Connor's MB4 ES

[UKDMgarage]

Finally getting around to a build thread for my third car

 

It all started on a dull early may day. A Friend of mine messaged me, asking if I needed any parts from her MB4 before she scrapped it. It had been sitting on her drive since she her daughter had been born.

I said to her, "let me know what the scrappy offers, and i'll chuck £50 on top and come grab it", knowing that the d16w4 powerplant in this could replace my lathargic D14 in my MB2

 

The next day me and a mate collected it, threw some trade plates on and ran up to my workshop. Even with the old 4 speed slush-box, and a years neglect, the MB4 walked away from my MB2 on a straight bit of road.

 

Once we arrived, my friend parked the car up and then headed home. I then stood and had a smoke, looking at this car having a "Wangan midnight" esque moment,  seeing the colour of the Sicilian Red paint for the first time. Plans had changed. (see attached image)

 

Rust and engine work:

 

First I got the car up on stands and made a list of everything wrong with it. The rear passenger sill and inner arch passed the good old screwdriver test, however the driver's side failed miserably, along with a few places around the front jacking point, and front inner arch. Out came the grinder, welder, and some conveniently shaped and cut sheet metal that I would be using to patch these big holes. This was a steep learning curve, as I have only ever done agricultural welding, and never thin bodywork. 

Once the rust was dealt with next came the auto box - I had never planned to keep this gearbox, so the hunt for an s20 close ratio box began. During this time, the auto box, torque converter and PRND lever were all disposed of in an appropriate fashion (Thrown into a skip as fast as humanly possible🤣), meanwhile, the engine was suspended by a ratchet strap around 2 on the gearbox bolts, and a random 2x4 i had laying about across the wings (See attached)

Whilst the box was off, I decided to replace the rear main seal, sump gasket, and clean out the oil pickup tube. 

A few shiny parts were fitted during this time too, including an oil sandwich plate with senders for both oil pressure and temp, HKS oil filter, TTV flywheel and an exedy stage 1 clutch.

Once I sourced a box, the new mounts were fitted up and after a copious amount of faffing around the engine and box were in. (I wish I had an engine crane!!) I altered the wiring on the PRND plug to disable the inhibitor switch, as well as the reverse lights.

I finished under the bay by rebuilding the distributor, replacing the plugs and HT leads. I also added a bus bar to the firewall as my battery was going to be boot mounted.

I am using a Janspeed 4-2-1 manifold, a smashed out OEM cat shell and a Skunk2 megapower exhaust system. I have a Whale pen15 air intake as well.

 

Interior:

 

This car had a creme interior, which I knew wouldn't survive me daily driving it. I quickly tore this out, installed a load of sound deadening and the various wires i'd be needing for my ICE setup, then fitted a black carpet and VTI "bus seat" interior. I mounted the battery and circuit breaker in the spare wheel well, as well as a power distribution block. this would be needed when I got around to building the boot and fitting my 3 amps.

I finished the interior off with an oil pressure and temperature gauge set, a fire extinguisher, and an old school pioneer flipout headunit + DVD player.

 

Exterior:

 

The exterior is largely untouched, as it is the rare sicilian red pearl colour. This car was factory specced with a full VTIs kit and Jordan wheels. The jordan wheels went onto my other MB2, so that I could fit my 15" TSW imola wheels.

I welded the rear wiper hole up, and the old spoiler holes. I then fitted an "auto spoiler", which had been preiovsly fitted to a friend's recently imported 200sx. This was an almost perfect colour match.

[Dave]

Need to see pics of this mate, sounding good so far!

[Fenny]

On 11/14/2024 at 1:08 PM, UKDMgarage said:

Finally getting around to a build thread for my third car

 

It all started on a dull early may day. A Friend of mine messaged me, asking if I needed any parts from her MB4 before she scrapped it. It had been sitting on her drive since she her daughter had been born.

I said to her, "let me know what the scrappy offers, and i'll chuck £50 on top and come grab it", knowing that the d16w4 powerplant in this could replace my lathargic D14 in my MB2

 

The next day me and a mate collected it, threw some trade plates on and ran up to my workshop. Even with the old 4 speed slush-box, and a years neglect, the MB4 walked away from my MB2 on a straight bit of road.

 

Once we arrived, my friend parked the car up and then headed home. I then stood and had a smoke, looking at this car having a "Wangan midnight" esque moment,  seeing the colour of the Sicilian Red paint for the first time. Plans had changed. (see attached image)

 

Rust and engine work:

 

First I got the car up on stands and made a list of everything wrong with it. The rear passenger sill and inner arch passed the good old screwdriver test, however the driver's side failed miserably, along with a few places around the front jacking point, and front inner arch. Out came the grinder, welder, and some conveniently shaped and cut sheet metal that I would be using to patch these big holes. This was a steep learning curve, as I have only ever done agricultural welding, and never thin bodywork. 

Once the rust was dealt with next came the auto box - I had never planned to keep this gearbox, so the hunt for an s20 close ratio box began. During this time, the auto box, torque converter and PRND lever were all disposed of in an appropriate fashion (Thrown into a skip as fast as humanly possible🤣), meanwhile, the engine was suspended by a ratchet strap around 2 on the gearbox bolts, and a random 2x4 i had laying about across the wings (See attached)

Whilst the box was off, I decided to replace the rear main seal, sump gasket, and clean out the oil pickup tube. 

