When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Awesome thread so far, will be checking in on the status.
Originally Posted by TeamRX8
I bought a 4” x 30” long bolt-in insert from Spiral Turbo Baffles and then had a light gauge T321 shell & transitions made for my 3” race exhaust, but their website is now operating as dynamicexhaustsystems.com. I think it’s his son or son in law that’s doing them now. They offer pretty much 2”, 2.5”, 3”, 3.5”, and 4” in standard lengths or whatever length you may want.
Curious why you don't use a resonating pipe to cancel out the frequency? Or is it due to racing restrictions?
We have to meet a sound restriction limit. They measure and enforce it at every event now. It’s just a larger, longer version of the BHR/Moroso resonator. The exhaust is completely open otherwise. No other mufflers, cat, etc. I have a pair of same for the dual 2.5” tailpipes. At this point I’m not sure if I need to run just the big one, or with the two smallest ones, or just the smaller ones only. I have to run and test it all out first. Pretty sure it won’t pass just being wide open.
Just dumping some photos of some progress. Battery is relocated to trunk, fuel lines (supply and return) and fuel filter are installed, Fuel assembly is modified to hold the Walbro 450 and Radium venturi. Ended up, after plenty of discussion on multiple fronts, going with an Exedy Hyper Series twin disc clutch (rated to 511 ft lbs). Picked up a Mishimoto M-Line intercooler (23.5" x 11.75 x 3") core. Will be modifying the crash bar to accommodate fitment of this. Mocked it up with the stock crash bar and my Mazdaspeed bumper, fits perfectly fine apart from needing to move a few inches upward. Just waiting on my engine builder now, anticipating having the engine by the end of Feb. Plan is to have everything installed and hopefully have engine broken-in for my first show of 2020 in early May.
Crash bar has been modified to fit my much larger intercooler. Should have the built REW in my hands this Sunday. Been at a stand still for the past month waiting on it.
Also got those nasty bent fins cleaned up on both oil coolers.
Before:
After:
Last edited by RotaryMachineRx; Mar 23, 2020 at 10:45 AM.
Jesse - Good to see progress and hear of the update. Be ware...w/ a larger IC that it doesn't hang too low and obstruct air flow to your rad. elevating your ECTs.
Do you have to run the black piece at the top of the center grill opening? Pretty sure that’s only there to hide the bottom of the bumper support, which now with your mod there (looks great btw) it instead is now blocking flow to the top of intercooler. Or at least I thought it was optional and not integral. Never had a MS bumper cover though so maybe I’m wrong.
Jesse - Good to see progress and hear of the update. Be ware...w/ a larger IC that it doesn't hang too low and obstruct air flow to your rad. elevating your ECTs.
Originally Posted by TeamRX8
Do you have to run the black piece at the top of the center grill opening? Pretty sure that’s only there to hide the bottom of the bumper support, which now with your mod there (looks great btw) it instead is now blocking flow to the top of intercooler. Or at least I thought it was optional and not integral. Never had a MS bumper cover though so maybe I’m wrong.
.
Thanks for the input guys!
Yeah there is only a slight bit of room between bottom of intercooler and the undertray (hard to tell in the photos because of the angle of the camera but probably about an inch between undertray and bottom of IC). Definitely less room than the Greddy intercooler though but even with the greddy, the bottom space below IC was blocked by the thicker bottom part of the MS bumper anyways. Also I noticed that he new IC seems less dense than the Greddy intercooler (when looking dead on I can actually see through the IC where I couldn't do this with my greddy one. After seeing this my hopes are that this IC will allow more airflow directly through it and into the radiator.
Team, thanks yeah I'm real happy with the turnout, yes I'll have to double check on that black piece, I can't remember what it looks like behind there and how the mesh is attached to the bumper behind it. Always knew the top of the intercooler would sit above that insert, personally I like the look of the insert so unless I'm having cooling issues I think I'll lean towards keeping it in place.
Other things I'm taking into consideration about cooling and the exact same concerns I thought about as JCB and Team above:
The REW just runs cooler than the Renesis does. Look at any FMIC setup on an FD and you can see that the IC completely fills up the front bumper. I've been chatting with an FD owner with one of these set-ups and with his stock FD cooling system (with only single oil cooler as well) and single turbo conversion with FMIC his coolant temps are still cooler than the boosted Renesis temps I was seeing. He is in Arizona and I'm in Canada so big difference in weather/climate too along with my assumption that my Rx8 cooling system is more efficient/larger cooling capacity than the FD's. So I'll be running with the stock cooling system for now, and once I start boosting I'll evaluate if a more efficient Rad with some better fans will be necessary.
Secondly, because I'm using the larger 9174 turbo, yes I'll be sacrificing some spoolup, but I will be able to achieve the same peak power as say an 8374 but with less boost. This turbo should just run cooler/produce cooler charge temps and I'm planning to run low boost around 10-12 psi and high boost around 15-16psi. So I'm anticipating that even with this set-up my coolant temps are going to fall into an acceptable range; and if necessary I can look into some of these "contingency" plans.
