btjtaylor

Turns out the handbrake problem was actually user error I found a post here that showed me I hadn't followed the correct procedure! Once I did that it was all fine and I didnt need to swap the cables in the end (so I can't comment on the MG Rover ones i'm afraid) What I can tell you is these parts are the correct length and and do work, but the quality control was a bit suspect (I had to file open the hole in the handbrake cable bracket slightly and file off a bit of badly machined cable that was hang out the end of the pin) 92.10.5233 COFLE 10.5233 Handbrake cable 1655, 1469mm, Disc Brake | AUTODOC price and review 92.10.5234 COFLE 10.5234 Handbrake cable 1636/1449, 1636, 1449mm, Disc Brake | AUTODOC price and review

Done quite a bit of reading and come to the conclusion that the handbrake cables I ordered were just crap quality. I can max out the adjustment nut on the handbrake handle, it seems like the cables are stretching or the wrong length. It looks like the Honda MB and Rover 45/MGZS handbrake cables are the same so i've ordered a replacement set from DRMGS (Rover 45 / MG ZS Handbrake Cables - SPB100720 / SPB100730 / SPB000580 – Discount MG Rover Spares - Tel 02380 001133 / Email sales@dmgrs.co.uk) - im hoping they are better made as i've good experiences from stuff i've bought there recently. Fingers crossed.

Finally finished the last piece of the brake upgrade today. MB6 master cylinder and ZS180 brake booster (seems to be the same as the MB6 one but I found a good deal on a ZS180 unit. One of those parts that people are asking stupid money on ebay for but if you put in the time on FB groups etc you can get one for a more reasonable price.) Unfortunately the MB6 master cylinder has the brake line fitting slightly further away from the prop valve than the MB2 does so I had to remove the line from the car and bend it in the vice to straighten it out which resulted in the below. I'm not particularly proud of myself and I should probably remake it properly at some point or maybe get an MB6 pre-bent line but it does work! Need to sort out a problem with the handbrake (it's not working very well - unsure why at the moment) and give it a wheel alignment before it can go for an MOT. I'm going to have a go at doing a string alignment in the garage next weekend. I've not done one before but if I can get it 95% of the way there then at least it avoids me destroying the tyres until I can get a proper alignment setup. That being said, many professionals do string alignments in the pits, so they can't be that bad!

Yes - it's not bad really, i've definitely sat in much worse. The seat could possibly go a little lower but I will probably mess about with that once i've actually driven the thing in its current form (getting restless now 🤪). I can reach the controls comfortably, that'll do for now! Without the sliders in it could go REALLY low. The sliders add a tiny bit of height but you also can't mount the seat at the low position at the front as the locking bar fouls on the seat and you can't adjust it.

Spent a (very hot and sticky!) bank holiday in the garage fitting seats and harnesses Thanks to a very helpful poster (above) I found out that the Planted USDM Accord 94-97 seat bases fit the bolt pattern of the MB chassis. Much easier than having to modify the factory seat or have something new fabricated. I then fitted Sparco sliders and side mounts. I got away with only having to drill 1x extra hole in the seat base which by all accounts is a lot better than most manage! Without the sliders the job would've been much easier but i'm glad I persevered and fitted them as I wanted different people to be able to drive the car, and it's much easier to get in and out if you can slide the seat back. The seats are Mirco RTS fibreglass buckets. I picked them up pretty cheap used as the FIA certification had expired on them (they came out of a competition rally car) but other than some general scuffs and scrapes they're in good nick, and totally suitable for track days. Much better than what I could've got new in the same price range. Still lots of adjustments to make on the harnesses as I didn't really know what I was doing but at least it all fits!

Fuel sender there's an access hatch under the back seat so it might be worth having a look there to see if something obvious is wrong with it. Pump is on the other side and tank out (it's not as bad a job as it sounds as long as you can get the car high enough). I replaced mine with a Walbro 255 (The warning about not smoking while working on the fuel system is rather 90s isn't it!)

I REALLY want one for mine after this AI mock up (where it also decided the car is in 2 places at once 🤪) I was not able to find any off the shelf options, past or present I had a look into it and basically you have to have a mould made from the original bonnet, estimated cost around £2000-3000 apparently :( I am tempted to get a spare bonnet and try a carbon wrap and see what it looks like

How's it holding up on the stepwagon? I probably won't bother on my MB as it's not likely to see a lot of salt but I definitely need to do my Accord, its starting to get a bit crispy under there in places. One of the rear disc shields completely fell off in my hands the other day!

Bolt in half cage fitted today. Quite an awkward install as there's a lot of holes to drill and try to keep everything on centre but we got there eventually! Very impressed with the welding and paintwork - definitely recommend JP Cages who supplied it

Installed AEM x-series gauges for wideband AFR, oil temp and oil pressure, and wired the analogue output from them up into the doctronic ECU so I can set a "limp mode" in case something goes wrong! Oil temp mounted into a sandwich plate between the block and the oil filter and oil pressure mounted to the factory oil pressure location with a K-tuned adapter so both sensors can be run They are housed in a very nice 3d printed gauge pod holder that mounts in place of the centre air vent (from a very nice Bulgarian chap on a honda group on facebook who managed to print me a right hand drive version for a very reasonable price).

