and several of the con rod bearings were also bu66ered … oh and the water temp sender unit was held together mostly with glue. So not a lot to sort out then! 
So far, i’ve got all the gaskets with the exception of the front and rear main seals (the half moon things for those that know) as they apparently don’t come in the full gasket kits, managed to aquire a new set of cams for a bargain price (and they’re re-profiled too so should be fun!) , a spare head since it came with the cams, new followers and new stem seals. Still need to get the rings, new set of head bolts, new water temp sender, new shells and, I’m toying with the idea of looking into uprated valves.
At this point I had the next problem - a lack of space and weather taking a turn against me 
My father unfortunately managed to set fire to our garage some time ago now courtesy of a battery charger that went wrong (learn the lesson from that people!) and some time on, we still haven’t got around to replacing the doors so, things are somewhat exposed to the elements in there. Especially once it’s full to the brim with mazda parts! The rub being that it rained a little and because of me not thinking at the time, the bottom end and the crank weren’t covered. Some of the rain was blown in with the wind and punished my stupidity - the bore sleeves now have some rust as does the crank 
Fairly sure the bore sleeves are recoverable with some effort and a very light hone but at this point i’m not so sure about the crank. Gonna have to visit the local machine shop and see what they think - if they say no then it’s new crank time … that’ll learn me! It did however make me decide on something else - doing this project at home was a stupid idea so I got to thinking. The mx5 needed doing, my fathers lotus elan needs restoring and my scooby needs work … yeah … I went and found a unit. A deal struck with a local-ish farmer has got me a unit large enough to get four cars in and work on comfortably for an offensively low amount per month and it has all the facilities I could want - I’m actually sat in the unit typing this now! Obviously the process of getting the unit, painting the floor and walls in it (I wanted it to be half tidy!), getting services sorted out in it and then moving all the cars and parts up to it took some time to achieve and unfortunately the deposit also took a chunk out of the budget for car parts too so the projects had to go on hold a little bit.
The good news is however, that the bodywork side was able to progress on since I’d already got a fair portion of the parts and materials I needed for that and the rest just boiled down to hard work with the sanding blocks … or so I thought! Nothing’s ever easy is it?! A hunt around some car forums had turned me up a bargain on some paint - picked up around 400 quids worth for 50 quid and a half hour drive and a full set of panels (i’m talking everything here - bumpers, wings, doors, bonnet, boot lid and even light covers!) off fleabay for 50 quid too! The colours a secret for now 
but there’s my first challenge - I just saw the paint for 50 quid n thought yeah sweet! Didn’t realise until I got home that it was a metallic cellulose For those that don’t know paints, it basically means I’ve got to spray it perfectly first time because I can’t rub it back to get rid of runs without flatting the metallic and making it look rubbish … no pressure for my first full car paint job then! Then there’s the panels … they’ve turned out to be an awesome bargain! - I paid 50quid for them and easily got 100 quids worth of filler included on them too! One of the panels had over 1mm of paint and filler on it! Again for those that don’t know painting, that basically translates into a whole load of extra work - assuming there’s only a single paint job on a car, you can essentially remove the top coat of the old paint job and then spray over the top of it. In this instance, 1mm of paint equates to about 3 paint jobs! At that point there’s really only one option and that’s to take it back to bare metal and start again! This is the point that you put the sanding blocks away and break out the power tools! Even with an electric D.A. sander and 120 grit papers on it one of the panels took over 4 hours to get back to clean metal! (I could have sandblasted it but some of the horror stories put me off the idea!) That process is still onoing at the moment but other progress has been made - the rear arches were originally damaged and badly repaired. They’ve now been fixed and flared (man there’s a LOT of give in those!) so they’re lookin pretty good now and the engine bay is fully painted up too now 
Starting to get close to being ready to paint the rest of the car now but unfortunately the time of year is against me now - temperature is an issue. Especially with cellulose paint apparently. We (a mate is sharing the unit with me) did have an awesome kerosene torpedo heater thing but having done nearly 300 quids worth of fuel in little more than a month (its a BIG heater) we’re not using that anymore so i’m working on building a decent sized wood burner instead! - the first one I made isn’t bad but it’s not big enough for the size of the unit. Once I’ve got the temperature up a bit then i’ll get a crack on with the rest of the painting!
Finally there’s the handling - well since all of the front is all apart anyway, it seemed like a sensible idea to do the bushes so a full set of the fleabay ‘china specials’ poly bushes are sat in a box waiting to get fitted. They’re not likely to be as good as superflex etc but they’ve gotta be better than what was on there and with a unit now, replacing them again isn’t an issue so game on! Also going to clean up all the subframes and arms etc - those ARE going to get sandblasted and re-painted (probably in hammerite) when the time comes.
So there ya go! Thread resurrected and a now epic rebuild project in full effect! Pictures to come soon I promise! Got a few other little surprises in store too but you’ll all have to wait for those
Since it’s now midnight and i’ve still got a custom dash to make a start on for my mates drift car i’d best get on with things for now (can you tell that wifey’s out tonight?! lol!) so i’ll leave it at that for the time being but i’ll get to posting some pictures up soon i promise!
