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.
I haven't posted in 4 months, but I have been working on my Supra a bit more. Anyways, I took the car out tonight just to shake it down a bit and make sure it was running well. Did some half pulls.
Ambient - Low 60s
2nd to 3rd gear 40-90 mph Turbo duty cycle 37, dropped to 36 above 7,000 15-23 psi 11.1-11.3 AFR Leading timing 15-17, split 10 0 knock Injector Duty Cycle 93%/93%/47.3% 41% ethanol content 1000 cc/min methanol/water injection (2:1) Water Temp 181F IATs 78-102 F Acceleration maxed in 3rd gear at 11.1 MPH/S
The fact you kept up with a supercharged corvette at all is amazing . I just read that. So you must be somewhere around 500 wheel on stock tire dimensions. Makes me feel searching for the “perfect” wheel/tire setup is frivolous.
Glad you’re still around. Now that my build is closer to being done I’m paying more attention to the details being outlined throughout your thread. Also all of the other input from everyone else is very helpful thus far and will be in the future.Hopefully my multi can gauge will suffice when I don’t want a laptop in my passenger seat.
The fact you kept up with a supercharged corvette at all is amazing . I just read that. So you must be somewhere around 500 wheel on stock tire dimensions. Makes me feel searching for the “perfect” wheel/tire setup is frivolous.
Glad you’re still around. Now that my build is closer to being done I’m paying more attention to the details being outlined throughout your thread. Also all of the other input from everyone else is very helpful thus far and will be in the future.Hopefully my multi can gauge will suffice when I don’t want a laptop in my passenger seat.
I'm running 245/45/18 R compound tires (re-71r) on stock rx8 wheels. They have 4.5 inches of meat on the outside of the wheel and I run them at 25 psi on the street and they hook pretty damn well.
Because I get bored quickly, I have been thinking about stripping down my rx8 to a cart.
I already removed my ac and don't use my radio (due to a bad faceplate). I never drive this thing in the rain because it's a death trap, and I live in Florida which police generally don't care about anything you do to the car.
I'm trying to think how much weight this would hypothetically take off the car, what exactly I would remove and how I would modify everything else to work.
I would remove the hood, bumpers, fenders, fender liner, front and rear door, whole interior, sunroof, all air bags, power everything, trunk, bumper, etc. Remove all hvac, paneling, etc.
The only thing I would keep was the front windshield, a Pilar, and c Pilar, etc. Shorten the exhaust, move the batter and surge tank to the upper trunk..
I would also get the remaining part of the car caged for safety. I would patch the sunroof and leave the roof panel for shade
Any thoughts on how much weight this may take off if this is even possible with this chassis as I have only seen it done with miatas and corvettes?
due to the open wheel concept, I wouldn't be limited to wheel sizes....
Last edited by strokercharged95gt; 04-17-2021 at 11:09 AM.
I have been limping the car around for years in Florida with old worn out factory fans (original from 2004). After stopped at a light for more than a few minutes temp would shoot up to 216 F+ and the fans would do all they could to hold the temp there. I'm not even sure all of the stages were working.
So I installed FAL 420 fans and threw out the old fans.
Took the car out for a drive and then parked it and let it idle for 18 minutes with the hood closed.
Car idles ~2k due to the bridgeport so idling can be hard on the cooling system.
Logged the 18 minutes of idling (between two white lines). Look at the heat soak on the UIM (location of the IAT). It crept up to 160F, I could have cooked an egg on it. You can see how both IAT and WT dropped once I started driving again.
Fans didn't really seem to kick on until 210F. High speed didn't kick on until 216 F. So over the 18 minutes, the new fans were able to keep the temps bouncing between 210-216F. Obviously with a new fan program these temps could be dropped further, but I have never had issues with these set points in the past 5-6 years.
You could easily wire in a switch to jumper the relays and force high speed dual fans on demand. Those coolant temps are ok for economy street driving, but 180 - 190 would be better for performance. Assuming you haven’t done anything for the oil cooler t-stats; revising those would provide additional help to lower coolant temps when at speed. Kind of overlooked on the RX8 imo.
.
