SCiMMiA

Now this is rediculous - another userid entirely. Think I'll stay logged out for a while.

highspeed8

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but that's happened to me too about a week ago. Kinda strange as I had access to that person's account settings...

canzoomer

Under EPA and state regulations a device like that is illegal as it is specifically designed to "fool" the tests.
Also it is not jus tthe 5 minute warmup requirement. It is also to meet the general emmissions spec for O2 and NOx output which would be too high at the range above 6,000rpm.
Lastly, they run too rich above 6,000 to cool the catalytic converter, so it meets the new requirement for the cat to survive 120,000 miles.

And, as of 2004 this is not just a California requirement.
All of the USA and Canada have a newer stricter regulation, which is similar to the current California spec.

canzoomer

In fairness Mazda gave most of us $500 back.
Where do you think we got our target price for the Stage1 kit from??

That and the fact that it is just plain feasible to build and sell it for that.
Toughest parts are things like getting the correct connectors to match the wiring harness, making it tamperproof so people don't play with it and wreck their cars by trying to re-tune it, and so that people do not rip off our maps.

DefBringer

Hey Canzoomer, any update on your testing/pricing/availability?

mikeb

agreed

zerohour

Any clue on when it will be released?

Omicron

I think Canzoomer said something in another thread about building the first batch of these currently, and hoping to have them shipping around Nov 12th.

djmano

damn......november 12th eh? i have an extra 500 bucks laying around hehehe

energie

major concern here is whether or not it improves mpg and hp. Let's hope we have good reviews!

zerohour

Any word on the progress and a release date? I dont mean to be too pushy, im just so anxious over this project.

Gord96BRG

Check the vendor section of the forum - Canzoomer has his own section! In there, he advises that shipping should start this week (maybe started last week).

He also mentions mpg - he says that there may be a very slight improvement in mileage depending on how you drive (ie if you spend a lot of time at high rpm it'll improve), but not significant. It's for the power!

Regards,
Gordon

Efini 8

my answer is hell no. who is canzoomer, what are his/her credentials in ecu programming. what other cars has he done. what exactly is he doing to the ecu. i think i will have a real professional tuner from japan tune my ecu.

Omicron

Credentials? Check out his website http:\\www.harddata.com - he makes LARGE mainframe style computers. He forgotten more about control unit programming than most of us will ever learn.

Want more? Check out this thread https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...;threadid=11614 for all the gorey details of the ECU development. A *long* (28 page!) read, but definitely worth it.

RXhusker

I'm tired of people making comments without doing even a little research

He is not touching the ECU
He had done extensive research

Why can't people understand that Canzoomer is putting out a fuel controller and not a new ecu or an ecu re-program

canzoomer

Funny you mention that.
I started this off by contacting A'pex Integration in Japan to see what they might be developing for the RX-8.

Their reply was that as the ECU's in the Japanese RX-8's are properly programmed, they have had little or no demand in Japan.

They put me in touch with one of their dealers, and I struck it off with him.

Apexi told us that if we were to share the data we gained by our testing they would be able to make their FC units with the data, so it can be used on the RX-8.

So, if anyone has not connected the dots yet, the Stage3 we plan for later will (hopefully) be an Apexi unit. Factory programmed with our map data, for a set of maps including stock, and one or two different enhancement levels.

As for the credentials of the person I worked with:
http://www.apexi-usa.com/dealers.asp

Scroll down the list at the top to the Canada section.
Diablo Power Products is the other half of the partnership in this project.
Mr. Cameron Koole runs a shop that does almost completely power tuning projects, and has done so for several years.

As for my credentials, I am mainly a hobbyist.
I have worked/played on various cars that I owned over the last 30 years, Austin Mini Coopers, Datsun 510's, RX-3, Fiat X1/9, Chevies, Honda SiR, Nissan SpecV.
All were modded, chipped, exhaust tuned, intakes, and so on.

I know some are getting unhappy that we have not shipped hundreds of these yet.
That is because we are doing it what I believe is the "right way"

We are using the proper connectors that match the Mazda components to make a proper "plug in " kit. No hacking wires, no permanent mods.

This takes time. A freind of mine has been hand building some of the harnesses for us. He is an electronics tech with around 30 years experience. Neither he nor I can build one in under 3 hours.

We will shortly have ones here made by a company in Hong Kong who i and my company have dealt with for a few years in making circuit assemblies for the computers we build.
The low cost of Chinese labour will help us achieve the faster build rate and to make the cost what it need to be.

The FC chip and circuit is made for us by Greddy, and is a basic version of their unit, but simplified down and hard coded for this application. They agreed to do a custom build for us based on a certain volume point.

As for "what are we doing to the ECU" the answer is NOTHING!
We are supplying a circuit that tricks the ECU into providing the fuel and ignition to match what we want. It is a piggy-back unit that simply tells the ECU that conditions are different than reality. The ECU responds by changing fuel injection rates and ignition timing to respond to the conditions it perceives.