A few shiny parts were fitted during this time too, including an oil sandwich plate with senders for both oil pressure and temp, HKS oil filter, TTV flywheel and an exedy stage 1 clutch.

Once I sourced a box, the new mounts were fitted up and after a copious amount of faffing around the engine and box were in. (I wish I had an engine crane!!) I altered the wiring on the PRND plug to disable the inhibitor switch, as well as the reverse lights.

I finished under the bay by rebuilding the distributor, replacing the plugs and HT leads. I also added a bus bar to the firewall as my battery was going to be boot mounted.

I am using a Janspeed 4-2-1 manifold, a smashed out OEM cat shell and a Skunk2 megapower exhaust system. I have a Whale pen15 air intake as well.

 

Interior:

 

This car had a creme interior, which I knew wouldn't survive me daily driving it. I quickly tore this out, installed a load of sound deadening and the various wires i'd be needing for my ICE setup, then fitted a black carpet and VTI "bus seat" interior. I mounted the battery and circuit breaker in the spare wheel well, as well as a power distribution block. this would be needed when I got around to building the boot and fitting my 3 amps.

I finished the interior off with an oil pressure and temperature gauge set, a fire extinguisher, and an old school pioneer flipout headunit + DVD player.

 

Exterior:

 

The exterior is largely untouched, as it is the rare sicilian red pearl colour. This car was factory specced with a full VTIs kit and Jordan wheels. The jordan wheels went onto my other MB2, so that I could fit my 15" TSW imola wheels.

I welded the rear wiper hole up, and the old spoiler holes. I then fitted an "auto spoiler", which had been preiovsly fitted to a friend's recently imported 200sx. This was an almost perfect colour match.

Had me really invested while reading, love the wangan midnight reference haha. Sounds like an interesting project, especially with that amazing D16w4 these had, I'm kinda looking forward to swap one of em in my MB2 cause it's a LOT cheaper than a B18, I'm talking like... 2k or more euros cheaper, I could get one for 500 bucks complete. Also... no rear wiper? that takes courage! I find myself using it so frequently even in sunny days

[dr_broon]

Need to see the pics of this one 😎

[UKDMgarage]

See attached, will be posting some more in the near future about rebuilding my engine haha

[dr_broon]

Looks really nice mate 😎

 

@Dave 's fave colour for an MB 😁

[Dave]

That looks stunning! Loving that! 

@dr_broon yup, something about metallic reds that I just love! Gayles new Micra is a similar colour to that red too!

[UKDMgarage]

More work recently completed:

Over the Xmas period I decided to do a total suspension refresh on the MB4. I had wanted to do it when i built the car but time and finances were not available.

I stripped all suspension off of the car, this took 3 days due to a few issues I encountered.

Front end:

Firstly, the passenger side front lower balljoint was original to the car, and 130k miles and 25 years had not been kind to it. I ended up having to cut it, and source another set of front lower arms due to how damaged the balljoint taper was. 

Polybushing all of the front components was a doddle.

Whilst the steering rack was out, i discovered the inner tie rods were different to that of every other 90's honda, so unfortunately these were not replaced (I will be converting to a DC2 rack in the future).

Reassembly was smooth sailing, until one of the weldnuts sheared off inside the subframe. This meant everything had to come out again (Joy!🥴)

I had kept the subframe from my old MB2 (RIP P970NET , gone but never forgotten), so a quick spruce up and this went straight onto the car. 

Up front I now had Hardrace lower balljoints and tie rods, all bushings were now Energy suspension poly units, I fitted OEM replacement honda wheel bearings from Tegiwa, some skunk 2 upper control arms, and I serviced my Racing logic coilovers.

Rear end:

This was far more of a pain than I initially anticipated, disassembly was plain sailing, except for the inner LCA bolts snapping (The usual suspects!). Once these were extracted, everything was cleaned and thread-chased.

The rear trailing arms were easy to replace the bushes, I opted for uprated hardrace OE style ones for a little bit more compliance. I fitted Skunk2 upper camber arms and some generic chinese toe arms. These were a nighmare to fit due to the locknuts being jammed in the toe adjustment slot, this unfortunately required some "creative" adjustment of the toe arm pocked to allow clearance.

The rear LCAs proved the hardest part, due to my Eg/DC2 kit having too small bushes to fit in the outer ends, this required some overnight parts from Scotland to get the right bushes. The next challenge was the shock mount bushes, whuch were the correct fit, however far too wide to fit into my coilovers, these, again, requiring some creative adjustment with a lathe to get to the right size.

Whilst the rear was apart I took the time to address a siezed slide pin on one caliper and a few minor exhaust fitment issues.

End result:

The car now feels brand new, and feels incredibly agile and fun to drive. Body roll and "wandering" around the road has been massively improved. The ride is a tad harsher but this doe not bother me. This was definitely worth the hassle, and didn't break the bank either, costing around £600 in parts in the end

I would highly recommend doing this to your MBs if you enjoy spirited driving or B road hacking, its made my MB feel like a racecar!

What's next?

Next on the list for the car is an update/improvement on the current ICE setup, and some minor bodywork items, with long-term goals being the aformentioned DC2 rack and a replacement engine

Unfortunately no photos from the build, however next time I get it up on a ramp I will take some!