25 psi that’s pretty wacky. I’ll find out the potential of the stock REW block soon with a smaller .84 a/r turbo. Maybe 15 psi max. Won’t be racing any Corvettes any time soon.
and like Team said, I’m not sure about your ecu you’re running but lowering the temp the fans turn on can probably be done through that if it’s a stand alone. Or the relay kit if not.
It’s the Adaptronic Select (before the current Modular PnP). I think it just depends which firmware version it is. Some recollection that they added the radiator fan capability on later versions. Which I suspect if it readily had that capability he’d have done it already. That earlier version was a bit limited wrt setting certain custom parameters, but I’m not entirely sure if it can be set up that way or not without the later firmware board. I suspect not.
Seem to recall that Shelldude was pretty familiar with it, but imagine John is right up there too.
.
I likely don't have the latest version of Eugene, but I had an issue in the past where I upgraded and the version was real buggy.
If anyone out there has select and found the secret fan menu stuff I would definitely like to know.
I have been through every menu in both Eugene and Wari 1000x and never saw fan control. When the car is moving temps are between 180-200 F so fan control really only helps with traffic jam type scenarios.
most people were pairing it up with the Cobb AP etc and weren’t that concerned about it.
it may be that regardless of whatever adaptation is required, you may need to swap over to the Eugene software instead since WARI is technically no longer supported. I do remember you posting about having tried that before and didn’t care for it much or something.
"There have been about 4 different vehicle board designs for the RX8, and most of them are things to make them easier to assemble. But the most recent version (0.4) has jumpers on the board to connect the aux outputs 5 and 6 to the low and high speed thermofans. That's the only functional change. We don't have it listed by serial number; so the only real way to tell is to open the ECU and read the version number off the board. "0.4" is the latest but again, the only functional change is the aux outputs driving the thermofans."
and wiring the #1 (5X) and #2/3 (5AD) OE fan relays power-ground wires to pins 3 and 4 below if available:
and my reply to you regarding setting them up in Auxiliary Outputs, seems like will have the fans turning on/off between Low/High speeds with the Select ecu if it has that capability.
Edit: so if I’m reading the message from Adaptronic correctly, if you have the 0.4 or higher circuit board number in your Select, then it’s already wired internally to those fan relay terminals. Otherwise if 0.3 or lower, then you’ll have to repin those terminals to the Auxiliary Output positions in the 6-pin connector above. Does that sound right?
.
I think that could be done as I already have a 6-pin connector hardwired in for flex fuel. I just would have to locate those two wires heading into the ECU, cut them and feed them into the Select 6-pin connector.
I don't see those fan outputs on the ECU??? Where do I pick those wires up from?
I wonder if it would just be easier to manipulate the ECT signal (pin 2k) somehow to convince the car it was 20 degrees F warmer than actual if that is even a thing that can be done.
Last edited by strokercharged95gt; 04-30-2021 at 07:46 AM.
Gotcha on 5AD and 5X. I have a electrical shop manual at home where I should be able to confirm the wires with the color combination before splicing. (edit nm Blue/White Stripe and Red/Green Stripe)
What would the settings in Eugene be to get them to turn on/off properly?
I don't have my tuning computer handy and will look when I get home, but I know its Auxiliary 5 and 6 in Eugene.
Last edited by strokercharged95gt; 04-30-2021 at 11:11 AM.
yeah, because I just updated the Modular ecu pinout for that and it shows different pinouts. **edit: I think their pinout diagram is incorrect. It will be easy to verify; with they key on, the fan should come on if the pin is attached to ground.
What’s in the next post after that is out of my 2005 Electrical manual.
The issue with changing the coolant sensor input is that it affects other things that require temperature compensation, like fuel, ignition, etc.. Not really a good idea imo, but believe you can do that by setting it up as an aftermarket sensor rather than the OE one.
I sent the Eugene software settings info with a screen shot in the email reply, you will just need to set the on/off temps in those settings for each.
**best thing is the verify in the electrical manual for your model year RX8
.
Kinda bored on lock-down. I took my last 3rd gear pull at 24-28 psi.
I took all the raw data in excel and calculated the average time and average mile per hour and took and average at every RPM point from 4000-7800 RPMs in 100 RPM increments from the pull.
