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Jul 17, 2023 21:02:02 GMT
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Good job! Nice that classic (but probably awful sounding) Philips radio! Thom Haha yeah I had to keep it, but it is a lie I must admit. Not wired in, I have a modern radio hidden under the glovebox area that has Bluetooth for my phone to connect to. But it seemed right not to put it in the dash as it'd look so out of place. |
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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Not a bad idea to be fair, that's quite cool. However I'm not sure if a full sized radio would actually fit in the dash, as the original is about half as deep as a conventional modern headunit, I think it may hit the heater box behind. |
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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Jul 24, 2023 16:23:08 GMT
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Well, the MX-5 had the last few bits removed and has now been sacrificed to the mighty claw:  RIP, was a great car, but it had run its course for me. Anyway that means this is now officially my only car, the daily, the fun car, the workhorse, everything.  Can't complain really, I did say right on my first ever post about this car that I get bored and need an interesting daily. So I guess I've stuck to my guns with that haha. Went to a morning classic meet with a few mates. AE86, XR2 rep (1.8 Zetec swap, pretty quick little thing!), MX-5 drift car, and mine in our group.  Anyway, all was good and some nice stuff there as well! I had started encountering a rich running issue last week. I noticed the car seemed too rich across the board, idle, cruise, and on full throttle. A little odd as the map isn't too bad now on the ECU, and the Lambda Control has some authority to correct any deviations to match the target AFRs. So I got the laptop connected and noticed the AFR the ECU was seeing was higher than what my gauge read (gauge was accurate to actual AFR). Gauge was reading about 13.1 on idle, and the ECU was seeing around 14.5, with a load of noise visible in real time view, it was jumping up and down quite wildly. After some head scratching, chasing and cleaning earths, unplugging things to check for shorts, it turned out it was the main engine earth to the body. I had obviously caused an issue with it when I had grounded my new coolant sensor to the same place. Removed it and re-fitted and everything went back to normal and has been fine ever since. Idle now sits pretty much bang on around stoich as it should:  After fixing that earth, the ECU stopped adding extra fuel and the difference between the gauge and the ECU reading is now 0.1 AFR tops, and no noise, much much better. Temp sensor reads about 4 or 5 degrees high, on laptop the actual number when sat idling when fully warmed up will top out at about 92 degrees. But it's close enough to warn me if it ever goes into the red. While I had the laptop out I thought I'd have a look at the VVT settings. I couldn't seem to get the VVT solenoid to actually work before, I've essentially been running with no VVT. But it's not like VTEC on a DOHC Civic, so the difference with it not activated isn't as immediately obvious. I swapped the solenoid for another one and still nothing, so it wasn't a burned out solenoid causing it. Poured through all of the ME221 documentation I could, and finally noticed the issue. In the Input/Output (IO) settings I noticed that the VVT Solenoid wasn't present in any of the fields. Meaning that there was no setting in my map that actually told the VVT solenoid to do anything. A little bit odd as this was one of ME's own official VVT 01-05 basemaps. I had a look through the user documentation and found that the VVT solenoid was supposed to be linked to the "LS9" output. In my map that is where the idle valve was selected. I no longer have an idle valve, but this goes a way to explain why my idle valve never really worked that well when I first fitted the ECU without ITBs, as that was supposed to be on a different output setting. Anyway I swapped the LS9 option over to the VVT, and immediately it started working. I tested the VVT function by adding VVT timing at idle, and it shot straight up to around my chosen number. A little bit of messing with the PID settings and it would hit my number, not overshoot, and not oscillate too much. It also made the idle sound hilarious. The child in me wants to leave it with the "Ghost Cam" lumpy idle, but it is stupid and uses way more fuel. Anyway, after looking up VVT tuning, what others use, recommendations for its use etc. it became immediately apparent that the VVT table on the basemap was pretty horrible. VVT advance across the entire map, all the way down to the overrun fields, it didn't really make any sense. This was my first attempt at clearing it up and making it more sane:  You can see here the Current Advance sat at 40, which is what I set it at for idle for test purposes. All working really nicely. Now the main thing will be to remove the 25 degree advance lower down, it really isn't needed at such small throttle inputs, from all the discussion I could find on it no one suggested mapping the VVT for low throttle cruise. You'll also notice it taper off quite heavily towards the redline, it seems the VVT on these is most effectively used to boost mid range performance. Obviously it is essentially a stab in the dark doing this not on a dyno, but now it is working I want it to work sanely, so cleaning up the table to at least get it ballpark seemed a good idea. Going to pull out the VVT advance for lower throttle inputs, and mess with the higher regions a bit. Also going to smooth out the regions where it goes from 0-20 etc. so it has smoother activation state, not just jumping up immediately to higher advance. From the driving I have done it feels fine, I can't say the midrange feels crazy different, but it certainly hasn't hurt at all. It's been good fun to play around with, and I'm glad that I've got it working. |
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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Jul 25, 2023 17:58:57 GMT
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Great to see you using this is as a daily. Great workmanship mate.
