Extremely high exhaust temps?
 

Well, I've been pushing my car reasonably hard the last couple of days and it's been quite hot outside so I didn't notice it too much when it seemed abnormally hot in my Rx8 today... then I went to get my radar detector out of the center console bin next to the driver seat and almost burned my damn hand. The whole center console, including the shifter area, the plastic down the sides and especially inside the center console was VERY hot. I plugged my AccessPORT in to check the coolant temps which were running in the 195-205 range, which should be well within safe operating temps. The heat seemed to be coming from the transmission (edit: more likely exhaust) directly.

When I parked the car the fan immediately kicked on and buzzed away. I ate dinner for an hour and came out to find the car still at "operating" temps. Ambient temperature outside was high 80s/low 90s and I've been out and about in much hotter. Any ideas what would be causing the huge jump in heat? It was significantly hotter than normal.

I've been running the stock MM map from the AccessPORT for a couple of weeks now, and performance of the car is amazing. The only other major change besides the reflash is the AFE STS... I'm somewhat at a loss because if the radiator etc had a problem I would expect a jump in coolant heat. Anyway thanks in advance!

its the exhaust more than the trans

Yeah I guess you are right... the exhaust does pipe right underneath that too. In fact when I checked it again the heat wasn't nearly as bad directly near the shifter, it was much worse farther back which I guess means exhaust. Any ideas why my exhaust would suddenly start cranking out so much extra heat? Blockage perhaps?

I do believe MazdaManiac's calibrations get rid of the "cat saving" feature the stock ECU comes with in which they dump fuel to cool the CAT to extend the lifetime.. that is why your center console (CAT area) is hotter than usual. imo.

Which actually makes sense, but the increased heat really seemed to kick in today, and I've been running the MM calibrations for almost 2 weeks? Is it possible that the lack of fuel cooling the cat has caused a blockage or something?

heat rises; what is the highest cavity under that area of the chassis and what is sitting in it?

Even bone stock RX-8s have this issue, been well discussed/b-tched about here many times

Yeah, but this is a massive raise in temp from how it's been running for the ~6 months I've had the car. I damn near burned myself touching the inside of the storage bin behind the shifter. It's never been even remotely that hot before.

check and see if the little e brake isolators have fallen out, there is a channel, almost ,through that area. the exhaust pipe puts out a lot of heat. i ended up wrapping my midpipe. some are starting to become concerned about the radiant heat affect on the transmisson. you are runner a little leaner and that will also make for more heat.
olddragger
the trans itself does get hotin comparison to the interior.
od

Get a race pipe. Its not as hot as the stock cat. Only thing is its loud and smells lol

Hmm, where are the isolators? Are the under the panel? I was driving it really damn hard through a ton of twisties the other day, the next day the heat problems started so if something could fall out that would vent heat through.. that would be it.