Summer pictures of the xero fux 323

Since I missed my Nikon a bit and wanted to take some pictures, I took the XF323 downtown to take a few shots in the morning sun...

 

A new front bumper for the Daily

I've been running the Xero Fux 323 with the rancid front bumper for about 10 moths now and although I didnt mind the rough look, the lines didnt match the OEM side skirts.

When I was offered a new bumper in the correct color for cheap and trq sold his old, slightly wrecked front lip, things got moving...

I painted the front lip with a rest of rattle can that I had left over from the side skirts. Please note the innovative 2 piece design of the lip.

Next up: holes!

Followed by JB weld and zip ties. I really liked the mint zip ties on the old bumper, so I decided, that the drift stitches and sticker would just slide down from the bumper onto the lip to preserve the xero fux look a bit :)

Glued the thing onto the bumper.

Put both onto the car.

The fitment is not perfect since the bumper is not OEM and the lip is a bit warped but that's ok because nöfüksgvn.

Much better side line now!

Project.L: RDC - rear disc conversion

Well, this was on my to do list for a very (!) long time.
Since the european BA 4 cylinder did not come with rear disc brakes, I wanted to do an RDC for over 10 years now. Just never managed to do it.
I've had the parts for a few years now and finally there was a time window that could be used so here we go...

Got new lateral arms that I painted gunmetal grey for extra street cred and a long life.

For the conversion I used BG DOHC rear spindles and calipers with Brembo rotors and EBC Green Stuff pads, that I bought from a mate a couple of years ago. Hand brake cables came off a BA V6.
Since the calipers were painted gold which would not go well with my new wheels I repainted them gunmetal grey and added a few new rubber gaskets and bolts.

I also got a set of tubular training arms off a V6 which I sent out to be blasted and owder coated but I havent received them back yet.

When I pulled the old rear assembly out, I was again amazed by the built quality in the early 90s...

This bolt has covered 230k kms in 24 years sitting at the rear wheel and looks like it is a few months old...

Old drum next to shiny new control arms.

Much better, thank you!

I used Evolity brake hoses for the conversion and will swap the front ones too, since I will have to bleed the system anyway.

Always remember to fasten all the suspension bolts with rubber bushings with the car sitting at ride height!

Finally, after a couple of hours of wrenching, cleaning, applying wax and grease, the car again was one step closer to the state that it should have left the factory in - the goal that I have been chasing for over a decade now...

Did I mention I love this car? More so than any other...

The front brakes are still waiting to receive matching paint and brake hoses and the system will need to be bled.
Since all 4 discs and all brake pads are only a few k kms old I will leave them as is for now. In the long run, I want to use 270/276mm discs instead of the 255/258mm ones but this has time (maybe another decade or so :D).
Also, I suspect that I will need to swap over the proportioning valve since the braking system and pressure are different for drum and disc brakes but I want to try it out on the street before I change anything else.

Project.L: new injectors

To fix the issue of flat spots at 2-3000 rpms under acceleration, I got a hardly used fuel rail off a 2002 MX-5 1.8 and swapped my red 260ccm NB Denso injectors (which worked fine until the 4-2-1 header install) for the lilac 265ccm NBFL version.

Supposedly only run for 62k kms / ~40k mls, which i can believe since the fuel rail looked like new.

 The "old" and the "new" face to face

And in they went...the installation takes maybe 15-20 mins without any rush.

Since I had cleaned and tested them before, the car started right up without any issues. A quick test drive revealed a better acceleration in the beforementioned rev range. I didnt have the opportunity do drive for a longer time yet but it's definitely an improvement.

New wheels for the MX-3 V6

Recently I got the opportunity to acquire some 90's JDM wheels with correct fitment for older Mazdas...so of course I did :)

Last week i received two suspicious packages:

Unfortunately one was damaged during shipping but still...i quickly opened them up to find this:

Those are 16x7 Work Nezart Spoke 2 in 4x100 (yay!) - in really good condition except a ding from the shipping mishap. Happy times :)

So much 90s JDMness :) I hope they work with the car...

Project.L: Engine health status

The last few times I drove the Lantis, sporadic misfire, flat spots during acceleration and running on three cylinders occured, albeit so irregular that I could not identify a root cause.
I then checked the spark plugs and engine compression to exclude engine wear and found this:
All spark plugs showed only minor deposits evenly distributed (maybe running a bit on the lean side), and compression values were between 12,5 and 13,5 bar on all cylinders.

I call that a good result for an original engine that has covered 225k km (140k mls). The keen observer might also spot that I changed the valve cover for a freshly powder coated BG GT item:

I now suspect the distributor as the root cause for the intermittent failures - this will be addressed next.

Project.L: New wheels sneak peek

Last week I collected my new and newly painted wheels from the paint shop. Unfortunately I detected afterwards some imperfections in the finish so I had to take them back to get sorted out.
Still, took a few preview pics that make me very happy :)

This should be good...