Looks good, how are the coolent temp?
I know you havent pushed it yet, just curios

 

Thx OD!

The low compression rotors are something that I've looked into, I even thought of lowering the compression of the renesis rotors but unfortunately of course there's not enough material in the rotor to do this. So this will have to wait.

There will be a SS hose hooked up to the oil filler neck then to a ventilated catch can, you can see it in the photo, it's the one farthest to the right.

I've run into SO many problems, right now I'm working on a possible bad alternator problem. When the alternator is cold it puts out over 14.2v, but then after idling for about five minutes it heats up so much that you can't even touch it.
Then the voltage output drops to about 12.9v-13.0v and the motor starts running terrible then dies. I can't find a whole lot of info on normal rx8 alternator operation and temperature but this thing gets SUPER HOT!
I'm gonna pull it and get it tested...

 

Coolant and oil temps are great. I drove it about 150 miles last week with a lot of stop and go fwy traffic and the temps were great, also a number of short 5psi-10psi bursts and all looked well. EGTs never went over 1000, although the sensor isn't in quite the right location but it does give me an idea at least.

 

I have an extra functional alternator lying about if you want to borrow it. They all get hot to some degree but the V drop is a bad sign. You can buy the internals separately from Mazda, but they tend to be outrageously priced so it may be cheaper to find a new or used one somewhere

 

I have have went thru a couple of alternaters on my car once giving a jump to my lil brothers fc it took a couple of days but it went. Then driving around it hot weather it smelled like a burning smell came to the house the alternator was smoking. And one bad thing when the alternator goes the electric steering drains all the power from the battery which will leave the car impossible to turn over. as well not be able to drive. i had took my the burnt out alternator to a couple of shops who rebuild them only thing is that every shop i had went to really doesnt even want to mess with this alternator for some reason it make take a few hours to rebuild one.

 

My alternator went on me a couple months ago. The harness to the back of the alternator was on fire! I got lucky when it died that other parts of the car did not get fried. A few other members have experienced just that and the costs were in the thousands.

 

It is "normal" for the alternator case to hit temps as high as 260°.
How are you handling the alternator regulation scheme? Do you still have the OE PCM hooked up for that?

 

yeah, you have to switch to the FD3 alternator in that scenario ...

 

Good to know about the temps, thx.
Yes, the PCM is still hooked up and "should" be handling the regulation. Do you think that something I removed or did is causing the PCM to lower the voltage? I did relocate the battery to the trunk but the car ran fine for a week and I drove it over 150 miles with no problem, then one day everything started to go fubar and when I checked the alternator output it was something like 13v. Also, I "think" it's making a strange banging sound and when I touch it it's definitely vibrating, BUT, I can't tell if it's the alternator or something else.

What do you mean? Is it because the FD alternator puts out more amps or is it because it's self-regulated or something? Do tell.
Thx.

 

Ok, I put a used alternator in and now the voltage output is only around 11.5V and the battery light is on. It's not getting super hot though like my old one.

 

And I thought I was the only one! My battery light was on constantly and running low voltage ~13v and was driving me crazy. I finally figured out that once I plugged the MAF(just hanging) the battery light shut off and alternator was charging fine. Weird huh? Try it and tell me!

 

Current status:
-The used alternator that I put in was worse than my old one, only put out 11.5V.
Need to get a new one.

-Exhaust leak somewhere around center exhaust port/air-pump block off plate area.

-Coolant leak somewhere around thermostat neck.

-And finally...front stack is screwed and maybe the front stationary gear bearing.
This happened due to the oil being extremely diluted with fuel. Continued to run the motor unknowingly and there ya go.

 

crap.... that's not looking good.

 

Did you by any chance take off or change the main pulley wheel? My oil gets extremely diluted from gas blow by, but I don't have a problem.

 

Dam this sucks I hate when problems like these start to happend

 

+1 - lot of people have had that issue with the thrust bearing falling off its shoulder after the pulley has been taken off .


rg1977 - is the pulley wobbling ? That is a sure sign .

 

Taking the pulley off doesn't do it...the pulley is held on with the small 10mm bolts

Taking the front cover off, or removing the front bolt and flange would do it

 

/\yeah that - heh

 

Nah, never touched the pulley or front cover, this failure is a direct result of the oil being grossly diluted with fuel and my "fail"ure to notice it in time. I'm sending out a sample to be analyzed to see just how diluted it was.

Anyways, the race is on to see if I can get this thing running in time to make it to dyno day...

 

How did that happen ?

 

Stop Posting and get on it. We can come in a day early on Friday if there is a gonna be a BIG push... The car will make it

 

I don't have any problem sending you my spare alternator, doesn't look pretty, but operates fine

 

Could be from side seal blow-by and very rich mixtures, but usually from the side seals.

 

LOL! But it's SO dang cold in my garage right now!
I've already started tearing it down, I can just drive down to Mazdatrix and pick up the parts I need too. I don't think I'll have the exhaust leak fixed in time but everything else should be good to go by Saturday...

Yes! I'll take it! Does it have a pulley on it? If not, I'm notorious for destroying alternators trying to remove the pulley so it'd be best if it shipped with the pulley attached. Pm me on the side for address and shipping charges, also, if you're willing to permanently part with it let me know how much.
THANKS TEAM!

It happens to all motors, piston/rotary, to some degree, obviously not to this extreme.
The oil control rings will "squeegee" any excess fuel and mix it into the oil, usually this is in very minute amounts but in my case it was in very large amounts due to very large injectors and the fact it wasn't tuned so I had it running rich...too rich.
Supposedly anything in the 2% dilution range is critical, I'm very interested to see the results of my oil analysis...

 

any new news??