It's probably cheaper to just buy a Civic with the engine you want already in - maybe you could get a right hand drive one form the UK that's rusty? Theses kind of cars tend to be cheaper over here ... MBs haven't gone up in price much (yet!) like EG/EKs have in recent years. Obviously you'd have to get it back to where you are but depends how desperate you are! You are absolutely right on the K-swap front - especially if you use quality parts not ebay copied junk. I spent £750 on my shell, £700 on an engine, and £250 on a gearbox, but I would say the parts to do the engine conversion properly are probably 5x that, especially when you add in a lot of items that get done "whilst you're in there" e.g. new clutch/lightened flywheel, bigger injectors, different intake manifold... etc. etc.

More info on the lights? Looks great !

Yes, there are some marks - I guess it was to align the drill or whatever they were using in the factory if the car was to be an MB6. I'd love to know what they did - I imagine just drill and tap a hole, thread in a stud ... or maybe there was more to it than that? Maybe some extra reinforcement underneath? I found a video of someone working on an EG just now doing basically the same thing as I wrote earlier but using a piece of metal behind as reinforcement - it seemed to work OK for them

A basic smoke tester can be useful in these situations. Leave it inside the car with the doors and windows closed for 30 mins or so to fill the car with thick smoke, you should see it leaking out of the holes. I have this one - its basic but does the job aliexpress.com/p/tesla-landing/index.html?UTABTest=aliabtest125094_24784&src=google&src=google&albch=shopping&acnt=708-803-3821&slnk=&plac=&mtctp=&albbt=Google_7_shopping&gclsrc=aw.ds&albagn=888888&ds_e_adid=784528327853&ds_e_matchtype=search&ds_e_device=c&ds_e_network=g&ds_e_product_group_id=2463919240694&ds_e_product_id=en1005006642306652&ds_e_product_merchant_id=106959561&ds_e_product_country=GB&ds_e_product_language=en&ds_e_product_channel=online&ds_e_product_store_id=&ds_url_v=2&albcp=23272714697&albag=191864323674&isSmbAutoCall=false&needSmbHouyi=false&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23272714697&gbraid=0AAAAAD6I-hHL-qdK3MTpI0Ema2awFtvJN&gclid=CjwKCAjwspPOBhB9EiwATFbi5PCAR3LaZGphD23BdD1CPkhjJilbrB9rcTukI15yr1pC9FbnhiKokBoCeDkQAvD_BwE&aff_fcid=a41b7480c3234acabb05997aa673a8c1-1774543819938-06152-irey5Th&aff_fsk=irey5Th&aff_platform=promotion&sk=irey5Th&aff_trace_key=a41b7480c3234acabb05997aa673a8c1-1774543819938-06152-irey5Th&terminal_id=24f51958e50f4dda8253ef308c411e91&scenario=c_ppc_item_bridge&productId=1005006642306652&_immersiveMode=true&withMainCard=true&OLP=1116833308_f_group1&o_s_id=1116833308&afSmartRedirect=n Also useful for testing out exhaust and intake/PCV/etc leaks

The easiest way is to get a bar that mounts into the top mount studs of the suspension, like this However, I have been given an MB6 strut bar for free so I wanted to attempt this install. According to the internet I should do as follows: Offer up the bar Mark and drill 8.5mm holes into the strut towers Use M8 bolts (grade 10.9) with penny washers through from the underside and tighten it down I have all the parts ready to go and will report back soon ...

Yes, it's a shame. It's the same for basically every kind of specialist forum these days unfortunately. The barrier for entry is lower for posting on facebook, even though it's an abysmal format for specialist discussion. It's ok for asking questions, but thats about it. Any kind of long term logging of knowledge like this forum is full of is not compatible with their engagement/advertising driven format. Probably less said about that the better.

Rear disc conversion (pretty much) completed now My father in law managed to get all of the brake lines out of the factory prop valve without rounding any which I was very impressed with!! 40/40 prop valve (I believe originally from a non-ABS integra) swapped in New handbrake cables installed into car. This was a bit of a pain as I purchased non-genuine items from Autodoc ("Cofele" branded) and the build quality was awful. One of the tangs at the end where they slide into the handbrake "yoke" had been badly machined with a piece of cable hanging out of one side and I had to spend quite a bit of time with a grinding wheel on a Dremel honing it down to fit - the risk you take with cheap aftermarket parts I suppose. I'm not sure if you can even get original Honda handbrake cables any more, and even if you could they'd probably be a silly price. The only "snag" I have left is I wasn't able to swap the brake master cylinder as the bolt pattern is different. I managed to pick up an MB6 BMC locally for cheap but it didnt come with the servo/booster, but I thought it would fit ok .. obviously not. Here's a comparison of them for anyone following along at home: MB2: MB6: In summary, you need both the servo AND MC together if you want to do this upgrade. After doing a bit of reading, the brakes will work as expected now i've fitted the prop valve but the pedal travel might be too long. As my original BMC isn't leaking i'll just leave it for now and see how I get on, and probably get an MB6 or ZS180 booster if one pops up for a reasonable price.

