First impressions of my esmeril turbo kit day 1
 

I just picked up my rx8 earlier today it was in the shop for a week getting the esmeril turbo kit put in( version 4.0 ). I still am in the break in period for the turbo I have put about 200 miles on it so far. First impression is wow!! This kit turned my car into a rocket ship! And the sound of the turbo and bov is so loud and awesome it can't be matched. The only 2 bad things I've noticed is that the car has a rough idle and at times seems like it may even stall out. Is this because the engine is just getting used to the turbo? The other thing I noticed is a stutter or hesitation right before the boost kicks in. I suspect this is because I have not had the ECU fine tuned yet but could this be anything else? Thanks guys!

Great stuff - go join the 'boosted overlords ' club :)

What are you tuning with ?

esmeril kit
 

https://www.rx8club.com/picture.php?...543139&thumb=1i will pick up my car next week sound great this a pic

Good advice I will do that! I am running the microtech and I was actually going to have chris from esmeril fine tune for me. We are trying to work something out atm

Yep that's exactly what my engine looks like now :) I see you are using the small battery as well. I had trouble starting the car at first with that battery I had to charge it up for about 20 mins first

Does anyone know if it is normal for my car to have a rough idle right after having a turbo kit put in? I'm still running the pre loaded base map on the ECU until I get it fine tuned. Also I'm having a stutter right before boost kicks in... Will tuning fix this?? Anyone please?!

The microtech needs substantial tweaking to get a decent idle - it will probably never be great even then.
You would need to log the afrs and timing to see what is happening for the stutter .


Flash tuning (Cobb/Protuner) will idle like stock BTW.

Ok well that puts my mind at ease a little bit I was hoping it wasn't something terribly wrong. Is there anyway to flash tune the microtech? I heard that Cobb doesn't work with it. Also I have an afr

Ok well that puts my mind at ease a little bit I was hoping it wasn't something terribly wrong. Is there anyway to flash tune the microtech? I heard that Cobb doesn't work with it. Also I have an afr gauge installed but it wasn't reading out my afr levels for some reason. I'm hoping that once I fine tune these things will go away

No - Microtech is a stand alone . Flash tuning is what the Cobb does .

I heard you could get parts that would make it work with the Cobb.


Have a look at your AFR gauge and see what happens as you transition into boost - that will give you an idea of what is happening.
All a bit academic if you are to get it tuned soon though .

Just stay out of boost til you do :)

+1...

I heard you could get parts that would make it work with the Cobb.


Have a look at your AFR gauge and see what happens as you transition into boost - that will give you an idea of what is happening.
All a bit academic if you are to get it tuned soon though .
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Do you think it would be better to try and get the parts to make the Cobb work with it or just run the microtech? I'm going to just take it easy until I get tuned

It's so tempting to go into boost!! but I'm inclined to agree with you

Brettus I'm going to repost this since I messed up the last response. ( on my phone ) do you think I should try to get the parts for the Cobb to work with it or just run the microtech?

It's been proven time and time again on here that the Cobb works better - way better . I believe MM's service is acceptable now (used to be terrible) so worth it IMO .

:icon_tup:

ok that sounds good and really thanks for all the responses it's been a great help. So where might I go to find the parts to make it work with Cobb or just switch the whole thing to Cobb

From the mazdaparts website :

Nope.. At least not when I purchased mine. They had just switched to the microtech from the int-x but I think I read that they might be offering it now or they will be soon I just checked the website and didn't see anything about using Cobb... :(

Ok yeah I knew I saw that somewhere I just couldn't remember where... But I guess it isn't yet available.

If you only have 200 miles on your newly installed turbo engine, I would highly recommend that you stay off boost until about 1000 miles or so to let everything properly broken in. Your car comes with a stock map which will run very very rich after 6000 rpm which may cause engine to strutter. Your engine is not tune yet so make sure you drive it easy for a while or until Chris show up to work on your car. I have esmeril kit on my car too since 2008 or so and it has been reliable. Your car will run like a different car once it is tuned. And you will be paying more at the gas pump just so you know. Those 1000cc injectors really drink fuel if you are in boost often.

Do a search on my car if you want to know more about the kit. Microtech is not as good as cobb. It will idle fine but it won't be as smooth as cobb. I also recommend you run your turbo engine with methanal for safety. I run 50/50 on mine. Good luck.

all you need to do is move the maf pre turbo. This will make the car pull through instead of blow through. Having a pull through system, with the maf pre turbo, you can tune using a cobb.

That all said, I hear mazdamaniac may have the skills to tune a blow through with a cobb but that was just words I heard blowing in the wind :lol: you would have to ask him.

oh boy.
OD

I highly suggest that you do some study on how to properly break in a newly installed turbo engine. Do some study about other people car that have similar mod to yours. I just don't want to hear you blow up your engine in a hurry and blame it on the kit. If the engine is not yet tuned, stay off boost just to be safe.

you need to tune it...that's it....just be patience. and you will be fine...
just try to stay away from the boost..where do you live?
steven