{"id":5842,"date":"2022-06-12T21:38:58","date_gmt":"2022-06-12T21:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=5842"},"modified":"2024-02-08T09:46:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T09:46:23","slug":"mx5-cam-belt-gasket-day-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=5842","title":{"rendered":"CARS: MX5, Cam-belt & Gasket, Day 7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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How things looked at the start of today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My radiator coolant plug, with temp\u2019 repair.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today I didn\u2019t do that much on the car. I re-filled the radiator with coolant. My sealant gasket fix of the radiator sump plug seems to be working, which is great (although I also have a brand new plug on the way to me).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I made this tool for securing the plug!*<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n[video?]\n\n\n\n

I also torqued the crankshaft main bolt, to 160 NM, which required dropping the sway bar again, and removing some o\u2019 the upper pipe works. And then, not forgetting to reconnect the negative terminal on the battery, it was time to have another go at starting her up. I was totally convinced it would be exactly as before, and not work at all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it was gobsmackingly amazing<\/em> when the engine actually fired and turned over<\/em>. I\u2019m not a religious man, but\u2026 Hallelujah! Seems my timing belt change was successful after all.<\/em> Sadly this state of bliss didn\u2019t last long; the engine, whilst running, sounded bally awful, spluttering and struggling. So I switched her off, pronto. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going round to the engine bay revealed an almost explosive looking oil leak had occurred at the rear of the engine. So I had to clean that up, and then take off and re-seat the cam cover. Whilst I was at it I cleaned up and removed the previous gasket sealant. I then refreshed the latter, with a new application, and re-seated the cam cover. Sadly I don\u2019t have a small\/low enough torque wrench for the final buttoning up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The small torque wrench set I\u2019ve just ordered.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019ve ordered a smaller (5-25NM) torque wrench, via Amazon (pictured above). That ought to arrive tomorrow. Once I\u2019ve torqued off all the bolts topside, it\u2019ll be time to try again. Third time lucky!?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve learned a lot, and enjoyed working on the car. That said, there were some hairy\/sweary moments. And occasionally it was too much like hard work. That one episode where I worked on one nut\/bolt for about three hours was not a favourite moment!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we\u2019re still not there yet. There are at least three things still outstanding: 1) Have I sorted out the oil leak? 2) There\u2019s also a very slight drip-drip-drip type coolant leak from somewhere on the thermostat housing (despite the new gasket). 3) Did I bugger the trigger-wheel when struggling to get the crankshaft pulley off?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oblong is sensor; note single tooth on trigger wheel!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This last is a bit of a worry, as it concerns the accuracy of the timing, as did the whole cam-belt replacement shenanigans. Apparently it can quite easily by put on the wrong way round. It\u2019s also supposed to be quite specifically aligned. I\u2019m not sure mine is right in any of these respects!? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My thoughts at close of play today are that I\u2019ll have to wait for the smaller torque wrench, then tighten off ye engine and try it again. If she runs and doesn\u2019t haemorrhage oil again, I\u2019ll take her for a shirt run around the block. But I\u2019ll most likely need to get her to a garage to have someone competent look over her\u2026 hmmm!?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A trigger wheel off\u2019t interweb.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And finally, what about work? Last Friday I did a full days\u2019 teaching, for the first time in two weeks. My journeys were long and very arduous: two trains, a bus, and a long walk either end of the day, with a taxi journey in the middle! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will I be able to teach tomorrow? It looks unlikely. I don\u2019t want to lose that school and those pupils! Perhaps, if I get the car running tomorrow, all will be well and back to normal? But what about getting to a garage and checking the trigger wheel, etc?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* It didn\u2019t work, sadly. So I wound up using a pair of circlip pliers, instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I didn\u2019t do that much on the car. I re-filled the radiator with coolant. My sealant gasket fix of the radiator sump plug seems to be working, which is great (although I also have a brand new plug on the way to me). [video?] I also torqued the crankshaft main bolt, to 160 NM, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “CARS: MX5, Cam-belt & Gasket, Day 7”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-1we","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5842"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5842"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11541,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5842\/revisions\/11541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}