Darren-B Posted October 23, 2011 Posted October 23, 2011 So over the winter I have a few bits I need to do on the zed to keep her at her best, A week before the Jockland Hoon I gave her a service, spark plugs, engine oil, coolant, gear & diff oil. When changing the plugs I discovered that there was a small amount of oil leaking from the rocker covers into the sleeve for the no.1 & No.4 plugs. I spoke to ZMANALEX whilst on the hoon about this & he advised that the centre seals are part of the rocker cover & a new rocker cover would be required. So against his advice I ordered the replacement rocker cover gaskets (outer Seals), sub £20 delivered. With the intention to replace the outer rubber seals & make/repair the centre seals with a heat & oil resistant sealant rather than fork out for replacement rocker covers. So the last couple of evenings I got to work to repair the leaks. Before I started, completely stock other than a panel filter, 06 velocity stack & plenum spacer. Engine cover & strut bar removed coolante drained, then upper & lower plenum removed Then came the slightly trickier part of un fixing & moving the various coolant hoses & the main wiring loom to gain access to the rocker covers. This in fact took more time than it did to actually remove, clean 7 replace the gaskets on both covers. Unfortunately I didn`t manage to get any pics of the covers off as it was getting a little late & I wasn`t going to get cleaned up just to take pictures. Rocker covers fitted, torqued & cleaned, wiring loom & coolant hoses back in place Re-fitted the lower plenum, cleaned & torqued. Then went to work on the upper plenum, fancied a colour change, Red So i prepped & sprayed the upper plenum Rosso Red (matt) After putting it all back together bar the engine cover & strut brace I decided that I could see to much of the aluminium on the lower plenum so that needed painting to, also I thought it would look better with some lacquer I also painted the strut bar but forgot to take pics Lower plenum, installed once again Then upper plenum installed Strut brace, engine cover & intake installed Finally the coolant was replaced & fired her up, All seems 0k, no signs of any leaks, in fact it feels alot quicker it must be the Rosso red paint, that must be worth 50hp Next on my list are, Replacing hinges on drivers door Replacing Clutch & Flywheel (single or DMF)???? Finding a faulty airbag connection Cleaning & sealing all ali parts under the car, Under-sealing Re-spraying the bonnet, bumper & wings Removing & re-furbing Brembo callipers Possible poly bushing Doesn`t look like I`ll be spending much time with the better half this winter Quote
Wasso Posted October 23, 2011 Posted October 23, 2011 Looking good mate, great work and a number of jobs to do eh. Oh how come in this pic your ports are covered up, so how the hell did a bolt get dropped Quote
350 Russ Posted October 23, 2011 Posted October 23, 2011 does the underfloor heating work well on the garage door? not an expected question i know Quote
Darren-B Posted October 23, 2011 Author Posted October 23, 2011 Haha this is before I had the rocker covers off, I managed to drop the bolt through the lower plenum when re-intalling it the first time Quote
Keyser Posted October 23, 2011 Posted October 23, 2011 Nice work I know what you mean whe you say - "Then came the slightly trickier part of un fixing & moving the various coolant hoses & the main wiring loom to gain access to the rocker covers." Did waltzinblack's a couple of weeks ago OMG All looks good painted - did you use ordinary paint on the plenum? or something for heat? Quote
Darren-B Posted October 23, 2011 Author Posted October 23, 2011 does the underfloor heating work well on the garage door? not an expected question i know Believe it or not the wall is made of foil wrapped glass with the underfloor heating stuck on top, primarily used for painting glass (the underfloor heating is used to bake the paint) Quote
Darren-B Posted October 23, 2011 Author Posted October 23, 2011 All looks good painted - did you use ordinary paint on the plenum? or something for heat? I keyed the surface with a wire brush drill attachment, then cleaned with cellulose thinners, blasted with compressed air, grey primed then painted with a water based glass paint mixed with a hardener, should be good for upto 190'c. If my plenum gets that hot it won`t be the paint I`ll be worried about. Then used a 2k lacquer I painted the rocker cover of my MX-5 with a standard water based body paint & that held up at much higher temps than the zeds plenum ever gets to So in my opinion I would think that so long as the part you wish to paint is not getting excessively hot (some form of heat shield) if the item is prepped correctly & painted correctly the paint should last Quote
