HSV MX5

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 8:45 pm

So for those of you following my posts and waiting for the final post of saying it is all up and running (especially after the last one that I did) well the story still continues.

Like I said in the last one, it was 3 weeks and it would be good to go, and I figure my guess of not just knowing when the 3 weeks started was right. 6th of April been and gone (mind you it was Easter Friday) and even gave it the grace of couple of weeks extra.

So made the call to see where it was at. List of things left are Extractors to be HPC coated, Engine bay to be painted, HSV axles to be shortened to fit, Airbox to be made. For those of you out there with a keen eye will have noted that this list is pretty much the same list of things from 5 weeks ago. Essentially the only thing that has happened since I was down there last is the engine has been fired up, and the transmission tunnel on the inside coated and interior put back together (sigh). Apparently can't shorten the HSV axles for some reason, so a whole new set of axles have to be made up, just another expense to add

I am half inclined to go down there and pull the car out of the garage and bring it back up here and give the work to someone who actually wants to do it, which I am getting the feeling these guys just don't.

So is this going from a post to a rant? AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!

punkoutnz · Post by **punkoutnz** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:06 pm

I know how you feel man! I've been waiting 11 weeks for my wrx to be returned to me. For "just a couple of bumps and scratches" (it was stolen and recovered) that seems an excessively long time to wait. Also sounds like these guys working on your car are taking the long route to do everything aye.

Mad Kiwi · Post by **Mad Kiwi** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 10:03 am

Lets do a mass mx5 assault, all of us can drive down with you and a trailer and kidnap your car back!!!

We might drive girls cars but we are tough dammit, don't mess with us (well collectively tough ...maybe..

)

punkoutnz · Post by **punkoutnz** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 10:18 am

Be like a mob of angry hairdressers. Wow that thought is scary! Lets do it!

SLYDIT · Post by **SLYDIT** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:32 pm

just take a black hair dryer...they look more realistic...

that reminds me of a project car that i did....
i told the panel beater that i was in no hurry for the car and he was going to do it in his down time and give me a heavily discounted price......

10 months later he hands me a $6000 dollar bill for the work done!
i hit the roof. if i wanted to pay the $6000 bill i would have wanted it done YESTERDAY!

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:59 pm

Yeah, I sort of made the same mistake, dropped it off at the start of 2010, told him he had $10K (but later revised that to $13K) and said that I didn't really need it over winter, so to be done around Aug/Sept 2011.

Both price and time frame have well and truly been passed.

Told him today not to bother about doing the exhaust that I would get that sorted up here, so that should have hopefully saved myself a month going by the standards of the rest of it. Now I am just going to have to find someone who can build a decent exhaust, without costing a small fortune and that does a decent job. Still have to figure out how to do the twin pipes out the back without wrecking the bumper (have Euen trashed bumper from his little incident to play around with and practice on) along with possibly putting in a diffuser that actually works.

Mind you, pipes out the side, just inbetween the rear of the door and the start of the wheel arch, Lightning McQueen style (read somewhere his design was based on a MX5) hmmmm.

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Tue May 22, 2012 8:25 am

So engine bay is painted now, headers are HPC coated but not back in, interior is all back together, exhaust done (even though I said for them not to bother, sigh), axles apparently being made up this week.

Told them I was picking the car up towards the end of next week and they said it should be ready, so I guess we will see what happens next week.

old scrubber · Post by **old scrubber** » Tue May 22, 2012 8:56 am

try by gone autos in beachhaven, give mal a call , he has done dozens of jobs that knowone else would tackle, exhausts, rollcages, big engines into little cars etc., he is from the old school.ph4833991

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Tue May 22, 2012 9:09 am

Yeah, going to get him to do the conversion on my starlet (either 4AGE or 13B rotary), but bit late for him to do anything on the MX5 since it is just about finished. Although I am sure there is plenty of stuff that I will need to get sorted out to get it certified for the road.

biff · Post by **biff** » Tue May 22, 2012 11:30 am

Best of luck

-----Original Message-----
From: Donovan [mailto:mx5talk@mx5forum.co.nz]
Sent: Tuesday, 22 May 2012 8:26 a.m.
To: mx5talk@mx5forum.co.nz
Subject: [MX5] Re: HSV MX5

So engine bay is painted now, headers are HPC coated but not back in,
interior is all back together, exhaust done (even though I said for them not
to bother, sigh), axles apparently being made up this week.

