...found this thread tonight.

At last!!! an 8 with a turbo installed by one of us.

Way cool and I can't wait to see the results.

Thank you Philo.

-jcs-

 

With the proper setup and good maintenance, I don't think any low to mid boost applications are going to kill the life of the engine. What kills rotary's is detonation, and so long as you prevent that, our engines are solid. Since the easiest way to have detonation is for the A/F to run to lean, there are alot of ways this can happen.

the FD's had a crappy knock sensor, and most people didn't realize that even simple bolt on mods could screw up the A/F. That and the heat from the engine degraded the maze of vacuum hoses, which if broke could also cause a lean condition. Then, there were people that just turned up the boost and screwed up the A/F ratio, and boom. (see my poll)

So long story short, for low boost 5-9lbs, if history is an indication, with a propertly tuned and monitored turbo setup, assuming you maintain your car, you'll be killing your gas mileage happily for many years to come.

All of us 8 folks have the benefit of learning from the FC and FD folks what to and NOT to do. This is really important, at the end of the day, our engines are really not that different. I hope people take the time to understand the problems with pervious FI rotaries, that way, our only bitch will be about snaping out tranny's and burning up our clutches

 

hope all is okay with the family jon

i cant make it sat but im sure next week i can come by and see the car
hit me up on aim when u get a chance.

 

I dropped by today to check on Jon's installation. It looks very nice and solid.

The Greddy stuff is top notch and anyone that bashes it for being "whimpy" needs to get a grip. The manifold is the closest thing to OEM quality that you are going to see.

I got a good look at the E-Manage wire loom and it is a work of art. I would have killed to have one back when I was installing my E-Manage.
The maps are locked with a password, so I couldn't crack them open to see what they were doing for tuning, but the way they wired the injectors gave me some ideas.

My only complaint (besides the turbo being a bit on the small side) was that the instructions might be a bit vague for the average owner.
No matter, though. Jim (the tech helping Jon with the installation) is experienced and will make it happen.

Hopefully it will all be up and running tomorrow.

My custom installation is complete. I think Jon has a lot to look foward to on the road this weekend. :D

 

jealous

 

Okay guys.. I JUST GOT HOME from my sisters place.. she was involved in an auto accident last night from all the rain we've had here in South Jersey but she is doing very well.

Okay.. now for the last part of the installation. I am going to ask you all to hold your replies until I'm done posting pictures/comments from the final portion of the installation. Don't worry, when I make the last post about the install, I'll let you know Here we go...

 

Okay guys, these pics aren't in PERFECT order since I took some pics out of order, but they do explain well how to place the peices on and how we had to modify a peice or two for fitment purposes.. Here is the first peice.

First was we wrapped up the oil return line from the turbo to the oil pan. GReddy should get a Nobel price for engineering for this one. They made is SO EASY. Here are the pics. Notice how it connects to the oil pan WITHOUT drilling or welding, it's just a barrel extension that replaces the oil drain plug that the return line connects to.

 

Now we had to mount the intercooler. We ran into a problem in clearance of the intercooler and the metal bumper. We had to alter the brackets. Here are pics of the brackets both before and after the alteration. Notice how we had to bend the steel bracket to lower the position of the intercooler so it didn't rub on the metal bumper. Also, here is a picture of the intercooler mounted.

 

Here is another picture from the front of the Intercooler mounted.

 

Now we had to run the piping from the turbo to the intercooler. We had to move a radiator hose a little bit by removing the plastic peice that held it in place, bending the metal bracket that held the plastic peice and the radiator hose, then used a zip tie to hold the radiator hose to the newly bent bracket. This gave us clearance for the intercooler piping. Here is a pic

 

Now that we had the radiator hose out of the way we were able to run the piping from the turbo to the intercooler. Here are some pics. Again, I have to give props to GReddy for doing such a GREAT job with this kit. We had no issues with piping not fitting properly.

 

Now we had to remove the peice before the throttle body on the intake so we could run the plumbing from the intercooler to the throttle body. here are some pics. Also of note, Greddy says you have to disconnect the front sway bar so the piping can be run, you don't have to do this, I have a Racing Beat Front sway which is a lot thicker than stock and had no trouble running the piping with the sway bar still mounted.

 

Here is a picture of the air filter attached to the suctioin pipe going to the turbo.