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Jul 26, 2023 15:16:44 GMT
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Great to see you using this is as a daily. Great workmanship mate. Cheers mate, it's quite a good daily actually! Not too bad on fuel at all with the 5 engine in, I mean it's not amazing but pretty much around 30mpg. And every single drive is like an experience in itself, it even makes trips to Lidl fun 😂 just what I wanted from a daily really so I don't get bored. |
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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I had a wedding to attend on Friday, so I actually bothered to clear the car out, and give it a good old hoover. It's quite nice seeing it a bit cleaner in there!  Had 2 passengers in the back, they liked how comfy the seats are (honestly ridiculous, they're like a sofa!), but we hadn't told them there were no belts until they got in the car and one of them was absolutely terrified 😂 Anyway, we survived, so all good. Not a huge amount else going on, I went out late one evening and did some more mapping, I've got the cruise dialled in really nicely now, the ECU barely uses any fuel correction (stays under 5% almost the entire time) to keep the AFRs on target. Leaned out the cruise a bit to around 15.2, so probably see a small fuel saving over before. Also dialled in the acceleration enrichment a bit better, quick jabs of the throttle seem a lot happier now. It's still not bang on perfect, but it takes a while to get these things right. Certainly makes it feel a lot nicer than it did before. Had a look at my door bottoms, driver's front is the worst. It's not the end of the world, but I'll need to address this soon I think:  They're not awful, but 1 more winter I think they'll be far beyond their best. I did have a bit of an incident though, nothing terrible. Was driving along yesterday, noticed gearshift felt odd, almost like it was going too far into gear if that makes sense. The throw felt a bit off. Anyway I joined a very short slip road onto the duals, and as I banged it from the top of 2nd into 3rd it all went a bit wrong 😂 Straight into neutral and banging limiter as I hit the throttle again. The gear knob in my hand went all limp and started just flapping around. I thought oh god, my extended shifter has given up. And it had. Pulled into a layby and had a look. Yep, that'll do it:  The tape has been good as a sound deadening/reducing heat in the car type thing, though it does look a little ugly. So basically I made this makeshift shifter up when I built the car. It was only ever meant to be temporary tbh. As the 5 shifter was too close to the handbrake, I took a standard MX-5 shifter, cut it at it's base, and welded in a thick extension rod that brought it forward by about 7-8 inches. Then welded the original threaded shifter part to the front. Well my welds didn't fail, which is always nice to know, but the actual metal itself decided to completely sheer off. I'm not exactly soft on the shifts sometimes, I do like banging it from gear to gear, so I guess this is to be expected. This shifter has never been great, obviously as it is on a horizontal extension, the throw is exaggerated quite dramatically. But it felt quite in keeping with the retro car, having a longer throw, so it never really bothered me. For now the plan will be to fix this temporarily, with some added strengthening put in place. But longer term I want to build a fixed relocated shifter, like this one I found online:  Having the gearbox end on a bush, and the actual shifter on a rose joint will mean the standard MX-5 throw will be kept as it should be. Should make the gear shifts feel a lot more sporty and short, which won't hurt. I guess this is very similar to how some FWD cars work, my old Civic had a very long bar with a bush either side that was basically the same principle as the setup above really. It make sense to do this. But at the time I just wanted the car on the road. My current setup lasted quite well all things considered, done a good few thousand miles without issue. But I guess this is my prompt to actually sort it out properly this time! |
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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Ok so I have now planned out the new shifter. I've got a fairly good idea of what I want to do. Very similar idea to the image I posted above yesterday. Made a little diagram of the planned setup:  The relocation bar will likely have a standard cylindrical bush on the box side, allowing the bar to pivot up or down, depending on the selected gear. I could just hard mount this, but as I am planning to bolt it directly to the relocated shifter on the front side, I assumed this would cause a lot of tension/stiff shifts if the bar can't pivot itself to remain perfectly flat. As for the front, a strong U/C shaped bracket bolted directly to the tunnel, with a clevis going through it. I'll likely just use an M8 bolt and flap disc the threads off in the centre so it is a smooth cylinder. There will be a rose joint on this clevis that will thread into the bottom of the gear stick, which will allow the gear stick itself to pivot as necessary, but anchoring it in position relative to the rear. In my head this works, and when done should give the exact same throw as an original shifter in the 5 gearbox would give. I've been meaning to do this since before the car was even on the road. Seeing as the shifter needs to be repaired anyway, it makes sense to just do it properly this time. Will make for a much shorter throw, and quicker gear changes, hopefully! 😂 |
