BlownCorona

Where do i start. A while ago my brother started building an mx5 for his girlfriend and ended up with a fairly straight, but de registered rolling body, offered it to me for free and i was keen for a future track car project. I also happen to have a job which involved crashing cars, and thanks to a certain american standard roadside barriers must meet, we crash a lot of Dodge Rams. with plenty of v8 engines kicking around i hatched a plan and proceeded to talk about it for at least a year without actually doing anything about it. then the engine blew up on the corona, so while i wait to save up money to build that engine properly, i thought id make a start on this one, which by all accounts should be nearly free, with the only big ticket items needed being a roll cage, a diff swap and a driveshaft. So last weekend i dragged the mx5 into work, where i have all the tools i need to build a race car. and over the week started the efforts to remove the engine. Now that sounds easy, but boy was this truck fucked up. while the engine faired very well with the only damage being an engine mount ripped out (block still fine) and the starter motor wanged in (i have alot of spares). the chassis was bent at near 90 degrees around the engine, i also didn't really want to remove the trans. i started with a 9" angle grinder and removed as much fucked body and frame as possible. i then undid the remaining mounts and then promptly discovered this engine doesn't have lifting points? strapped it around some dubious strong points and tried to lift it out with the forklift. it rapidly became clear that the turbo fucked chassis was going to make it impossible to get out. so packed up, went back to work and had a think over the next few days. that brings us to today, what i had decided to do was cut the chassis in half just behind the trans and lift the truck off. so out came the 9" grinder again and i began by cutting access to the rails around the fucked body, and then trying to cut the rails with the grinder. sketchy at best. so thought fuck it, step it up a notch eh? though this was actually much safer. Gas axed the rails and out she came!

the exhaust ive got on my cs80 engine is just straight pipe with a BMW f800GS muffler that i saved from the scrap bin years ago. i doubt it does much wonders for power but i was going for quiet so we could use it at local parks. that said, i still get angry old cunts coming over to have a whinge so perhaps a screaming expansion pipe is what i need!

i put the 80cc version of this 3 speed motor on a go kart as super kid friendly being 3 spd auto while still being awesomely quick once you wind it out through the gears. found it hard to find info, but everything said the automatic system was a really well designed and bulletproof system.

very good info. certainly keen on knock detection. ive got a knock sensor here that i planning on making some sort of DIY audio knock setup with. just need to look into what parts itll need

tuning i want to do myself. fucking it up is a concern and did make me wonder if i should buy stronger parts just for insurance on that front, but am interested to hear what you guys think. not a 100% tuning noob, but not a pro either. i also dont have a dyno in my shed KPR. lucky bastard.

assuming, and your not the first person to suggest i wont really need forged pistons, i dont buy them. will standard type piston rings be up to the task, once gaped properly, or do i need to look around for something specific?

you can get forged pistons, though would need 1mm over bore. and are spendy. can get an MLS gasket from the same outfit in america, kinda spendy, but not all that much more if your buying a gasket anyway. ill probably be buying there full gasket kit anyway as it looks the most complete and well priced. they also do flash bearings with some kind of special heat treatment. probably not needed by the sounds. forged rods also availible, but since they are rated to 200hp per rod, i aleady assumed this was not required. id be pretty happy with 200hp across the whole motor! definatly going to be gapping rings for boost, as this is 100% of the reason its only ever ran super low boost 2-3psi. its been over heated a few times, never super super hot. but ill want to get the head checked out and hardness tested as first port of call.

ahh we dont have ones like that sorry!. must be an earlier model. ours look like this

what does it look like? and are the programable to other cars? we crash tiidas at work and might have something you can use. pretty sure ive got one of the keyless oval type ones

Hi hopefully more experienced people than me. i have a few questions, mainly about what extent i need to go to, around my up coming engine build for the corona. engine is currently a disassembled 18rgeu which had a failed head gasket. Now i know how to build an engine, have done a couple in the past and even have some formal engine building training. but what i dont know much about is building an engine to make more power than it came from the factory. short story is its an old 18rgeu with a supercharger strapped to it. will be running about 8psi, and run by a megasquirt stand alone ecu. how far do i need to take things? do i need forged pistons? do i need fancy bearings, do i need flash piston rings, do i need a MLS head gasket (im pretty keen to use one anyway) is there anything else i should be doing or need to look for, in order to produce a reliable engine. i don't much care about making the most power i can. but reliability is 100% priority, while still being supercharged. id usually just do internet research on this, but theres a million conflicting articles and most originate from someone selling something.

