Ownership Verified: Meet Luigi DeVito! That's right, another MX-5! Sorry.

Back before the character transformation, from Mario to Luigi. :D
 
It's that time of year again ... Sun on the horison and warm weather around the corner!

After a lot of cranking and coughing and spluttering finally he sprang to life ... With just a small amount of smoke:





Back at it! Lights go up!





And home with his stately, new, adopted brother:

 
Some much needed maintenance coming up, there is some balooning on some of the coolant hoses - I decided rather than waiting to let them explode I would grab a kit of silicone hoses from I.L. Motorsport:





Should also freshen up the engine bay a bit:





I might get time to do it this weekend, but that depends... Anyway, I also got new clips too as these are required with the different diameter hoses.
 
I'm sure nicjasno can send some paint.

I have a tin of paint in the barn here :) But I don't think it will last long on hoses that move around.
 
I spent the afternoon working on the car, managed to take two photos!





I didn't manage to replace all of the hoses - For example there was one heater core hose which was not really accessible so I decided not to replace either for now.

I also only replaced one of the hoses on the intake because I fought for 2 hours to get one hose in and by 5pm I had decided that the old one will work fine until I am motivated again :D

There was also one hose in the kit that I could not figure out where it was...

All the main lines were well overdue for replacement so I got it at the right time.




I also gave it a nice bath and moved it back to the parking lot:

 
Drove to work last week, everything fine ... On the way home I got on to the motorway and suddenly no power...

The starts fine it just has no power and struggles to rev... I suspect a slipped cambelt tooth?


Suggestions welcome
 
Skipped belt seems the most likely. Also 4K revs is where the second cam normally kicks in on MX5s so could be related.

Suggestion: get it to a good mechanic pronto.
 
Skipped belt seems the most likely. Also 4K revs is where the second cam normally kicks in on MX5s so could be related.

Suggestion: get it to a good mechanic pronto.

Yeah, and I can hear something that sounds like air flowing through the engine that wasn't there before ...

I will just replace the cam belt myself with the one from my spare engine - I just need the barn to be free in case something else is the matter - I can't leave it sitting in the courtyard for more than a day.
 
With the sound of air rushing around the engine, it couldn't just be a vacuum or intake pipe, could it? Is the second cam like a VTEC system? If so what operates the second cam? Maybe that's a clue.
 
Yeah, and I can hear something that sounds like air flowing through the engine that wasn't there before ...

I will just replace the cam belt myself with the one from my spare engine - I just need the barn to be free in case something else is the matter - I can't leave it sitting in the courtyard for more than a day.

That might do the trick since I believe it’s a non-interference lump.
 
I love the way the instrument cluster barely changed between the NA and NC models.
 
Skipped belt seems the most likely. Also 4K revs is where the second cam normally kicks in on MX5s so could be related.

Suggestion: get it to a good mechanic pronto.

I wish that was a Honda so I could a "VTEC kicked the bucket" joke........
Then again, on my E36 VANOS was fucked too....so yeah.
 
Any progress with fixing his revving issue?
 
SO, given that I have a date to be back and I will need a car - I ordered some service bits to get the ball rolling:
  • Cambelt plus pulleys etc
  • Radiator cleaner (Still quite a lot of residue in there, I run this through each coolant change.
  • Thermostat
  • Water pump
  • Crankshaft seal
  • The accessory belts
  • New bolts for the crank pulley, if you recall I snapped the head off of one of them ... So this will get fixed now.
  • The boot torsion bar springs (FINALLY)
Hopefully doing this will resolve the not revving issue which I am still fairly certain is related to a slipped cam belt.

Looks like mid June I will be able to get a move on assuming my flights are not cancelled ... And Germany lifts the 14 day isolation period after traveling.
 
I landed back in DE today, collected Luigi!

Still doesn't rev, but it cruises still :) It was great to be back driving him!

 
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