Wow it's been 6 months since updating. Time can get away from you over the holidays.
A good amount of virtual tunning and driving has taken place which has been mostly enjoyable. Recently it has been more frustrating due to electrical issues (the very thing I wanted to avoid and spent tons of money on to avoid- Tuned by Shawn Plug and Play Harness/Sake Bomb Ign1a plug and play harness). Everything had gone fairly well until it was time to rev the engine to 7000 rpm with 10lbs of boost at WOT. It was great experiencing the pull of the turbo and turbo noises but noticed misfiring anywhere above 5500 to 6000 rpm. It seems the misfire is always at the same RPM's and only at WOT. With this new problem I've been going down the list trying to figure out the issue or issues. As always, Kenny and Jesse have helped me along the way. I've changed spark plugs and performed a smoke test for the 4th time, I think? I've checked coil wires and coils for defects and rewired the Sake Bomb Ign1A plug and play harness kit to add grounding to sensor ground. While I was doing the rewire of the Sake Bomb harness, I found a broken engine ground ring terminal on that harness which I was very hopeful would fix the issue, but no luck. Anyways, I chose the throttle body sensor ground to tap the Sake Bomb harness into which did not help either. So, I continued to trace down all the connected sensors to the sensor ground even though the resistance testing and voltage drop test where normal because apparently any connected sensor with a bad sensor ground connection could lead to issues over any of the connected sensors even if the resistance testing is normal on that particular wiring. This brings me to last night. I spent a few hours looking at the wiring and found the water temperature sensor connector was not plugged in all the way, this shares the same sensor ground as the throttle body and now my coils. The clip that locks the connector in place had been bent. I think this happened because there is very little room to access this plug due to the harness and fuel rails being in the way. While I had this unplugged, I tested or resistance and the ohm reading was 0.9 ohms, not bad, then performed a voltage drop test with the power on and that read 36mv which is not good and likely means I have a wiring issue in that path of wire. Since the water temperature sensor was not plugged into the ECU my radiator fans came on full force when I turned the power on, I think this is normal and likely a safety thing. Those fans definitely can move some air; I was happy with that. I decided it was easier to connect the coolant temp sensor and see if this would correct the issue but no joy. So now, I need to pull the harness which will require me to take the upper intake off and put the car back on jack stands. Not too thrilled about that.
I say all of this to mention I keep asking the Lord, Jesus Christ, to help me figure this out. I do this because I've learned before you come to the end of your rope or when you come up against some obstacle ask the creator of the universe for wisdom and His divine help because He truly does care of us. We are His creation and He looks to partner with us not only for His Glory and His work but also in our trivial pursuits even something like this. I know this from firsthand experience; you can ask if you want to know and I can share that story. Anyways, I will keep you updated if there is another miracle on the horizon. I say another because it's a miracle I've even come this far with this car, ha.
Remember God's primary view of his creation is "It is good", He says this 5 times in the book of Gensis, you know the preface introducing us to who the God of the bible is, and He says "it is very good" after creating humanity. He cares for us and has time and again showed us his never ending, love, grace and patience. He even walks the path for us and upholds his side of deal when we are unfaithful. I want all people to know that the God of the Bible is not some angry God who can't wait to judge the earth and burn it all, no He is a loving Father wishing that all will come running back to Him. And that is exactly what I will do every time.

 

So I'm fairly confident we figured out the high rpm misfire issue, praise the LORD. It turns out whoever modified my harness at Tuned by Shawn cut the OEM crank angle sensor wire to rewire this into the appropriate connectors for the Haltech ecu but failed to connect the shielding ground wire (The OEM crank angle senor wire is shielded). This must have allowed interference into the wires at higher rpms causing the misfire. I spliced the Shield ground wire into the ECU sensor ground and this has mostly fixed the issue. I'm waiting on my tuner to clean up the tune a little bit and hopefully the car will be dialed in and ready for the track. Maybe I will be able to confidently run the care at our local track, Hallett and go to Seven Stock this year.
I still have a list of issues to fix like the oil pain leaking, a very slow oil leak from rx8 front cover modification, the custom oil filler tube barely makes contact with my throttle body, part of the turbo manifold is a little too close to the subframe for comfort, a little whine coming through the speakers (just need to combine all my grounds under the stereo I think), and I need to correct the cat back positioning as one tail pipe protrudes from the car a little further than the other. Most of these things I will correct the next time I pull the engine.
I want to weigh the car and get a corner balance.
The next phase I would like to add the Mazdaspeed spoiler, perform dent repairs and paint correction.
I need to start looking at new brake pads as well, I've heard carbotech work well with the girodisc rotors I have.

 

So, as you may have guessed the crank angle sensor shield ground was not the only issue. I discovered the sake bomb coil harness had pin C and D grounds connected together and since I changed my grounding to a star point setup this was causing a ground loop. I ended up having pin C grounded to chassis. Anyways, I pulled the harness and rewired. I noticed the changes immediately upon driving the car. It was smoother and just drove better however my high rpm misfires remained, a little different from before but still an issue. Oh, and the speaker whine is gone, I was having that issue as well. After looking at the logs its now more apparent once I'm getting to stage 3 injection the engine goes dead lean. My tuner is thinking my ID2000 injectors are the issue. I have been told these injectors are well known for their issues and generally regarded as trash. I did recently have them cleaned and flow tested and they were on the verge of not being useable. I suppose if I had thought about it, I should have replaced them at that time which would have prevented all this.
I've been told I should pick up some Deatschwerks 1500's which is likely what I will do. Other options would the ID 1300's which are a little more expensive.
I have checked that the injector wiring and all get 12 volts to the injector with the key power on. I've been told the only possible causes are injectors or ecu. With the injectors being a known weak point I will replace those first as this is cheaper than the ECU.
These are fairly expensive, not sure if I should just stick to two 1500's or stick with replacing all 4. I like the idea of 3 stage fuel delivery but I'm not sure if it's even needed for my set up.