Told them I was picking the car up towards the end of next week and they
said it should be ready, so I guess we will see what happens next week.

---------------------------------------------

Sent from an mx5forum.co.nz topic here:
http://www.mx5forum.co.nz/viewtopic.php?p=49626#49626

---------------------------------------------

[Posted via external email]

2low2c · Post by **2low2c** » Tue May 22, 2012 11:40 am

did they put cats in the exhaust ? you will need them for your cert new rule end of last year

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Tue May 22, 2012 3:42 pm

Don't know, didn't even bother going there with them, since even said for them no to bother, and they still did it anyway. I am guessing most likely not, but yes, I was aware of the new rule, buggar it all.

I'll just get the car up here get it to the certifier, and then sort out all the things that need to get fixed up with somewhere local to me up here.

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Tue May 29, 2012 4:20 pm

Axles still not made up, unlikely to be by this week.

Am I just being naive, or does it actually take 3 weeks to make up a set of axles?

Born_disturbed · Post by **Born_disturbed** » Tue May 29, 2012 4:39 pm

couple of hours?

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Tue May 29, 2012 4:47 pm

Apparently they need to be machined,then something else (can't remember what) splined and heat treated.

Haven't even been splined yet.

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:35 pm

Had a meeting in the Tron today, so thought I would punish myself and drop by the workshop to see what was going on. Well the headers had turned up that morning, after being HPC coated, and were fitted onto the engine block, and the engine and tranny were in the process of getting put back in for the umptenth dozen time, this time hopefully for good.

Apparently Axles were just having the heat treatment today, so they should turn up towards start of the next week. Was even told that I can think about booking in for getting it all dyno tuned. Most likely going to take it to Pro Tune in Manakau, as they are the one that removed the codes from the ECU for ABS, air bags etc. Will cost another $800+GST for the final tune and they would like car for a couple of days. Apparently they know about the build and are keen to get their hands on it. Torque Performance are doing a special at the moment for $750 for a dyno tune, but don't know whether they will cover the setup of my one under this. Will have a chat to them next week, as I am taking the STi in there to get get beefed up a bit, and get rid of the 195km/h limiter on it.

I've used Torque performance before but never have used Pro Tune, any one ever dealt with them?

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:41 pm

Picture of the car getting ready for the engine to go back in, will see the engine in the forground with coated extractors. Also will see the new lights in their highest raised up position

Born_disturbed · Post by **Born_disturbed** » Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:16 am

Which lights are you running?

Angreal · Post by **Angreal** » Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:34 am

That engine looks substantially bigger than the stock one

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Fri Jun 08, 2012 8:46 am

Born_disturbed wrote:Which lights are you running?

Hella 90mm H7 55w low/high beam and 90mm H9 high beam (don't know what wattage they are)

Born_disturbed · Post by **Born_disturbed** » Fri Jun 08, 2012 8:59 am

Were they an off the shelf kit?

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Fri Jun 08, 2012 9:13 am

Was going to be, but got all to hard with trying to get hold a RHD set out of the states, the ones out of the UK/Aus were double the price than the ones from the US, and the Jap ones were even more again (think they were $2K for the Jap ones if I remember rightly)

So ended up botching up our own from different things, now that we have a pattern, going to see a fabricator, and see how much it would cost for him to make a run of kits and figure out it if is worth while for selling them off. I am hoping to get the costs to about $600, but I think in reality it is going to be $750-$800

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Sun Jun 17, 2012 11:07 pm

Took my son down the the fielddays on Friday (man, what a mission with the traffic, everyone in AKL at the blinking place, and it was so huge), so thought I would drop in and see what the story was.

