1991 Eunos Revival

[Jackus]

Hello!

So, after a trip to pickup some fresh seats for my tired Mk 1 interior leading to a great chat with a mender, I was convinced to join the forum and get a build thread up. Im quite new to messing around on cars and thats half the reason i bought an NA, hopefully an easy platform to begin learning (be ready for daft questions).

A few months ago i bought a 1.6 1991 Eunos; The car itself feels tired, i feel it was a bit neglected by the previous owner and may have stood for a while but thats half the fun i think, looking to breathe some new life.

So far:
- Ive done what maintenance items i can including the sparks, leads, oil/filter, air filter, transmission oil including turret, gear boots
- Will probably do the diff oil today
- Got fuel filter but need to source some rubber fuel lines to replace the existing as the previous owner decided to remove the filter cover..
- After some cooling issues I’ve done a full flush but with that not improving much I’m amassing the parts for a timing belt/water pump and trimmings change.
- Removed wet led battery, sorted out some rust beginning around the battery attachment points, drilled/tapped the bolt holes (one with sheared bolt in -_-), prepped and sprayed, and then installed the correct attachments with a fresh battery.
- Currently i have the dash removed as I’m swapping the old tan trims for black (looking to change from the HU paint to something else hence the interior change). With the new dash, i have cleaned thoroughly, used brake fluid and Meguires to freshen up. Ive since learned you can paint the dash but I’m not too fussed as the previous was slightly butchered.

But yes, thats pretty much it so far..
After some advice; while the dash is out I’m looking to refresh the hvac foam and ac trunking seals if anyone has any links to threads or info on this that’d be great! Anything else i should do while the interior is stripped out?

Photos to follow!

[Jackus]

The few photos i have.. will try and get some better once the dash is back in and i can get it out the garage!

[Mazda Mender]

Front and rear lip spoilers too

And...

Any questions, just ask , it's what we are here for, have a good nosy around the site , there is loads of info,advise and guides, we are tech based .
M-m

[Mazda Mender]

Funny that you should mention the blower trunking seals....i was getting some ready for that task just the other day, its easy enough to do, once removed get a sharp knife and just scrape all the old dry foam off and its backing, give it a wipe down and re stick some fresh foam on and then just re clamp into place....

[Jackus]

Thanks Mm for that! Sorry haven't been back to check the forum for a short while but thankfully the foam areas are next up on the list!

[Jackus]

Interior is the game;

Probably a strange place to start.. But i want this car to feel fresh and be a nice place to rack up some miles! After a fair 32 year life (and help from some blocked drains) the interior was looking and smelling a little worn. So out it came.

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Once i finally got the carpet out - which i was fairly surprised was still wet after a couple months of dry weather and garage living - there were some expected areas of rust. Ive posted some more photos in another thread if anyone’s interested.

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After a good clean all through the cabin all these areas were all taken back to bare metal and everything started to look much better! The ECU cover unfortunately had to go as the rust had completely eaten through the base but i think I’ve saved the rest of the attachments with a good brush, clean and rust protecting paint. Finally the whole floor pan was hit with some high gloss paint. Completely forgot to get photos of the cleaned bare metal areas before painting but have some in progress.

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Whilst the interior is out I’ve decided to have a good look at the hvac box and blower foams, so i spent an annoyingly long amount of time trying to remove the heater unit from the car and finding the heater matrix pipes were stuck against the evaporator box (i think thats what it’s called?). So got the blower out first and managed to get all but one of the clips on the evaporator, with the nuts removed it was just enough to pull the hvac box. Does anyone have tips for removing the other end of the heater matrix hoses and getting at those ageing spring clips?

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Took the unit apart and prised the flaps away to remove foam and give the whole thing a good clean. And re foamed as much as i could. Although once back together i realised that there will be a fair amount of heat passing through and wondered how safe the draught excluder foam tape will be? Have i just set fire to the car?

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The clips looked like they could benefit from a quick spray as well.

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The last little bits were to contort and hoover out the blower intake area; as well as clean up the edges of the old carpet and sound deadening ready to go back under the hvac.

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So. Hvac back together and ready to go back in, once I’ve done the blower I feel I’m pretty much ready to stick everything back into the car.

Ive got some new sound deadening for behind the ECU and a cover replacement, as well as for under the carpet. I went with the newton sound deadening replacement but was wondering if anyone had suggestions for another layer? Possibly something more waterproof if thats needed.

But yes! Pretty much where I’m at currently. Would greatly appreciate any heads up on things I’ve forgotten and any criticism or tips on things done before they’re back to inaccessible.

[Mazda Mender]

Why did you cut the carpet?

[GlennyGills]

Hi Jackus,
Are you sure you met Wayne, as I see no mention of Copper grease

[Jackus]

Sorry late replies having issues with the IP. Im replacing the carpet also, and when trying to remove initially i wasn’t going to remove the hvac, when i tried to pull the carpet i didn't realise it was attached with a carpet clip underneath and had seen this done on other cars. Was going to re-use this section to protect the tunnel and for sound deadening.

[Mazda Mender]

Where on earth have you seen this done, and recommend to do it that way ?
M-m

[Jackus]

Pt2..

Finally able to post again!
Ive been fairly busy i guess and have finally started putting things back together!

7th: Started with the trunking seals foam replacement today and followed M’m’s post above. Thanks again! Brushed away the crumbling foam with a wire brush first and then used a sharp knife to scrape away the remainder of the old glue. Finally i gave them a super fine sand to make sure all was gone and stuck on the new foam.

