Melvin the Mev Mevster

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Phaeton

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So the MX5 is now

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I have a track day booked at the end of June so I have to decide if to try to get it fitted by then, the actual engine swap shouldn't be too hard it's the wiring as this engine has a different harness to the 1.6. Then at the back of my mind is the 1.6 is a good engine, I was talking to somebody the other day who had turbo'd his to 225bhp, which would be a nice project so maybe fit the 1.8 for now & then refresh the 1.6 & turbo it.
 

Phaeton

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Whilst waiting for the engine cambelt, waterpump, tensioners & seal to arrive I thought I'd do something else

I bought

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And did this

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Just need another 3 & I will have my suspension spacers
 

Phaeton

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Today turned into the day from hell, last Sunday I did form preventative maintenance on the Shogun, changed the can chain guide, the set of instructions never mentioned the tensioner so I left it alone. But it clearly needed doing as it affected the running, so today I decided to reset it, you have to remove it, squeeze it back & put this little clip on to hold the tension. But it's a very tight fit & each time I tapped it home it the click would come off & the tensioner fly back out. I decided to pull it in with bolts & got it wrong!!

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Think I have found a fairly local place that does genuine ones but could do with the expense, decided to leave the Shogun & get back to Melvin, started to pull the wiring out of the engine bay to see if it matches any of the existing but of course it doesn't.

Then looking at the engine I had a horrible thought that the VVT wouldn't fit as the VVT part sits high on the engine, therefore before taking the cutters to the harness I decided to fit the engine, that's where the real problems started, no idea why, but it was a nightmare, the engine wouldn't go back onto the gearbox, had to drop all the front subframe to get it to go in. Then had try to get the engine mounts onto the engine & subframe, had to use the MK2.5 ones as they are different to the MK2's that I was using, they were that awkward I did wonder if the MK2.5 mounts can't be fitted to a MK1 subframe, I must have not got something aligned right & struggled for hours, then suddenly t all came together, no idea what I did different, but it's in.

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Then I put the bonnet back on to make sure it clears the VVT which it does so my fears were unfounded.

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Phaeton

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Again more of a diary event for my log & my own sanity rather than much of an update after fighting the engine to get it in I turned my attention to the wiring, TBH I had hoped that I could leave most of the wiring in place & only change the engine harness & a add a few extra wires but on comparing the 2 harnesses at one of the main connectors it had a large White/Red connecting to a Black which then joined multiple blacks, which in my mind meant power to earth connection.

With that in the back of my mind I decided to swap the whole harness out, OMFG I don't know what I did, but I got something wrong when I tried to remove, A/C, electric windows, electric mirrors, central locking, aftermarket alarm etc. from the new harness before putting the harness into the car I got myself in a right tangle both figuratively & metaphorically. It also included having to swap out the ignition barrel so that the key & ECU matched, I also found out that the later models used a different fuel pump setup, on my engine the FPR was built into the fuel rail on this model the FPR is in the tank, the manufacturers decided it was better to keep the excess fuel on a short loop rather than pumping it all the way to the front & all the way back again, in reality I think it meant they saved on putting a single pipe to the front instead of two, the fuel pump had to be changed out.

Much head scratching went on, a lot of frustration, but in the end I had an ignition light on the clocks, but nothing else, no crank etc. further tracing found I wasn't feeding the immobiliser with 12V corrected that error & I now had fuel pump & crank but no spark, so off I go again only to find I had no 12V at the coil packs, yep again I'd managed to cut/not connect another live feed. Putting that on & turning the key he fired into life, bit loud with no exhaust :D


If you remember right back at the beginning of this diatribe the White/Red going to the Black, well I missed it somewhere but that is EXACTLY what the new body harness to new engine harness does, FFS maybe I could have got away without changing the harness afterall.
:ROFLMAO:😂🤣😂

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On a slightly different note when I did change the fuel pump out I saw how much fuel I actually had left in the tank coming back from Stoneleigh, glad I didn't live further away!!!

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Phaeton

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Keep plugging away at removing the non required wiring, I think I'm at the point where I need to start thinking where I'm putting the relays & fuseboxes etc. The engine is running, I still had the Engine warning light on, but as it's now got OBDII I plugged a scanner in & got no codes, then found I was missing a live which switched the light off.

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Phaeton

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Keep plugging away, added the extra wire in the harness to the rear of the car, got side lights, reversing lights, fuel pump, fuel gauge including low fuel light working, horns, next to tackle will be the headlights, they work on switched earth but again they all should be there. It's still very difficult to get it all tidy, but it will be better.

But I have come across the problem, might be have caused by the new water pump, or just because I've moved some of the hoses, but looks like one is rusted through, luckily I can steal one off the other engine.

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Phaeton

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Found the water leak was from a rusted tube, so took the one off the 1.6 only to find it's different, so for now the tube has been JB welded whilst I try to get another one.

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Then it was onto the exhaust modification, the exhaust as it now stands doesn't have any Cat ports on it as it was a mixture of 1.6 & 1.8, also the 2004 engine had 2 sensors one pre cat, the other post cat. Modified the exhaust to put them in, not sure if there are critical distances but we'll see.

