Ben's second-car thread - MR2s and Westfields inside...

[Ben]

OOOOOH, I might get a "lemans" plate

Well, the old rear plate was pretty tired-looking so it's a two-birds/one-stone type thing

[Magic Beans]

It's kinda too late for me

[Ben]

You're npot actually putting a sticker on it, are you?

[Magic Beans]

It was that or always have it on the plate

Depending what the rules are surrounding how it needs to be displayed (currently reading up on this) I might have a nice little solution

[Ben]

Well, clutch has been adjusted and all seems OK. I've driven the car to work this morning (about 20 miles of a-roads) and given it a thorough, er, testing, and all traces of clutch slip have gone.

Fingers crossed it remains so!

[Magic Beans]

Disco

[pistol pete]

awesome baby
look forward to its trip down

[Ben]

Well, looks like the aircon pulley really was dead!

http://youtu.be/R9zXfTcwyyY

New alternator belt has been fitted today (alternator seems to be in tip-top condition, which is nice) which bypasses this. Many thanks to coanda for his help with pics and measurements.

Also gave it a proper clean and a decent run - no funny noises and no slipping clutch

[craig]

Good stuff Ben, hope she's all hunkey dorey for the run ahead of it!

[Magic Beans]

When I was just a wee boy I had a skateboard which sounded like that

[Ben]

Wow, just realised how long it's been since I updated this!

So, a few words and pictures to bring us up to date...

Le Mans was fun















And then Mr. Phil took some nice photographs of her:







She's been to a couple of shows...







And then I thought, "you know, a track day sounds fun!"


And then the clutch died, so I did it in this:





and (thanks to Mr. Pete) this:






And that was pretty much it. The clutch died just before December, and I already had other plans for the car, so I made the decision to leave it for a month or two while I collected all the parts I need. After a couple of weeks' anticipation I finally collected it from Rogue this afternoon with the following done:

Techno Toy Tuning 175mm crank pulley
Whiteline front and rear adjustable ARBs with new droplinks
Exedy organic clutch
Replaced IC hoses
New SC oil

Plus fresh oil and filter.

And what a difference! Turn-in and cornering are so much sharper with the stiffer ARBs, and the extra power (13-ish psi boost up from 8psi) really brings the 4agze to life. Plus the supercharge whine sounds pretty bloody awsome

Oh, and this happened on the way home too

[Magic Beans]

Holy hell, has it really been that long

Liking your choice of mods, enhancing and refining what's already great about the car

*Cough* Road trip *Cough*

[craig]

This really is a cracking little motor. Can't believe it's been 7 months since Lemans 2013!

Nice pics mate, any future plans? Or just maintain/enjoy it?

[Lauren]

Great stuff, Ben. Did Patrick remove the ABV? Just thought I'd check as you won't get the maximum out of the big pulley.

It's a shame the original speedometer has gone, though I understand it was changed before you had it.

[Ben]

Hey Lauren, the ABV is still there. Matt basically said there were two options - remove it completely and blank it off, or (as we ended up doing) plumb a boost line back into the ABV which holds it closed for longer. He explained it far better than I could, but in essence it produces the same peak boost but is more progressive in the way it feeds in - either way, it's boosting at a healthy 13psi and feels a hell of a lot quicker!

The original speedo I still have in a cupboard, the current one is a US mph speedo which was set to read the same distance in miles as the original one had in km

[Ben]

This really is a cracking little motor. Can't believe it's been 7 months since Lemans 2013!

Nice pics mate, any future plans? Or just maintain/enjoy it?

No more plans really, once you have the big pulley you need to start looking at more serious things to get more ppwer, and TBH it would detract from the overall drivability and character of the car. I'll take you for a spin next time I see you, it's plenty of power in a mk1

[Ben]

Holy hell, has it really been that long

Liking your choice of mods, enhancing and refining what's already great about the car

*Cough* Road trip *Cough*

Nail: head

Road trip, eh? Now there's an idea

[Lauren]

Hey Lauren, the ABV is still there. Matt basically said there were two options - remove it completely and blank it off, or (as we ended up doing) plumb a boost line back into the ABV which holds it closed for longer. He explained it far better than I could, but in essence it produces the same peak boost but is more progressive in the way it feeds in - either way, it's boosting at a healthy 13psi and feels a hell of a lot quicker!

Doing it that way is bad. You lose pressure. Blanking it off which is not difficult is the better way. Obviously swopping a couple of lines around is far easier and takes about thirty seconds, but it's not as effective.

Well, it's a personal choice about the speedo, but I'd want to keep it original and just km/h. Mark had it like this for seven years. Interesting that you have a US one, I'd guess it isn't though as it has km/h on the inside ring which US cars don't tend to have. Looks more like a UK speedo to me. Edit had a look, maybe there all the same.

[Ben]

The mph speedo was fitted when I got the car - when Ronnie had it in Ireland it failed its NCT as in Ireland you have to have an MPH speedo. It's definitely a US speedo, the UK ones don't have the Supercharger light

Originality is fine and everything, but given that someone's gone to the trouble of fitting an mph speedo I may as well keep it. Not everyone likes doing constant mental arithmetic when driving

[craig]

Pretty logical having a mph speedo, seeing as UK speed limits are all in mph. No brainer.