RB Ram Air Duct Questions/Problems
 

I have had my revi intake since may, and i love it, so i decided to get the rb duct as well. I installed it a little over a month ago, and at first it was definitely worse than just the revi. I reset the ecu a couple times, and initially after doing that it was no better. Now, without resetting the ecu, i think the car is running better than with just the revi. I'm still a little skeptical as to whether its installed completely right because of all the positive review of people being very happy with their ducts. I looked at where the duct "connects" to the revi, and i noticed that the rubber piece that came with the revi is only touching about 1/2 or less of the duct. Could refitting this improve the performance/sound aspects. If the weather isnt to bad this weekend, i want to take off the bumper and make sure the rubber piece is completely surrounding the opening, and the ducts is tight against it. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Dont get me wrong, i think its even better than just the revi now, but im getting some wierd response in second gear, that i dont think i ever got before. I just want to squeeze every last bit out of the duct.

there are definitely wiggle room in terms of fitment of the air duct to the intake hole of the revi air box. I was able to adjust the air duct so that it basically sits flush with the foam strip on one side of the intake hole, and the revi sits also pretty much flush with that intake hole. There's probably like 3-4mm gaps here and there, and obviously the foam strip won't provide a perfect seal, but i'm too lazy to do the extra work to completely seal it off :o:

I've seen several posts where people have reset their ECU after installing the Revi. Why? I post this question to Jim Langer at RB and he said there is no need to reset it. Now that fall is here, how are the cars running with the Revi/duct now that they are injesting cooler air?

driving at night, with 45 degrees ambient temperature (as read by the temperature sensor right IN FRONT of the air duct), there's definitely a nice kick in the pants from this intake :D:

Yes, I definitely feel it more with colder weather.

The temp dipped to 32F the other night...granted I couldn't keep the back end coming out (still haven't swapped to winter tires) but the car seems to sigh a breath of relief from my hard driving :) as in a nice boost :)

I have to concur. Being down here in Texas, it is nice now to have cooler weather. We're still in the 70's during the day (which is really nice) but at night (50's), driving home from work, my car smiles the whole way home. I really do love the REVi intake/Ram Air Duct combo with the RB exhaust. My mileage has gone way down as a direct correlation to my right foot's propensity to make the whole RB combo roar!! :)

i have a hard time believing the Ram Air Duct would cause any drivability issues, if anything it would be the REVi. All the duct does is extend the mouth of the REVi down farther. You'll want to make sure that all the sensors are properly connected and the vacuum lines are plugged. in addition make sure the screen in front of the MAF is smooth and undamaged, as that can affect the idle.

Are you sure the plug is still on the Carb?

exactly!!!!! :wiggle::wiggle::wiggle: my guess is he knocked something out of whack or never tightened the ring around the sleeve near the MAF

Just curious, to install just the Revi without the ram air duct, do you need to remove the front bumper?

Yes.

do you?

I removed my front bumper for both so I don't remember

regardless though I don't know why people freak out about removing the front bumper it is super easy :ylsuper:

Wish the rear bumper was as easy as the front.

amen to that :mdrmed:!!!!!!!!! :Eyecrazy::Eyecrazy::Eyecrazy:

You need to get rid of the VFAD and that'd be pretty hard without removing the bumper.

I agree that it's easy - but people usually fear what they don't know :)

to seal it just go to lowes or home depo and get a $5 dollor sewage seal, in the plumbing section (all rubber),cut the lenght to fit and everything butts up well. Nice and snug.Fits on both sides of the front cross member.
Check to see if your maf may need cleaning.
olddragger

Add one to the 'choppy idle' gang... :( I'll double-check connectivity of things, and tightness of clamps tonite.

did u reset the ECU and put the the nipple cover on?

Yes, and yes.

hmm...did u reconnect the mini 'catch can' black platic thing on the right side of the accordion style tubing?

hmmmm

????? pics or anything?

ummm I've been to lazy to put my winter tires on so I don't have the car at work otherwise I'd post a pic

also it is possible the ram air/intake didn't seal to the pass through in the metal frame tightly

that is why staticlag did his silicon seal mod

No worries - I went and found it...I never removed it during the install.

As the REVi is supposed to work fine w/o the scoop, I'm thinking a less-than-perfect seal wouldn't affect things. To me, it almost has to be 'after' the air meter to cause a problem.

Thing is, there's nothing there after it which I removed/changed. I suppose the meter may not have a perfect seal, but things look snugged up nicely.

was the air mesh screen damaged during installation?

Everything looked fine - I suppose i can remove it w/o too much trouble to check. I'll take a photo and post up; have you guys 'read the screen' for me. :)

Pinched MAF o-ring maybe??

here's the symptom:

http://www.d-mphotos.com/movies/dpembrx8idle.wmv

Everything is tight/snug...no visible vac lines, etc. The screen looks fine, as far as I can tell...wish I could get a better angle.. :(

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...id=63390&stc=1

that mesh screen looks good

clean the maf?

