Teh Official "Dude Where's My Forum?" Thread, Brought to you by the minds of Box, and her fiancée, Lorelei Options

[Box]

Hmm, just buy a Capri XR2. Got it.

[Bitter]

Good lord do not do that! LOL it's almost getting impossible to get some pretty basic parts like a rear brake caliper for them. Get a Miata, clearly.

[Box]

Not like there are parts for the MX-3 either.

[Bitter]

Not like there are parts for the MX-3 either.

3 syllables.
Mi
Ah
Tah
You can have matching cars.

But seriously, your parts availability is way better than the Crapi. My auntie has one and it's nigh impossible for some parts. She says she needs a rear caliper on one side because ??? I guess she's a Capri whisperer or something, well it's just simply not available. The other side caliper is in stock, but not the one side. Why? Who knows. Car rides like a wet noodle too and is super nose heavy, it is not confidence inspiring at all to drive that vehicle.

The MX-6 2nd gen was always a nice looking car, very rounded and swoopy with some cool EUDM and JDM parts you can fawn over. And the KL's fit in them a lot better.

[Box]

They're about 300 pounds heavier than a MX-3 GS, but otherwise yeah the '96 MX-6 M-Edition is spiffy since it uses the '95 Miata M-Edition paint. There's also the Probe GT of course, and the 5th gen 626, for a factory KL-DE 5-speed. I think a '95-97 Probe GT 5-speed that's been debadged would be really cool, especially one in purple.

[Box]

I've contemplated selling my Miata for a 150-200K mile NA6 I can really **** with and not feel guilty about it, like doing #RacecarStoof just because. The only thing about the NA6 is I'd want to swap in a 1.8 TorSen differential(maybe the whole NB subframe at that rate), and a NB front subframe for the better suspension geometry and power steering rack.

The NA6 is the lightest by quite a bit, 2,180 for the '90-91 models. Figure try for a '91 BRG or Mariner B-package. The other option being find a NB1, which are the same weight as the NA8(2,290) which saves all the above trouble.

Mostly I'm wanting to get away from the roll bar as I hate it and to remove it to my standard is cost prohibitive, plus I'm tired of being stuck with subpar headlights and not having any real options. The NA is easy with E-codes and a relay harness, and the NB1 is H4 so doing a proper D2S conversion is stupid easy. Oh, and it'd get me away from having to use 93 since apparently that's never going to be a reasonable difference over 87 again apparently.

[Bitter]

There is no perfect car, but you can perfect a car to your liking.

[Box]

Indeed, hence the above. The only reason I bought it despite the roll bar was the price/condition and that it had ABS, plus I thought I'd come to be at least indifferent towards the bar. Should've known better.

[Bitter]

Indeed, hence the above. The only reason I bought it despite the roll bar was the price/condition and that it had ABS, plus I thought I'd come to be at least indifferent towards the bar. Should've known better.

There's a joke in there somewhere but I'll just leave it alone.

[Bitter]

New idea, C4 Corvette.

[Box]

New idea, C4 Corvette.

I've thought about a '94-96, preferably a '95-96 model, 6-speed. I dunno, I like the Miata's size and weight and if anything I want to go smaller and lighter. If parts from Japan wasn't so brutal I'd get an EA21R Cappuccino and call it real. The NA has some short rear bumpers out there that takes off a few inches of length and a bit of weight, so there's that in addition to the other stuff.

[Bitter]

Argh. Need new HID bulbs in the Celica, one decided that pink would be in vogue this season. Got some NightBreaker Laser D2S here but bumper and lights have to come out to change them and I'm not so excited for that part of it.

On the plus side, I did get it out on Monday to break in the brakes for the season. I still like driving it, a lot. It is slow but it just has that good feel to it. Like clean sheets on your bed or something, simple pleasure in life kind of thing.

This post has been edited by Bitter: Mar 25, 2022 - 1:58 PM

[Box]

5 gallon air compressor wasn't enough volume to get more than one valve done at a time, so swapped to the rope method. Have cylinder 1 done at least, 2 is ready to go.

[Bitter]

5 gallon is enough IF the compressor can keep up, but most 5 gallon compressors have tiny pumps for like nail guns. The rope works and it's fool proof since you can stop and start as needed, plus you have a bunch of dirty rope for later!


https://youtu.be/6hIlmK97S1I

So that's fine right?

This post has been edited by Bitter: Mar 25, 2022 - 9:28 PM

[Box]

Yeah, I was thinking 5 gal would be enough for a small engine but nooope. Went from 100 psi to 40 psi by the time I got the retainers back in place. So to the rope method it was.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many people let their cars go like that.

[Bitter]

Yeah, I was thinking 5 gal would be enough for a small engine but nooope. Went from 100 psi to 40 psi by the time I got the retainers back in place. So to the rope method it was.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many people let their cars go like that.