This is an absolutely EPIC thread. I’ve enjoyed reading it from top to bottom and think it really shows 1) the problems we can have with our regular cars, 2) the know-how to repair them and 3) you gotta have a sense of humour
Really enjoying this - can’t wait for the next one
elv
Ok … so as promised, some pictures of the work so far! Bare in mind these pics actually sum up to around 2-3 months so far inbetween various distractions along the way to now. Gonna gloss over the details of a lot of this otherwise it’s basically going to become an online colour version of a well known diy car handbook in one huge post! In all fairness, with a reasonable toolkit and a bit of common sense none of this is actually that hard - it’s basically giant meccano! I can say that with authority since I happily dismantled the lot without any manuals at all … just determination
Anyways, the pics! First up, getting the car setup to start attacking it! The sole objective here is getting the engine out without a hoist since my mates one was broken … in hindsight, maybe a rental would have been a good idea but local rental rates were almost as much as buying an ebay one and it was a weekend so getting one was a challenge anyway. Determination and applied brute force wins the day!
(should be said, if you get the car off the ground like this then take care! Keep an eye on the ramps as you jack the front as they may start to lift at the front - if they do give them a smack with a suitable hammer to shunt them back and get them sitting square again)
Next is to dismantle the front - there’s lots of wiring and hoses down there that you’ll need to get at aswell as removing radiators and aircon stuff. Also means you get more space to work and to get the engine out! …
(if it’s your driveway you might want to be a bit more carefull about catching various fluids - it’s my parents driveway and it’s more than used to getting abuse from me and my brother! The eagle eyed may even notice some white overspray there from my brother re-spraying his car in that area not so long ago!)
Next is getting stuff out the way mostly - radiator, air con, air intake, wiring loom stuff …
IMPORTANT! : Label any wiring you disconnect and keep a note of it on paper! There was some ‘funky’ wiring on ours that got cut out since it wasn’t necessary but in most cases all of the standard wiring should simply unplug. DON’T lose the paper! I absolutely guarantee you won’t remember where all the wiring went when it comes to putting it back! If you look closely in the pic above you’ll notice lots of red tags on things - my labels of choice - insulating tape with stuff written on in permenant pen!
Suspension and geometry removed … (this was the point that I realised it wasn’t gonna work leaving it on there!
(the second set of axle stands are there to support the brake calipers because I didn’t want to remove them - I didn’t want to drain the fluid as I was running out of time and I didn’t want to leave the lines clamped for a long period of time so the simple solution is don’t disconnect them at all!)
The next one is proof that our mx5 saw a track day or two …
For the people that haven’t been to race tracks, what you’re looking at above is from what is commonly referred to as ‘the kitty litter’. It’s the stone traps that stop the cars from hitting walls usually frequented by people pushing too hard or simply, the ones that can’t drive … place your bets as to which I think our previous owner was?! either way, those stones were wedged in behind the lower arms - one less rattle when it goes back together then!
Pretty much ready to take out then …
Time to get the last bits ready while I wait for ‘the boys’ to arrive …
You’ll notice that the axle stands have been re-purposed here - they’re supporting the front sub-frame so I could remove the last couple of mounting bolts safely. Golden rule when working on a driveway with diy jacks - never trust them. Seals can go at any time and whilst the cheapie’s do the job, there’s a reason they’re a third of the price of a professional jack … granted some of it should be because of the nasty colour but most likely its down to the internals. Either way, even with steel toe-capped boots, I didn’t fancy an engine, subframe and gearbox landing on my foot so jack stands win! Unfortunately don’t have any pics of the transmission supported (but it is I promise) and everyone was a little busy in the next sequence of events to pose for pictures (although I think one of the guys there does have a couple on his phone I’ll try and get) so you’ll have to imagine what comes next. The result is this though …
It’s a fair old size while it’s all one piece! I could’ve taken more off before we dropped it out - intake manifold and even the head. Even heard through forums of someone that took the whole thing apart in the engine bay BUT and it’s an important but (hence the capitals!), my parents house is on an unmade road. Every time a car goes past it’s like you’re standing on the side lines of a rally or dakar stage. I didn’t much fancy filling the engine full of dirt and grit so kept it mostly together instead.
What’s left …
The most fuel economic mx5 in the world … EVER!
It was only looking back at these pictures that I realised I hadn’t taken the wings off … probably would’ve done if I had paint work to worry about though One final picture for now …
The bar on the floor at the front of the car is the ‘uni-strut’ bar we used to bolt onto the chassis rails and lift the car with. Gotta be honest, it did flex a little bit but those that know and love uni-strut will be pleased and unsurprised to hear it held and did the job like a charm!
So that’s the engine out! Who needs a hoist eh?! … yeah … don’t do it like that - use a hoist It took four blokes to lift the front safely (it can be lifted by less but don’t forget you’ll be under it!) plus me and a jack to get the engine out. Took most of a weekend and, I’m pretty sure there were several new swear words invented along the way! In contrast, easily could’ve been done in a day at a leisurely pace with a hoist I’d think. Ah well, it was a laugh … kind of.
Next post - the engine comes apart! … oh dear 
Super read! Keep it up m8.
Have only just discovered this thread being a noob myself and am absolutely loving it.
Excellent pictures too keep it coming.
Would really love to get to this level of mechanics one day and still have a sense of humour half as good as yours :-D … Here’s hoping !!!
Superb thanks
Paul
loving the read, save that MK1.
I’ve had to do some work on the one I brought, the last owner was about to scrap it, as he was struggling to sell it.