That's more like it - 34mm piston calipers did the trick

Suspension all refreshed now Hardrace front ARB bracket bushes (21mm for anyone wondering - it was quite hard to figure out the size without measuring it in person!) and hardrace front compliance bushes Mostly new bolts … a few still on order (if you look really careful there's a subframe bolt missing) 🤪 Hardrace ARB droplinks (to fit a civic EG - the ones to fit an MB6/DC2 are a different shape)

Rover bolts came in clutch so the part numbers above are correct for anyone who's curious. Some of them were in MG Rover branded bags which was a blast from the past, they must've been 20+ years old! Removed the engine oil sump and fitted the 4PistonRacing baffle plates, really nicely designed piece. Much easier than weld-in baffles. Realised a massive fail with the rear brakes. The rear arms I bought were off a ZS 180, and came with 260mm discs installed. I purchased new discs and pads, and I could not for the life of me get the discs and pads to fit. I tried EVERYTHING, figuring I was doing something wrong. I then got my father in law to try and he couldnt get them in either. In the end, I looked up the part numbers on the rear calipers and found out they are for a ZS 120 which has 240mm rear discs and thinner pads.. so that explains it. The previous owner had obivous bought the wrong calipers, but managed to force the disc and pads to work .. somehow. I think they had removed a bunch of material from the pads .. the mind boggles. New set of ZS 180 rear calipers on order... an unexpected expense I didnt need but at least i've got to the bottom of the mystery (apparently the 30 in the part number means 30mm piston. Correct ones have 34mm pistons).

Good shout I had a quick look and it seems to be the same issue as the EK ones After doing a bit of reading, it looks like the MB rear bolts are based on European standards. The JDM cars are based on JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard). I knew something wasn't quite right because the rear bolts are 13mm / 15mm heads and normally on Japanese (at least JDM model) cars its 12/14. I've managed to order all of the rear bolts using the MG Rover part numbers instead. There are a few front suspension bolts that remain illusive, I may have to either try and clean up the originals or order generic bolts. I made a spreadsheet to try to figure this out (my starting point was based on the bush diagram from the powerflex website). Once I finally get them all replaced i'll post up a list somewhere, it might help someone else in the future.

Had a few days of time owed from work so spent a couple of days on the MB. Made good progress refitting all off the front suspension and then fitting the rear disc arms. The only snag is annoyingly I had to put a load of rusty old bolts back into my nice clean arms as I managed to order bolts for the rear of an EK civic not an MB. Turns out all of the MB bolts are no longer in production anyway so I'm going to take all the spares i've got and give them a soak in evaporust and see how they turn out ... next best thing I suppose. Calipers, brakes and feeding the handbrake cables up into the car to go but it all looks like it should fit Hopefully have the car on the road in the spring!

Yeah was a bit unexpected but got there in the end. The pipes were not the easiest to get off - after a bit of heat and loads of wd40 they did eventually shift but they're a little chewed up. I managed to get them on tight but if there are any leaks I fear I will have to remake them which won't be the easiest as there's quite a lot of tight bends. Potentially I could also use some kind of flexible PTFE pipe and AN fittings to make the routing a bit easier. Apparently on other hondas (eg/ek/etc) you can just swap the pinion shaft piece across rather than changing the entire rack as it seems like the racks are all the same it's just the teeth on the pinion that affects the ratio so I would probably try to get another MB2 rack (they're a lot cheaper!) and swap the pinion over from the ZS one rather than another attempt at removing the pipes.

Got the grille fitted to the car, that was the easy bit as the rest of the day turned into a bit of a nightmare! Could probably do with painting the metal behind black (its not quite as obvious in real life) but other than that im happy with it for a DIY job We then tried to swap in the MG ZS 180 steering rack that I bought... what a pig of a job Once we've eventually wrestled it into place after removing engine mount and subframe bolts, we found it didnt fit because these pipes are shaped differently, meaning it fouls on the engine mount bracket (the factory MB one so I can't even blame this on it being a k swap!) MB pipe: So I had to remove the rack from the car again and then remove the pipes from the MB rack and swap them to the ZS one. I've never seen that mentioned before but it's worth knowing if you are attempting this... Didn't get as much done as i'd like but onwards and upwards

Made a custom EK9 style grille to go with the headlights Dismantled the grille, scuffed the chrome surround and rattle can painted it the same as the body (Titan Silver NH614M) Here's it drying, I didn't paint it on the dining table, i'd not be alive to tell the tale! Removed the inside of the grille with a dremel and then painstakingly cut some black mesh from ebay (as close to the EK9 mesh as I could see from photos) to size and sandwiched it in between the grille pieces Hopefully it fits on the car properly as I had to remove a lot of material... will find out tomorrow!