Well the story was good, axles turned up, and were in there, so it was driveable. Unfortuantly my 4yr old decided to have a chocking fit just after we got there, and then after 10mins of sorting him out, he decided didn't like the red car and wanted to go back in the blue car, so another 10mins of coaxing him in this one for a quick blat down the road.

I was planning on the first drive of it, videoing it, sticking it up on youtube and just having a link to that with no comments. Well between trying to sort out my son, and just wanting to hope in and take it for a drive, sort of forgot to get the video, sorry.

Exhaust tip on it looks stock, and there is just a single pipe out the back, so at the moment it looks like a stock MX5 with big wheels and a crappy paint job. It is pretty quiet at the idle and be hard to pick up the engine at the lights, and even in a car park you would just think that the engine had just been fiddled with a bit, rather than what is actually lurking under there.

What's it like to drive, well considering I had my son in the car with me, I was being pretty easy on it, but it is effortless in it's acceleration, any gear, any revs, you touch the throttle and it surges forward, no hesitation, no waiting for a turbo to spool up, it just sits it's bum down and goes, which sort of leads to one of the problems that I have with the car at the moment, but more about that later.

It doesn't feel like a wee little hairdressers car anymore, feels a bit more grown up, but at the same time, I couldn't feel the extra weight in it, so will be interesting to get it on the scales and see how much pork it has added on, hopefully it will be under 1100kg.

So, few issues that need to sorted out before it can go in for certification. First one is the ECU, the one that I got with the motor seems to have a bit of a fault with it, and running that one, it only runs on 7 cylinders, so at the moment, it has a loaner run of the mill Holden ECU, rather than the HSV unit. I have brought my one back up to AKL, and will have to get it fixed, otherwise I am going to have to try and find a replacement unit if it can't be fixed.

Second problem is the suspension, seemed pretty soft, compaired to what it was before, and they had to raise the height on it by 20mm, as when you stuck your foot down, the butt squatted down, and hit the bump stops. Since I wasn't thinking about things that the time, I forget to check the damper settings on the suspensions, since the Tein's I have in there have adjustable damper as well, so have fired the workshop to find out whether they are aware that they can adjust the damper, and what it is set to at the moment. Otherwise, I guess it is to a heaver set of springs.

Third problem is heat, even after a short blat, it is obvious that something is going to have to be done for it to handle track days without it cooking itself. I need to find away to get air circulating in the engine bay and venting the hot stuff out. I didn't really want to end up cutting holes in my bonnet for vents, but it is looking that is the way I am going to have to go. I have also read on some of the American posts, that putting a heat shield around the engine mounts is a good idea, as they tend to melt!

Fourth, is the gearbox, I can now see why pretty much all the V8 Holden's are auto's, it is a horrible gearbox. I have driven a lot of cars in my time, and had the not so great pleasure of stirring some horrid gearboxes (old Alfa's come to mind) but this one takes the cake. It is a real effort to try and shift gears, it doesn't like to be hurried, and it is a bit of russian roulette what you are going to get. I thought that since the had the T56 in the Falcon, Holden, Viper, Corvette, Camaro, Mustangs and even some Austin Martin's that it wouldn't be that bad (I know they are different flavours of the same box) but it is. Doesn't help that my one came out of a race car and has got a short shit kit on it, so it has just accentuated the problems of it. This is going to take a bit of getting used to, and hopefully don't lunch the engine while learning it.

So there you go, the journey is almost at the end (or more likely just half way thru I am guessing). Getting that ECU sorted out if my first priority, the rest of the stuff I can just fiddle my way thru.

Should be back up in AKL in the next few weeks maybe.

Mad Kiwi · Post by **Mad Kiwi** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 10:22 am

I wouldn't be surprised if going back to the standard shifter helps a lot.

The more I look in to"aftermarket" mods for cars and bikes etc the more I realise the OEMS get most things pretty right, or the best overall balance in trade offs......

Can't wait to see and hear the beast !!

brownie · Post by **brownie** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:13 pm

Have you seen the bonnet listed in the classifieds?,and your rear brakes are ready when you are

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HSV MX5

HSV MX5

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