I then added as trendline to see exactly where I was making power and where I wasn't.
Some interesting finds. Now none of this takes air resistance as a factor which it definitely would as a car accelerates from 50 to 100 mph, so you have to take that into consideration while analyzing the data.
As I have mentioned in the past, the car feels fast but I have definitely noticed the power dropping off more and more in the upper RPMs as I keep turning up the boost. This is likely due to the compressor efficiency dropping like a rock as I move into the inefficient areas along the 2.7-2.9 PR of the compressor map. It could also be an undersized 3" exhaust.
So I thought this was interesting comparing a Garrett G35-900 to where you estimated being at with the previous BW S362SX-E. Not sure how accurate it is though because I happened to notice that the turbine flows in the Matchbot info above are way off in the higher rpm range (as now marked up).
That BW turbine housing maxes out around 31 lbs-min. The Garrett 1.06 T4 housing would be around 33 lbs-min at that same 2.8 Pr with higher efficiency if true.
Seems to me that might be a sweet compromise between spool and power given a transmission that could handle the load.
I’ll link back to this thread once there’s something to start a new one for. Most likely when it goes to the dyno for a baseline to compare future mods against.
Small update; been holding some stuff back in addition to just taking a break from the forum shenanigans lately, but will drop in a few teasers ...
Had the car on the dyno for some "lower" boost runs a while back; did not disappoint considering where it was running at. I honestly believe that Stroker never got his due for what he accomplished in this thread, but will get into that later as well as addressing "sitting alone in the dark wondering what the hades is going on" commentary like this :
Originally Posted by Brettus
Originally Posted by TeamRX8
I took Strokers car out for the first time on Sunday, all I can say is “wow, mind-blown 🤯”
After all the arguments over the years you bought one ready made?
.
I'll update fully once the "higher" boost runs are documented. It was supposed to have been this past Monday, but the shop called and cancelled a couple of hours before my appointment. Hopefully not too much longer if they can fit me in again soon. Edit: shop owner told me he got the wuhoo flu, shop will be shut down for 2 weeks. Will have to go elsewhere.
one last "drop in the eventual bucket" tease, ordered a new 370Z CD009 6-spd trans from the Nissan dealer today for a future install and also located a Mazda 3.727 R&P gear from the early 90's that just happens to fit an RX8 diff with a surprisingly simple modification . This will include a PPF delete with a custom driveshaft, and there also is a nitb OS Giken lsd sitting on the shelf that I received a really good deal on a few years back . It also has an aftermarket hydraulic throw-out bearing setup for actuating the clutch. This trans has similar gearing to the RX8 6-spd, but with that rear gear works out to a few MPH taller in 1st - 3rd gear compared to the RX8/FD 5-spd with 4.444 rear gear and then much better 4th - 6th spacing for higher speed "runs" . In 6th gear, cruise at 75 mph works out to 2850 rpm with a 26" tall rear tire.
.
Just looking for some confirmation that i'm not losing my mind here.
My MAP sensor on the Adaptronics Select is getting is getting worse. I only read about half the vacuum that I should (confirmed on two different gauges). I decided to go external MAP sensor so swapping sensors in the future is a 30 seconds job and i'm not having to mess with replacing the internal unit on the Select.
Against my better judgement I purchased a china-bay GM 3 bar MAP sensor for $12. It was actually recommended on a domestic car board as a good alternative to a OEM GM 3 bar sensor.
Now that i am reading the ad, I should have caught on that they say a 3 bar MAP sensor is good for 44 psi, and we all know its actually like 29 psi.....
Installed the sensor in the factory location and wired the reference wire into the Select unit. Adaptronics is reading the new sensor just fine.
Here is the real weird part. We all know a MAP sensor uses a simple 0-5 volts, 0 volts being really high vacuum and 5 volts being max boost (in this case 29 psi).
At no vacuum/0 psi the sensor is outputting 2.7 volts. Seems high, but ok.
When I put 30 psi into it with my air compressor it reads like 4.6 volts, seems a bit low but ok.
When my car is idling at -11 inches of HG the sensor reads like 3.5 volts????? WTF. I would guess it would read somewhere around 1.5-2 volts.....
