Shooter

Just finished installing stage 1.1. Took about 30 minutes. Hardest part was getting the last 3 plugs into the tuning unit. very little slack in the wires and not much room to maneuver. got em in finally though...

First drive, power was noticeable. pulled hard up to the 'beep'. however, the idle is extremely rough. I had my pcm updated about a month ago. I verified it with the brake test. I assumed it was M, though the actual part number wasnt on my work order. After installing Stage 1.1 and now having rough idle, i suspect I may have received L instead of M. Im gonna have to call my dealer and find out what flash I got. I hope thats the problem....

RX-8 friend

Let it learn for a day or two. Also, you may have luck by disconnecting the battery again and pumping the brakes to erase anything the PCM has learned. Then let it learn from a fresh start. The rough idle has been reported before and it appears to go away with time.

epitrochoid

...if you were basing that on my expierence, it never did go away. it seems to subside at times, but will come right back rough as hell the next day.

Shooter

After my initial test run I did the brake test to reset the PCM thinking maybe that was it. Still rough although this morning on the way to work the tach didnt bounce around as much as it was yesterday. We'll give it a few days and see if it subsides.

epitrochoid

oh yea, redline sure flies up on you in first gear...i was all over the beeper when I had mine in.

Racer X-8

It really only took you 30 minutes? Geez. I must be getting old or something. Took me about 3 hours! I do however stop and look and think about things a good bit more than your average guy though. Still though, 30 minutes? Geez.

So anyway, all went well with only one little clip thingie that broke. It was not even one that needed to be touched either, although I thought it did. It's the littler of the two clips on the elbowed air duct that holds its upper and lower halves together. (The elbow is actually two parts, an upper and a lower piece.) I thought they held the oval "hose" to the elbow. They didn't and I shouldn't have even touched them. For some reason, the two little square holes that clip onto the elbow really held on real good, so I started picking at those two clips & the littler one broke. No biggie though, I think it's practically worthless and not neccessary.

Also, the cover wouldn't seat down all the way on only the right-front corner. It refuses to go down any further than about 1/4" higher than it should to completely seat itself. The clip on that front corner will not clip, likewise, it's about 1/4" from clipping together. I tried and re-tried several times to shove everything back and to the left, no luck. All three screws completely seated their connections & the other clip clipped, but that front right corner is high. It bugs me. Is this normal for the rest of y'all? That darned hose going into the top of the coolant overflow reservoir was totally in the way and was a pain when placing the cover down. I had to hook under it, then situate the cover. I thought that was maybe my problem, but during my last attempt, just before seating the cover, I reached-in with a finger & pushed the CZ unit away from that corner real good. Again, it would not go all the way down on that front-right corner!

I stuck little pieces of stick-on foam tape all over the CZ unit - rear-top, rear-top corners, front-bottom, the 4 side corners. Stuff was real thin - maybe 1/16" thick or so. I doubled-up on the sides so it was thicker than the screw heads.

The phillips screws that hold the three brackets to the ecu unit (2 per, 6 total) were very tight! I was pretty worried about my chances of buggering-up one before getting it loose. Geez! One of them just about did just that! Little suckers were a pain!!! Must have been loktited! Geez...

Last but not least, that confounded cable tie-down at the front!!!!!!!! That little component from hell had me sweating real good to get things going. I thought I would be smart and put a small 6-sided socket underneath, to compress the expanded locking thingies under there, then just pull it out. I think 7/32 (1/4" drive, of course, little room under there lengthwise) wound-up being the size of choice. I dunno why, but I just could not get that idea to work. Dunno why really. I wound-up putting a small needlenose under the round base part of it and pulling upward with good old brute force. Little sucker sustained a bit of damage, heck with it. I'm still mad at it.

The other one that's just like it does not need to be removed! Just leave it attached. No problem. I pulled the quick disconnect nearby to give the cover more freedom to move around. No problem.

I had minimal pains plugging in the cables. The three that go into the CZ unit - I bent them so they faced upwards before moving-in with the duo. I re-snaked the way the wires entangle. Details about that are forgotten already, I just remember that I did. The decision to do that was during the time that I was bending the three upward. It became apparent then that I probably should, to minimize the five sets of wires from pulling on each other.

It fired-up fine. No faults. (I never disconnected the battery.) It idled real smooth. Power is more, not sure what to say about the power yet. I was more concerned about detonation and just your basic engine operation on my 4-mile run tonight. All's well!

I got re-flashed to "M" on Monday. Car sat in the garage ever since it got back from the shop. Post "M" flash / pre CZ stage 1 miles were about 25. Not much learning had taken place at all since the re-flash.

