we have that pesky emissions test thing here though ...

 

This weekend I tried a 1,000 cc/min nozzle in the upstream location and kept a 500 cc/min nozzle in the downstream (UIM) location and did some pulls in hot humid weather.

It seemed that it was just a bit too much water (~500 cc/min) as the car seemed it a bit lazier to get up on boost and power was down about 5% based on the logs. IATs were about the same even though I was spraying about 1000 cc/min of meth. The bigger nozzle also does a shitty job atomizing the mixture... This may work in dryer weather, but the combo of 80% humidity and a lot of water just was too much for the motor to take.....

Upped the duty cycle by 2% but boost remained the same (22-23 psi). Will up it a bit more.

Swapped back to the two 500 cc/min nozzles and will likely just leave it like that. Found a weeping oil leak on the turbo feed line at the fitting. Was causing a bit of oil to hit the turbo blanket and cause smoke. Tried to tighten the aluminum fitting a bit and I broke it. Waiting on a new fitting.

Even with the car down on power, I was able to manage a 15.2 MPH/S acceleration through 2nd gear (40-70 MPH). Third gear was down to a dismal 10.2 MPH/S (70-100 mph) which I believe was just too much water.... Should have been up somewhere between 10.5-11.....

Next up I will fix the oil feed fitting, up the duty cycle to 46 from 6,000-8,000 (hoping for 24-25 psi) and see what it does.

 

Good work, Stroker!

Yeah, I've a oil leak in the same spot, and am planning to weld the -10 bung on and hopefully resolve it permanently.

 

If its not one thing its something else. This car definitely provides endless hours of fixing/wrenching/repair.

There is a event on the track this Saturday night, the last few have been rained out. I plan on going there if the weather holds off.

Last time out I ran a 12.4 at like 113 mph and that was with losing all boost pressure just after the 1/8th (97 mph trap) on the S362, Should be able to do much better with the bigger turbo and bigger exhaust assuming I can get one clean pass in....

 

New Pull at 23 psi. It looks like my cheapy 3 bar MAP sensor is seeing its upper limit as it doesn't seem to be registering anymore boost past 23.21 psi above 7000. You can see from the flat boost line. Not 100% sure on this as I may have a loose EGT probe or something that is causing a leak, likely the first.

However, tried some different setting to add in additional fuel enrichment in high acceleration modes like 1st and 2nd gear. A bit too much as 2nd gear went real rich when accelerating at 15.2 MPH/S

Duty Cycle 46% in the higher RPMS, ~23 psi, likely a bit higher
No alarming knock events.(nothing much greater than 10
Timing 13-14 degrees
AFR 11.5 down to 11.0
IAT 105 to 127 F
Spraying 666cc/min methanol and 333 cc/min of water on two nozzles
Acceleration rate from 6300 (78mph) to 7400 (93mph) is 11.2 MPH/S, which took like 1.3 seconds.
Car is flying....
By far the fastest I have seen in Florida heat, can't imagine the power on a 40-50 F winter night.....
Just ordered a Holley 3 bar MAP sensor from Summit, will be here Friday... Was $100, can't imagine Holley selling junk...

 

from what I’ve read it’s not unusual for some of those cheap plastic MAP sensors to leak

supposedly the Holley is just a Delphi sensor, but it would be best to inspect and test it to be sure it’s an actual 3-bar version and not incorrectly marked or mis-boxed.

.

 

I have to calibrate the sensor in Adaptronics so I will be checking all the voltage vs pressure settings. If all done correctly, should be about 12 inches of vacuum at idle, no vacuum/0 boost when the car is off and I will test the sensor at ~29 psi with a few gauges and my air compressor.



Silver lining is all of this is you can't hit boost cut at 26 psi if your MAP sensor will not read above 23.21 psi

 

you’ll just blow up your engine instead ...



.

 

I’m sure you probably have covered it in your thread but after reading to page 13 I broke down and just have to ask..
I understand you straight line race this car, but have you done any autoX or road racing with this set up and how is the handling with the heavier front end vs the Renesis?

 

100% stock suspension. Feels just as good as the day I bought it. RE-71R tires stick to the road well. I haven't really "thrown it" into turns hard enough to notice the additional weight of the manifold, turbo, etc....

Turbo is far too lazy for auto-cross. Cooling system is far to inadequate for any road racing.

 

Okay right on. That’s good to hear that nothing crazy was needed this far.
Do you think there is a way to make the cooling system adequate for road racing? Or is the turbo just too much in conjunction with rotary engine heat?

 

https://www.rx8performance.com/produ...mance-radiator

you’re going to need one for the differential too along with a gear oil pump, search the racing forum or pm dannobre and he can answer all your questions on that

.

 

Thanks Team. I appreciate it. I’m still waiting on a clutch and Auxiliary cooling system (aluminum under tray with tiny radiator) from Scott. I already have a Koyo radiator on standby. Anyhow thank you for the read Stroker and I am still unsure what to do at this point. I suppose I have to compromise somewhere.

Looking forward to more data in 70% humidity. That gives me hope b/c if I do a swap I’ll be living in Texas with similar climate.

 

Big fail at the track last night. Track was packed. It was hot and humid. Got 2 passes in 3 hours.

First pass 2 step wasn't on and I left on 0 boost and bogged the hell out of it.

Second pass I left at 5,900 RPMs and 10lbs of boost. The car left hard for the first 25 feet then the tranny kicked it out of first gear. I thought it was blown. Transmission was making a whirring noise, but it has seemed to go away after a mile of driving. Seems fine now

Was insanely hot yesterday, everything heat soaked from the hour+ drive down. IATs starting at 130F and hitting 150F at the end of both failed pulls. Boost pressure was down because of the heat, Extra rich fuel. 118 mph trap on both failed passes. The 1/8th mile trap speed was broken on my lane.

I am definitely pressing my luck trying to push my car in hot weather, Will likely wait until October./November to try this again.

*edit 9/21/20 - In retrospect it appears that partially melted ground straps on the plugs in the rear rotor was causing the turbo laziness and low trap speeds from this event, in addition to the heat.

 

you know an OE trans is going to grenade at that power level, especially drag racing. Not if, but when.

 

Update - I really wanted to keep air conditioning functional, but the only time I really use it is for trips to the track when its real hot out. Most of the night driving and winter driving and I don't use it.

Decided to pump down the system and remove the condenser to see how much better flow over the radiator was. Normally on interstate cruising the temp stays between around 185 F in hot weather. Temp goes up as stop light because fans don't come on until after 200 F, but usually takes a few minutes to get back down to 180-185 or so.

Just made a 30 minute drive around in high ambient temps ~90+ and without the condenser blocking the radiator temps were steady between 168-170 F while the car was moving. It might be a little low, but its a huge difference. I'm willing to bet that data would also show that it drops much faster after hitting high temps while the car is sitting at stop lights.... I could always put the condenser back, vacuum and recharge the system in the future.

Also during my adventures I wanted to get some data. While I was at the track last week, the car was so heat soaked that it was lazy to get up on boost and down about 3-4 pounds. I added duty cycle up to 45 to try and counteract these conditions, which helped.

Today I left it at 45% duty cycle and did a half pull in this hot weather and car pulled like a savage.

3rd gear pull
45% duty cycle, 17 psi creeping up to 26 psi
45-87 mph
3,700-6,900
timing 11-16
AFR 11.8 dropping down to 10.8
IAT 116-129 (13 delta)
Water temp 167 F
a minor knock event at 6500 RPMs, could hear or feel anything. Maybe nothing or just a bit too rich.
33% ethanol content
Let off early so really can't judge injector duty
Acceleration rate from 5800-6800 RPMs was 11.6 MPH/S, took about 1.2 seconds to go from 73 to 86 MPH
Really no need for more power at this point just need some favorable conditions and luck to get this thing down the track

 

This is promising. I suppose it really is all about compromise. That’s amazing that the temps go down that much just from clearing the condenser away.

The way I’m starting to see it is that it’s really difficult to have a reasonably budgeted car and expect it to be fast and comfortable .

Excited to see the slip when the conditions permit.

 

Turn the condenser flat and put a fan on it. 😏

 

My intercooler is already in the lay flat position because it was causing my water temps to sore. I now have a reversed v-mount.

