btjtaylor

Thank you very much for confirming this and your post - makes my car build a lot easier as I was expecting to have to modify the stock seat structure (which in itself is a problem because my passenger seat was accidentally disposed of - best not to ask)

Got this photo from my father in law this morning that he got the head unit in in about 5 mins on the first try, always the way 🙃

More progress MB6 dash installed and MB6 cluster fitted Modified the centre console slightly (basically just removing the tray in front of the gear stick) to accommodate the shifter box Cut a hole in the back of the glovebox and mounted the ECU inside Installed a steering wheel boss and OMP 300mm wheel Unfortunately I wasted a couple of hours trying to get the head unit to fit in the dash as I was struggling with all the spiders web of cables behind so I couldn't get it rolling today 🥲 but it's a marathon not a sprint!

No pics unfortunately as had my head down but some good progress on the car: Engine back in the car and running without any timing codes, great success! Managed to fix an issue with the shifter, I wasn't able to select 1st or 2nd gear. I tried getting another set of shifter cables as the ones I had with the shifter were a bit too short and didn't look like the pictures of "correct" sets i'd seen. Turns out I had set the gearbox cable bracket up wrong - for future reference the brackets should be in the "forward" position as per this image (thanks to the helpful soul on facebook who pointed this out when I posted a last ditch question in a kswap group!): Started to fit an MB6 VTI dashboard that I was kindly gifted by a chap called Sam who I bought a few other bits off. My original one had the fake wood trim which wasn't my favourite and some absolute vandal had attached a phone holder directly to it with wood screws! Removed the passenger airbag, removed the cover from it and refitted the cover back into the dash to cover the ugly hole that was left Another solid day on it and I reckon first drive soon (a very short one out of VTEC as driving on the wrong engine map, with open headers on 15 year old budget tyres isn't the greatest idea!!)

Spent the bank holiday installing the new timing chain/guides/tensioner, service manual print outs in hand and triple checking everything. All sealed up now, should be able to get the engine back in next weekend, all being well. Chain that was on was stretched - not by as much as some i've seen but the main difference I noticed is the chain tensioner was quite far extended whereas the new one is much less extended, maybe it couldn't take up the slack or something jumped on first start. Anyway, hopefully this is all sorted now. Also changed the crank pulley seal as I don't ever want to be going in there again!

Do I still need disc rear arms for this by the way? I assumed I would

100%! According to Google the amount it's stretched probably isn't enough for mr valve to meet mr piston so I think weve got away with it. Every cloud has a silver lining at least, it's given me an opportunity to change a few oil seals in the engine and sort out a few hoses that were bodged together quickly from the junk pile!

Thanks for that - totally missed your reply - thats great info Since this post I found the mistake and bought a set of MGZS 180 front 282mm calipers and carriers second hand for £80 delivered which wasn't bad at all really. The seals etc looked ok but they were a bit grotty so we soaked them in evaporust and then my father in law stripped them down and painted them in high temp silver and they look a lot better now. Still not got any pads or discs yet but that will come in time... A running engine first would be a good start 🙃 (see my build thread for the fun i've been having there...) I definitely plan to change to rear discs at some point but as it's quite a lot of work/parts required so I'm going to see how I get on with rear drums to start with until budget allows (currently diverted for more important topics) - whilst it doesn't look or sound very good it's not as bad as you might expect...

Well, one step forward, two steps back Engine wasn't running great with a lumpy idle (almost like muscle car sound!). At first I just put it down to the open header being super loud but we started to get timing codes logged on my ODB reader (p0341). I checked a few easy things like the wiring to the sensors etc but unfortunately after removing the cam cover we found the timing is out, most likely the chain was stretched and we didn't realise (even though we were able to set it right, which I can't quite get my head around) Moral of the story is, don't re use the existing chain even if you think its ok New chain, tensioner and guides ordered...

Big moment this morning after a few days of battling with electrical problems we finally got the car started! It sounds terrible as theres no exhaust, various vacuum leaks and things not plugged in, but feels great to get to this point, absolutely buzzing that we can start to tidy everything up now and get it driving To be continued...

Another good day of progress today Radiator in Hybrid Racing power steering kit in and connected up Fuel lines connected Radiator hoses and heater hoses connected Started to wire in the engine harness - lots of mess and unnecessary wires to tidy up but I'm going to wait to hear the engine run first before I go mad chopping out something that we might need! I reckon another solid day on it next weekend and we might be able to hear it run...

After nearly a month delay with far too many emails back and forth we finally got hold of the replacement engine mount bracket from Innovative Mounts and the engine is now finally bolted in! Got a few other bits fitted after this photo like the radiator, hoses, and fan, and then started to work on some of the plumbing like the clutch line. Getting exciting now - to be continued!

A day of ups and downs working on the MB2 today Managed to do the last few jobs to get the engine ready to install. However, try as we might we just could not get the engine to go into the mounts, despite everything going ok. After about 4 hours of swearing, hoisting the engine up and down, and tilting it evey which way we could think of, it would just not go into the mounts and the aux belt and pulleys kept getting snagged After giving up and looking on the internet for advice I found that the right hand (drivers side) engine mount supplied was the wrong one. Our looks like this with the "cradle" coming out the side of the mount But it's supposed to look like this with the cradle on top! Because the mount fits to the car and the rest of the kit is correct we didn't realise for an embarassingly long time. Never mind ... I will complain and hope to get supplied the correct part as soon as possible For now this is as far as we've got ... So close but yet so far ...

Shifter mounted properly in car and cables routed. Some hacking up of the console will obviously be required but I should be able to have all the dashboard etc back in Shifter cable plate in place - still needs a bit of work to get the other two bolts mounted and enlarge the hole in the grommet slightly. It's sitting at a less than ideal angle but it was the best placing we could come up with - the DC5 shifter cables we're using are on the shorter side Air con delete block off plate fitted so no huge hole directly into the cabin!

Thanks next time i'm with the car i'll measure the hole carefully and find something suitable. I saw those for sale but I wasnt sure at the time if they'd work. I guess the answer is they sort of do! Seems like you can get a bathroom sink stopper that will work without modification that I saw linked here but its chrome - I may get that and paint/wrap it.