glrnet Posted October 23, 2011 Posted October 23, 2011 Nice work buddy, just need to paint that engine cover now, silver or black? Quote
Darren-B Posted October 23, 2011 Author Posted October 23, 2011 Nice work buddy, just need to paint that engine cover now, silver or black? Cheers The engine cover is black but that is a really nice shower..... I can do them any colour you like Thats where the Rosso Red came from, just done a kitchen for a Ferrari Fanatic Quote
jumping350 Posted October 23, 2011 Posted October 23, 2011 Nice work Darren thats some good stuff there great spray job to!!i got a blade silver one so if its the KYO when you do your bonnet/wings interested in doing a door at the same time??? i want something in my engine bay painted now too Quote
Darren-B Posted October 24, 2011 Author Posted October 24, 2011 Nice work Darren thats some good stuff there great spray job to!!i got a blade silver one so if its the KYO when you do your bonnet/wings interested in doing a door at the same time??? i want something in my engine bay painted now too Tbh silver is a right bugger as you can never get a perfect match so if you were to paint a door, to make it look perfect you will have to blend it in by painting the front & rear wings, I repaired a door, bumper & wing on my silver mx5, ended up painting nigh on the whole car to get it to not show up in the sunlight. Quote
Darren-B Posted October 24, 2011 Author Posted October 24, 2011 How did you use 2k to spray it? Mixed the 2part lacquer & hardener, thinned out with cellulose & sprayed Quote
CrumbMC Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 Looks really nice. that red is such a nice colour. did this bloke get you spraying his whole kitchen then? my boss brought in some spray guns a few months ago with the idea that we could spray our own electrical panels. he said i can use it whenever i want so i might give it a go. will have to try out on something not Z related to get the hang of it first. before you tell me off i'm aware of the dangers and precautions required when spraying Quote
Darren-B Posted October 24, 2011 Author Posted October 24, 2011 Looks really nice. that red is such a nice colour. did this bloke get you spraying his whole kitchen then? Not quite, imboff to finish up there later so will get a pic or two online Quote
Keyser Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 Of course the old - spare pot of rosso red kitchen paint laying around - trick Nice one, I asked as my plenum gets hot - a lot hotter than others when we compared on track days!! will see how it goes may paint it yet????..... may polish it up Thanks for letting me know Quote
Dblock Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 How did you use 2k to spray it? Mixed the 2part lacquer & hardener, thinned out with cellulose & sprayed Air fed mask and full body suit? I've heard it's mad poisonous and if you don't use the right stuff your lungs collapse Quote
Darren-B Posted October 24, 2011 Author Posted October 24, 2011 Yep, a bit like this one, although it looks better on me Quote
Dblock Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 Yep, a bit like this one, although it looks better on me Looks like a welding mask to me Quote
Chris`I Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 Do you fit the bathroom too Darren? If so we might have a job you for in a few months Quote
tmJak Posted October 24, 2011 Posted October 24, 2011 I have leaky rocker covers too, was ZMANALEX wrong? Is it repairable? Quote
Darren-B Posted October 24, 2011 Author Posted October 24, 2011 Do you fit the bathroom too Darren? If so we might have a job you for in a few months No I only do the glass side of things Quote
Darren-B Posted October 24, 2011 Author Posted October 24, 2011 I have leaky rocker covers too, was ZMANALEX wrong? Is it repairable? Alex is not wrong, the centre seals are not replaceable without new rocker covers, I'm driving the car tonight & on Wednesday then I'll check to see if the repair has worked Quote
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