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(was) Yoeddynz's 1968 Viva + Mazda V6. New owner ! Welcome Guzzi rat.


yoeddynz

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  • 2 months later...
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  • 2 weeks later...

Well now I have somewhere to sit the ipod, phone and wallet plus I cant see all the wires coming out from the tunnel. This job I have been meaning to do for ages as well as the new dash.  I added a little Vauxhall badge I had removed from the centre of one of my old original steering wheels. Worked a treat at hiding some roughness at the bottom of the console.

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Not many photos. Here it is finished..

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Wow- that's like two jobs ticked off. One day I might just get around to fitting a boot light, the wiring is already there- posh(er) Vivas had them fitted. But I am slowly building up to such a big task by doing all these little jobs.

For some reason the fuel gauge now reads well above super full ( the tank is full but it used to read bang on full. I have not altered the wiring to or from the gauge as such but have made the wires longer. Weird. So I fitted a variable resistor inline to see if I can fine tune where the needle sits like I have done on the temp gauge. But it doesnt make any difference. If anything it makes it worse ie reads even higher unless the knob is turned right back..then it reads where it did previous to fitting the VR.

So maybe having extended the wiring to the gauge has added resistance to the point where it reads fuller? I need to look into the circuit further, get my head around it and see whats going on.

On another note-I did some adding up and we have now clocked up 5837 miles since fitting the V6. Over this time it has returned an average of 29.3 MPG.  This is pretty bloody good- I'm happy with that especially as much of that is town driving and or fast driving :-) I could only ever dream about that sort of mileage with the rotary and this is a much more usable engine. I still love rotaries though and will surely have another but in something even smaller.
 

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Got stuck in on the block last night. Gave it a quick clean first- a touch dusty. Now this particular block was one from the bulk load of engines and bits I bought off trademe from a seller in Auckland. He had this block fitted in his Fraser cars Lotus 7 replica. It has been rebuilt at some point but I think it was only due to it being painted. It looks to still have the factory hone marks in the bores. I split it in half last night (funky split crankcase design) so I could check out the condition of the bearings. They have very fine scores suggesting a bit of dirt/filings have been through it.

 

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The crank is pretty mint though.

 

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The previous owner had ground down the web that sits between the inlet and outlet side of the oil filter pedestal maounting point in order to fit a remote filter. My guess is that some tiny alloy filings have gone through the system. If I had not split it down and just used it the bearing would probably be fine. But now I know I will measure the crank today at work and order some new bearings.

 

Once apart Hannah noticed how heavy the bottom crankcase 'cradle' was. We then noticed that it actually has steel main bearing supports cast in place. Man these engines are a sweet little build- pretty tough eh.

 

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I need to pop off a rod end and have a check of big ends too.

 

When looking up bearing prices on line I found this bit about an inspection from an oil company on a higher mileage engine from a MX6..

 

A USA oil company researched engine longevity using their own oil:

 

  • "After 300,950 miles the Mazda MX6-V6 passed an IM 240 Exhaust Emission Test in Aurora, Colorado, with results well within new car limits. At more than 310,000 miles, the test engine was disassembled for inspection and measurement. No wear was evident on valve stems and guides, main and rod bearings, crankshaft main and rod journals, or cylinder walls. The cylinder hone marks from original factory machining were all clearly evident. While piston skirts showed no wear, piston rings showed an average of only 0.0015" of face wear."

The V6 rivals the Lexus V8 for longevity, which is unsurprising considering the original application was a Xedos6-2.0V6, Xedos9-2.25/2.5V6 & Sentia rotary luxury lines. Many V6s & I4s have exceeded 350,000 miles, the only failures on one was a Mitsubishi alternator at over 200,000 miles and the pre-Jan-1995 rear calipers on another.

 

Cool. I'll get back to you all on this one in about 300000 miles then....

 

We have finished doing all the valve stem seals on both heads the other night and they now wait to be fitted to the block once I have sorted the bearings. Im hoping to do the engine swap next weekend and hopefully if all goes well we can get this new engine to the Hanmer PIE meet :-)

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

So latest on the Viva.. Its been repaired under insurance. Was really weird not doing the job myself but I did 'check in' a couple of times to inspect. Repair is good. Then Shane primed it last week and on Monday it got its top coat. Here is shane giving its bum a coat of high build (or something painty ish)

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The bumper is away getting straightened and rechromed. Ooooooh that will be flashy. I do hope they can straighten it out as it was quite bent.

