While I've been waiting for my muffler to get here I have been piddling with a few things. Did some more trimming for the radiator and figured out which one I'm going to try. The VW Scirocco radiator would have fit well in the front opening, but it's a little smaller than I would like. It probably would have been fine, but I get really nervous about over heating a rotary. I looked it over again and checked out what a few others have done. I believe I can fit an off the shelf 15.5 x 31 radiator in there. This will put me just over 400 square inches and is meant to cool an LS V8, so it should do the trick handily (provided I can make it fit of course). It will require a few modifications to the radiator and a lot more modification of the front radiator area, but should be quite a bit cheaper than a custom built radiator.
The other thing I did I would have sworn would not work. I modified the clutch slave line attachment using pieces from both the MG and an old slave cylinder I had from a 12A. I cut off most of the hose portion of the 12A line and drilled it out with a 1/4" drill bit. I then removed the slave cylinder fitting from the MG plastic line, straightened it out, and slipped it into the drilled 12A fitting. I then welded the MG line to the 12A fitting because I was concerned that it may leak otherwise. I shortened the plastic clutch line and heated up the new fitting with a Propane torch. I then inserted the barbed end of the steel MG line fitting back into the plastic line. It needed some cleanup inside the line, but when I hooked it to the original MG master cylinder (filled and purged of course), it worked. It seems to be fully disengaging the clutch and no leaks so far. We'll have to see if it works as well as it appears once it's running though.
a picture of the MG clutch master cylinder hooked to the Mazda clutch slave cylinder.
clutch master by
Kevin Frank, on Flickr
and a picture of the Mazda clutch slave with the modified fitting.
clutch slave by
Kevin Frank, on Flickr
It's definitely not pretty, but I was not expecting this to work. I thought it was worth a try while I was waiting for parts is all.