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Here all shall see the progress I make with my 8, given I make any
Any who, I picked the car up on April 3rd, 2015. It is a base trim with a 6-speed manual. I bought the car from a friend/coworker whose parents bought the car for him in 2008 when it had less than 3500 miles on it. It had 98,043 miles on the clock when I got it, and is now up to 109,xxx (I've been having a lot of fun with it!) The engine was replaced under warranty by Mazda in 2013 when the car was at 88K miles, so I got it with 10K on the engine, now up to 21K. I am unsure whether they replaced it with a new engine or a reman'd one, but it seems to be in excellent working order *fingers crossed*. The ignition coils, spark plugs, and catalytic converter were also replaced at that time, along with a few other items which escape me. Car was all stock aside from a Racing Beat cat-back and plasti-dipped badges and front corner lights.
I currently have no big plans for this car other than to enjoy it for as long as I can, but we'll see if that changes. This car has captivated me so far. It's kind of strange but from the moment I got it I just felt like it had always been mine, the car and I just meshed. If this feeling of harmony continues I could think of some way to turn it into a full-on project. However, I do have a few things I would like to do in an attempt to extend the life and quality of my engine: premixing once I can get my hands on some Idemitsu, an AccessPort and/or a tune, ignition, a Koyo radiator, better cooling fans, fans for the oil coolers and maybe MazMart's REmedy water pump and thermostat, although I am now a bit discouraged after hearing about frequent failures of both. Suspension and wheels may come once I can afford a second car to daily.
I would also like to note that I am creating this thread in an effort to archive my experience with my 8. This thread will include updates without pictures. I looked for the "show off your car here" sections other forums have but couldn't find one, and based on other peoples' threads it looks as though I'm posting in the right place. That said, I will try to add photos to any posts I make when possible. Who would want a thread without pics?
First photos
Current Photos
Mods:
AEM Cold Air Intake
Racing Beat REN.V2 Race Pipe
Racing Beat REV8 Cat-back
R1 Concepts slotted rotors
DDM Tuning 6000K 35w HID kit
Sohn Adapter with Epitroch support kit
Radiator cooling fan switch
Last edited by poch; 10-28-2015 at 05:15 PM.
Reason: Updated with recent info.
So I will make this post in lieu of what I have done thus far with the car. When I bought it, the brakes were spent. The front pads had passed the wear grooves, and the rears would have been on the metal if I had driven on them for another week. The metal clip on one side had been making contact on the rear rotor and scarred it. So, I replaced them with a kit that included R1 Concepts slotted rotors and PosiQuiet ceramic pads. I had R1 Concepts rotors on my Eclipse and liked them so I figured they would work well for this car too, and $220 for a full brake kit isn't bad in my book. The slots look cool behind the stockers too!
I also began modding. I picked up my first part the day I sold my Eclipse, knowing I would have the 8 a few days later. I've done a decent amount of research on here and found that the cats have a high rate of failure and can cause other issues, and since the car was just smogged, there is no reason to keep it in I scored a Racing Beat dual-resonated midpipe from someone on craigslist, barely used. It has a minor scrape on each resonator, probably from going over a speed bump or something. Didn't affect the inside of the pipe though! Packing was all in good shape. So my buddy and I installed it six days after I bought the car. Exhaust volume has barely changed, which is nice. I like it to be loud when I'm on the throttle hard and quieter when I'm just cruising around. Didn't bother taking pics for this one unfortunately. We also wired up a switch to run the radiator cooling fans on low, as recommended in 04Green's "First $100" thread. I also picked up the cheap ELM327 and bought Torque Pro for my Android so I can keep an eye on the coolant temp and use the switch as necessary until I can afford an AccessPort.
I also picked up an AEM cold air intake from Tofu*Monster on here a few weeks back. He's a really nice guy! I put that in two or three weeks ago, the car sounds amazing now! I really just did it for the rotary music, and I didn't have to give up 10hp to have it! I filled some of the gaps around the radiator with piping insulation while I did this too, per 04Green's "First $100".
