A little update, unfortunately light on Z4 progress, but no doubt some of these things will help me to nudge the Z4 forward in the long run...
Fitted some bucket seats in the MX5 at long last (a pig of a job as there's little room in the cabin and you have to get them as low as possible for helmet clearance) and did a few trackdays in that, great fun!
Tried some Yokohama AD09s on it... and I'm still on the fence about them, perhaps a little less grip than I'd anticipated. More seat time needed on them, but I'm already wondering if some of the published testing on them was on a non-EU compound. We shall see...
Unfortunately had a bad day in the MR2, came out a corner on the last session of a TD... clack, clack... 'oh no!!! get it out of ge.... BANG!!!'... flames in the rear view and a suddenly very hot back... GET IT STOPPED AND GET OUT... QUICK!
Thankfully I was able to do that, stopping by a marshall's post, he couldn't get the pin out of the fire extinguisher so I grabbed it off him and put the fire out myself. This was all in a very short space of time and the heavily cut out rear of the MR2 meant I could get to the base of the fire very easily and put it out very quickly. A scary experience and a real pain to lose an engine, but the rest of the car survived and I was completely unharmed. I think I would have been fine anyway, but I was very glad of my nomex top and gloves!
(the removable bulkhead has been removed here)
Having partly stripped it down, we're not sure what's happened yet, I thought it was a bottom end bearing and Dan thought it had dropped a valve, but it doesn't look like either. It was equipped with a nice Clockwise motion gated sump baffle and piston uprated pump to give it every chance, but these things happen.
As my Dad always said... 'when there's a hole in the block, you know where you stand'... :lol:
On a brighter note, I finally bought myself a scissor lift, which will make working on the cars sooo much easier, the garage is an absolute mess at the moment as I'm sorting through everything and selling the CRX, but once I get everything where it needs to be and my bench and racking in place I'm sure it will be terrific!
First time I tried to use it it tripped the circuit breaker, so I couldn't use it for a few days whilst I waited for a D curve MCB... followed by another few days when this idiot didn't think about the in-house MCB for the garage!... :roll:
Another addition that should make Z4 life easier is a spare car... the missus and I share a (my) daily, and I take the Z4 when I want or she has the other, but I would rather not subject the Z4 to the winter and salt, especially now with the rear subframe refurbed. Not to mention the times I've been left with a Z4 and the need to transport wheels or tyres....
So I give you... Graham, the Civic in all his 150k, 1.6 diesel splendour...
A full service history and a meticulous and mechanically sympathetic previous owner mean it presents and drives like a well-kept 60k miler, I'm sure it will come in very handy indeed and mean I only use the Z4 when I want to.
Finally to the Z4, but first a diversion via the little CRX... I have been readying the CRX for sale for some time, running into a braking issue I can't get to the bottom of. Without going into too much detail, under certain circumstances (low-speed maneuvering usually), there are no brakes and I have been trying to solve this for months! New master cylinder, brakes have been apart a number of times, bled, bled, bled and bled again... can't figure it out! Has been driving me mad!...
Back to the Z4... it did the same!! :-o
First instinct was one of 'I completely hate cars, they're all dickheads', but it's given me some hope... as I've done some investigation and I thiiink the Z4 issue is something contacting the caliper when under certain (low/no) loads and heavy offside lock. There is no issue when driving (thankfully), just like the CRX, otherwise the Hairpin at Cadwell would have been problematic!
So next decent weekend weather we have I'll investigate further, of course when its up in the air with wheels on full droop you can't see any of this... here's hoping it's the same issue on both the Z4 and CRX... they are both on aftermarket coilovers and thicker ARBs and the CRX has bigger calipers too...
Finally part two, I've got some stiffer springs to try on the front of the Z4, from 5kg up to 8kg/mm. I'm expecting them to make a nice improvement on track, but will they ruin the car on the road?... We shall see!...
Fitted some bucket seats in the MX5 at long last (a pig of a job as there's little room in the cabin and you have to get them as low as possible for helmet clearance) and did a few trackdays in that, great fun!
Tried some Yokohama AD09s on it... and I'm still on the fence about them, perhaps a little less grip than I'd anticipated. More seat time needed on them, but I'm already wondering if some of the published testing on them was on a non-EU compound. We shall see...
Unfortunately had a bad day in the MR2, came out a corner on the last session of a TD... clack, clack... 'oh no!!! get it out of ge.... BANG!!!'... flames in the rear view and a suddenly very hot back... GET IT STOPPED AND GET OUT... QUICK!
Thankfully I was able to do that, stopping by a marshall's post, he couldn't get the pin out of the fire extinguisher so I grabbed it off him and put the fire out myself. This was all in a very short space of time and the heavily cut out rear of the MR2 meant I could get to the base of the fire very easily and put it out very quickly. A scary experience and a real pain to lose an engine, but the rest of the car survived and I was completely unharmed. I think I would have been fine anyway, but I was very glad of my nomex top and gloves!
(the removable bulkhead has been removed here)
Having partly stripped it down, we're not sure what's happened yet, I thought it was a bottom end bearing and Dan thought it had dropped a valve, but it doesn't look like either. It was equipped with a nice Clockwise motion gated sump baffle and piston uprated pump to give it every chance, but these things happen.
As my Dad always said... 'when there's a hole in the block, you know where you stand'... :lol:
On a brighter note, I finally bought myself a scissor lift, which will make working on the cars sooo much easier, the garage is an absolute mess at the moment as I'm sorting through everything and selling the CRX, but once I get everything where it needs to be and my bench and racking in place I'm sure it will be terrific!
First time I tried to use it it tripped the circuit breaker, so I couldn't use it for a few days whilst I waited for a D curve MCB... followed by another few days when this idiot didn't think about the in-house MCB for the garage!... :roll:
Another addition that should make Z4 life easier is a spare car... the missus and I share a (my) daily, and I take the Z4 when I want or she has the other, but I would rather not subject the Z4 to the winter and salt, especially now with the rear subframe refurbed. Not to mention the times I've been left with a Z4 and the need to transport wheels or tyres....
So I give you... Graham, the Civic in all his 150k, 1.6 diesel splendour...
A full service history and a meticulous and mechanically sympathetic previous owner mean it presents and drives like a well-kept 60k miler, I'm sure it will come in very handy indeed and mean I only use the Z4 when I want to.
Finally to the Z4, but first a diversion via the little CRX... I have been readying the CRX for sale for some time, running into a braking issue I can't get to the bottom of. Without going into too much detail, under certain circumstances (low-speed maneuvering usually), there are no brakes and I have been trying to solve this for months! New master cylinder, brakes have been apart a number of times, bled, bled, bled and bled again... can't figure it out! Has been driving me mad!...
Back to the Z4... it did the same!! :-o
First instinct was one of 'I completely hate cars, they're all dickheads', but it's given me some hope... as I've done some investigation and I thiiink the Z4 issue is something contacting the caliper when under certain (low/no) loads and heavy offside lock. There is no issue when driving (thankfully), just like the CRX, otherwise the Hairpin at Cadwell would have been problematic!
So next decent weekend weather we have I'll investigate further, of course when its up in the air with wheels on full droop you can't see any of this... here's hoping it's the same issue on both the Z4 and CRX... they are both on aftermarket coilovers and thicker ARBs and the CRX has bigger calipers too...
Finally part two, I've got some stiffer springs to try on the front of the Z4, from 5kg up to 8kg/mm. I'm expecting them to make a nice improvement on track, but will they ruin the car on the road?... We shall see!...