So what you did there was basically a leak down test, did you take note of where most of the air was escaping to? If it's hissing out the oil cap I'd highly suggest getting a couple cans of Seafoam or B12 (or a mix of both!) and pouring several ounces into each cylinder then letting it soak for a few days, rocking the engine crank back and forth to get the rings moving during the soak. You can remove the fluid the clean way by slowly rocking the cylinder to TDC and sucking the fluid out with something like a mightyvac with the brake bleeder bottle or using a fluid extractor (which is a godsend to have for more than just cars, get one!) or the horribly messy way which is to just crank the engine with the plugs out for a couple minutes a few times...which you'll need to do anyway after you suck the fluid out to make sure you didn't miss a lot down there but it's a lot less messy when it's like 1/4 ounce blasting out vs a lot of it. If you do use the engine cranking method to clear it out don't go whole ham cranking it just bump the starter the first few times to push the cleaner out slowly-er into rags stuffed into the plug holes to push up most of the liquid through the hole. Then swap to a layer of rags over the valve cover weighted down by some wood, crank it long and fast a few go arounds until it's not blowing out mist anymore, wash the plug wells down with brake cleaner, blow the plug wells and cylinders dry of brake cleaner, then resume normal engine operations.
Cleaner will go in clean and come out black and nasty, engine will love you for it. I'd say probably 2-3 ounces per cylinder should do it, I don't know how dished or flat the pistons are. Some cleaner will seep past into the crank case, up to you if you want to immediately drain that or run the cleaner/oil mix for a little bit to put it through the engine to break down some funk in there too...I'd probably just drain it out to be safe, do crank case chem cleaning on it's own separate step if desired.

For brake cleaner for home use this stuff has been pretty awesome. It's mostly acetone but the spray is very strong and it really does dry up quickly and without a bunch of residue, but it is highly flammable AND SO ARE THE VAPORS so be careful with it around the engine where cleaner or vapor may puddle and ignite. I always blast the work area with extra air before starting the engine to make sure there's nothing lingering. ONCE I had some brake cleaner vapor catch some spark from a loose distributor cap and give me a flash of fire, I've been extra careful since, thankfully modern COP and DIS systems are a lot safer.
https://gunk.com/product/gunk-instant-parts...greaser-pcd14t/

And this stuff is excellent for cleaning/fogging intakes on even non GDI cars to clear out intake valve and intake port carbon/gunk buildup. You wouldn't think port injected engines get that nasty but boy they sure do, especially ones with EGR and some oil consumption going on at the same time. That EGR carbon sticks to the coating of dirty oil in the intake manifold and the intake ports and just keeps building up over time. This stuff works excellent to knock it down and clear it out.
https://www.crcindustries.com/products/gdi-...r-11-wt-oz.html
https://www.crcindustries.com/products/gdi-...r-11-wt-oz.html

[Box]

It was leaking past the valves, just not enough ass to keep the cylinder pressurized. I could push the valve in with my dainty lady finger if that says anything. No real issues with the rope method. Finished and reassembling now. Will do a flush and change after it's all back together.

Oh yeah, that GDI cleaner is great so will probably do it too before changing plugs.

[Bitter]

Leaking that much past the valves concerns me. All 4 valves or were the intake or exhaust worse? Did all cylinders leak equally or were some worse than others? At 100 PSI you should not be able to easily push the valve in, that's got at least 40-60lbs pushing back on it assuming the valves are a bit less than 1 inch in diameter. Unless you're less dainty than you think.

[Box]

After the first cylinder didn't work out with air we only used the rope method. I think the issue was a combination of an old 5 gallon compressor from Wal-Mart and the valve keeper tool was the kind that pushes against the valve as you thwack it with a hammer to get the retainer and keepers back in place. So it couldn't keep up with the air demands, as it literally took 5 minutes or more to hit 100 psi.

The car ran strong, oil burn when cold aside. No issues starting up either, or any other drivability issues.

Oh yeah, get this ****. Turns out someone replaced the valve stems before with cheapo **** off eBay that used the same seal on exhaust and intake. The B6D and BP engines have a different seal for exhaust and intake, so I found a seal kit for the KIA 1.8 version from Korea for a fraction of the cost of new Mazda seals.

[Bitter]

After the first cylinder didn't work out with air we only used the rope method. I think the issue was a combination of an old 5 gallon compressor from Wal-Mart and the valve keeper tool was the kind that pushes against the valve as you thwack it with a hammer to get the retainer and keepers back in place. So it couldn't keep up with the air demands, as it literally took 5 minutes or more to hit 100 psi.

The car ran strong, oil burn when cold aside. No issues starting up either, or any other drivability issues.

Oh yeah, get this ****. Turns out someone replaced the valve stems before with cheapo **** off eBay that used the same seal on exhaust and intake. The B6D and BP engines have a different seal for exhaust and intake, so I found a seal kit for the KIA 1.8 version from Korea for a fraction of the cost of new Mazda seals.

Uh oh, wonder what else they screwed up? Good catch tho, that would explain some issues. Maybe the head got 'redone' at a shop before? Usually happens if it bent valves...any dings on the piston tops?