What we are doing is by no means new.
This is standard tuning practice.
You test, you adjust, you test some more.
You monitor fuel mixture and temperatures with instruments.

Over a rigorous regimen of testing, both on a dyno in the shop, and on the road, you determine what needs to be done.
You take the map data you have and program a fuel/air piggyback computer with the settings you derive.

Anyoneo with some experience in it, the tools, the dyno, the shop, the car, a couple of hundred hours to burn, about $15,000 to invest, the contacts in the electronics industry and auto aftermarket industry, and the WILL can do it.
It is not "rocket science"
It is called "work"

I would not be too surprised if someone in Japan might not be doing a tune for the RX-8 as we speak.

Of course theirs will be for the one with the Japanese ECU programming in it, and will be totally irrelevant for the N.American ECU setup we have here.

If you want to get a Japanese tuner to do the work, so be it.

He will have to get a USA/Canada spec ECU to do it with.
And he will have to get a local Mazda dealer to re-program the immobilizer and keys for it, so that the car will start.

If you have any questions, I encourage you to talk with me.
My email is:
maurice@harddata.com

My phone # is 780-456-1510.
I am generally available at that number from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00p.m. Mountain Time Zone.
This week I will be taking an upgrade course in AutoDesk Inventor during the daytime, so call me in the evening.

Gord96BRG

Bwaaahahaha! What a jerk. For someone who now claims to be in the automotive "biz", Efini, you show a remarkable lack of knowledge. You'd think that since we're all talking about something with some knowledge, and there's several links to long, detailed discussions, that you could do even a little reading before posting a "hell no". What a knee-jerk reaction to a question you didn't even bother trying to understand! Every single question you asked has been answered multiple times on the forum. If you haven't got a clue and aren't interested in getting a clue, then it's your loss. Good luck with your Japanese tuner, glad you have an excess of money to throw away.

(Kudos to canzoomer for his patience!)

Regards,
Gordon

canzoomer

Kudos for everyone and their patience.

As I have said a couple of times it is a slow process.

There are a lot of people champing at the bit, and to them I apologize we are so slow right now.

I promise we will catch up soon..

sup3rbad

CANZOOMER, You're my hero! A successful business man doing what he loves to do. That's one of my goals in life. Just to stay on topic... If i had the extra 500 this would be my first mod.

madsenj37

The reasons I wont buy it are 1 I live in California, 2 Its too early to void my warranty, 3 The price is a little much.

I do like what he is doing though and wish him luck. Perhaps in a few years I will be ready.

djmano

these are all valid reasons i suppose, but let's look a little deeper into it.

1. you live in cali and have strict *** emissions laws. i do to. canzoomer's stage I will probably make your car emissions illegal in california, but then again, how would anyone know you have it installed, or better yet, why would you fail to take it off or disable it when you take it to have it tested for emissions? basically what im saying is that you should never run into trouble with this modification (i am referring to stage I only) in the sense of getting in trouble for emissions. it can be uninstalled in 15 minutes or just wired to a switch that can change it back and forth from normal fuel map to the more aggressive fuel map included with canzoomer's stage I.

2. technically it voids your warranty but once again we revisit the card which lets us make stage I disappear whenever we want, and our car is bone stock again within 15 minutes

3. $500 for 20-25 REAL WHEEL HORSEPOWER is pretty damn good. considering most air intakes out the rx-8 right now are about $250-$350 bucks and there horsepower gain is probably very little, $500 is a steal. the only other mod that could add that amount of HP for that price is probably nitrous, and nitrous is not a very good idea for the renesis yet, not until more research is done. last point about pricing........somewhere in one of the thread's discussing canzoomer's ecu mod, he has always wanted to keep the cost around $500 for the stage I even though he could price it much higher and still sell, this is because as all of us rx-8 owners know, mazda decided to give back $500 if we decided to keep our cars. put two and two together.

Genom

No kidding. I know a lot of what canzoomer is facing with the actual unit construction and research into it and think it's a good deal. Fact is the unit will be very well designed from everything we have heard and has been tested a bit with great results.

And to the fact that cz mentioned he had over 500 orders for the stage 1, I think it's safe to say a few agree with that.

I am sure other similar products will show up, but this one is here, and I got a 500 dollar card coming with his name on it.

zoomzooomp5

I'm going to wait and see how it's doing first. However I am very excited about this. Man, I hope it turn out to be the real deal. This would mean a big deal to RX8 owner. I would get the Stage I kit though.

Efini 8

this thread is funny, my apologies if I jumped the gun, but I do not care to read all the damn posts in this thread.

*EDITTED* sent to canzoomer.

hmmmm ... I think I will take the my tuner cuz maybe he tuned the most famous rotary engine car of all time... hmmmm I believe it was the 787B .... oh and I think it won the Le Manns or something? lol :o

Efini 8

Gordon - just because I choose not to post up my knowledge of the automotive tuning world does not mean I have a lack there of. Lets not degress like children and start calling names, that is quite rude and immature.