I've been pressure washing our vinyl fence the past two days (pro tip: don't ever buy one). Have some more to do tomorrow to finish and then maybe some other things. I've set aside the weekend to get her back together as she should be (supposed to rain here so a good time for it). Hopefully Monday will be the test drive.
NB MX-5: Hey, it's Minnie!
- Thread starter chiefmg
- Start date
After finishing up my household chores, Saturday morning I began the ‘charger install. Started off with this:
Then came the removal of the front bumper and lower splash guard for access. Taking a look underneath, I found that the other two coolant leaks I had were both from the lower radiator hose mentioned previously (leaks were at both ends, luckily I recently bought a new Dayco hose on clearance from Rock Auto). Drained/pulled the radiator. Removed that lower hose to clear it out of the way. Once I had a good unobstructed view of that side of the engine, I found more residue from the old ‘charger snout oil had worked its way all over. I proceeded to clean that up as best I could, some spots were just too hard to get into without pulling the engine.
Next step was to install the relocation brackets for the radiator and A/C condenser support. I had them all in but was looking at it and realized that the picture I was working from originally was likely wrong. This is how it looked:
This left a gap underneath the outer plate which meant some flexing could happen.
I found by putting the plate that used to be on the very top underneath the other plate, it took up that gap so everything could be properly tightened down.
The second picture better shows how the plates lie together now.
My old TrackDog Racing header blanket had seen better days so I bought a new one. It is a lot larger than their old offering. New attachment brackets were included, I used on for the front but found out once I had the ‘charger where it belongs that bracket was preventing the ‘charger mount bolts from lining up. Out came a punch and the hammer so I could correct that problem.
While trying to get the A/C condenser situated, I heard a loud hiss and saw a mist. Sure enough, I had a hole. Wasn’t sure if it was in the drier or the hard pipe attached to it, it was that hard pipe:
That pipe is NLA new from Mazda. I’m guessing Mazda changed the configuration for the 2001 model year as I can find that line available. For whatever reason, ’99-2000 had this small pipe:
I am getting a used one from SNS Mazda Parts, along with a new drier from Rock Auto since I noted some rub damage to that from the intercooler mount bolt on that side.
I’m at a bit of a standstill for now until the parts show up, but I did get this far:
Sharp eyes will spot my highlighting work on the outlet manifold.
Then came the removal of the front bumper and lower splash guard for access. Taking a look underneath, I found that the other two coolant leaks I had were both from the lower radiator hose mentioned previously (leaks were at both ends, luckily I recently bought a new Dayco hose on clearance from Rock Auto). Drained/pulled the radiator. Removed that lower hose to clear it out of the way. Once I had a good unobstructed view of that side of the engine, I found more residue from the old ‘charger snout oil had worked its way all over. I proceeded to clean that up as best I could, some spots were just too hard to get into without pulling the engine.
Next step was to install the relocation brackets for the radiator and A/C condenser support. I had them all in but was looking at it and realized that the picture I was working from originally was likely wrong. This is how it looked:
This left a gap underneath the outer plate which meant some flexing could happen.
I found by putting the plate that used to be on the very top underneath the other plate, it took up that gap so everything could be properly tightened down.
The second picture better shows how the plates lie together now.
My old TrackDog Racing header blanket had seen better days so I bought a new one. It is a lot larger than their old offering. New attachment brackets were included, I used on for the front but found out once I had the ‘charger where it belongs that bracket was preventing the ‘charger mount bolts from lining up. Out came a punch and the hammer so I could correct that problem.
While trying to get the A/C condenser situated, I heard a loud hiss and saw a mist. Sure enough, I had a hole. Wasn’t sure if it was in the drier or the hard pipe attached to it, it was that hard pipe:
That pipe is NLA new from Mazda. I’m guessing Mazda changed the configuration for the 2001 model year as I can find that line available. For whatever reason, ’99-2000 had this small pipe:
I am getting a used one from SNS Mazda Parts, along with a new drier from Rock Auto since I noted some rub damage to that from the intercooler mount bolt on that side.
I’m at a bit of a standstill for now until the parts show up, but I did get this far:
Sharp eyes will spot my highlighting work on the outlet manifold.
