DieselMonte

Lots of work done last few days Pics out of order a bit but: Engine bay cleaned down, new coolant bottle on, darkside braided clutch line on. New caliper sanded, primed and painted Came out very well for once. Whiteline rear anti roll bar off, keeping it for the SDi. H&R bar is non adjustable, but powder coating seems fantastic on it vs the whiteline, have to say the clamps for the bushes were a bit of a nightmare to install. Bits of rust treated and painted up. Standard dual mass 4pc kit gone one, new slave cylinder, bolted up lovely Foreshadowing Swapped out the shifter for the one out of the SDi originally, as it was in better shape than the one in my car, in spite of being 11 years older than the car, and having more miles. no matter what I did to it, I could never get it to feel as tight as I wanted it to. Shifters are different but bolt up the same, otherwise fit and work the same, figure I can get a new bush for the SDi shifter and be golden. Had solid shifter bracket bushes and was able to work my solid cable end bushes on the 6 speed. It works, and it feels fantastic. New bleeder for the clutch also, it's bled up perfect, and feels brilliant so far. Brakes all bled fine etc Starter connector is different, easy to swap them considering I had both cars to hand. Currently stuck waiting for hardpipes, standard boost pipe no longer fits because the 6 speed is that much bigger, no way of working it and I did try. Also found a pinhole in my downpipe Least it's not split fully at the welds. Seeing if I can just get a replacement top piece vs welding it, again. Changed the gear oil on the box too. And pulled the vrsdi asunder for its subframe. Painting the subframe from the monte became a mess, it will not stick, and paint stripper just turned it into a sticky gooey mess, horrible. Plus is it'll be back on its caster increase bushes, and I get my wishbone ducts back. Not far from being done But still a bit left to do. Couple other trick things, least I have time to sort some of them given it's gonna be down for a while longer. Forget if I ever did a modlist, but I'll do one up after this. Power will be whatever the injectors are capable of, but cross that bridge when it comes to it.

Lot of work going on Engine and all out Front off Shed load of parts to go on 6 speed has been taken from the vrsdi Spare 5 speed box from another monte gone in, bolts straight in etc, provided you swap EVERYTHING, works just fine. New shafts and all going in this. Finally the Cr170 turbo ive been sitting on for years being put to use Took some bits down to powerwash, intercooler came up insanely well, bit of polish and itll be golden. Subframe being stripped and repainted, again. Be touching up some bits of rust etc, very slight but its all apart so its being done. Turbo off. Box off. Currently at 188k miles. Clutch has had its day anyhow, never slipped never gave me any trouble, original clutch all along. Springs rattling around in it so was due in anycase. New rad and condensor. Rad was weeping slightly and not had working ac in years, used compressor going on also.

How've you found the deadset kit? Any difference?

Sorry for the bad rec Any chance someone could have put a different flexi on it before? I'll get a pic of how mine sits in a bit. Had friends get axles off them for different cars and all been perfect. Braided line may be longer than a normal one fwiw. Or one off a mk4 golf etc IF youre going that route. Be the same fit just different length

Not used them but have heard nothing but glowing reviews about them, they do loads of makes and all seem top notch

100% find a new one Once got quoted 300 for one out of a scrap ibiza when i was swapping for discs Got one out of a mk1 vrs for 60 and refurbed it. £140 is a bargain bushes and all

Not much to report. Off the road still driving fine. Got 4 new ad08rs for it. Will need a bit of work for mot which is up in feb, not be using it till april on so aside from the chassis it should be ok. Needs a Y pipe, few bulbs *possibly wiring, rear fog switch etc nothing catastrophic aside from the chassis. Probably shouldnt fail on it, i'll be doing some more undercoating anyhow. Provided it passes mot i'll do belts and all after so im not sinking huge money into it beforehand.

Not much else Stripped rear suspension out of parts car. Siege removing the bushes, found they had a metal sleeve that will not come out of the wishbone bushes, so cant fit them. Then moved onto the trail arm bushes, found they weren't right so cant fit them either. Also this. Thank god i stripped the parts car FIRST. So leaving the rear suspension be for now. Touched up some undercoating and refitted the exhaust, shockingly all the gaskets were totally wrong so i used exhaust paste FOR NOW. Few small things to finish up and alignment, but it is basically done and driving fine. Payed far too much money for an nos clock for it too.

