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I have never touched the regulator in the front cover. I did take the rear regulator off, but installed it. I will pull the pan and check everything. How often do the regulators fail, broken spring, etc???
The only failure I have ever seen was on my car... when we built the engine we used an adjustable regulator and when they built the engine they forgot to locktite the cap on it... and forgot to tighten it properly. And I didn't check... after inran it for a couple of hours the cap blew off and my pressure went to zero... engine shut off from the fail safe
I thought it was the sensor ... but like you when I swapped the fuel and oil sensors it reacted normally
I dont think the rear can fail open. The end is crimped closed so it would be almost impossible
It's possible the cap came off the front cover relief valve
I dont think that you would have 0 pressure even if the thermal pellet wasn't in.
Not sure how you could get pressure in the turbo line though.... that points me back to the gauge probkem
Not only do I have pressure on the turbo, but the factory oil pressure dummy gauge says I have pressure. But I have done everything to prove that the Prosport oil pressure gauge isn't working, but everything confirms that it is.... Gonna try and oil filter, then pulling pan to check pickup and regulators. Thanks for the help....
The oil pickup was bolted down normal with o-ring and nothing plugging the screen. Both regulators appeared to be working normally.
Everything points to a bad gauge, but I have tried multiple senders and tried reading on both fuel pressure and oil pressure gauge. Fuel pressure is reading correctly and I am able to get a reading blowing air into the sender. Car always had great oil pressure and verified normal before rebuild. I didn't change the bearings and almost every other component was installed normally. I'm 99% sure the thermal pellet was installed correctly.....
Confirmed that there was no restriction upstream of oil pressure sender.
I put some oil dye in the system and verified it was moving around when I drained the pan.
I can't fit a mechanical gauge down at the threads due to the location of the oil pedestal mount.
I guess I will buy a simple mechanical gauge with remote sensor and see where that gets me.
Another little update. Took the car last night with the duty cycle up and ready to feel what 28 psi is like . The first time the boost hit I blew off an intercooler pipe at high speed. Even though the intercooler is mounted in the rear to the condenser mount and the other charge pipe was still on, the force of the air on the driver side pushed the intercooler down to kiss the pavement. Intercooler is a little banged up but appears to be okay.
So today I fabbed up another mounts of 3/8" round steel. I first started my stacking wood blocks under the intercooler to make it all as level as possible. I connected a piece of 3/8" round to the intercooler with some fuel line mounts (gotta use what you have). I then fabbed up arms that came down from the outside of the front crash beam to the horizontal round. Made all the cuts, tack welded it all, pulled the crash beam off and did all the final welds and grinding. Hit it with a quick coat of black paint and done. For about $10 in supplies I made the intercooler mount way more solid and now have 6 total mount points now. Probably should have done it a long time ago. Will also be less stress on the charge pipes. Final measurements - the bottom of the intercooler is about 6.5-6.75 inches from ground, was previously 5-5.5".
Also, my MTs are down to about 20-30% tread. I hate that I can't corner with these balloons on. Looking for some street tires for my stock wheels.
Looking at the Toyo R888R 245/40/18, does anyone know of any stickier "street" tires???????? Any idea what kind of horsepower these may hold? Anyone have any experience with them on a 8?
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I will be getting my car back soon and will be running the Toyo R888R on my 8. Probably not too comparable though as I they are 295x35x18 and 275x35x18. And its a NA renny so power levels will be nothing. But As for a sticky semi-affordable street tire they already seem pretty damn tacky. Can let you know before long.
Also if you end up buying a new turbo pm me a price, maybe interested in the s362sxe
Well good news. I tried resetting the oil pressure sender in the t-fitting on Sunday and still no oil pressure. I have racked my brain for the past few days and decided that the fitting had to be the problem (thanks Brettus). I installed the fitting a third time only going about 3 of the 7 or so threads in and now it says I have oil pressure. I have had that sensor all the way down to the nub and it worked fine for the past 4 years. Maybe some thread sealer got in there somehow.
Oil pressure was normal, so it looks like I always had oil pressure. Ran the car for about 15 minutes. Made 10 inches of Hg at 1,800 RPMs, seems like it would idle fine here for now. Makes sense because I extended the relief port on the secondary about 20mm towards the exhaust port and also widened about 1-2 mm. Notched the rotor housings as well. Engine is also breaking in. Car is not ready to idle yet at 1,500 RPMs, I will likely switch to my 2,000 RPM throttle body (bigger hole in butterfly) while the motor breaks in. Had to lean it out a bunch in the 0 to 7 inches of HG part of the table from 0-2200 RPMs.