The ball joint on that side didn't have a split pin either, so I'm picking its a genuine aliexpress part (which terrifyingly is available) Went back to the dog park today, which I was coming home from when this happened, the skid mark is about 75m long and shows a struggle in the steering as I wrestled it to the side. I don't remember any of it! Shit happens fast.

cars back on all four wheels now. found lower ball joints locally no problem, but was concerned about the stress the upper may have seen, when it was all that was holding a wheel dragging at 90* along the road. so have got some of those inbound from Australia for piece of mind. i did take it slowly around the block and had a bit of a frightening light bulb moment, i had initially been planning on getting the car a wheel alignment because it didn't return to center all that well when turning. but with the new lower ball joints is now spins right back to center quick as can be. guess we know what the real problem was now, never did feel any play when i looked quickly when swapping wheels. oh well live and learn.

fix that cam sensor and sell it.

I somewhat blame the shocking work on the chch roads too, But ultimately its bad maintenance

Complete ball joint failure. Don't rely on wofs meaning your shit is all good folks! That said, this can't have been good at its last wof. They don't make cars this tough anymore, the weight of the car is on the fender and no bending at all. New wheels all good too, hopefully the tire is alright. Will change both lower ball joints and check all other components. Could have been worse at speed, pretty happy with how calm I remained with minimal control over direction.

Tonights effort. engine fully disassembled, except the head. everything looks good, its clearly had coolant in the oil. the bearings are fairly worn, but the surfaces look primo. im piking the wear on the bearings has been from the water. Nothing very obvious on the head gasket though other than being quite brittle and shitty. its had a rebuild before so that could be a contributor now onto cleaning and sourcing new parts.

this mornings effort. getting on a major roll. will start engine dissasembly tonight once the kids are in bed and the wife has gone to work.

still angry got stuck in engine is ready to pull once i get my crane back fuck this car. atleast the new engine will actually make power/not surprised this has happend this engine came out of a paddock what initially started as a suspicion the gasket had failed, due to some weird pressurization going on in the radiator, was then confirmed today when it started hemorrhaging out the overflow tank, and on closer inspection there now looks to be water in the oil, so i expect a full blown gasket failure it what i will find. aleast i know this car like the back of my hand and can get the engine out super quick, but thats the cheap part.....

2 days untill cert. Took it into work today to give it a good cleaning and degrease the engine. Blown head gasket, its pumping its coolant out the overflow tank. Rang Ian and cancelled the cert, he was really good about it, even at such late notice, I think he knew it was a genuine blindside and not me being slack. So gutted, so very gutted. This will now mean plans I had for the future to rebuild the engine and add intercooler ect will now need to be brought forward. Which takes time I don't have. Hopeing to atleast use the anger to pull the motor out this weekend.

fuck yeah that looks awesome. shame its not weather proof, would be an awesome front door step light

This one really only looks rough, because the clear coat is peeling. I've not found any serious rust Worst I can see is some poking out of the windscreen seal. I'll have the glass popped out for paint anyway and either fix it myself or get it fixed when the rear gaurds are sorted. Plus I'll paint it myself, also have a panel beater that we use alot for work teed up to properly fix the rear gaurds for very cheap.

the car now also has the correct size tires on it, meaning the speedo is now accurate, and the warning bell doesnt drive me insane at 100kmh. the car is about 20mm higher off the ground, but looks lower due to much less guard gap, previously i probably could have fit my head in the rear arch.

a care package from japan arrived. the no working on this quickly went out the window when i saw my new wheels yesterday. scored some 16x7.5 et4 Epsilon Ragunas out of japan, for not the cheapest in the world, but probably half their value in NZ. was also a set of 5. haven't decided if the 5th will get a tire mounted and act as a spare or if i mount it to the wall and hang my airline off it. also bought a cruise control spec HKB boss kit. i expected this to just include a wire pigtail for cruise buttons, but it actually has buttons built in. super clean. the lables are wrong, but it looks like i can just swap the buttons around. finally an uncracked stereo surround. i still need a bunch more plastics, but this parcel was getting worryingly big, as it was it got seperated into two parcels. which also meant it slipped in customs under the tax threshold. score. i also swapped back to the stock clutched supercharger pulley, very small performance drop, clearly the party pulley on there was only making heat and not power. plus fuel economy has improved, and thats more important on this car being my daily and much more of a cruiser than a performance car. cant wait for this to be panel and painted.

balancing carbs can be gotten close with a piece of hose into the intake and the other end into your ear, and balance the sound you hear. when i had bike carbs i also bench set them up with a piece of mig wire as a feeler gauge between the throttle throat and blade.

Certs booked - 6th of May. Are you meant to feel this nervous? it should be fine, its not a massive list of mods and its not making huge power. anxious and excited at the same time, this has been a long time coming. nearly 10 years of ownership, i initially bought this car as something to learn on.