All finished off gloss white with wax coating on top. Car passed clean sheet this time. Normal exhaust painted and back on. New fitting kit for the rarb, painted it yet again. Fixed a few other things, cb etc, refitted brace too. Also got a few things off skoda parts, including an old irc sticker, always wanted one.

Mk1 and mk2 bolt up the same. See if IM axles on ebay do them, i think they do. Reasonable prices and meant to be top tier but ive not used em yet

Trip to the Uk was brilliant, 10/10 experience, honored to have been involved in some small way. Fella is probably the best driver i know, just got caught out at the worst time. Hope I can get invited back again. Nearly 183000 miles on my car now. Going pretty well. Suspect i damaged a boost pipe as its a bit more whistly now. Easy sorted if i can find the bugger.

In next week for NCT so in preparation mode for that. Have to change backbox anyway so stripped all off to tackle some rust. Wired all back best i could. SOAKED in kurust overnight. Started with Anti corrosion zinc primer. Then etch. Then stone chip. Will be sprayed white and then waxoyled once this sets overnight. Slightly better floorpan covers and brand new genuine undertray, again. Rarb has to come off. As does kbrace. Also have a flat sheet of metal I intend to do up a cover for the exhaust. Hide the downpipe better. Will fail on something. Im just giving them as few excuses as possible.

Car wasnt going to be lifted until saturday morning so we left late friday for scotland. Drove straight back up and crashed on a couch until the ferry came. (Not my pic but how it was lifted out) 4 new tyres for the MX5 AD08RS almost identical to what was on it years before i had it. Worked out about 1250 miles before i got home. So a lot of driving in a few days. Rac does 2 legs so starts in carmarthen and finishes in carlisle. Mate went off on the last day of the welsh leg. Either way we would have been driving to carlisle atleast. Would have worked out handy ferry wise, but not the end of the world. To be honest looking at how the northern leg went, probably did us a favour in a strange way. Took it out a few days later to assess what id done. Full deep scrub underneath especially. 2 trips on the irish sea and salted welsh roads had me worried. Have a video but too long so bullet points. Rubbed the underneath raw, broke undertray. Floorpan covers damaged slightly, backbox/fuel tank all rubbed slightly Undertray missing. Some of the mountings damaged. Exhaust mounts tweaked on downpipe. Damaged the lip mostly areas id fixed earlier giving way. Was gonna repaint it eventually so no big deal. Floorpan covers i had spare from a parts car, my old ones will be fitted to the sdi eventually. Sorted some rust underneath. Not too bad. Sprayed all white over it and used wax coating on top. Sprayed the floorpan brace also. Doesnt need to be much as it is covered.

Atleast in fresh snow it acted like a snow plow of sorts. But was embarassing to have to be pushed for so long until we hit road. Thursday night the stuff in the middle was turning to ice and needed to be pushed a bit again. Friday morning wasnt *as bad. Needed a push to start getting out. But aside from the ice it did get onto the road mostly ok. Said ice in the middle became very hard and did damage. Not terrible but not a pleasant run over the road. Wont let me upload the video but it sounded pretty horrible driving over (on) it. Leaving to follow the service van, copped the undertray was low. Very low. Was held on at that point by 2 screws only so ripped it off. About an hour or so of driving got a call that mates car had an off on SS8. (Not my pic but its where the car ended up) They're fine. Car is done for. So diverted to near it and met with the management cars and waited, chatted with some very nice locals too. Watched some very cool stuff go by until they could get lifted down to end of stage and picked up.

Thursday morning was difficult because there was that much snow the car basically high sided in the middle lifting the wheels off the ground. Pilot sports did not help. Not the car for the job. Its not very low but it is lowered a bit.

Long one. Gave the car another service after doing kirkistown and ahead of a long trip. Changed rear springs for my Heavy duty ones. Gave the car a quick polish and away to the uk. A friend was doing the RAC and I tagged along. Went belfast to cairnryan. Picked up a friend who lived nearish the ferry, loaded up and down in one shot to carmarthen for the start. Very cool seeing the serious amount of machinery on display. Showgrounds were huge. Stayed at a place nearish. Got snowed in. Every one else made it out but I did not. So tactical dump into a field entrance and walked back to the accomodation. Eventually got it unstuck some hours later. Snow was mostly around where we were, main roads were fine. But getting to and from them consisted of being pushed for about 2km. (Pic from the next morning)

