Having taken an evening to clean and paint them, I realised how much better they looked and how simple it was. Kicking myself for leaving it so long, would 100% recommend doing it as one of the initial things. As it turned out, I had done this a lot and a variety of objects would look better with a bit of TLC and painting.
The standard cam cover paint job (I've done a few of these now on my various MX5s...)
Even the engine block got a lick of paint! Black would have hidden the oil leaks well, however the car is not subtle so why should the paint job?
For those perfectionists....don't worry, that rusty pulley is coming off!
Having tarted up the old and new components, the next stage is making sure the car is ready to accept the slightly wider V6. I have measured and measured however there is nothing like dropping the engine in to have a look and get a better view of where it's final position could be. It had already been suggested (as expected) that the two diagonal tubes in the engine bay would probably be too narrow to accommodate the wider V6.
I find this image perfectly sums up the reasoning for the total rebuild during the engine swap. The wiring was bugging me initially and obviously being my first venture into the kit car world, I had learnt and improved my skills as I went. This meant early stages could be done better and other areas improved.
Anyway, ripped out the wiring and in with the angle grinder! The result....a much more spacious engine bay.
Obviously, nothing on this chassis is just for show. Every bar, every rail has a purpose. With taking out these bars, the rigidity of the chassis has been weakened (Motorsport Engineering Degree coming in handy every now and then!). To ensure continued triangulation of the chassis, I essentially reduced the length and welded in some new tighter bars that reached the sides of the engine bay much quicker.
One thing I did notice from the old bar was some very clear clashing from the old engine! I don't know which part of the engine this was but it was enough to remove the powder coating. This adds to the GBS argument of running individual throttle bodies rather than continuing with the old intake manifold from the MX5. Either way, some careful attention into what the issue was and spacing accordingly would probably resolve this.As some of you may know, this post definitely hasn't been here since February 2016. I have just got slack with updating things as I go with work being very busy and my evenings/weekends are spent on the car rather than typing up. However as of writing I have a lot to catch up on which hopefully now, I will be able to do.....only 8 months late....but forget that, I did my time hitting deadlines at Uni....and this project definitely didn't hit any of my deadlines! Check back soon! Things are about to get interesting....if I keep the posts coming......................................
