2002 Arizona Rebuild

[Mazda Mender]

M-m

[Lumphammer]

Got a bit done over the past couple of wekeends. Fixed a lot of little things i cut out - like this shock tower brace that lives in the chassis rail - the bottoms rot off so just remade them

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The subframe mounting base plate is a fairly critical part so wanted to test how well i could do plugs of 5mm plate onto 1.5mm. Welded a some scrap together

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Then hammered it apart, rotating it which is very rough. 1.5mm tore out - i think that's good

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Did the real ones of the base plate onto the large chassis rail, there's 6

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Dressed it back and put red gunk on it to stop it rusting

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Pressed the subframe studs assembly into it. Used my friends 10 ton press, worked beautifully, next to no increase in diameter of the cups despite the massive interference so i think the guestimate worked - it did recut splines into the cups as it was pressed in. Hard to understate how relieved i was with this!

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Needed to fix the bulkhead reinforcement plate, i had to hack it up to get the show tower parts out intact - they were the more important parts. I love using ply as a form for stretching and shrinking, it's hard enough to hold a form but soft enough to not strech the metal when you hit it

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Bashed part, it just takes the form of the ply

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This is where it ended up

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And the pointless bracket put back on

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All chassis leg components jammed and clamped in i did a final fit of the subframe to check it all lined up. It did and to make sure i got it back in the same position i drilled a few 3mm register holes where all panels lapped

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Removed for final prep - so many plug weld holes!!

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Prepared the inner parts, didn't use epoxy because it's too thick, needed to be flush for strength. The red gunk is thin

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Assembled the inner chassis leg inside the outer and did the underneath plug welds. Didn't do the sides like this because i wanted to have some flex in the part to adjust it etc

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Small thing i forgot to mention - to be able to take the leg in and out for fitment and prep a notch had to be cut in the strut brace. Put the corresponding male protrusion back on the part

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Ready for final fitting

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Welding was uneventful. I've got the plug weld settings for 1.5mm to 1.5mm pretty dialed into memory - took a bloody long time tho!

Next to none of this is dressed yet

Strut tower

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Outside

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The end of the frame rail to chassis rail continuation piece with the brake line bracket on it

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Welded with the top cap pieces on

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I'm quite happy with how it went, it's a lot of work tho

[blackyb]

given me something to read as I watch the rain fall down yet again.

[GlennyGills]

Are you building a 3D jigsaw or a car? - great skills

[Lumphammer]

It's been a while since i posted anything, struggling with time and energy being a parent sleep deprived and feeling dreadful most of the time!

I've decided that i should do something interesting with the car, i thought about putting a supercharger on it, or maybe ITB's but in the end wanted something a bit more radical. I decided on the Toyota UZ engine because it's available, (relatively) affordable and it's a pretty good engine.

Desipite being a 4.0 V8 it's an all aluminium engine, DOHC and pretty compact. It's also from the generation of Japanese engines which were insanely overbuilt.

The Mazda B-series isn't a bad engine but it's fairly heavy for what it is, the UZ isn't much heavier, i believe 50kg

I bought this 1UZ-FE via marketplace for £300, which is exceptionally cheap because the seller had totally dismanted it to do a full build and then had to abandon his project because of personal circumstances. No one wants an already dismanted engine.. hence the price. I bought it assuming it'd be a good space model at worst and for the money it was still worth it.

Turned out the seller was meticulous in how he'd taken everything apart, and the engine was in really good condition for a 140k engine - minimal bore wear, ring ridge, journal wear etc so i think this is viable to be rebuilt (fingers crossed)

This is the block

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Heads

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Had a mild case of the black death in the upper engine. removed the rocker cover baffles by grinding down the peened over castings. I've tapped the holes so i can screw on the baffles later on

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Bought a 27l heated ultrasonic tank to clean as many parts myself as possible

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They work really good, not as effortless as in the videos but still very good

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I've cleaned lots more parts and the engine is currently with an engine machininst - i'm having the deck and heads minimally resurfaced, just enough to get a perfect mating surface. Lastly they're doing a rigid fixture hone on the bores, i'll be replacing the rings so this is necessary. I contemplated doing the honing myself but a rigid fixture hone (like the Sunnen they have) ensures consistency and registration, tbh it wasn't worth not doing

Head and block in the junk heap focus, god knows how this thing keeps running..

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The Mazda gearbox won't be able to handle the torque produced so I decided to got for a ZF 6-speed box from a BMW 530i, this box is a GS6-37BZ. I chose a petrol "B" 'box because the 1st and 2nd gear ratios are slightly better than the diesel "D" boxes. They're regarded as being overbuilt and capable of carrying double the rated torque. It allows me to use fairly common "performance" BMW single plate clutches and the shifter linkage length can be readily changed by varying the bar - shifter length to fit in the MX-5 tunnel

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To connect the 1UZ to the ZF box i'll need an adapter plate and either a spacer or a custom flywheel

To make it more stupid i'm planning to use a pair of Garret 2554 or 2560 turbos, one per bank. I would prefer to use a newer generation of turbo but the cost becomes a lot and both the above turbos should spool quickly.

I need to consider the diff, the curent 1:4.1 Torsen type-2 is both the wrong ratio and won't handle the torque. It'll possibly be a BMW derived differential but i want to get the front of the car done first

[blackyb]

I've seen a couple of V8 MX5s , but this is going to be a monster tail wagging beast.