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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There is something you can do with bolting a ND shifter into the area covered by the plate with 4 bolts on the NB gearbox, they talked about it on one of the Retropower projects, here's a pic of it in the minor they are doing.  |
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There is something you can do with bolting a ND shifter into the area covered by the plate with 4 bolts on the NB gearbox, they talked about it on one of the Retropower projects, here's a pic of it in the minor they are doing. Thanks, this is a good idea. I hadn't seen the ND one you mention before, but I had seen the mod to move the shifter forward on the box under the bolted plate. However in this setup, even with it moved forward it'll still require the shifter to be relocated forward, it's probably about 8 inches forward of the normal shifter position on the 5 gearbox. So even if I did this I would still need to make something up to move it forwards anyway. Plus I think from a replacement point of view (I have 3 spare 5 speeds lying around haha), if I ever needed to replace the box, it'd be easier to not have to modify the replacement, and instead just put the shifter setup straight into it. |
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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Ok, so decided to just get it done last night. I rigged up an absolutely terrible shifter to get to the unit, as all I had was the snapped shifter stub. It involved a 1/2" extension, reinforced tape, and cable ties. It was truly awful, but it got me there, so that's a win 😂 Anyway, based on the comments from a couple of people, I decided my chassis mounted front was a bad idea. So I pulled all the sound deadening/carpet etc. out and took a look at the box. On the top of the box there is a little plate held on with 4 12mm bolts. Under this is the shifter rod that goes to the inside of the box. Some people do shorten the shifter into this location by cutting the rod down, but I wanted a solution I could easily swap to another box if I ever need to. So I took the plate out, and welded a piece of cut down box section to it. Drilled a hole through both sides of this new box section bracket, and found a weird bolt in the spares drawer that only had thread right at the head end. Used the makeshift drill/grinder lathe method to make the smooth round part smaller, so the rose joint could slip onto it.  The hole on the bolt head side is 12mm, and on the other side only 8mm, so the smooth end sits fairly tightly in the hole. You can see the nut holding it in on the inside, this keeps it in place. I had to do this as I had no appropriate bolts that had thread on the end that would actually be suitable for the rose joint I used. It looks a little odd, but it actually works very nicely. I drilled a hole in the bottom of my shifter and put a small piece of threaded bar in the bottom, which winds into the rose joint and allows the shifter to smoothly articulate 360 degrees as required, while keeping it anchored. Only thing I need to do is add a small spacer to the left of the rose joint to stop it moving to the left too far for 5th and reverse shifts. For testing I just added some beefy cable ties to simulate this, and I'm happy that a spacer/extra thick washer type thing will be the perfect thing to help stop this. For the linking mechanism I used some spare thick pieces of steel, and some spare braking components I had lying around. Plates welded to the shifter mechanism, and the gear stick, with holes drilled in them. Then a brake pedal clevis bolted on each side. I welded a brake master pushrod into the frontmost clevis, and have it threaded into the rear one, so I can adjust the gearstick position slightly if I want to. With washers between the clevises and their mounts, they both have some ability to pivot the link bar, so shifting doesn't have any excessive tension to it.  Apologies for the bad photo, but you get the idea. Little bit of spatter I need to clean up, but the welds seem strong enough. Made a quick video of how it works: I actually want to remove the shifter extension I have on the gear stick as I feel it isn't really needed now, plus that will help to shorten the throw a bit more. Overall pretty happy with it for a first attempt at something like this. It got me home on the 20 odd mile drive from the unit, so it can't be that bad 😂 I just want to add a few more welds to the box section plate on the inside, and add the spacer to the left of the rose joint, and probably strengthen the way the thread is mounted in the underside of the gearstick to prevent any issues. It's definitely a much better setup than before. 1st and 2nd shifts the rear part of the shifter is a little close to the handbrake, but it's manageable and doesn't make contact with it. |
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Last Edit: Aug 10, 2023 9:05:01 GMT by bilbomk1