So long time and a lot of progress here or there. Went up on the lift to do new ball joints, tie rods and a wheel bearing. Wheel bearing was a siege in 100 different ways. As were the ball joints (Kept getting sent wrong ones) Basically decided "I am not taking this apart again", so knowing the flywheel was grinding worse and worse i began stripping the parts car down. Don't love having it in bits as its yet another shell to go on a pallet. Before that i rolled it down to the wash, and gave it a good cleaning. Even though it is beyond rotten I felt a bit bad tearing into it, anyhow. Stripped suspension off of it and dropped engine as a unit, split all on the pallet and got the flywheel. It was grubby and oily but in better (not great) shape Both cars the clutches were "ok" both have oil leaking from the distributor down into the box, and what was causing the clutch in mine to occasionally slip. Decided to strip the parts cars suspension to clean up for mine, bushes being 30 years old and 90k mile on them, were well past it. Knew i needed anti roll bar bushes for mine, like everything else cant get new rubber ones. However, there is a man in a shed in the US called DRW bushings who does bushes for all the older subarus. So i ended up buying the full kit for mine. Not cheap but shipping and customs from the us isnt either, so i only wanted to do it once. Bushes came quickly for being made to order, and the other side of the pond. Fella was extremely pleasant and helpful to deal with. Bushes all fit perfectly, all numbered so almost impossible to mix up, plus theyre not as hard as powerflex or such. They feel a lot like a slightly firmer oe bush. Got mine in black to keep a nice standard look. Noticed sump was leaking this while so dropped it, cleaned strainer also. Again while im in there. Primed and painted sump, resealed all fine. New clutch kit, probably mentioned before i won a new old stock subaru disc and pressure plate a while back, nice to put it to use. Cleaned the flywheel up myself as couldnt get anyone easily to machine it. Got gearbox in on my own not easy but lifted it up and put it on myself. Made a clutch alignment tool with an extension and lots of tape. In the bushes kit there were small shifter bushes which have transformed the shifter, it was really nice before but now it is extremely nice to use, very tight and direct. Back on its wheels this evening, no exhaust past the cat and needs checking and torqueing all the bolts on the ground but i did get driving it a little. Clutch feels very good but does need adjusting. Suspension and steering feels superb, very fresh. Still have to do rear suspension. Gonna do the same and strip the parts cars to refresh. This way i have serviceable arms etc from mine as spares. So shouldnt have much to worry about from the front for a while. Rear isnt too bad but id like to have all the suspension stripped and painted anyhow. Ill clean up and schutz underneath it too. I do want to gut the cat from the parts car to use on mine, being pre 95 it doesnt need one to pass emissions once its running well. Have that nice backbox too but itd require basically having a catback pipe done up to make any use out of it. Exhaust restricts way down after the resonator for no real reason. Backbox i got is the same size as the pipe between the cat and resonator. Facelift ones like mine are catted, preface is not and that brings power down from about 55 to 50. It is nippy for what it is but a "cheap" 10% bump in power would be nice.

2 more trackdays down. Did mondello on the bank holiday monday gone by and kirkistown today. Few repairs done before mondello. Fixed one of the rivnuts for the brace, got a tool from lidl for nothing and it worked brilliantly. Back stripped out, seats etc. Checking over bolts and immediately snapped one for the rarb. Managed to repair it with an old bush from the justy cut down and bolt and nut through it. Mondello went well, sort of damp, car did a lot bettet than last time. Spun it but no damage suffered. Was silly but a lot of people did the exact same on the same corner so not too mad. Amount of red flags at mondello is astounding, thankfully i wasnt one (yellow flagged for spinning) Didnt do too much except change the oil and check it over for kirkistown. Its about 100 miles each way from me and of course i was driving there and back. Car did well, was some ridiculously fast stuff there today including a manthey porsche, big body amg saloon, ferrari 599 and an m3 convertible and it was VERY busy. Weather held out amazingly. Brakes held much better than last year as did tyres. Heat management definitely a problem and I dont love not having oil temp atleast. Ran the car on HVO both these trackdays, cars took to it great but i wouldnt leave it sitting with that in it. Believe much like e10 and petrols it will rot lines if theyre not rated. Use torque to monitor coolant temps, intake temps, pressure etc. Eased off once coolant got to 100°. No clue whats a "safe limit" but figured thats safe enough. Rubbing pretty bad still. Thought it clearanced itself but guess not. Last few photos arent mine theyre from another forum, but they look cool so ill post them here too. Over 181k miles now so see how much more it will take.