 

Okay.. about this time, both Jim (my mechanic) and I were exhausted.. so pics are few and far between since I was worred more about finishing the installtion last night then taking pics.. so my apologies..

Next we connected the downpipe. Again, GReddy did a great job on this. We had no fitment issues, but those mounting bolts were a pain in the butt to get the nuts on. Here's the downpipe.

 

Now that the downpipe was on, we connected the catalytic converter and reattached the cross braces under the car. Here's a pic of the cat attached to the downpipe

 

Now we had to reinstall the airpump. Forgot to take pics of the airpump itself in the engine bay, but here are some pics of the steel braided piping that connects from the air pump in the engine bay to the downpipe.

 

Alright, I am going to apologise again for not taking more pics.. but we were exhausted. Also, note that some of the pics were out of order of completion.. so sorry about that as well. But I think I covered all of the major issues of the installation. Here is one more pic of the engine bay completed. Also, here is a pic of the front of the car with the bumper on.. Notice the very STEALTHY look.. you can hardly see the intercooler.

 

Okay guys.. I am not quite done yet. I am going to install the BOV today. Looks like I am going to have a very nice whoooosh sound from the sound of the backpressure to the turbo. I would highly recomment getting a BOV if you get this kit. This thing spools up so quick. Very responsive turbo. I also have to finish running the wiring for the boost gauge. I plan on mounting the boost gauge on the A-pillar. I'll take more pics of that later today. I am heading back over to Jim's shop today so we can wrap up the nit picky details.

Just for the record, the major surgery is finished, she runs GREAT. I do have a CEL up right now, but that's because we broke the oil pressure sensor on the engine so now it's not connected (that's causing the CEL). It's a useless switch anyhow, but I have to get a new one from the dealer ($10 peice).

I didn't take pics of where I mounted the e-manage yet because I have to wrap up mounting it in my glove box. That's where I am putting the e-manage and my Defi Link control unit for my gauges. I am going with Defi BF series white gauges since they match the dash perfectly in ever aspect.

Okay, now that I'm done posting pics for now, I'm going to open this thread back up for comments. I'm also going to search through and answer any questions that I may have missed. Lets here it!

-Jon

 

I am currently talking to PTP and trying to get them to sell me the center dash gauge pod that they have only as a prototype. I have to wait for their manager to get back from vacation for an answer. for the time being, I am mounting the boost gauge on the A-Pillar

Both

 

looks great!
I should have two kits in hand next week.

 

Fantastic job! Thanks for the photos!

 

Oh yeah.. I wanted to give a lot of thanks to my mechanic Jim from JPR Imports. He is a top notch mechanic and has years and years and years of rotary tuning experience. Here is his contact information for anyone that wants it

JPR Imports
409 South Blackhorse Pike
Blackwood, New Jersey 08012
856-227-1808


If anyone in the area needs work done on any rotary they have, Jim is the man to talk to.

 

I don't think BLOWN was the best word choice for this thread :D :D :D
I love it though. I am excited for you. If you are ever in the Georgia area then come on down to athens. If i can't give you a run for your money by then, i will get my brother and his lotus to Great post. Thanks for sharing.
A little side note.
If anyone knows of a good mechanic near the atlanta area please give me a PM. The people here are pretty much idiots when it comes to my car.

 

I have a suggestion and a request philodox. Now that Jim has experience doing this conversion, perhaps he would be able to publish a "turbo install" price. esp as he now knows what to heck he is doing with all the little details, I'm pretty sure a lot of us would be more than happy to drive a little distance to get him to do it rather than DIY or have some local hackjob done.

Also maybe a summarization of the extra parts and costs you used beyond the kit would be helpful (rather than going through the thread and pick them out).

Lastly go drive the thing and tell us how beyond wonderful it feels to have the first in the (public) world RX-8 turbo when you put your foot down WOT! through the gears :D

Thanks for all the vicarious install pics (just so great) and commentary. Just spellbinding Thanks!

 

Sure thing, I'll talk to him today when I go over there to work on this BOV and gauges.



Greddy Type S BOV: $139
Aluminum Mounting Flange for BOV: $26
Defi BF white Boost Gauge: $224
Defi Link control unit: $114

that's it for extra stuff

Hehe.. Thanks! But.. Mazdamaniac was the first.. He hand built his turbo and has had it on the road for about 2 weeks.

Hey.. no problem.. just trying to support the RX-8 community with my personal experiences. Hope I've been a help.