1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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So, the new shifter isn't bad, done a bit more to it to improve things and it seems fairly good now. I had an issue initially as the thread I welded into the base of the gear knob itself wasn't welded too well, and it snapped. So I drilled out the hole wider and have now filled all around the thread with weld, it seems a lot stronger than before and had no issues as of yet (touch wood). Also removed the extender and just wound the gear knob directly to the shifter, this has helped with the throw, it feels a bit nicer now that it is shorter. Had some adhesive backed sound deadening so cut it up and placed it all around the shifter. It's not 100% perfect, but it has helped a lot with heat and air rushing in from underneath, even with no carpet or centre console top/gaiter placed over it yet, so that's promising.  I am finding the gear shifts a little bit tight, which isn't ideal. The bolt and washer method allows pivot on the front and rear, but I think I'm going to change it up. I have to run a bolted method on the front, as it is on a rose joint if I added a loose fitting it would likely feel very loose and wobbly, but for the rear I'm thinking of changing out the nut and bolt for a clevis pin type fitting that will allow the same range of movement with a lot less resistance. Currently the shifts are just a bit too tight, and it is slowing down my ability to change gear quickly. Will test out using a clevis pin that will hold it in place but have very limited resistance, should work well hopefully. Other than that, the car is good, plenty more I want to get on with, but it's being a super daily at the moment. Other than a brief period of lean running on hot starts (afterstart enrichment/intake temp sensor heatsoak related I think), it just takes the miles no trouble. The map is improving each time I take it out, and it isn't far off OEM driveability at this point, which is great.  |
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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Aug 21, 2023 12:18:16 GMT
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Right, so made a couple more changes to the shifter. The tightness was starting to annoy me a bit, so I did what I said before and changed the rear side to a clevis pin with retaining clip. It felt a little loose so I put a washer just before the retaining clip and now it's great. A lot easier to move the shifter back and forward, and the lateral movements are basically unaffected. It also likes to pop itself back to neutral in the centre a bit better than before, which is always good. The front bar for the rose joint was also annoying me. The little metal spacer to the left of the rose joint worked well, but mainly on overrun it made a nasty rattling noise, and the higher revs you were, the worse it was. So I have now changed both sides of the rose joint to a rubber spacer. I think the pieces I used were actually those little rubber cylinders that come on a throttle cable that you slot onto a bracket to secure the cable down with. But they work perfectly for this. They stop the rose joint moving about, they don't rattle, and they have some flex in them so the rose joint can pivot sideways exactly as needed. Ideal.  It's still hardly a professional looking product, but it works quite well and gear shifts are the best they've been so far in this car! The sound deadening stuff and carpet offcuts I have put in work quite well at preventing heat getting in, and there is no hot air from under the car getting in now, which is nice. Still need to sort out the mess of a cut up centre console, but it'll get there. Unrelated, but I am getting a rather horrible weird noise on overrun now. Sounds like it is clutch/release bearing related. No ill effects as of yet, but it's like a weird metal sound, almost sounds squelchy if that makes any sense 😂 First assumption was maybe the rear main had gone and was spitting oil onto everything in the bellhousing, but the weep hole is bone dry. This is actually the only MX-5 engined vehicle I've ever owned that drops zero fluids of any kind on the floor haha. I'll have a look into it, but I reckon it's inside the bellhousing annoyingly. I have noticed with this new shifter that there is a fair bit of wobble though, by which I mean the whole box is moving about more than I'd like, mainly when starting the car. When driving it isn't noticeable, but I have got my 40% stiffer IL Motorsport engine mounts still lying around from my mk1 5, so I may just fit those. Current ones are old original MX-5 ones that came with the engine from the donor. Might also have a look at replacing the bobbin bushes for the box mount for some kind of poly ones. Should make it all a bit tighter. |
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Last Edit: Aug 21, 2023 12:23:29 GMT by bilbomk1
1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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Aug 21, 2023 12:33:13 GMT
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This really has been a great thread to follow, the standard of work is first class,
As an aside, could the rattling / squelching noise be related to the gearbox movement, ie. a mounting either failing or becoming loose ??
Nigel
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Last Edit: Aug 21, 2023 12:53:47 GMT by Alpina99
BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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Aug 22, 2023 14:09:35 GMT
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This really has been a great thread to follow, the standard of work is first class, As an aside, could the rattling / squelching noise be related to the gearbox movement, ie. a mounting either failing or becoming loose ?? Nigel Cheers mate, most of what I do is just guessing what is best and trying it out to see if it works haha. Hmm, I guess, but to me it sounds related to the driveline in some way. I'll get it up on the ramp on Saturday to check for any issues, I have a minor exhaust blow to deal with anyway, so I'll have a look over everything then. |
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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thomfr
Part of things
Trying to assemble the Duett again..
Posts: 694
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Hi,
Nice job!