No reason it won't pass nct But they will fail it on something thats fine and miss everything inbetween.

Few things since its been a while. Handbrake lever broke so robbed one out of the Mk1 vrs parts car, fits fine. Was easier got to than the mk2 parts car since its been stripped down. Also a slightly less worn wheel to go on mine. Full 180k service. Seen a pipercross filter for cheap so got it (new). Know full well it will make no performance difference. Full Oil/Air/Fuel/Pollen wipers etc. New n75 again and pedal pads as mine were slightly wore. Replaced two rough looking coolant pipes also. Small amount of fuzz on sump bung but nothing worrysome yet. New lhf arch liner as mine was damaged (genuine). Refitted all the undertrays. Got my "new" ar1s fitted. VERY tight fit. Did mondello end of last month with a mate. Extremely busy for something in the middle of the week. Car did well, suffered bigly from rubbing Tyre softener stuff worked brilliantly, as did the cetane booster from the same lad. Let it cool off proper between runs, standard cooling system is at its limit. I did refit the intercooler sprayer which helped. Think the tyres clearanced themselves over the day. Full credits to the photographer on the day Very nice picks for a not so fast car. Could be worse. Weighed all the wheels i had out of interest. Heaviest was the monte wheels with ar1s : 21kg Next was the monte wheels with PS4s :20.3kg Then the OZ superturismos :19.75kg Lastly the mk1 spyders at just: 16.6kg Basically 4kg a wheel lighter than my normal wheels. And i do think theyre the nicest wheels out of all of them. Most likely run them next time i need tires. Roped into doing mondello again end of the month, hopefully i can do kirkistown again too as it was brilliant. Mx5 if it passes mot next year will do the trackwork as ill be getting slicks for it very soon. Potentially getting turbo sorted start of next year. Funds allowing. Have all there but ill most likely do more work around it. I would like a 6 speed. Probably should put a new rad in also. Really if im swapping the turbo ill drop all out and do it out of the car. Not a small job in itself but itll be done. Providing it passes nct end of the year, get it over with before i do any major work.

Braided lines gone on Only did the fronts as the rears looked a pain to do. All bled up perfect. Pedal feels great, brakes work fantastic AND they're quiet as can be. Made up another engine mount. Replaced the hydroil with 60 shore polyurethane. After a while of curing it went on. Easy job. Feels fantastic so far and NVH is completely fine. Feels better than the wore standard mount that found its way on. Not car related but found a kitten on its own in the shed. On its own and its mam didnt come back so took it home, kept it warm fed etc. Anyway a month on its doing great, So all going pretty well for once.

Got a spoiler in the lot of bits so cleaned it up Sanded down, primed And fitted Just sprayed it with plastidip, not perfect but acceptable.

Brakes are done. New Mtec Discs and Textar pads for the 312/256mm octavia setup on this. Also got new slide pins, some bolts etc all new. Don't mind the rust on the faces so much, i'd washed it and put it away Rears while working fine looked a bit scruffy Front pads were poorly. Forgotten they were mtecs own pad. Theyve been squealing this while. In all fairness to them, they did hold up pretty well in all. Took my time cleaning up heat shields and such Paint job on the calipers is good from far, but far from good Arches really need a good clean up Not actually driven it more than a few miles since, paint/coating on the discs hasnt even worn off it. Initial impressions are very good and so far quiet as can be.

Brakes all painted up and done Camera is very kind to this car New rad acquired and installed, easy job but not happy having to spend for one. Used triple QX blue coolant for it. G12 seemed to be corroding some of the pipes. All bled up fine, took for a run this morning to a car show. Busy as usual but car drove great. Brakes feel very good, handbrake too is very good. Quiet too. Took it up north to fill with 99, found one station in camlough that does it. As usual much more hassle than i'd signed up for but its done. Coolant temps staying solid, even the gauge on the cluster (which read hot almost instantly before) stays solid in the middle, even though it is basically a dummy gauge its nice to have it read normal.

Iirc the cam angle sensor is on the front of this particular engine. I was given the silicone heater hoses previously (off the same car) theyve gone on Was told the NAs had that problem causing the hoses to rot. Ill have the rocker cover off over winter so get new seals anyhow.