Now that I have the engine, it has been mocked up, and all components test fitted. Had to do a small bit of trimming on the compressor housing band to clear the LIM (trimmed about 1/8" off of the band near the LIM front corner). Engine is now sitting nicely in the bay with the Banzai mounting kit. Harness has been modified to remove all unused components, now just need to run a 12V wire for the FFE Hall effect sensor/trigger wheel kit. Things are moving along nicely!
PS don't mind the shitty black paint on the UIM, one of the cans of paint we had was labelled wrong and was a textured finish (can see the difference between UIM and LIM). Has already been sanded and repainted just don't have a photo of it yet.
As much as I'd like to take credit for it, the work was already done for me. The REW just has a lot more room in that area compared to the MSP and a very simple, beautifully done custom turbo manifold shown in Post #27. My engine builder got them made and found out that he can make them work on the FD chassis too, so they are his go to manifold. 3" charge piping is going to be tight but should be able to squeeze it for a true 3" intake system all the way through TB.
As much as I'd like to take credit for it, the work was already done for me. The REW just has a lot more room in that area compared to the MSP and a very simple, beautifully done custom turbo manifold shown in Post #27. My engine builder got them made and found out that he can make them work on the FD chassis too, so they are his go to manifold. 3" charge piping is going to be tight but should be able to squeeze it for a true 3" intake system all the way through TB.
Most of the rew swaps I've seen to date have the turbo further forward and up ...so that's a new one to me ! Awesome !
Now that I have the engine, it has been mocked up, and all components test fitted. Had to do a small bit of trimming on the compressor housing band to clear the LIM (trimmed about 1/8" off of the band near the LIM front corner). Engine is now sitting nicely in the bay with the Banzai mounting kit. Harness has been modified to remove all unused components, now just need to run a 12V wire for the FFE Hall effect sensor/trigger wheel kit. Things are moving along nicely!
PS don't mind the shitty black paint on the UIM, one of the cans of paint we had was labelled wrong and was a textured finish (can see the difference between UIM and LIM). Has already been sanded and repainted just don't have a photo of it yet.
what did you remove from the harness? What LIM are you using?
Most of the rew swaps I've seen to date have the turbo further forward and up ...so that's a new one to me ! Awesome !
Yeah for sure, I've actually never seen a low mount swapped Rx8 either. There was a minor interference (very minor) between the turbo and LIM (see photo below; I'll try to remember to get a pic of the modified compressor band). We slotted the manifold to block bolt holes about an 1/8" just to slide the turbo forward a little bit too. I was lucky to stumble across this custom manifold and it definitely made me feel more comfortable in regards to spool-up with the 9174 over the 8374; most people said the 8374 was better sized turbo for my power goals. I don't disagree with them but I've already mentioned in previous posts the advantages I was seeking with the 9174.
Originally Posted by BARNETT89
what did you remove from the harness? What LIM are you using?
It is just the stock LIM that we have modified to allow for a bit more clearance against the firewall so we didn't have to hammer it out as much. The Excessive LIM (and maybe the Elite LIM too) would have fit better and without any mods required, but I didn't want to cough up another $1,000USD on top of this build. Spent that contingency on the Exedy twin disc clutch!
I don't recall the exact unused terminals but there are a bunch (electrical is not my forte). They don't need to be removed by any means (the can just sit in the bay unplugged) but for the sake of cleanliness we got rid of them. Also because I decided to go with a Hall Effect sensor rather than the rx8 mag sensor we needed to run a 12V supply to the sensor and decided to put it into the modified harness. Also, not sure if anyone noticed it in the photos, but I wanted to keep the factory OMP (I know its not required but I wanted to keep it along with premixing; same thing I did with the Renesis). It's different than the Rx8 OMP so that required some re-wiring to get it to work with the Adaptronic PNP.
Sorry I can't be more specific on the electrical stuff; I have the services of a friend with more than one engine swap under his belt (LSX FRS, RB26 FD Rx7) to do most of the heavy lifting since I didn't feel like I'd be able to pull this off on my own. Up until this swap I've done all the work to this car myself; but I must say it is worth every cent having this friend on my team; he's doing all of the fab and electrical work too which I would have been completely hopeless on. It allows the car to sit in one spot for the entire winter (in his personal home garage) until it is complete and in the end this project will help promote his newly formed garage/business at a bunch of shows this summer (fingers crossed they don't all get cancelled).
Last edited by RotaryMachineRx; Mar 23, 2020 at 10:31 AM.
You know that exhaust manifold just may work with a renesis front cover. I think the thermostat housing may be modified and the thermostat relocated but the omp may have room. What are your impressions? How much room did you have to work with in the omp area? Do you know the distance/numbers off the top of your head?
Also I’m under the impression that the excessive kit does shift the lower intake forwards a little. So I wonder if more clearance would be required to make the turbo fit.
Last edited by Warrior777; Mar 24, 2020 at 09:50 AM.