But be careful with replacing the bobbin bushes for the box mount for some kind of poly ones as if they are too hard they will transfer a lot of noise and vibrations. No problem in a race car but very annoying a fast road car. Had this in my Alfa, used a hard poly gearbox mount at the rear of the box and it was terrible loud, took it out for a good quality (new) rubber one and the silence returned.
Thom
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73' Alfa Giulia Super
64' Volvo Duett
65' Volvo Duett
67' Volvo Amazon 123GT
09' Ford Focus 1.8
20' VW ID4
71' Benelli Motorella
65' Cyrus Speciaal
The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys
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Aug 28, 2023 22:40:10 GMT
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Good point, and it's definitely something that could be an issue. I just need to find something that will add a little bit of stiffness and it should be fine, but yeah I don't want insane amounts of NVH with it being a road car.
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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Aug 28, 2023 23:22:11 GMT
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So got the car on the ramp this weekend, as a couple of new noises appeared. A metallic vibrating sound, this was actually the exhaust gently vibrating against the gearbox brace a little on overrun. Now sorted. The other noise I mentioned previously. After bolt checking everything, having a look over everything in the area, including the prop, nothing stands out as being the issue. So I think my initial thought that it is the clutch release bearing is correct. MX-5s are notorious for release bearing noise. Usually completely harmless, but really annoying. This has always had the classic noise, goes away when clutch is pressed. This noise is a bit more full on, the bearing sounds on its last legs, but it is what it is. It's either that or the flywheel spigot bearing, though noise from that is not something that I have ever encountered on a 5 box before. I have a 1.6 flywheel upstairs (lighter than the 1.8 one I have on), so when it comes to it I'll replace the clutch and flywheel with a 1.6 sized setup, still plenty good enough for the power I'm running, so no worries there. In other news I was getting a little tired of basically falling out of the standard seat on hard cornering. The seat rail setup on these are very strange, the standard rails are this awful hooked metal system on the rear, with a pivoting bar on the front. Never really liked it. I wanted to get a basic set of fixed rails in place for some different seats. I had a set of MX-5 side mount rails lying around, so decided to make them work. The left side of the floor is raised compared to the right, which complicates things, but these rails have multiple holes, so I've managed to use the lower holes on the left, and the top holes on the right:  Drilled some new holes. Top left of the photo was a pain as that section is boxed in, can't get to it from underneath. Took some messing about, but got it bolted up. The other 3 fixing points go through the floor with massive spreaders/washers on the underside, and brand new nyloc nuts to prevent any loosening. Washers on the bolt head side too to spread the load a little. These are then side mounted into the bucket seat, and the floor mounting points are long holes that allow side to side movement so the width can be adjusted for different seat types. Now in terms of seats, I have my rather tired torn Sparco Sprint that I took out of my 5 when I broke it for parts. The other option was an absolutely god awful OMP bucket seat I got for £20 a while ago. It has I believe a 1996 FIA tag on it 😂 It's a truly awful seat, I don't like it at all. So Sparco it is.   Ignore the tape on the scuttle vents, I've still not got round to sorting this permanently, but this keeps rain water out of the engine bay, which runs into the chassis rails. I don't want that, it's a stupid design, just asking for rust issues. So they're still sealed up with waterproof tape. Looks curse word, but it does the job until I can be bothered to sort it properly.  Does it suit the car? No, not really. But, it was a really good drive being in a seat that actually holds you in place again. Cornering was much nicer as I'm not clinging to the big old OEM steering wheel for dear life haha. It is temporary, when funds allow I'd like to get some form of retro looking recliner type bucket seats. Nothing full race spec, something that looks sporty but still somewhat comfortable. Recaro recliners would be a great choice, but pricey. Maybe some old school Recaros if I can find some for a decent price. Would just get Manta ones, but to be honest I just dislike that OEM rail system and would prefer if I was going to have moving rails to have proper modern sliding rails, and it would be a shame to hack up some nice Manta seats to do that. We'll see, this will do for now, it is much more fun to drive. Apologies for this janky looking post, it seems there are some site updates going on, and the posting function is all over the place tonight.
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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v8ian
Posted a lot
Posts: 3,832
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Last Edit: Aug 29, 2023 5:55:58 GMT by v8ian
Atmo V8 Power . No slicks , No gas + No bits missing . Doing it in style.
Austin A35van, very different------- but still doing it in style, going to be a funmoble
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Aug 29, 2023 11:07:15 GMT
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This sort of thing would be great I reckon, or something like it when I have the money. Just something a bit of side support would be good. Current seats are these ones:  |
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1980 Vauxhall Cavalier - MX-5 VVT engine/box conversion, GSXR ITBs
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