I have the R flash & am running the stock eManage map, and live at the bottom of a pretty steep hill.

When the car is cold, it is nearly impossible to get it up the hill. It bogs badly from about 1600 - 4100 RPM. After its warmed up, it isn't as bad...its just a flat spot in about the same RPM range. It runs like a champ at >4100 RPMs.

The swap of leading/trailing spark plug firing order when cold has something to do with this, I'm sure, but I seem to have an extreme case of it, with the car backfiring & belching blue smoke. Revving the motor above 4100 RPMs when cold so I can drive up the hill will do very bad things to the durability of my engine!

Has anyone else had this issue?

I'm hoping to address this problem by upgrading my engine management from the eManage to something that gives me more control. My pick is not the VCon, Interceptor, Haltech, or etc., but someone else's product...(more on that in a week or two after its installed & tuned).

 

Most have recommending tuning the emanage. You shoould probably do the same if you are having problems. Good luck!

 

Are you running boost first thing, leaving your driveway? If not, its not the emanage. Is it misfiring? I had that happen once or twice, but only for a second after cranking up. After that, the thing runs as if the stock ECU is running everything - smooth as silk - even from cold idle. BTW, I think the spark is reversed only at idle. could be wrong on that.

 

Ignition is only switched at idle.
E-Manage will only interfere with tuning under boost or with sudden throttle activation.
Why are you bogging the motor while it is cold, anyway?
Start it, let it idle for at least 30 seconds to a minute and then drive it gently until it is warmed up. That is the proper way to treat the Renesis - turbo or not.

 

hey MM,

who's that piloting the red 8 in the vid clip? nice little drift goin' on there!

 

I know exactly what your talking about. My car is acting the exact same way.
At startup it's a pain to drive. Just trying to accelerate slowly is tricky. I'm never even close to boost.
It takes a good 10 mins, when it finally reaches 170F, for it to start acting normal.

I can only imagine the steep hill your talking about. I have problems on slight inclines leaving work. You may try to find a way around that hill until you find a new engine management.

 

Sigh...it's a frickin' steep hill, and I live at the bottom of a dead end street.

If the car ran properly, I would be able to gently creep up the hill. The last thing in the world I want to do is thrash a cold engine.

Oh well, I'll hopefully soon have the problem solved by other means.

 

I had the same problem, my car wouldnt MOVE when it was cold, i had to wait for my car to warm up completely, otherwise it would stall.
How old are your sparkplugs. I changed my spark plugs and my problem was gone.
Right after cranking a cold car i could drive, no problem, and idle was smoother.
New plugs are Denso Iridium Racing (IRT01-34 and IRL01-31), both one heat range colder.

 

Could be the plugs. I changed my leading plugs to one step colder about 6 months ago. I'm going to order a set of spark plugs (with shims) from Mazsport this week and hopefully that'll fix it.

 

2 adrian: What the price for Mazsport plugs, here in Croatia is $80 EACH stock plug Only denso is available for rx-8.

 

I believe the Mazsport ones are cheap, about $10ea plus shims for proper depth.

 

yeah my car is frickin dead when its not warmed up

I'll usually warm it up until the idle drops a bit, but I don't have time to let it get to the temp it really wants to be at

 

Here you can buy the NGK 10.5 for near $29/each.


Manuel

 

It looks like switching the plugs fixed it.
I put the stock plugs back in and no more problems. Runs smooth right after startup and the idle is better.
I've put in an order for 4 plugs/shims from Mazsport (I believe they're NGK heatrange 9). They were $15 ea.

 

Im glad to hear that

 

Hmmm...maybe I should try swapping out the plugs.

My car only has 6k miles on it, so I didn't think they could get buggered up so quickly.