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Phaeton

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Not got much done today, but did find on trying to start I had the MIL come on, scanning it gave codes for the oxygen sensors, checked the wiring as it was an aftermarket sensor, I then found the original wiring & I'd got them the wrong way around, so sorted that out & cleared the codes. Started to put things back together, the main centre gearbox cover & the switch panel at which point the heavens opened & didn't stop.
 

Phaeton

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I know no images bad form, but I think the swap is done, just a couple of things to button up, very slight misfire so going to put new plugs in, managed to damage the alternator belt, forgot to tighten up the water pump pulley & one of the bolts came out making a mess of the brand new belt!!!!!!! Need to get new ones of those tomorrow.

As this is a 2004 engine it has a MIL EML or whatever you want to call it, it also has OBDII & throws up a P0443 error which is the purge valve, because it's not there anymore, need to see if there is a delete fix for it, or a resistor fix etc. Doesn't affect the running but I couldn't drive around with the light on, I suppose I could take the bulb out 😂

The only other one is that at tick over it's 800-900rpm(ish) but if you put your foot on the clutch & engage a gear that goes up to 1300-1400rpm(ish) I suspect it's some form of moron anti-stall function but I don't like it, It maybe just a case of disconnecting the gearbox neutral switch but not sure if that also has other functions.

Quick trip up the road suggests it's quicker which is should be but I didn't want to give it too much with the drive belt in the state it is in, didn't fancy loosing the water pump on the way home.
 

Phaeton

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New plugs & auxiliary drive belt fitted yesterday, did find that No1 plug wasn't fully tight & there was blow past so that might have been the misfire, but new plugs will help anyway, didn't get chance to drive as son was over getting all his Lexus V8 & BMW gearbox conversion stuff altogether, he's given up on the idea of putting it into a car & is selling up, he's trying to get a deposit together for a house. One good thing that has come out of it I now have a tidy garage (storage area) and we found a 5L of antifreeze, which has been donated to Melvin's cause.

Today it was raining when I got up & has only just stopped so not had a chance to drive him, so been in the workshop finishing off the rear suspension spacers,

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Just need a Halogen oven now & an instruction video from @Danny to use my new powder coating machine I bought at Stoneleigh
 

Phaeton

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Took Melvin for his first proper run yesterday, had used him a little bit locally but went over to my sisters in him, about a 80 mile round trip, behaved flawlessly apart from 2 small issues, the horns have stopped working & there is no radiator cooling fan.

This mornings job was to work out why, on pressing the horn button I could hear the relay clicking but no sound, putting 12V direct to the horns made them sound, so once again dashboard had to come back out. I'm getting used to now, as soon as I took the top off I could see the reason the horns weren't working, there was a crimped inline connector with a Brown wire going in one side & nothing coming out of the other, dug around a bit & found the errant wire connected together & the horns worked.

With the fan again that goes through a relay, luckily I had marked the relay up so it was easy to find, on checking I had 12V coming from the fuse, applying 12V to the fan made it work. On looking at the wiring diagram I had a Blk/Wht switched live the a Rd/Yl controlled earth via the ECU, but on switching on the ignition I didn't have 12V on the Blk/Wht, checked the fuse, had 12V both sides, so traced the Blk/Wht, Ah that would be the problem, I'd taken it to ground 😂 yep that would explain it. Found the connector with the other load of Blk/Wht's connected it to my relay wire, switched on ignition provided a ground on the Rd/Yl & the fan kicked in. Success, but just to be sure I I ran it up to temperature, the fan kicked in at 96 degrees & went back off again at 92 degrees, one of the beauties of having OBDII on the car now. Would have been great yesterday if I could have commanded the ECU to switch on the fan but I didn't have the function in Torque, not sure if it's Torque that doesn't support it or the ECU.
 

Phaeton

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One of the issues with Melvin is the windscreen, although great in someways as it's a bit narrow it causes the wind to whip around the sides & then come back into the cabin area. When we went out at Stoneleigh it was blowing @Danny's golden locks all over the place, the solution I thought was to get some of the side deflectors like they have on Cobra's but at £180 a pair it made me flinch.

So in true Yorkshire style I figured I'd have a go myself, some plastic hinges with the pin removed, drilled the hole all the way through & use a nut & bolt to hold it all together, along with some perspex.

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May need a little shaping on the styling front but we'll see, going out to night for a 30 mile or so run so we shall see if they make a difference, if they do the cost comes in under £20 might even be under £15 but certainly not £180.

On other news I've now got my hands on a replacement cam cover, & a replacement inlet manifold which I intend to get powder costed, I was going for Orange similar to the body, but I'm not sure if that would be too much, but if not Orange, what's the alternative, Black?
 

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Phaeton

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Been using Melvin quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, my sister moved homes & I was travelling over to her house to help 40 miles each way. He ran perfectly without any issues, the new wind deflectors make such a huge difference.