Excited to get back at it and see how the porting changes the power delivery......
I also talked with the techs at SPEC clutch and talked about my issues with the clutch grabbing hard at the track (very little slippage). They suggested that I could change the clutch disc between the intermediate plate and the flywheel with one of their high performance 7.25" organic discs. They had never tried it on my specific clutch, but said that people have tried it on other clutches with great success. They sold me a new disc for $109 and I put it on before installing the motor. Hopefully this clutch combination will help give me a bit more control at the track.
3rd 15 minutes idling session completed this evening. Car is already starting easier, idling easier, and pulling 10-11 mm HG at 1,700-1,800 RPMs (on less agressive BP, I was pulling 12-14 mm HG at 1,500 RPMs). Still won't idle at 1,500. Damn oil pressure sensor is leaking because its not screwed all the way into the T-fitting. So I tightened it up, the leak stopped, and now reading 0 pressure again.... I will have to figure out a solution for this damn fitting. Car was running a bit hot, added about 6-8 oz more fluid and its running normal. No leaks anywhere. Clutch feels great just moving around the driveway, less chattery if that's a word. Sounds good at idle.
interesting to see how far you come with this, I might be concerned about the organic disc potentially slipping maybe under that kind of loading, but I suppose there's only one way to find out.
We shall see on the disc. Its been a lot of trial and error on my end since I haven't been able to follow someone else's build.
The single 6 puck ceramic disc could not hold at the track. Never had a problem on the street, but one hard launch killed it and it got worse from there.
The twin disc sintered iron clutch drove fine on the street, and held all the power, but at the track I couldn't manipulate it enough to get any smooth launch with RPMs.
The rx8 is just about the worse drag car imaginable. You have almost no torque so you have to launch with RPMs or its bog city. Almost all single disc clutches available have very low torque ratings because they don't expect that anyone is pushing any power. Now you are stuck with a multi plate clutches that nobody has experience with. Exedy has a triple rated for 750 lb/tq but is crazy expensive. I am confident that with the right arrangement of discs (and disc materials) that I will be able to find the perfect balance.
On a side note my Supra's 23 year old factory clutch is beginning to slip and I have to put a new one on that. South Bend makes a Stage 3 Endurance setup that is good for 750 lb/tq which is reportedly as smooth as stock all for about $700.
Drove the car a few miles yesterday. I'm having to pull a ton of fuel out of the map at idle and low loads. Not sure if that strictly because I have shifted the idle/low load parameters closer to STP (less vacuum from the bridge) or is it because the high overlap is causing so much pollution from the exhaust stream that less fuel is required (EGR valve on steroids)... Either way the car is running well from idle to 4,000 RPMs on light loads. Clutch is so much smoother, but hopefully not so smooth that it will push right through the flywheel. Going to break the clutch and motor in slowly over the next 500 miles then I will start getting after it. After driving the car for 15 minutes yesterday, I was able to restart the car twice with only 2 seconds of cranking. Idle seems to come up a bit on its own. Pulling about 10-11 inches of Hg at 1,750-1,800 RPMs . Idle timing is around 16-20, A/F is around 12.5-13.5. Still oil pressure sensor issues I have to solve, but i'm not worried about it now.
Last edited by strokercharged95gt; 05-10-2019 at 06:56 AM.
I have put about 50 miles on my car since the rebuild. Still making some small changes to the map, but the tune is 90% of the way there. I have duty cycle at 0 to keep the boost down so the wastegate cracks at 8 psi and fully opens at 10-11 psi. I am so tired of the open wastegate sound so I crudely took the dump and moved it back into the exhaust. I now have both exhaust streams go through 3 resonators and 1 muffler.... I of course I only had shielding gas for aluminum so I had to use flux cored wired to weld this beauty up. Welds are ugly but sufficient. Took the car out and when the wastegate opened I heard no audible noise change. Its so quiet now. I can now hit boost without the world knowing about it.
