When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
So the car was missing an aerogaurd on one side, is rusted to hell on the rockers, and I'm allowed to run factory aero... so like.. Mazdaspeed sideskirts seemed like an easy go to.
Plus the look cooler.
Do they make the car more slippery? I have no idea. But the bottoms are actually fairly flat, and rust bubbles have a terrible drag coefficient (i assume).
Install was simple because everything fit up. I was a bit disappointing with some of the holes from the aerogaurds not lining up so instead of drilling a ton of holes in the rockers I just used 3M tape. I expect this to fail eventually, but it works for now. I did drill a hole in each for the rear wheel well mounting so it IS popped in nicely on the front and back.
The car looks so much nicer, and this was definitely the best way to fix all the rust
you have to keep rear seats for the rules? Was scratching my head on that, but if required then that makes sense since they’re unusable with the cage. The charcoal cloth rear seats are lighter.
That's the joooooke. This car sucks for that. Every single bolt that's come off has been a pain in the ***.
Originally Posted by TeamRX8
you have to keep rear seats for the rules? Was scratching my head on that, but if required then that makes sense since they’re unusable with the cage. The charcoal cloth rear seats are lighter.
"Cars with fully gutted interiors are not permitted. Seats must be present and properly installed in all factory positions front and rear."
But yeah, obviously useless except for losing things in. Not really concerned about weight right now. Just want a car that works and I can drive without worrying about it being the prettiest thing ever.
Had a fun time with the manifold because (as expected) a stud broke when removing the pipe. No biggie, pulled the manifold off, removed the studs, and then proceeded to break off new bolts in the manifold because I suck.
Whoops.
Just decided to buy a new (used) manifold to swap everything on to. Ended up rounding the O2 sensor off, because even after heating the hell out of the old one, it still didn't want to come off. There goes some more beer money..
New manifold also of course had the heat shielding completely rusted off. Not sure how I feel about that, especially on the top part where it is near the intake manifold. May have to find a solution for that sooner than later.
I used a Racing Beat blockoff plate and a new gasket (which by the way, from Racing Beat is the wrong gasket for that plate.. but.. I guess if you're blocking it off it doesn't matter) which seemed to work fine. Could make your own for way cheaper if you have the equipment of course. I'll remove the P code from the ECU when I can get my hands on a new laptop to be able to flash it as well.
Either way, it's all back on and I was able to swap out an engine mount in the process too. Funny thing I noticed was that when removing the mount to block aluminum mount, one of the bolts was hand tight... may explain the vibrations I was feeling. Vibration seems to be down with the one new mount in, and I do have the other side as well. I'll get to that some other day.
Not worthy of it's own standalone post.. swapped out some fluids. Other consumables are on the way.
Transmission:
-2 quarts of Motul 300 75w90
Rear Differential:
-1 quart of Motul 300LS 75w90
Engine:
-4 quarts of Idemitsu 10w30 Rotary Racing Oil
-Mazda OEM filter
On the way:
Brakes:
-ATE Type 200 Fluid for all
-Centric Premium front rotors (they were out of high carbons and 1-3months timeline to get em in.. grrr)
-Centric High Caron rear rotors
-Carbotech XP12 F/R pads
Old fluids didn't look too terrible, but the trans and diff drain plugs definitely had some material on them.
Transmission input noise was noticeably quieter, but we will see when it all gets hot. I've also noticed a pretty decent CLUNK when putting it into first gear from a stop. I'm assuming the clutch is just a little bit spongy and it's not disengaging everything as fast as I shove it in gear. Hoping the fluid flush with the shared reservoir will help, but I am not optimistic. Not the end of the world, just something I've noticed.
Hey, Equinox. If you're looking for a front sway bar, I have a progress bar I don't plan on using and is taking up garage space.
I'm local to you too. Shoot me a PM if you're interested.
