Mick's Mazda garage.

jdm10a · **Posted:** Fri Jul 20, 2012 11:49 pm

Been having a fiddle with the parts car while I wait to bring the green wagon home. Thought I would see if the engine was seized like a lot of the other parts for the car are, Got the engine turned over by hand and thought we would put a battery on it and see what happens. To my surprise the starter cranked and the engine turned over. I decided to put some fuel down the carbi, and with no much effort the car started to my surprise.

http://youtu.be/cqWKrR6phTQ

Will I couldnt stop there so over the next couple of days I drained the tank and put some fresh fuel in and pulled the carbi off the manifold and gave it a clean. To my surprise the car started and held idle with ease fuel pump a bit noise but worked none the less. There appears to be no reason from the engine bay why this car was parked up 25 years ago but I really didnt think the engine was in any condition to run it looks like its pulled from a swamp.

beans161 · **Posted:** Sun Aug 12, 2012 3:57 am

any updates?

jdm10a · **Posted:** Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:09 am

Still playing with the parts car while my friend sorts his car trailer to move wagon 1 around to my house. The cooling system is shot and we couldnt even blow compressed air through the radiator core, plenty of crap in the water gallerys in the block. Still trying to come up with a game plan on how to clean the water jackets without pulling the engine apart. Anyone have any suggestions?

Started repairing and polishing some of the stainless trim to keep busy, but not much else.

jdm10a · **Posted:** Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:43 am

With both of of the wagons now home it was time to give them a good looking over and coming up with a game plan. Under close inspection the parts car has the better body and wagon 1 having the better mechanical parts.

Shot at 2012-09-18

I started by trying to start the green wagon, the engine started without too much trouble but ran very poorly turns out the number four plug has a stripped thread. So it was time for deconstruction out with the engine, Im going to pull the head and inspect it and the piston sleeves and make a judgment from what is going on internally in the engine. Hopefully internals are ok and all the head needs is a thread repair.

Shot at 2012-09-18

beans161 · **Posted:** Tue Sep 18, 2012 5:11 pm

these wagons have so much style. :mrgreen:

jdm10a · **Posted:** Sat Oct 06, 2012 2:56 am

Slow progress its just so hard to find time for the car. First up was giving the engine a good clean before pulling the head off, I just hit it with degreaser and the pressure washer.

The engine is so small once the bolt on's have been removed from the block even my wife laughed at how small it was. No great surprise when the head was removed water galleries were full of sludge i pulled a handful of this crap out of the front of the head. The block and head has now been cleaned with no blocked galleries now. Im going to strip the head off my spare engine and have a look if it is within spec to use of I will just send this head off for a service and the thread repair there a few spots on the face Im not 100% happy with so it will need a small shave if I decide to use it.

jdm10a · **Posted:** Sat Jan 12, 2013 11:19 pm

Update time Ive been quite busy getting bits done to the wagon. With the engine out I pulled the whole front end out of the car to rebuild it. Absolutly everything is getting at the very least pulled out cleaned inspected to see if it functions the way mazda intended and a fresh coat of paint if its not up to scratch rebuild time.

General condition of suspension and steering can be described as poor the wishbones and crossmember were caked with grease and mud up to an inch thick in places plenty of hard yakka to clean them up with a scrapper then blasted in my cabinet. Im refinishing the parts with a satin black epoxy enamel most other builds Ive just sent parts off for powder coating but Im try to keep cost down on this build and enjoying doing most things myself.

You cant even see the top of the ball joints or the bolt that fixes the bump stop.

Ball joints were rebuild by an old european fella at accurate steering in Marrickville find NOS ones next to impossible.

Drag link was rebuilt by same fella that done ball joints, I was lucky enough to find NOS tie rod ends

New Monroe GT gas shocks again straight replacements NLA I bought a set in the same length and had to modify the mount to get them to work.

I love the fact most bolts on this car are Mazda branded

Waiting for some rubber spring cushions then should be ready to put it back together

jdm10a · **Posted:** Sun Jan 13, 2013 2:06 am

Next job was to rebuild the brakes Im still working on this task, one side is complete the other about 50% done.

The whole wheel assembly was stripped down. Wheel cylinders are NLA so I rebuilt the old ones there were all seized so it was a bit of a mission to remove the piston but once they were out they were in better shape than I thought they would be. Rebuild kits are also NLA but I found piston cups and dust boots to suit. I pulled the units aparts honed the bore cleaned the piston with steel wool and also gave the cylinders a good overall clean lubricated all bits with brake fluid and put them back together.

Backing plates and hubs have been sand blasted and painted in an epoxy and drums machined. the drums have never been machined previously which was a bonus and new standard standard shoes fitted. New wheel bearings and one side is now ready to bolt back to the ball joints.

The brake master was rebuilt using a NOS kit from Japan again the cylinder was honed and the master cleaned a full seal kit with piston and valve fitted. The same treatment was given to the clutch master the clutch slave is waiting patiently for its turn.

The idler was stripped and inspected. The bushes were good with no unwanted play, the idler got a good clean paint and re packed with grease.

The crossmember is close to back together once it is done a quick clean of the engine bay and it will be refitted. The head is repaired and ready to be picked up from my friends that done the work for me, so next update engine bay should be close to complete.

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Sun Jan 13, 2013 3:24 am

Very nice job Mick, attention to detail!

JB 1300 GF · **Joined:** Sun Dec 09, 2012 3:51 pm **Posts:** 7

800 wagons are so cool top work with the progress so far .

jdm10a · **Posted:** Thu May 16, 2013 1:26 am

Time for a bit of an update.
The head was sent off for the thread repair and while it was there it got a full service, thanks go to patty at Purcell race engines funny thing is most of his work is building big block V8 engines for race boats but he is a mate and was happy to sort my head

While the head was getting done i set about getting the rest of the engine bolt on's ready for reassembly I was lucky to find a NOS waterpump and a couple of spares at the same time. The rocker cover was given a fresh coat of paint and the air cleaner was given a resto it was in very poor condition and looking back cant believe how much time i spent on it.

Well Im at a cross road at the moment with everything in the front end ready to go back in, I look at the engine bay and what a mess the paint is with patches of surface rust everywhere Im getting the urge to strip the rest of the bay and paint it. But this car wasnt supposed to be the first in line plan was to get this one running to free up some room for the other wagons resto and at the pace I work the engine bay might take me 6 months Ive given myself till the end of the week to make a decision will keep you posted.

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Thu May 16, 2013 4:29 am

lookin good Mick. the air filters come out awsome. If you got a few of the nuts and bolts zinc coated on that engine it would look NOS!

banzaitoyota · **Posted:** Fri May 17, 2013 2:18 pm

Nice work!!!!!! :mrgreen:

Mick's Mazda garage.

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