My experience installing RB protective screens and also tidbits of removing VFAD, etc
 

Hello All:

Finally got to come home to my parents for the weekend where my dad has the space and tools to have a little fun. And a few goodies were waiting for me in UPS boxes. Mainly my racing beat protective screens.

First look at them, very high quality stuff, i did givethem a coat of black high temp spray paint before I started because I wanted them to blend in with my brilliant black RX8.

Anyway bumper removal was alright just had to go slow and take out an ungodly amount of screws, would have been easier with some jacks or a lift but meh. Installing the AC condenser screen was a bit odd... the metal mount brackets you have to put them on... went on just fine but was out of alightment about 1/4" vertically, i fucked wtih the thing for an hour thinking I had them on wrong but they were EXACLY like the picture. I Dont know if there was supposed to be two "smaller" brackets instead of 4 that were all the same, but I fixed the problem by bending the top two RB bracket pieces back a bit and then re-aligning the holes. After that the whole installation was rock solid.

After a bit of reading here online I decided to take out my VFAD, not for power gains but maybe for a bit more sound and a little cooler air for the intake. Once I took off the bumper and got a look at the VFAD, I realize the mazda engineers did a damn good job with the intake box and all that but this was downright weird. I know the long sock is meant to deaden sound and that plastic half box looking piece covering up the whole thing was odd, thank god it was easy to take all that crap out.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3910/bay2wl8.th.jpg
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6558/bay3ni6.th.jpg

As you can see its MUCH cleaner and I would assume even without a RB ram air creatively attached it looks like the intake box could get a breath of fresh air blasting up or sucked up from the undertray part. Either way I did this mostly for a bit extra sound. And there is always the added bonus of shaving 2 or 3 lbs off the front end :)

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/4940/bay1yd4.th.jpg

As you can see I took off all that vaccume like crap that goes with the VFAD - the large ass hole right there I plugged with a ziplock bag cut to fit and seal around the clamp ring, this is mostly temporary unti I can get some cleaner suggestings from you guys :) I'm not planning on adding an aftermarket intake as I'm waiting to see what FI solution I go with in a few months hopefully. Even though that pic doenst show it i did seal the vaccuume nipple coming out from under the snake looking plastic thing on the bottom.... its just riggesd at the moment with some packing tape sealed around it to make it airtight, I'll have to hit the hardware store tommorow and pickup an appropriately sized screw cover / vaccuume line cover.

I fired up the car for a minute and got no CELs.... but I didnt let it run long b/c im REALLY low on gas and wanna at least have enough to get to the station tommorow :)

I was out working my dads garage/barn till 1am on this, it was great fun though, my fingers hurt from all the pulling, poking, prodding, pushing, haha

What do you guys think? All constructive comments are welcome :)

Cheers,
Jeff

hey jeff,

i was there for you, but unless you are replacing the vdaf with something else i thing you are making a mistake... take that for what it is worth...

the bigger thing is the resonating chamber that you took off... the square thing that should be in photo 3. i would put back on...

beers :beer:

well last night I was thinking that soon I will either:

A) just buy the Racing eat RAM air and attach it to the OEM airbox with some custom piping

or

B) just straight up buy a revi in a month or two.

I appreciate your thoughts, and would love to have a little elaboration on them, The square resonatore you speak of that goes in photo 3, besides the "clean/professional" look of having it on there what other benefits would it have? After taking off the vaccuum lines I had all these stupid tubes laying in the engine bay that went to nowhere and wanted to clean it all up.

Anyone else feel free to chime in and add your $0.02 :)

Thanks,
Jeff

I'm fixing to take the car for a spin after I put my undertray back together and see how the car acts.

I put the black rectangular thing back on the side of the accordian, my sealing it with plastic failed... after a spirited drive i notice it popped like a zit, hah and now realize just how strong our engine sucks in air.

Was also getting rough idling with it off and also a few stalls when downshifing and braking hard. Not to mention a CEL. Seems all issues are fixed though :)

yea,
i had a feeling... glad all is good..

beers :beer:

Ja, me too. You won't regret buying a Racaing Beat Intake.

The ram works with the stock box too!