Got the brake parts in and on the car. Rear dust boost were absolutely trashed by the last guy that was in there, and because of that there was quite a decent amount of rust on the pistons. Ordered new rear calipers and just popped these ones back on while I wait.
Fronts were in good shape, only had to service one caliper slide.
ATE Type 200 fluid will go in once I get the rears fixed up... and then we wait to get everything bedded in. Pretty excited to give the XP-12s a try!
Aaaaaaaaand new rears + ugly fluid out. Put 1.5 liters of ATE through.. still had some garbage coming out but I think it'll be good enough to get hot and then bleed again at some other time.
Suuuper stoked to get this thing bedded in.
First track day for shakedown was supposed to be the 18th, but Michigan is currently shutdown to due COVID until at least the 13th, so we will see what the event status is then.
It has nothing to do with pleasing me or anyone else reading it, because that’s not at all why anyone participates on a public forum. Not that I know anything about getting feedback or allowing emotions to be in control. Or being goaded either.
I’d really be surprised if any public group type events occur before the end of April, but I guess we just have to wait and see.
Did you do anything at all yet to assess the condition of the engine?
hey look, don’t read too much negativity into my intent or take it too personal. There are people on here who love to promote that kind of us vs them sort of mentality. Try to be more like this guy instead and you’ll be way ahead of the curve than they are:
the question below is sincere, just let me know if you need help with it or anything else. Those same people never mention anything about that side of coin:
Originally Posted by TeamRX8
Did you do anything at all yet to assess the condition of the engine?
You're an interesting individual, which is totally fine. I'll just take it for what it is.
Anyways: as far as assessing the condition of the engine.. I haven't done much of anything to verify it. Why you may ask? Because in my grand scheme, it doesn't really matter.
If I test it and it's good, wonderful! Business as usual and I'll drive it until it falls apart and go from there.
If it test it and it's less than good, not AS wonderful, but I'll drive it until it falls apart and go from there.
This isn't my only, or even second car right now and it's cheap enough I'm not insanely concerned about the well being of it. I just want to get some laps in without being paranoid about smacking a wall and breaking something I love.
I know a lot of people love these cars are more than just tools (I get it, my Impreza is the same way), but for me it's simply a tool that I will until it needs servicing or replacing. Nothing more.
So engine in good shape or bad shape, it still runs and provides torque to the other parts of the vehicle, so I will keep on sending it until it doesn't.
I get it, that’s cool. . And let’s be honest; we’re fortunate in this country to have that kind of liberty and opportunity in our lives.
I’m hopeful that once we come out of this national emergency situation that people will become a bit more reflectful and appreciative for it. Perhaps we’ve all become a bit too spoiled and jaded over time, taking too much for granted ...
Finally got the tires in and on. Threw the wheel on. Simple as that.
Story on the wheels was that I was looking for a used and abused set of 17x9-10in wheels, but everyone wanted pretty much the same price I could get them for new with tires I'd just like to rip off. Had some buddies at Oakos (shameless plug: https://www.oakos.com/) hook me up with a "buy 3 get one free" wheel deal on exactly what I needed. Super grateful of them and you should buy stuff from them. They aren't paying me, I just love our local speed shop. Either way, ended up getting this new set for less than I could buy used stuff for. Add in some fresh 255/40/17 RE71Rs and it's your pretty standard wheel/tire.
Had to go with gold as a callback to my Subaru people!
Need an alignment and corner balance.. but waiting to get the damn seat it to throw it on the scales... as well as finish up some other stuff that will shift weight around.
Figured I'd post this here since it somewhat relevant and may spark some interest. Many people have worked on reverse engineering the OBD PIDs from the ECU for ECU parameters to log, and that's all well and good. I've also been able to dump my own flash ROM and modify stuff, and all that.