Seems to me like this sensor can read pressure correctly as noted above, but it is also reading vacuum as pressure.
0.5 psi is 1 inch of Hg, so at -11 inches of Hg its effectively -5.5 psi as the MAP sensor sees it.... But based on the voltage its reads it as 5.5 psi....
As you can see it looks like the chinabay MAP sensor is well, made in China and is a piece of ****.
Anyone have any recommendations for a good 3 or 4 bar map sensor that won't break the bank and is well made????
This proved to be one of the most challenging “this makes no sense at all, what the hades is going on” electrical automotive issues I ever had to figure out, but it’s resolved now and the MAP functions as it should.
Despite living in a major metroplex city area, getting time on a dyno is proving to be a bigger challenge these days. Car is a bit too risky to drive on the street as currently configured. Breaks the tires loose easily in 4th gear now (1.00 ratio, 4.44 R&P) once the boost ramps up.
.
after just some minor ado this car is finally back on track and operating properly; had three different coolant dumps due to burst radiator hoses 😬, replaced the 3 year old lowest cost Walmart battery that was on it’s way out to only end up with the new Interstate battery also being bad , troubleshooting ecu software and sensor/wiring glitches , coolant overheating issues 😭, throttle body failure 🤬, tire traction issues 🤦♂️, and such.
Honestly this engine has more lives than an alley cat, because technically it should have blown the water seals on all three coolant losses. Yet it fires up immediately from a dead cold start after sitting a week and now runs a bit too cool even under WOT; ~170°F (fwiw with an RX8 radiator being blocked by an intercooler with ime ~550 whp output ). God gifted me the perseverance, patience, and means to keep climbing out of the ever-deepening pit though, lol. 🙇♂️
Some OE FD 16x8 wheels with a new pair of 255/50-16 Mickey Thompson ET Street SS radial tires put an end to traction issues. And if that didn’t do it, I also put Plan B in place at the same time; a pair of same size Hoosier DOT Drag Radial tires that are essentially slicks for running at the drag strip.
At the risk of upsetting the kiddies; even tuned out the idle brap, wouldn’t even know it’s bridgeported by the sound; just a steady, strong, yet mean serious-bizness muscle car-ish idle.
Pulled 11.9 mph/sec in 3rd gear last night per the log below, but am pretty sure the actual boost reading is about 4 or 5 psi lower than indicated. The MAP was calibrated using the boost gauge, which I already knew was reading higher than actual, and the AFR/Injector log readings back that up.
Have several hours scheduled on a Dynojet for Wednesday next week to (hopefully) acquire some numbers and establish the baseline for Stoker’s setup. However, previously saw 450 whp on a Mustang dyno (~500 whp Dynojet) running on just the WG spring. Because at that time the boost controller, boost by gear, etc. software wasn’t working at all, but everything is resolved now. The plan is to dial in the boost/MAP accuracy and the closed loop boost map over the next several days, then hit the dyno. Stroker had been only running open loop boost control previously. I had closed loop PID on at the bare minimum (1% P only) in the run above; it was pulling the duty cycle back slowly as appropriate for that setting.
.
04-03-2021, 08:30 PM
given a transmission that could handle the load.
I honestly believe that Stroker never got his due for what he accomplished in this thread, but will get into that later as well as addressing "sitting alone in the dark wondering what the hades is going on" commentary like this 
:
Hopefully not too much longer if they can fit me in again soon. Edit: shop owner told me he got the wuhoo flu, shop will be shut down for 2 weeks. Will have to go elsewhere.
. It also has an aftermarket hydraulic throw-out bearing setup for actuating the clutch. This trans has similar gearing to the RX8 6-spd, but with that rear gear works out to a few MPH taller in 1st - 3rd gear compared to the RX8/FD 5-spd with 4.444 rear gear and then much better 4th - 6th spacing for higher speed "runs" 
. In 6th gear, cruise at 75 mph works out to 2850 rpm with a 26" tall rear tire.
, troubleshooting ecu software and sensor/wiring glitches 
). God gifted me the perseverance, patience, and means to keep climbing out of the ever-deepening pit though, lol. 🙇♂️
