I may have made a very long, exasperating and expen$ive mistake.

I just went through all the hoops to get the individual parts for the GReddy upgrade kit (which is no longer offered) through a very accommodating vendor. Two-plus months later, I now have the new harness and eManage Ultimate (with chip). I'm still waiting on the secondary blocking plate and restrictor.

I have been doing some catch-up reading, so, I apologize. It sounds like I'm way behind the curve here...

I need to make sure that I'm reading these posts correctly:

• The AccessPort is preferred over the upgrade kit with it's fancy new harness and Ultimate+chip? Meaning...
• Folks are pulling the harness and eManage and programming the ECU directly??

Thanks in advance for the guidance.

 

This is indeed correct, though one caveat is that while you can run the greddy intake setup, it does not have a properly sized MAF sensor housing. It can be made to work, but the solution of choice around here is to use a hacked up AEM intake in place of the greddy intake.

 

Yep - very highly recommended over the EMU.

 

So, the what is the issue with the intake? Is it turbulence and inconsistent readings? If I remember correctly, there is a screen in front of the MAF to help smooth out the flow...that's not enough?

 

granted a vendors job is to sell you the product you are trying to buy... but,

to me that is a **** poor vendor who is more concerned with taking your money(whether or not it additional work for them), than making a quick check to ensure you are getting something you really need for the car. IMHO the vender should have accomodated you at request, but should have offered to pull the reigns for a split second and ENSURE you really wanted the craptastic EMU over the far more advanced solutions availible....

 

Turbulence may be part of it, but the bigger issue is that the diameter of the section of tube housing the MAF sensor is not correct. This can be overcome to an extent by calibrating for the correct tube diameter, but you'd be better off to run a proper intake setup.

 

What diameter (ID) is the Greddy intake piping? I'm ordering a maf housing from a Suby vendor and I'm going to adapt my intake track to fit it, but this is on a different kit. However, if a few weeks from now everything works out well, the vendor would probably be open to making more. I'll post up details if/when it works. The aem intake will do the trick.

 

just sell the ultimate and get the AP...you'll be happy you did...

 

I have the original Greddy turbo kit, and the inlet pipe is rather odd.

These sizes were eyeballed, and probably metric, so I'm guestimating these sizes.

The MAF section supplied in the kit is about 4 inches in diameter, and is attached to the inlet using a reducing hose connector (which reduces the size about 1/2"). This section has some hose nipples and connections and runs for a few inches or so. Here is the odd part: this section has a sharp "bowl" shaped reduction to a final size of about 3". I suspect this could be a source of a lot of some odd airflow.

Hope that helps. Here is a picture of the kit (from the Greddy site). The inlet pipe is on the right upper side with the "collar" and hose nipples on it. You'll get the idea.

Kit picture

I went back out the garage and looked at mine again after seeing this picture. My "bowl" section is made of cast aluminum, and about four inches in length. This picture shows what appears to be a pressed and rolled section of tubing only deep enough accommodate the hose connector.

 

The short MAF housing supplied by GReddy for their turbo kit is inadequate in several ways, but it can work - just not very well or at elevated power levels.
It is too short, slightly too small and has no flow straighteners.

The AccessPORT is by FAR a better solution for engine management on the RX-8 than the e-Manage by several orders of magnitude.

Now, I'm curious what "upgrade kit" that is no longer available you are talking about, what parts you acquired as a substitute and what fabrication you are having done to simulate that upgrade with these newly acquired parts.

 

Common Sense *INSTEAD OF* Retardation?

you decide ....

.