MX5 Engine Refresh 02
by
, 01-10-2012 at 10:37 PM (6133 Views)
Making good progress although my hands and hair were covered in engine oil......
Overhauling the HLA.
After washing these in the parts cleaner, rinsed them in the brake cleaner and
then time to assemble them in the bucket of engine oil.
It’s been a while since last time my hands was covered in so much engine oil.....
No photos of course.......
One down, 15 more to go.
And although I was extremely careful not to shoot the engine oil at me when
inserting the internal sleeve into the outer housing of HLA, things happen when
dealing with 16 of them.
Last time when I carried out the same process, I didn't make this mistake so
bit frustrated in myself......
Managed to cover my hair in oil and this is the first time I have ever seen how
fast and how far the engine oil can shoot out from HLA.....
Actually, I couldn’t see it because it happened in the blink of an eye.....
Despite good compression, surprised to find that one of the HLA
(the last one at the back) at #4cyl intake side were getting bit tired and
probably not making perfect seal compared to others so ideally wanted to
replace it this time but no spare so may need to open the engine again
in the future.
Will see how it goes once oil pressure is applied.
The round shiny parts is the HLA.
Unlike NSX, this model of MX5 tends to leak the oil from the crank seal at
the oil pump.
So, quickly replaced it.
On the other hand, unlike our NSX, the oil pan gasket is well sealed on MX5 so
even after 19 years, the oil pan area is still very dry.
The engine was very clean thanks to regular engine oil change so
just wiped off the old engine oil from the surface and ready to install the
cam shafts back in place.
No time for the photo while dealing with the liquid gasket so
cam shafts back in place and punched in the oil seal.
Will be installing the WP and TB tomorrow and then properly tension it.
Hope to fire up the engine very soon.
Kaz