The exhaust stream is now 3" down-pipe and 2" wastegate pipe each have their own resonator for the first half of the exhaust system. About 5-6 feet back from the turbo both collect into one 2.75-3" exhaust system, go through 2 more resonators, and finally back through the 3" HKS hi-power. While the exhaust is on the small side, for the first 5 or 6 feet after the turbo I have 10.2 square inches of exhaust (1-2" and 1 3"), which is a bit more area than a single 3.5" diameter pipe (9.61 square inches). I would really like to do a full 3.5-inch exhaust, but i'll wait for that if I get a new turbo.
Last edited by strokercharged95gt; 05-19-2019 at 07:06 AM.
Did a compression test this morning, still getting 100 psi on the rear, low 90s on the front. When I had the motor apart I really looked at the front housing with a straightedge and found that I had a low spot in the housing right in the compression area that was about 10mm long, which likely explains why compression is always lower on that side. If the apex seals can wear down enough of the high side material, someday the compression may come up. Anyways.
Passed a 100 miles of break-in so I have been starting to doing some wastegate spring only pulls on 93 octane (pickling system). A bit lean (12-12.7) on the pull, but I have added about 5% fuel above 5,700 RPMs.. Car is so quiet now with the recirculated waste gate.
Car feels like a pig at 10-13 psi, delta rate through 3rd gear was 7.43 mph/S. A long way from the 11.68 mph/S acceleration at 22-24 psi. Car feels like its down about 200 horsepower.
Fits right in this excel table of boost vs acceleration that I made back in 2018 (93 octane fuel). With higher timing and high ethanol content I was able to bump those numbers up a bit.
The good news is that with 25% ethanol content, 12 psi, and 7,500 RPMs, my overall injector duty cycle was at 50% (Using 1,825 cc/min of 3,650 cc/min capacity, per rotor)
Subsequent pull with more fuel and everything is looking real good. A/F averaging around 11.6:1, which is pretty safe for only 11-12 psi. Knock values down with a bit more fuel. Smooth pull. Ambient temp was about 95F. I'm not sure if the meth/water is even on yet as the system activates at 11 psi and is fully in by 27 psi. Even with the added fuel my injector duty cycle is still in the low 50s. At 7,800 RPMs P1 (1000 cc/min) injector maxed, secondary (1,650 cc/min) is at 57%, and the P2 third stage (1000 cc/min) isn't on. Now that I got the 11-13 psi locked down, I will move up to the higher boost pressure row.
Next stop will be moving up to the 15-16 psi tune to populate the VE table for that boost pressure. VE Table is surprisingly shifted around since I did that additional porting on the bridge/secondaries. Tuning will be more difficult now as I will have to account for the additional methanol that will be injected, may have to lean it out. Idle, part throttle, and 0-13 psi high load seems to be pretty dialed in (i.e. idle at 13.5, part throttle at 13-14, and WOT 11.5). The bridge port likes a lot more idle timing and part throttle timing than the previous iterations of the motor. It seems like the high overlap bridge loves the fuel above 6,000 (see below).
Here is a fuel map I was using of my previous less aggressive bridge port (see below). The old partial bridgeport took a ton of fuel from 5,400-6,900. Without more data and not being an expert on this, it appears the more aggressive porting has shifted the power band up a good deal based on where the motor likes to eat fuel??? Interesting nonetheless.... I hope I haven't shift the power to far up as I would feel uneasy about taking the motor above 8,200 as this is a junkyard motor with junkyard parts....
Last edited by strokercharged95gt; 05-26-2019 at 07:49 AM.
Fortunate to have stumbled upon this now. I’m about to pay considerable money to have RotaryPowerUSA swap in this motor and you will be a huge resource for me once I have it and of course will have to make adjustments as times goes on. I am new to the scene and hope to learn as I go because one day there won’t be any more rotary shops. By the way you said you street it, do you have to pass emissions where you’re at?
-Thanks , Jake
No emissions in Florida and you can register pretty much anything. In 20 years, I have never been pulled over for a loud exhaust or anything emissions related. In the same time, I have been asked twice by police to "get on it a bit" while both being stopped together at a red light. I obliged.... This car would in no way pass emissions (allegedly).
Last edited by strokercharged95gt; 06-07-2019 at 06:58 AM.