First update in a while. Did some maintenance last week. Changed tranny fluid with Redline MT-90 and the diff with Redline 75W90 GL-5. Shifting is a bit smoother and the transmission seems a little quieter. I refinished my headlights last weekend before the big SoCal All Rotary RE-Vival BBQ. They came out pretty good, better than before. I was thinking about how much nicer the car would look with HIDs. Well, sure enough one of my headlights went out the other night. Quite the coincidence. Today, I drove up the street to DDM Tuning here in HB and bought their entry-level bargain kit for $29.99. I had it in my last car and the HIDs worked very well, especially considering how inexpensive they were. Install was a breeze, simple plug'n'play. I have to say the 6000K lights look very nice against Whitewater Pearl.
Here is a comparison shot, HID vs stock. Should be pretty obvious which is which.
Did the Sohn adapter install today. I bought the adapter packaged with Epitroch LLC's support kit on eBay. I used Loki's DIY on the forum. It's pretty straightforward. After a few hours everything was back together and there appears to be an absence of leakage. I will keep an eye on that in the coming days, though, as well as oil consumption. I'm planning to rev the snot out of it a lot over the next tank to get the OMP working hard, and hopefully push through any air trapped in the system and get that Idemitsu burning I also premixed very heavy, as recommended in the DIY. I used the suggested 1:100 ratio, which by my calculations equated to 20.5oz. Dumped that into the tank this morning when I filled up before beginning the install.
Here is a pic of the OMP, which I have circled in red. This is after the battery and tray have been removed.
This is what the OMP looks like after it has been removed.
Here is how things looked once the adapter had been installed. I flipped the oil metering lines around the coolant hose to free up some slack to fit the adapter, which is the shiny plate between the OMP and the engine with the yellow hose running from it.
And here is the finished product. I like that Epitroch's support kit bolts right where the unnecessarily large stock washer fluid reservoir goes. Definitely a great way to reuse the space.
Got my car up on the jack stands the day after the Sohn install and checked for leaks, couldn't find any. I verified today that the OMP is successfully pulling Idemitsu from the reservoir. The level dropped considerably after a few days of driving it hard every chance I got. I topped off the reservoir today and rechecked for leakage, found none. I didn't keep close track but I think I added about 4 ounces to top it off after about 150 miles, some highway, but a good amount of high-load, high-RPM while getting onto the freeway and pulling away from lights. I topped off my gas tank today as I was driving down to San Diego to visit family. I leaned out my premix ratio to 1:256, as recommended on the bottle by Idemitsu. Also managed to fit my dad, brother, and girlfriend in the car and no one complained for the hour and a half drive, so that was cool.
Washed, clayed and waxed the 8 on Monday. Today is a beautiful day down by my girlfriend's house. Decided to go out and snap a few quick photos, while my car is still clean.
So, my girlfriend and I are currently road tripping. I took the car in and got an alignment on Tuesday. We left Huntington Beach at 5am on Wednesday and arrived at Lake Tahoe a bit after 2pm. We spent the remainder of the day up there with some friends, then headed out to Lincoln, where we are currently staying with my girl's family. Total trip mileage on Wednesday was over 600 miles. Trip fuel economy has been very good. I have averaged over 23mpg on the two tanks I've filled up on so far, all highway sticking to 70mph except when passing slower vehicles, AC always on. I did some 1st, 2nd, 3rd and a 4th gear pull merging onto the highway, but that was at most ten times over that leg of the journey. The car has fared well in the heat up here overall, which I partially attribute to being able to run the radiator fans while stopped and at low speeds in traffic while there is little airflow. Going up to Lake Tahoe on the highway was tough on the car. Steep high-speed hill climbs with AC on and ambient temps between 88F and 94F made for the highest water temps I've ever seen, getting up around 216F. The thinner air at high elevation probably didn't help cooling either. Ambient temps since we reached the Sacramento area have been between 90F and 100F and water temps have consistently remained below 205F. We are heading to the State Fair tonight and will probably need to get gas on the way back. We will be leaving tomorrow and heading to Monterey in the afternoon and will head to Laguna Seca on Sunday morning to catch the WorldSBK races. Should be a blast Here are some photos from the trip thus far. I'm really hoping I can get a photo of my 8 by the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca sign at the gate, but I doubt I will be able to because of the crowds.
Your 8 is really looking good!! Hows the interior been holding up for you?
Thanks! It's done quite well actually. Still has that Mazda smell to it haha. There is a scratch in the material on the passenger side of the dash that was there when I bought the car. Other than that, it's almost like new.
05-12-2015, 12:20 AM
