McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

Small update:

1. Buy a new clutch switch when you do this. I used the old one and just pulled the plunger out by hand to readjust. Wrong answer (though it works for the brake switch). Cold starts it doesn't make a connection.

2. Don't be a moron (like me) and try to cut the auto trans cooler lines at the radiator. For the past few days I've been pulling my hair about the 2 little red drips left on the pavement wherever I park. Looks like ATF, smells like ATF, tastes like ATF yet I have no AT. It's coming from the AT cooler lines where they meet at the radiator where this idiot (me), in his (my) quest to delete all evidence of an auto trans, decided to cut the hard lines. Stupid. Get a proper M/T radiator, or leave the lines in place.

3. Do yourself a favor and install either the N3H1-A, N3Z1 or N3R3 starter when you do this. Ever since I had the transplant completed I'd been running off the original N3H1 starter. It started consistently but cranking, cold or hot, took about 1 - 1.5 seconds... or about double that of a piston engine'd car. I figured that was normal.
On a whim last week I bought a used N3H1-A on ebay for $60 and it's literally the best thing I've done to this car since the conversion.

I know it's been beaten to death, but the absolute best upgrade you can do to this car is the uprated starter, even if you don't think you're having a starting problem with your original starter.

Ricky SE3P

iTrader: (10)

still no limp modes? sounds great thus far

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

No limp modes. Just that blasted CEL still. Decided to buy the starter before the AP. Glad I did. If I sell more stuff on the classified thread I'll buy the AP. Better to play with the house's money, you know?

McKennaR

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Just spent the past week at Fort Carson doing the M1A2 thing with a friend of mine, so no significant updates. Except that 77 tons + 1500hp + 120mm = colossal win.

On the car front:
Slowly chipping away at the stack of parts in the garage. Need to sell about $200 more before the wife lets me (ha ha) get an AP.

No limp mode, still starts and runs great. Drive it every day. Put more than 20 drive cycles and 200+ miles on it since the last time I pulled the battery and the only DTC I have is the one for the TCM. Everything else is good to go. Idle is smoother now, which I didn't even think was possible.

Even took the wife out to continue her instruction on the art of driving a M/T car... 30+ jackrabbit starts, more stalls than I can count, probably shaved a few kg of metal from 2nd and reverse, but the car just sits there and takes it.

If anything of significance happens between now and when I get the AP I'll post it here.

Ricky SE3P

iTrader: (10)

lmfao thanks for instilling the confidence of the beating your car was taking while instructing her, with all that noted i highly doubt now that limp mode would be triggered (as long as omeone follows you by putting a 4 port MT engine harness..) not sure if it will work the same with the 6 port MT harness... one would assume yes it would work just fine but until tested, who knows..

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

She killed the clutch in my former Audi trying to learn ($900), took probably 5 years of life off of my Subaru's transmission and brand new clutch (reverse now pops itself out and sounds like its missing a tooth).

In the RX8 however, she dumped the clutch a few times to the point that it would bounce back and forth between tire spinning axle hop to near-stalling, then back to tire spin as she tried to figure out what to do. Then she'd panic and just slam on the brakes to the point of ABS engagement, followed by a fairly violent stall. The car didn't seem to care. And neither did she. She'd just take it out of gear, foot on clutch, start it up, and do it all over again.

Once she finally got it rolling enough to warrant a gear change to 2nd, she'd put her foot down, take it out of 1st, take her foot off of the clutch, and jam it into 2nd clutch-free. No matter how many times I tried to drill it into her head that she needed her foot on the clutch whenever she was touching the gear shift, the wiring in her brain just didn't want to connect it. Whatever.

I've taught a dozen people how to drive stick and she is the hardest nut to crack. I've tried everything, from zero throttle, slooooooooow clutch pedal release so she can get a feel for it (she never does), to the hold the throttle at 3k and let the clutch out slow etc.

We've been trying for 3 years and 3 different cars, and I'm pretty much out of ideas. I even did to her what my Dad did to me to get me to learn... I took her to a parking lot 3 miles from the house, handed her the keys and hopped on a bus home, leaving her only option as driving the car home. I got to the house and she was already there. She took a cab, and I slept on the couch.

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

FWIW here are the Short/Long term fuel trims I took today.

Conditions:
Temp: 30f
Alt: 1380 MSL
Baro. Press: unk
ECT: 181f - 204f
Fuel: 91 octane
Premix: none

Modifications:
Gutted stock cat

Idle:
RPM 810-817
STFT: -0.8
LTFT: 4.5

Cruising 5th:
RPM 2200 - 2365
ECT: 168f
STFT: 0.0
LTFT: 5.5
Load %: 12.9
Spark adv: -5

WOT 3rd:
RPM: 3759 - 6739
ECT: 170 - 173
STFT: -2.3 - 0.0
LTFT: 0.8
Load%: 19.7 - 100
Spark adv: 18.0 - 25.5

I noticed that the instant I went WOT, while engine load was still coming up to 100%, advance went as high as 34.9 @ 3800 rpm, before backing back down to 19.0 by 3973, then steadily climbing until I lifted, where it again spiked to 34, before dropping to -5 at 0% throttle and 4.3% engine load.

Again, I really wish I had AFR's on here, but so far so good.

On an amusing note, on corner exit I caught rubber (on both tires) all the way through 2nd even with 245's on the back. Scared the hell out of me, definitely not what I expected given the Honda-esque torque numbers of these cars. I attribute this to the road surface being below 30* f vs. this car actually having power... coming from a 306 AWHP Legacy GT to this leaves me wanting a lot more in the thrust department, but braking and cornering make up for it somewhat.

