Rolling Road Fix List

So here we go again, another issue to find and fix. This time however it was quite serious with no oil flowing! First thing first was to get the sump off. Best case, there was a chunk of this sealant gunk used blocking the pick up pipe. Nope, that was clear....there goes the easy fix!

Best strip this down further.






Oh wait a minute, would you look at that! Monumental cracking! This is the bit the pick up pipe connects to, going to the oil pump. No wonder it wasn't picking anything up!

Unfortunately It is quite a severe crack, going a good distance up the pipe. It is clear to see (with the actual part in hand) that the over-tightening of a bolt on the front of the engine has resulted in this crack. Quite possibly self inflicted. *Hangs head in shame.

However, this has been limited to just the oil pump, which as it turns out, is very easy to change in situ. Especially when I have a spare engine already out the car to practice on!

Pumps off, new spare pump on. All in under an hour! Brilliant!

A quick fire up to check the flow of oil is back and top job! All done and no leaks or horrible oil starvation related noises!

On to the next issue.....






One of the problems I also appeared to have was the alternator wasn't charging. Having purchased a nice and small 40amp alternator, I figured the 120amp standard on the MX6 may have meant the V6 pulled more amps than expected. -We will unsurprisingly revisit this in the future, so keep your eyes peeled!

A new fancy mounting bracket and an old MX5 alternator is fitted. These were rated at 70amps-90amps depending on the year, so with mine unknown, I knew it was at least more than my 40amp.

As it later transpired on the way to the rolling road session part 2 (to follow soon), I had actually blown the 100amp fuse when I had forgot to disconnect the battery and the live wire touched the chassis. I hadn't thought too much of it then as I was more relieved there had not been flames! Again, an easy fix in the end, despite the unnecessary work head scratching!

Finally, the one thing that really slowed down the whole process was my intake set up. I didn't have the facilities to manufacture my throttle body set up accurately enough (which apparently needs to be pretty bloody accurate!). Therefore, with the RHOCAR annual pilgrimage to Wales drawing closer, I decided it was necessary to utilise whatever I could get my hands on and and make something that worked. It was 2 weeks until Wales so I had 1 weekend to make it and another weekend to map it. No pressure, right? At least Stoneleigh was close enough to home break down with.....


A little bit of inspiration from a design I had seen online for a KL turbo build, I copied the idea with some 63mm OD tube I could get hold of quickly, due to time needing to be made and ready for the RHOCAR Wales Trip,  I wasn't missing another one!







With it tacked in place, it started to look the business. It wasn't pretty but it would be a hell of a lot easier to map than the previous 6 throttle bodies!








With a "design" using what was readily available, packaging and aesthetics were not high on the list, function was. Hilariously, this would now be poking out the bonnet which isn't ideal due to my seats being lower (thanks to the carbon fibre ones, but lends itself to a Mad Max kind of look! It's growing on me!






In an ideal world, these would go on to something shorter and still incorporating the injectors/fuel rail. Again, no time so out with the throttle butterflies from the triumph bodies, and silicone hose to clamp together. Luckily there is no very limited movement thanks to 6 of them and being able to virtually mount it metal to metal.

Lets get this on the truck and get it mapped!

Rolling Road for the V6 - Attempt 1

So, here we are. New flywheel spacer in, initial V6 engine running on all 6 cylinders....mostly. Best get it off to that rolling road and get this thing tuned! My choice was Steve Walford Motorsport as recommended by a number of previous customers. Based in Northfield - Birmingham, it was an easy job of hiring a trailer and off we go.

In the build up waiting for this day I'd also refitted all the wet weather gear. This is England and the summer still has rain! Here it is, usable all year!

Thankfully though the weather on the day was good. That was about the best part of the day. We arrived and started to unload the car and I found this.....

 Yep, oil. A nice puddle of it. I got the car off the trailer and checked the dipstick. Still full? So we pressed on vowing to keep an eye on it.

I've since put this down to oil left over from when the filter came off and sprayed oil everywhere just running out the chassis.

 First job for Steve was to get the throttle bodies balanced. I had tried but obviously my close enough is in fact not close enough.

A couple hours later Steve admitted they were hard to do, I'll be open and say thats due to my extensions not being ideal and each throttle body is slightly not parallel to the next one, meaning they unbalance very quickly or stick open.




After a few hours of setting up, fiddling with the throttle bodies and general chit chat we were getting to the point of giving it a go.

Suddenly the engine just died. Stopped dead. Not run out of fuel or turned the key off and a few rotations later cut out, literally stopped like a switch. "Thunk". Weird as it was sat idling. Anyway, after a bit of head scratching and looking we started it back up to see what happened. Started no issue...then a short time later an almighty squealing broke out! 3 of us scrambling to turn the key off! Something was not right!

Upon investigation we found there was no oil flowing to the top of the engine. Had the clunking stop being something breaking?  It definitely used to pump oil as it sprayed out everywhere before! Well with no quick and easy fix, this picture to the right is the closest I got to getting on the rollers. No oil, no running. The squealing was probably something missing its lubrication and starting to get rather warm....


Push it back on to the trailer, defeated. Not the outcome I had expected from today. Although it was not wasted. Steve gave me a lot of things to consider, most specifically with the intake set up. Whilst the individual throttle bodies are great...they are a PITA to sort out. As I am running out of time for this summer, a different approach may be on the cards.......