What a lot of people haven't look at is the ABS unit/EBCM. Looking at the data that can some from the EBCM is pretty cool. I've lost the link to the PID list (in the manual at least) but it looks like we can look at lat G from the properly calibrated G sensor, yaw rate, and brake pressure. All super fun things to have logged. Today I decided to dig into that. Using some open source OBD software, and not using it for OBD stuff, I was able to sniff my little Bosch code reader interfacing with the EBCM over K Line. Luckily the unit uses a Ford protocol, so it actually talks to me device. This is some of the data I found:
Looks like a bunch of mess until you pull some of it apart. Looking into the data I found these to be true:
TX to the module: 0x44 0x28 0xF2 0x10 0x6E
RX from the module: 0x94 0xF2 0x28 0x7F 0x10 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x3D
If you break some of these messages down, the translation is:
Basically, the test tool tells the module "hello", how much data it's going to send, who it's sending it to, and where it's coming from. Then it will give it a subroutine (could be initiating a diagnostic session, or requesting a PID) and then a checksum.
The module will the response with "hello", how much data it's going to send, where the data is coming from, who the data is for, a response (positive if it can give it data, or negative if it doesn't support that subroutine/can't give data), the data it wants you to have, and then the checksum
Pretty simple, and it may sound familar because it follows a normal ISO9141 serial w/ a baud of 10400 with physical addressing. The physical addressing is what can change from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Working on writing a simple API to send arbitrary data to be able to blast PIDs out to the module and parse data back. I can adds these into my ECU parameters and get them all on a common t axis :D
It might be best to post a common english summary in a sentence or two of that last paragraph since most people don’t speak technogeek.
I’m assuming you need traction control for that, which I suppose was fairly common on a lot of RX8s, but the non-TC base models had a different ABS module.
It was my understanding that there is no actual brake pressure measurement; just on/off, but we’ll see I suppose.
And yeah, I would assume you'd need a DSC/TC unit for it to support that data... luckily I have that stuff.
There is a pressure transducer in the module's block, and should measure MC pressure. Any ABS module SHOULD have this as it's useful for ABS calibration (source: used to work making software for brake control units :D)
Anyways, did some more digging after work tonight, found what I think is a complete list of routines (UDS and otherwise) supported by the module over the data line. Most gave me "conditions not correct" failure, but that means they are supported I just didn't have the vehicle in the right mode. Here is the list + my notes:
0x22 - Read data by identifier?
0x10, gives negative response but unit does a self test.. believe this is diag mode request.. but needs another request (maybe 85 like the ECM?)
0x13
Data back, two instances:
44
28
F2
13
71
A4
F2
28 28
53 53
0 0
0 0
0 53
0 6
0 0
0 0
11 6A
0x14 or 0x15 gave me a 0x21, which means the module is in wait... odd..
0x27, got a conditions not correct just asking with key on
0x31, same as above
0x32, same
0x33, same
0x3F, got a 0x00 response code... weird..
0x42, 0x22 response code with just key on
0x43, 0x22
0xB1, 0x22
I've got some software that will send arbitrary packets, calculates a checksum, and reads back a response. I would like to make this so that the data length is also arbitrary for ease of use.. but I didn't feel like making it nice just to get some starting data.
It won't be over CAN, otherwise the data would be waaaay easier for me to get haha.
I've already got everything over CAN pretty much situated. Wheel speeds, vehicle speed, RPM, temps, etc> Also adding my own sensors over CAN to interface with a cluster/logger. Oil temp/pressure, things of that nature.
Sweeeeet did some more work on the ABS unit today. Decided to write some software to get every PID from the module. Basically just blasted it with everything looking for a positive response and stored that address in eeprom to look at later.
Kinda ghetto, and I think I missed some.. but I did get quite a few. Also, I was able to figure a few signals out, and also with more PID IDs I was able to google and get more info off the hop. I found alllll the signals I needed. Would be fun to figure more out as well.
03-08-2020, 10:32 AM
. And let’s be honest; we’re fortunate in this country to have that kind of liberty and opportunity in our lives.