I can deal with not having ac a few times per year. My mustang was my daily for 10 years and it never had AC.

 

in Florida though, ugh. Did it many times myself though, just getting old and soft now.

 

Took the car out this morning to get the ethanol moving around
Also took some duty cycle out of second gear because I was breaking the tires between 60-70 mph.
Also backed off the duty cycle a bit
3rd gear pull
44% duty cycle, 6 psi by 4,000, 17 psi by 5,000, ramping up to 26 psi at 8,000
45-100 mph
3,400-8000
timing 20, down to 11
AFR 12.0 dropping to 10.5 then leaning up to 11.3
Injecting 666 cc/min of methanol/333 cc/min of water at 20+ psi
IAT 113-132, 19 delta
Water temp 177 F
no knock
45% ethanol content
With the lean out only at 80% of injector capacity (80% of 90% duty)
Acceleration rate from 6400-7500 RPMs was 11.7 MPH/S.
Leaning it up on the top end looks like it picked up some power.
RPM delta T was 943 RPM/S, which i'm sure is about the best I have ever seen. At 1,000 RPM/S, I would be at 12.5 MPH/S acceleration (8,000 RPMs/100 MPH = 80. 1000/80 = 12.5 MPH/S)
At a 11.7 MPH/S acceleration rate, I would be pulling roughly 0.53 G's as 22 MPH/S is roughly 1 G.
I will pull a bit more fuel out of the mid range.

 

Can’t beat a secondary radiator for consistent cooling on this car. Understand you are running ethanol but would A water meth system help? It can get complicated.

 

....

Btw...Good work, Stroker!

 

my kingdom for a pair of ID2600x injectors ...

 

Well not good news.

I have noticed over the past few months that it was taking an extra few seconds to start when warm. This morning while taking it out for a drive, I saw that I was only getting about 10 inches of vacuum when its normally in the 10-12 range,

Took the car out for some WOT action and car ran fantastic. Runs and pulls like a champ.

When I get home I decide to just check over a few things to make sure that the slightly lower vacuum was just an anomoly.

Pulled the leading plugs and.....



Looks like the rear rotor ate a NGK grounding strap. Did a compression test and the chamber is down to 75 psi when its historically been 95 psi. If I cracked the motor open i'm sure I would find some damage to the rotor housing or rotor which is the reason for this 20 psi drop. I'm sure this damage may go back 6 months ago when I was having all those problems with the secondary injector didn't appear to be firing (on the rear rotor). Likely melted the strap then. Replacing the wiring harness fixed this issue.. EGT probe is in the front rotor so I never would have had any indication.

The funny thing is that with the new turbo and downpipe, the car is still making more power than it did with a healthier engine. and smaller turbo.

The rear leading gap is around 0.075 with the missing strap, which I assume has no chance firing under WOT. The front is still at 0.025. So it is likely the rear chamber has been firing off the trailing plug which is 10 degrees retarded. It may also be contributing to the hot starts somewhat.

So i'm a a crossroads, pull the motor apart and likely have to replace the housing and hoping the rotor isn't chewed up. Or put some new plugs in it, likely pick up more power for fixing the firing timing, and give it hell.....

I have yet to pull the trailing plugs.... I may just go back to the Autolites for now.

Update: The trailing plug in the rear had about 15% of the ground strap missing vs 50% for the leading. Gap at the trailing plug was 0.033". Replace the plugs with Autolites at 0.025". Car already is running a bit better. Let the car get up to temp and did 5 restarts. Car started in about 2-3 seconds vs 1-1.5 seconds when cold. Its shocking to think the the smart coils with 0.075" leading gap and 0.033" trailing gap were able to fire properly at 26+psi + water + rich conditions like 10.5:1. Car should pick up power just by increasing timing on the rear rotor 10 degrees......

Bad news is hot compression is 90 psi front, 75 psi rear now (95/80 cold I would assume)....

Another Update: New plugs in and running fine until WOT then I got all my sensor glitchiness back and car was misfiring. Looks like I will order another pair of NGKs with resistors and try that. It seems impossible to run these coils with a non resistor plug, in my case anyway.