200 miles since the rebuild
Ambient temps 86 and humid
Duty cycle up to 40, which is about 15-16 psi. Boost drops below 14 near redline
Hitting 12 psi by 4,000 RPMs
30-100 mph pull (street dyno)
A/F 10.8-12.0 (averaging 11.4:1)
25% ethanol (I see 15% in 93 octane at our pumps, the other is residual)
Still only 77% on the 2nd stage of injection, about 1,400 cc/min of injector left on each rotor
Leading timing 10 at tip in, 18 near redline (somewhat conservative)
No knock values except backfire on decel
Acceleration through 3rd gear is 8.05 MPH/S or 3.73 seconds from 70-100 mph
Its a long way from the nearly 12 MPH/S recorded with 50 degree ambient temps, 60% ethanol, and 26-28 psi, but its coming around
Will try 45% duty cycle next and see where that gets me
Last edited by strokercharged95gt; 06-08-2019 at 07:59 AM.
Ambient temps 82 and humid Duty cycle up to 45, which is about 17-18 psi. Boost drops to about 15.5 psi near redline Hitting 13 psi by 4,000 RPMs 2nd and 3rd gear pull A/F 10.8-12.3 32% ethanol (added a gallon to the tank) Just about maxed out the first and second stage, have the last 1000 cc/min left. Leading timing 13 at tip in, 17 near redline Saw two instances of knock during these runs, you can see the knock at the top of 2nd gear (6500-8000) on the graph. It wasn't audible, but I could feel the car lay over just a bit in those areas....
I pulled 1.5 degree from 6,000-8,000 to see if it will go away. I really shouldn't be seeing any knock at that timing, A/F in the low 11s, and on E30. I may try and change my plugs as well. Acceleration through 3rd gear is 8.68 MPH/S or 3.46 seconds from 70-100 mph
Last edited by strokercharged95gt; 06-09-2019 at 09:32 AM.
Ambient temps in the 80s Duty cycle up to 48, which is about 17-20 psi. Boost doesn't seem to drop much at redline Hitting 11 psi by 4,000 RPMs, 18 psi by 4600 RPMs 30-100 mph pull (street dyno) A/F Averaging ~12:1, have now added 2-4% fuel in the 19 psi row 35% ethanol at 8,000 RPMs, 1st (1000) and 2nd stage (1650) of injection maxed, 20% into the 3rd stage (1000). 800cc/min left on each rotor. Leading timing 17 at tip in, 13 near redline No knock values except backfire on decel Acceleration through 3rd gear is 9.01 MPH/S or 3.33 seconds from 70-100 mph. Just of note, when I ran a 97 mph 1/8th I was doing 10.35 MPH/S through 3rd gear (20-23 psi, 50-60 ambient temps)
On a subsequent pull I had what I believe was a misfire or spark blowout, found that my trailing rear coil is shot, another D585 dead...
Will change the coil and plugs before pushing it again.
Last edited by strokercharged95gt; 06-21-2019 at 08:12 PM.
Of all the different brand D585 coils I have tried, the 2 BWD brand coils I bought over a year ago still haven't failed. Everything other brand has including authentic ACDelco's. 2 New BWD coils from Advance auto with a coupon is $75. I will just go with those and swap under warranty as they die. Not really looking to spend a whole bunch on the rx8 as I just spent a bit on the Supra putting in a new kevlar clutch, DMF, new seals for the V160, and other miscellaneous bits.
I've had my 585s (Ebay seconds) for a bout 8 years and 100,000 kms now and they are still strong . I have seen heaps of people get out of the box duds but it seems to me that once you get 4 good ones they last a long time !
Same here, just tossed out the eBay set that lasted forever without a single failure, but that was running NA. Have heard of a lot of D585 failures over the years. Switching over to the Mercury/IGN-1A coils going forward.
Here's the thing .............. you can get a 'dud' and run it in an N/A without noticing anything is wrong . Even in a turbo they will be fine .... till you start pushing the boost . That's when a dud will become obvious . This is why they should ALL be tested according to your thread ...whether they seem fine or not.
Oh I’ve had duds, just not the eBay version, and they are noticeable once you know and understand what to look for. Not always just a go vs. no-go dud either. See my DYI for troubleshooting smart coils posted back in 2011.
04-27-2019, 10:50 AM
. The first time the boost hit I blew off an intercooler pipe 
at high speed. Even though the intercooler is mounted in the rear to the condenser mount and the other charge pipe was still on, the force of the air on the driver side pushed the intercooler down to kiss the pavement. Intercooler is a little banged up but appears to be okay.