I had intended to go to Newark show on Saturday but on Friday night I had just dropped my grandson off & on the way back suddenly realised I'd lost all the gauges, no tacho, fuel, oil, speed, everything else appeared to be working fine. Figured it had to be a fuse, so tested them all to find a 15A blown, replaced it & all worked again, nipped to the fish & chip shop, all good on the way there, but on the way back, no gauges again, same fuse blown.

Abandoned the idea of Newark & started looking for the fault Saturday morning, put a bulb across the fuse pins & got all gauges again, checked the wiring diagram, brake fluid light & reversing lights are on the same circuit, pulled the handbrake a few times no problem, but as soon as I put it in reverse the light in the fuse came on. Disconnected the rear wiring harness, into reverse no light, so it least I'd tracked it down(ish)

Looks like when I had the fuel problem at Blyton Park (which it looks like I haven't updated here) I put the rear bodywork back on, instead of putting the harness under the subframe it had been stretched over the top of it, which after a period time had caused the insulation to fail, simple silly thing, but luckily no real harm done, but it did mean I missed Newark.
 

Phaeton

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Handbrake has never been very good on Melvin it only just scraped through the IVA & that was with new callipers, new cables & bedded in pads, but I went out on Saturday & it was non existent, it wouldn't hold on a very slight slope let alone a hill. Had a look this morning & TBH I can't find anything really wrong, the only thing possibly is the cable routing, but I'm not sure I can do much about it. I have re-routed them slightly to try to take some of the sharpness of the bends out but not 100% confident it'll work after a few uses. Currently they have to go in an S shape, out the back of the tunnel, 180 degrees towards the front & then another 180 back towards the calliper. Might send Speedycables an email asking it I supply the cables how much they'd charge to shorten a pair, they only charged me £10 + postage to shorten the 3rd cable.

So having seen the LED headlights & knowing how bad the headlights were I bought a pair off Fleecebay, however I have run into a slight issue.

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Need to buy some backs now 😂:ROFLMAO:😂:ROFLMAO:
 

Phaeton

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So we went from

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To Maxpower

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Only difference is in the first set of images the engine run now it doesn't FFS, seem to have disturbed the injectors & now new seals,
 

Phaeton

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As I finished last night I could see some fuel around one of the injectors, luckily there is a mechanic only 5 miles away who specialises in MX5's & I knew he'd have some new seals so nipped up there this morning, wasn't confident it would be the issue but as at least one was leaking they needed changing. Turns out it wasn't it would crank but not run, then every now & again there was a back fire so it had to be timing, checked the crack sensor which I hadn't moved just in case, then rechecked all the connectors & still nothing.

On the VVT the injection timing is controlled by a sensor that goes through the cam cover so I took it back out & made sure that all the powder coat had been removed, then holding it in place I tried to start then just by shear luck I twisted it slightly as I cranked it fired & ran roughly but at least some progress, so I pinched Harry's sensor, put it in & all was good again, faulty sensor, success, just for the giggle I put the faulty one in Harry & guess what no issues, he fired & ran, go figures

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Phaeton

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SO the drama continues, got down to Malvern & back even took in both Foxton locks on the way down & Hatton locks on the way back. But had a few issues with a misfire & EML kept coming on, P1345 which seemed to indicate either a Crankshaft or Camshaft issue. When I got back I took the cover off again to ensure that every single bit of the powder coat was removed from around the camshaft mounting including down into it where the O ring sits. This seems to get rid of that code but it still wasn't quite right, set off to my son's about 20 miles away but only got about 10 miles when it cut out completely, lost all dash lights & it wouldn't even spin.

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Figured it was the main fuse but due to an incompetent builder I couldn't get to the fuse without pulling the dash happened. As I was waiting for the recovery truck I had a look around & found

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Which looks like it could have been touching the lifting bracket, when I got home I pulled the dash & found a 15A fuse blown, replacing that starts the ending but I have now got a P1504 error which is

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I got a replacement along with a full throttle body, but on changing I still have the same issue, I've proved the wiring from the ECU connector to the IACV connector to be good, so I can only think the ECU itself is goosed. I have agreed to buy another engine along with the ECU & wiring, I wanted a spare engine to rebuild anyway but not quite just yet. If that doesn't cure it I'm not sure on the next step.
 

Phaeton

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Went & fetched the replacement ECU, immobiliser & steering lock last night put them on & Hooray my code had gone, only to be disappointed by the new ECU throwing a different one up, No 1 ECU shows P1504 No 2 ECU shows P1564 more google searching it appeared that P1564 was likely to be the constant 12V feed to the ECU & if the ECU/Wiring has had water damage the harness pins would be corroded, however my thought was if that was the case then surely both ECU's would have the new P1564 error code.

I opened up No2 ECU to be greeted with

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Touching the pin resulted in

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Out with the soldering iron & 10 minutes later

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Then back into the case & wired direct to the fused side of the fuse 20230613_164318.jpg

But EML is now out, there is a Pending code P1499 which is a EGR valve but with the corrosion anything is possible, I need to get yet another ECU, get my old one repaired or bit the bullet & go custom with a Motorsports replacement ECU, which I will need if I go Supercharger or Turbo anyway.
 
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