On Sunday we took it out and did some more tuning. Its running really well now. Just need to fine tune a few little areas to get the idle even smoother and remove the mild hunting at light throttle openings when on cruise. I have not been able to get the fan to switch on however. I have checked all the wiring and removed the main chip/daughter board to check the circuit there and all good. So maybe a software issue otherwise I have somehow blown a transistor? Luckily its really easy to get to the ecu and work on it!!! I really do like my roll out ecu drawer...

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WE decided to take it out to our land and get some photos of it while sunny.  The parking area seems huge when its just a little Viva parked up...

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We went to the first OS Nelson area meet last Thursday night. The car was dwarfed by this big old girl...

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After getting some snaps I gave it a good hard caning and boy its quick on the hills! Sadly the extra power is showing up all the other 'old car' design faults. I think under really hard acceleration the back squats down and the 1800 magnum axle is possibly hitting the tunnel. The trailing arm bolts move/bang back and forth in the holes too. I really would like to fit an IRS setup into this car. I measured the track- from across the outer faces of the tyres and it came up at 1545mm so I need to look at something off a smaller rwd car. I think the mx5 setups I was thinking of using are 80mm wider and I want to avoid using front wheel drive offset rims. I need dish...

I will continue to do some research on what might fit. Otherwise I keen to cut/chop/adapt/build my own setup. But If I can find a setup that is close to working it will save a big ball ache when it comes to re-cert time. I've lots of other things I want to make/modify as well but cant really start until we have our shed all built. Currently waiting on plans and then the whole consent application so it will be a while yet.

 

I might pop the car up on the hoist and remove the springs. Then I can jack up the axle up until it hits and squeezes the bump stops. I can then spot what might be hitting.

 

Anyway- I am very much looking forward to the drive to Hanmer tomorrow. Always a fantastic drive with great scenery. Gonna be good!

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  • 2 months later...

So this happened this morning...

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Engine backfired at start up. Bang! Vrooooooom! Ooooh big air leak....what have I bust?!

So I can fix it but just a pain. Big question is.. what's causing a back fire in my tune? It's only backfired once before this. Maybe too much advance at start? Too much cranking pulse? Once home from work tonight I'll post up my settings for those ms gurus on here.

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  • 2 months later...

Someone on RR just posted a link up to THe smoking tires latest video posted on YTube. Its of driving Andrews Mazda Lantis on some sweet looking road near Wainuiamata? Anyway- interesting seeing how he likes the smaller 2.0litre JDM spec KFZE V6.

 

They mention the Viva, take out a cicada at 10min in and I reckon they pass a speed camera van parked up in on the right at 16min. I'll message Andrew and find out if he gets a ticket...

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

That cat... he is invaluable. Like today he hung about assisting me with the Viva. He watched over me to make sure I did things right.

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For ages now I have been intending to sort out my throttle pedal cable attachment. When I built the inlet manifold and used the mazda throttle body I had intended to have the cable run through from the pulley end so it was nice and clean.  But time was running out to get the car on the road for the oldschool nats so I just used a solderless nipple. I have always wanted to fix this but it was one of those little jobs I never got around to. Until today.

So the uglyness I dont like is this...

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I started by chopping off a chunk of alloy in our new toy- $100 secondhand saw. Saw worked well but I already have plans to modify it.

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With the chunk of alloy and some steel and some little stainless bolts I wittled away until I had this...

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That fits into the HC pedal like this...

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I made it like that so when the cable is clamped it remains straight and kink free. Every time I had to remove the cable from the old pinch bolt it would be all kinked and a bit frayed making it a sod to get back through the outer at re-assembly. Now its clean and straight. A simple little thing that will make a big difference.

I forgot to take a photo of the pulley end but will get one in the morning. It looks heaps better.

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Not actually much to report right now except the trial fitting of the Cheviot Turbo mags from the wagon. They were off the wagon while I have it up on the hoist and I just couldnt resist fitting them...

 

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I like them heaps but I think the 185/65 are a bit too tall compared to my 185/60 I have fitted to the steels. Plus that extra height means they are very close to rubbing the back of the wheel well at half lock. I thought they might have more offset but they are identical to the steels in that respect. I still really want some Hustlers or what ever they are called- like what Greg has on his Valiant. More of a 60's style that would suit the Viva better I reckon.

 

Anyway- have another couple of photos.

 

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Not really much else to talk about. Oh I did get a shiny new windscreen. I have been intending to do so for bloody ages now and had bought a proper decent silicone screen rubber custom made for Vivas by some Viva fan in the UK. Tight fitting but really good. Whilst it was out I cleaned up the aperture and luckily there was no rust.

Lovely new screen is amazing to look through- I wish I had replaced it ages ago !

 

For now the car is being used heaps as our daily and has needed nothing but fuel. Clocking up a fair few fun kms :-)

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