ShellDude

iTrader: (12)

I just made an offer for this: Used JDM Mazda RX8 13B 6 Port Engine 6 Speed Manual Transmission 2004 2008 20B | eBay

Considerably lower than what he's asking... suspect he'll pass.

I'm thinking the only other mandatory item I need is the clutch kit.

ShellDude

iTrader: (12)

just dropped $100 for the clutch kit. I just might have this done before the end of summer.

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

Sweeeeeeeeeet. Good luck! $2500 is pretty stinkin cheap with free shipping though, he's probably not going to bite. Maybe he'll counter.

Cheers,

Ryan

PS I'm updating the STFT/LTFT stuff in my last post to reflect WOT in 3rd numbers, give me 5 minutes.

ShellDude

iTrader: (12)

Yeah, he just countered dropping $20 off the top. Oh so tempting. I think I'll sleep on it. I also found an MT steering wheel for $45 but it had nasty gunk built up around it. I'll likely just do as you and remove the bottom paddles.

I'm not all that worried about my instrument cluster. I think I can live with the false red line. I've got everything I need to adjust the actual red line and am pretty sure I can run the APV directly off my Adaptronic.

ShellDude

iTrader: (12)

Your fuel trims look real good.

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

A/T wheels and M/T wheels are the exact same "rim" and horn ring. Just swap the radio / cruise / horn ring and back cover from the M/T wheel to your A/T wheel and presto, no more paddles.

That's what I did. Bought a chewed up M/T wheel from a member on here for about what you found, pulled the radio and cruise controls from it, as well as the horn ring because there's a wire that's spot welded on for the horn I think, and everything dropped into my former A/T wheel no problem-o.

Even though I only drove the car a few times, the "down" buttons were driving me insane... haha. I was going to cut them off but realized the PCB for the radio / cruise controls extends up into the down buttons on the A/T wheel.

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

Phew, I didn't really have a "zero" to work off of, glad those are OK numbers.

Thanks for that.

ShellDude

iTrader: (12)

Well now, that $45 steering wheel just became relevant. Thanks for that!

ShellDude

iTrader: (12)

LOL, I just noticed the steering wheel is from Rotary Resurrection!

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

No prob, you'll need a Torx bit to get the horn ring off, a T30 iirc. You could jam an allen key in there, or perhaps a flat blade screwdriver, but due to my Swedish car obsession, I have all manner of torx bits floating around the garage.

The Swedes love their torx for whatever reason...

The steering wheel itself comes off without a puller, so aside from the torx, there aren't any special tools needed to do the swap.

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

Ha ha awesome. May as well support the cause then, eh?

ShellDude

iTrader: (12)

yup, I bought it. Steering wheel itself is low on the priority list... good to have it out of the way though.

Man, this engine and transmission being available is oh so tempting. Must enforce 24 hour rule for purchases over $1000.

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

I tried that once, lasted until I cracked open the evening's first bottle of gin. One thing led to another, and 4 weeks later, there was an engine and transmission sitting on a pallet in my driveway.

That's a great deal, don't get me wrong, but I always assume that any engine I buy that I don't personally know the history of is pretty much on borrowed time until its next rebuild.

Ponder this:
If you pay $2500 for it, then in a year you need a rebuild that costs ~$2000 once round-trip shipping to RR and incidentals are taken care of, was it really that great of a deal?

If I depended on the car as a daily driver, I'd pick one up for $500 blown, send it to RR to rebuild it, and while that's happening look for a 6 spd gearbox on the interwebs or locally. You might be able to get out of it for the same price ($2500), but you'll have a known-good engine that you won't have to worry about for a good bit of time.

Basically: do as I say, not as I did... ha ha.

ShellDude

iTrader: (12)

6MT transmissions are a mere $500 ... I'll be sure to reach out to RR and a couple others. That is some really good advice.

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

There's one locally for $200 w/48k miles on it. Guy's selling the gearbox, engine wiring harness, PCM and N3Z1 starter for $400 - 450. Could probably talk him down though, he's been trying to offload this stuff for over a month.

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

Waaaaaay too long since my last worthless ramble update.

New bumper on & RB REVi installed.

New bumper came with a bonus... JDM/EUDM rear fog. And some seriously faded exhaust surrounds. ha ha.

On the Rear Fog:
Anyone know what kind of connector will plug into the factory rear fog socket? I tried all of the connectors on the rear harness and nothing even came close. I'll probably spend the remainder of this bottle of gin searching the forum. If I find one, I'll update this post.

What I'm looking to do is wire it into the brake lights seeing as how the bulb / socket is only set up for single filament. I've already run the wiring and made it hot each time the brake is hit, now all I need to do is figure out where the deuce to find a connector that will plug into this socket.

Notes on the REVi:
Butt dyno thinks its faster because it's louder. The reality is that it's probably slower, but whatever, it sounds rockin'.

I am getting some crazy idle flutter and fairly long crank times (hot and cold). STFT still -0.8 @ idle.
EDIT:This is because I forgot to reconnect all of the vac lines to the accordion tube. LESSON: Don't mix alcohol/stupidity with bolt-ons.

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

Update. Pic 1 + Pic 2 = Pic 3.

DTC for no TCM is now a thing of the past. The code doesn't even show as pending when I run a traditional code reader.

So for everyone doing specifically this (4 port A/T to 4 port M/T) who wants to keep their A/T PCM, plan on buying an AP... and don't plan on having a working cruise control. heh.

McKennaR

iTrader: (1)

I... uh... also bumped the redline up to 8000, and changed the "shift" beep from 7000 to 7500. According to logs, the car hits 66mph in 2nd gear at 8000 rpm.

This is addicting. I have a feeling I'm going to need a(nother) new engine soon. hah.