OK, so, thought this might be helpful to someone, while it is still fresh in my noggin...

:D

epitrochoid

pfft, i nuked both my wire clips. they just sit in there now. that and the right hand air duct came disconnected down deep between the ecu box and the bumper, and i cant get it back on without breaking down the front end. oh well, ecu cooling is a myth anyway.

oh yea, even they it may have been done already, reset your ecu now that your m flashed.

RX-8 friend

Make sure the stock PCM is as far back as you can push it. That affects fit quite a bit. Your extra foam may have had an effect. First installs require a little careful "squishing" of the cables (press down on the Stage 1 once everything is hooked up). I think it's experience mostly that helps in getting the thing to fit. First one I did was a pain. I learned to take my time and make sure everything was seated before trying to close. If you lift up on that coolant hose the lid will clear it, but it is tight.
Now it takes me 10 sec. or so to change the Stage 1 box. I've done only about 40, I guess. Or maybe I've lost count!
We find the best way to get that front cable clip off is to use needlenose pliers and squeeze the "V" together then push up. The pliers with bent ends work the best for this.
The main connectors can be a real pain to remove. We find using a small slot screwdriver helps - particularly getting the ones out of the stock PCM. Press and hold the lock tab in firmly, and then carefully pry the body away from the socket it's plugged into, just on either side of the lock tab. Make sure you are pressing the lock tab in fully. You -can- break the connector body if you pry too hard.
The connectors from the Stage 1 are easyest to remove if you wiggle them back and forth along their longest dimension, while pulling and holding the tab in (and holding your tonge just right .

epitrochoid

ever since i destroyed a handful of wires on the sti's engine harness pulling out harnesses, i'm sure to be verrrry careful manhandling those wires.

Racer X-8

I tried a bit to remove that coolant hose to get it out of the way. I had to rotate the spring clamp 180 degrees cuz the tangs were pointing downward. Good thing really, they won't snag you that way, but you can't get on them to expand the clamp there, not until you spin it by pushing on the single tang with a flat-bladed screwdriver. That tends to expand it while you're pushing on it, helping it to rotate. Finally, I had my pliers on the tangs, expanding it, only to realize that the hose seemed to be glued or something to the tank nipple. So I gave up on that - didn't want to get into trouble with breaking the nipple off of the tank or something.

I'll try to seat that corner of the lid again sometime soon, before it takes-on a permanent warp. I didn't put that cable anchor into the hole yet - don't know if I ever will for that matter... So, with a fresh start from the end, full of vitality, in good daylight with hopefully, temp's down under 95 degrees, maybe I wiil get it right. I remember the pcm was behind that square peg, right up against it, which is what kept it from migrating any further forward. If I get it right, maybe I'll notice why. If so, I'll post that.

The foam tape that I used was actually a 3/4" wide double-sided "Mounting Tape" made by Manco (I think, from WalMart, comes 60" long rolled-up in a basically green package). I didn't remove the backing on the outside surface, cuz I didn't want it to position the stage 1 in an incorrect position, so it was sliding around on that backing paper. Thickness-wise, up-front, I only had one 3/4" square underneath each corner - none on the top-front. It's only about 2 credit cards thick, so I doubt it does much to cause a height problem.

About that darned fangled calbe anchor, yes, a bent needle nose would be my tool of preference for sure. I don't have one of them though. I have a bunch of different straight pairs though. The painted frame piece in-front wouldn't let me in with straight ones. I guess Mazda has a special extraction tool for them. :p Got to. To put them on this cover, where you can't get the cover off - well, on second thought, the little sucker is disposable to a mazda mechanic, isn't it? Hey Brian, maybe another group buy? Sold in packs of 10 or so? :D JK, I guess...

Those foam filter peices - any final judgement on whether we down here should leave them out to aid in cooling efficiency? Maybe if we filter the air at the hose inlets, wherever those are?

Velocity-8

I did mine in about 25 minutes. It would have taken less time if I didn't have to stop and get another beer. :D

Racer X-8

Oh, well, yeah. Sure. Me too, except I had to go out & harvest my barley & hops fields, then brew myself another batch. :p

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

rx8 friend is evaluating the ecu cooling concerns that some of us have. No heat failures yet but summer is now here. I've noticed that the air intakes for the ecu are both facing forward just back of the grill. WHere is the air exit? You have to have an exit to cool. Anyone know? he did recommend taking the foam OUT which probaly will help a good bit, but it still gets HOT is there.
olddragger

Racer X-8

I'm thinking maybe the air exits thru the "hose" that the wires go thru. It goes behind the alternator, then I couldn't trace it anymore.