canzoomer

Some good news:

In the last 2 weeks we transferred our tuning and testing to completely on the road.
I bought and installed a new fuel/air broadband sensor and a very nice display/logging device for it.
Very accurate and very portable
If anyone is interested, see:
http://www.lambdaboy.com/product.html

We also installed Pyrometers before and after the first catalytic converter so we could log exhaust temps on the fly. We confirmed that the maps we are using are safe for the catalytic converters.
Max temerature is 1600F on stock seetup, and with our final fuel/air map it does not exxceed that temp, but does get to it a bit sooner.

Lastly, we installed a GTEch pro in the last few days and re-did our performance runs with the maps we have derived for fuel/air and ignition. 25HP with a quite safe and mild fuel/air map.
7-12HP gain in the midrange 4000-6000 rpm zone
25HP gain at 6000-9000, with peak at 8500rpm.

So we are now finalized and will be putting out controllers in 2 weeks. Just waiting for a large batch of the connectors needed to plug in the ECU sockets.

Bad news:
2 nights ago, while driving home on the highway at 2:00 a.m. and at 130kmh, I got a sudden engien stumble, a blinking check engine light, and it started running REALLY rough.
I limped 20 miles to the next town, parked it, got a room.
Next day it was tough to start, but i managed and got it to a shop. We checked ignition, etc., but saw no obvious problems.
Next time we started it we had to fight to get it to run, and there was a horrible rattling sound, like a badly tuned cold diesel engine.

Called Mazda Roadside Assistance, got it towed to the local dealership.

Next day the diagnosis came down from Mazda:
Failure of oil injection system, resulting in seized side seals on one rotor.
Naturally I was quite relieved as I worried I had possibly hurt my engine by testing.
In fact the failure mode is unrelated.
Old engine being shipped to Japan, and I am told that in Canda there are now 6 of this problem and result.

New engine is now on the way from Japan under warranty.
So, my car is parked at the dealers for the next while.

Damn!

Digisan

Damn is right! Keep up the good work.

Murphy

I dont know whether to be more pleased about the good news than I am worried about the bad news!

Genom

Heh. Talk about a pickle. Good stuff coming from zoomer, bad **** happening to engines.

Hmmm...

At least nobody can say that owning the car isnt exciting!

SpacerX

Tough break on the engine, CZ. At least it's a known problem unrelated to the tinkering... Weird phenomenon, though. I hope it's not a trend.

I can only imagine what you must've been feeling, sweating it out waiting for the diagnosis to come back... Sounds like there will be a happy ending to the story, though:D

As always, excellent news on the tuning front. Thanx again for all your dilligence and effort.

canzoomer

Stress? What stress?

Yeah, sweating bullets is pretty close.

At least a buddy of mine has new Renesis blocks sitting in his shop in Calgary.

As for happy endings, I will now get to break in a new engine, and we are putting ceramic apex seals in it, so I can break in with those installed.

You are most welcome. It has been a wild and fun ride so far.

Ike

I'm a bit confused, were you running a remapped ECU in the car at the time of failure?

canzoomer

No, that is the ironic part.
We had pulled the gear out a couple of days before, as we have finished testing, and we need to install this on our two"beta testers" cars, and i only have a limited number of the connectors.

druck

Lucky you did pull out the gear, or they might have pulled your warrenty.

DefBringer

Is this 25hp gain "to the wheel"?

When will we see the maps available to the public for those of us with cars with open exhaust? 25hp is nice, but I want the 50hp you spoke about earlier.

canzoomer

25HP is measured by Mustang dyno and by GTech Pro.
If you want 50, be prepared to buy a midpipe to eliminate your catalytic converters, and to be sure to always run good octane gas. In other words buy your gas where you can count on the 91 or better number to be safe.

To do 50HP gain you need fuel/air maps, and about 3+ degrees of advance.

On a 10:1 engine that is quite feasible, but makes good fuel mandatory.
You will also be running exhaust temps peaking at around 1900+ degrees F, so cats will last about a day.

P00Man

hmmmmmm thats some interesting news.
damn lucky you pulled the gear too
________
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SA22C

That's odd that an OMP failure would result in damage to a side seal. I was under the impression that the OMP was used to lubricate the insides of the apex seals, because the combusion chambers on a rotary are static, unlike a piston. I would think that low oil pressure from the main pump would result in damage to a side seal, or a bearing, etc.

Unrelated to the engine failure, aren't ceramic seals shorter lived than their cast iron counterparts?

canzoomer

I am simply quoting what Mazda Canada have told me. I am not going to be able to take the engine apart to inspect it myself, unfortunately.

Ceramat seals are similar life to the iron apex seals Mazda uses.
Pure ceramic are much harder and tougher.
And last longer.
Adam uses these in racing engines, and they do not seem to wear out.

RodsterinFL

Its funny, 2 weeks ago I started mine in the garage and heard a burring whir sound (diferent than that purr) and just let it run. for a bit. I drove it and the sound went away after about 2-3 min. That was at around 3000 miles. I have also noted that the engine is using less oil.

rx7 rage

sheesh......i thought this damn car was suppose to be reliable. What's up with the enginge failures.

Elara

There haven't been any more than in any other first run car. It's pretty standard that some are going to be not quite right.

miata2rx8

off topic: elara, is that a large roach next to your car?

Elara

No, it's a small beetle that snuck into the picture. I enlarged it with photoshop because it struck me as funny. The original is here

Tronics

It's an apex seal from a FD :D

Ike

I don't know... if Canzoomer is correct and nearly 60 engines have been replaced that's out of the ordinary. I can't think of many others cars that have had engines with under 10k miles replaced like that other than maybe other rotaries. I'm sure there are some but I can't think of any off the top of my head. I know this may draw a lot of flames but please give me a break as I'm just expressing my opinion... The Rotary has always seemed like a much better concept than it is an application. <dons his flame retardent suit>

rabinabo

Out of how many cars is that? I don't even own an RX-8, but when you say something is out of the ordinary, you have to compare it to something. It seems to me that mazda is replacing a lot of these engines to make a complete study of the problem, which is pretty admirable that they're taking the hit financially to provide a quality product. It also means that they might have it fixed by the time I can buy one

Speed Racer

I know that where I work that certain parts are flagged to be returned if a warranty claim is made. This gives us a chance to look at the item, do failure analysis and risk assessment. This is especially true when a new product is released so it doesn't surprise me that engines are just being replaced and the damaged ones are being shipped back to Mazda.

Gord96BRG

Where did you get 60?!!

Other engines - how about the BMW S54, used in the 01+ M3 and M Roadster/Coupe? There's been quite a few of those blow up early in their lives. Also, the Honda S2000 has had some problems with early engine failures. Those are just off the top of my head...

Regards,
Gordon

Peter Sawko

Not good! I've got 2700 miles on my car and now I've got one more thing to worry about.