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Next on to the blower. Took it apart and gave everything a good clean first, removed the flap to make things a little easier and removed all the old foam.

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Stuck some new foam on the flaps and once together on the intake area. Finally Got them back into the car which was fairly fiddly but job’s good! I reckon.

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Moved on to reintroducing the ECU and gluing in some fresh sound deadening. Looks much better than the photos in part 1! Looking at the photos I’ve just realised i forgot to deal with the rust on the attachments so ill go back for those.

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And the last little job i managed was to remove and replace the heater matrix hoses. When i go for the timing belt and water pump job i plan to replace all of the hoses i can but it seemed like the best time to replace these since they were off the matrix already.

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Carpets, dash, trim and seats next!

14th:
Another big piece back in today, relieved its no longer taking up space in my living room! Tackled the dash which was an absolute task on my own but all went well.

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For anyone after doing a dash removal themselves if you’ve never before, i found this write up a massive help.

https://www.miata.net/garage/DashRmv_89_93.pdf

[Jackus]

Pt.3

This and most of the above were done in June and early July, just not posted! - unsure how to fix the rotated images.

So the dash is back in and hopefully all the better for it. Replacing the dash meant the car could get a good look into; replacing all the worn out foams and flushing the heater matrix was way overdue.

Onto the rest of the interior.

When i removed the soft top i found that the old rain rail was completely shot - cracked, worn and covered in tape. As I’m looking for a hardtop and the car is in garage / only driven in good weather i decided to keep that out for now. So next job was cleaning up the metal brackets that the carpet clips to as they looked like this.

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And a coat of paint.

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Before putting in the new carpet and underlay i decided to add some extra sound deadening in the form of the Kilmat stuff. I read some quite good reviews and for the price i thought id give it a shot.

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Next was the new underlay which was a pre-cut kit and was an absolute dream to add in.

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To fit the new carpet, i re-used the old clips that attach under the sill plate. Drilled three holes in each and used some bifurcated rivets to hold the carpet in place once i was happy with the fit.

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In went the seats i picked up from M.m and the interior for the most part is sorted.

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Lastly the door cards. So the cable on the drivers side window regulator has snapped and with that and some other little bits I’m going to be in and out of the doors a little bit I imagine. Once all is sorted ill be replacing the plastic sheeting but as you can see in the photos they are already ripped and loose so i removed them and the butyl sealant for now with some white spirit.

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I really like these door cards, are they for you?

I also stuck some led’s into the gauges which are great but I’m having an issue with them flickering off and on when driving. When i took the instrument cluster out i noticed that the blue circuit board plastic was warped and not flush to the back of the cluster, will this be the cause? The original bulbs seem to run with no issue.

Finally, id love some recommendations for a quick release wheel setup?

[Jackus]

Engine Bits:

So when i got the car it was clear there was a cooling issue to say the least. Went in with a full flush which improved the issue but a long ways from fixed. I knew i had the typical corroded thermostat T piece which was causing a small leak but following the flush, the water pump began spitting water in small amounts also.

I was planning a full timing belt / water pump job with all the trimmings as it was well in need so this was the next task.

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There are plenty of write ups on this so I’ll not go into detail too much but I’ve a few photos for anyone interested. Although I did get fairly frustrated halfway through and completely forgot to take any more.

I’ve never really attempted anything that felt this big but thankfully using the write up on the site as well as countless videos for aid, most went very well! I had a few issues but mostly just due to inexperience and lack of confidence with it.

One issue happened almost the second I started.. When loosening the valve cover bolts, i managed to snap one. I loosened in the recommended order and worked each bolt out by tightening and loosening when needed but yeah. Did i miss something / mess up or was it bad luck? The top portion of the bolt was still above the deck but not enough to grab with any force but the lower portion was so I tried pliers, grips with no luck but managed with bolt extractors thankfully!

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I had an absolute nightmare trying to remove the cam gear bolts, I think I was terrified that i was going to do damage to the cams. I had to reach out for some help or more likely just needed someone to assure me i wasn't going to break something. Thanks again! I did finally manage to get them loose in the end.

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During all of this I replaced a lot of the hoses with the Stoney Racing silicone set, took out the radiator to give it a proper flush and clean up and removed the A/C.

So. It only took me about a month but she finally moves again! I know you’ll all understand the feeling you get when putting the key back into the ignition after your first big engine maintenance job and praying all starts well. When i first started up my heart sank when i started to hear a knocking sound.
It sounded like it was coming from the valve cover and at first i thought i had been daft enough to leave something behind. After a little search i learned of lifter tick.. So thinking it was just due to lack of oil pressure i ran the car whilst bleeding the cooling system and the noise vanished.

All this was finally completed yesterday and so far so good. The temp seems rock solid and no mysterious puddles under the car any more. Happy days!

Oh and I thought I’d treat myself to a lovely hardtop in time for winter. Wiring work ahead.

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Very happy i found this forum the resources are great when learning to use a spanner and you are all extremely helpful, thank you!

[Jackus]

Where on earth have you seen this done, and recommend to do it that way ?
M-m

Id seen this on a few yt videos as well as a carpet fitting pdf from Newton Commercial. I was replacing the carpets as they were completely lifeless at this point.

[Mazda Mender]

More updates ...
M-m