Gained 4HP after resetting ECU on my last dyno runs. Convinced me!

btw i just watched the video, looks normal to me, i had the same thing when i had the stock intake, and once in a very blue moon mine will do that too, i wouldn't lose sleep over it :p:

14K miles? the thing 'looks' clean...I don't recall if it happened prior to the install. Now it does it just about non-stop, when warm. Every few seconds - 5? it'll dip down. On occasion it'll go way down, below 500 rpms. :(

hmm

on a hunch I plugged in the module which controls the VFAD...no change. Re-Reset the ECU, and things got worse initially. Now, at idle, it tries to die about every 30-60 seconds... :(

Both dannobre and I have the RB installed, and he is coming down this weekend for R&R at my house. If you want, we can call you and tell you where we are and maybe the three of us could troubleshoot it...

Please, please, please!!!!! Maybe either of you has a scanner and could read the ecu for me? think that would help?

Yep - we both have one

Excellent - hopefully we can track down the problem :)

I have the ram air duct connected to the stock box with a K&N flat drop in filter.

I had the same problem as dmp when I pulled the vfad stuff with the vacuum lines. I capped the vacuum nipple and was fine until stopping at a light after getting up to 60mph. RPMs fluctuated big time, acted like it was going to kill swinging between 1,500 down to 500. Later I got a CEL.

Is the green connector on the back of the air box just for controlling the vfad flap or is it possibly a second intake air temperature sensor?

I reinstalled the vacuum line and vfad controller and the car runs fine.

I tried that too...no difference in my car's behavior. :(

How about the mesh screen? Is it seated properly? Still sounds like a vacuum leak to me.

After you reinstall, do a ECU reset with the battery disconnect, reconnect. Drive easy (under 4k RPMs for first 20 miles).

Screen tis seating - Jim at RB is confident the problem is 'after' the MAF - frankly, a leak before the MAF wouldn't change anything, as the MAF can't know where it's getting it's air from. A leak after the MAF would mean the MAF is setting the fuel for a specific air load, yet the car is actually getting another.

The car is very driveable, however, it's just a little annoying at stop lights. Most of the time, I keep my foot on the gas pedal just a hair, to keep the idle tween 900-1000 rpms and things are fine.

Someday - maybe friday - I'll inspect the rubber accordian piece to look for small breaks/cracks.

dmp, maybe you just got a bad batch of gas or something. also, make sure one of the spark plug wires didn't get accidently tugged a bit out of place during the install.

Done and done...it's been doing this since the install, and thru +/- a tank of fuel. :(

I watched the video and my car does that sometimes too and I have everything as far as the air filter stock right now... It doesnt happen every day.. but it does occasionally.

I would just like to say that this thread has been a great read.
I have just recently installed the RB Revi Intake and Ram Air Duct (did the RB A/C and Oil Cooler Screens too) and have had no problems (knock on wood).
The car sounds great and my ass dyno says whoopeee!!!!
However I was unsatisfied with the connection between the Ram Air Duct and the Intake box and will be taking things apart this weekend to try and fix as per another thread I found from reading this one. Thanks again!
I live in central Ontario where the temperatures can drop to -30C in February, now I don't generally drive my 8 in the winter but I can't wait to get that kind of cold air crammed into my intake!!! :D

Cheers

Post back after you try it.

Well I got it done.
What a bitch of a job! I started by completely disassembling the Ram Air Intake and Revi to try and get the best alignment possible. I suppose you normally wouldn't have to do this as per your directions but I figured .... in for a dime in for a dollar.

Summary:
1) Achieved a better connection between the RamAir CAI and the Revi. The connection still had a gap but was much better then my first installation. I also applied some Blue Silicon to the foam gasket to help it stay in place. This seemed to work nicely. I also used a small 4 inch piece of softwood to hold the bumper out a bit while I made adjustments to the Ram Air CAI.
2) Appling the Silicon as per your directions ---> I failed terribly. I tried 4 times to get those cotton bandages to stick correctly and all I did was make a terrible mess! SIDENOTE: The silicon is relatively easy to clean up if you don't wait too long. It's handy to have some Brake Cleaner or 70% Alcohol around for this too. So what I did was apply some silicon directly to the area I wanted the cotton bandage by hand. Then I applied the cotton strips. This seemed to work better for me.
3) After waiting and applying the second coat I was pleased with the seal however it doesn't look that pretty. Good thing no one can see it!

Conclusion:
1) I'm happy with the seal not so happy with the look of it but like I said who is going to see it.
2) I'm sure next time I'll be able to do it in half the time and 2x better.
3) I do notice a small sound difference. Slightly reduced noise level and a deeper tone.
4) I'm disappointed that I had to do this in the first place. When I purchased the Ram Air CAI and the Revi (I did this at the same time) I was totally under the impression that they would be connected some how. As per this picture on their web page http://www.racingbeat.com/FRmazda4.htm NOTE:See pic below.
5) Would I do this again? Yes until I find a solution that is better. IE like a proper hose fitting. I thought I had found something at a local store however it was a 60 dollar item that needed to be ordered in and if it didn't fit to bad for me I owned it. So for a 300 ml 18 dollar tube of Blue Silicon and 5 dollars of medical supplies and a 30 cent popsicle this method is a nice alternative. Besides worse case scenerio (wcs hehehe) I can take it all a part again and with a little elbow grease and a few beers clean out all the silicon and I'm back to scratch again. No harm no foul.
6) My only worry? If I need to take the car into the dealer and they need to remove the Revi. Boy are they in for a surprise!

All in all .... I'm happy. Thanks everyone and Cheers Staticlag :ylsuper: