olddragger

iTrader: (3)

Been running the boost a spark on 10% for a couple of days now without any problem whatsoever. Wiring harness and coils are at the same temps they usually are, car runs great, cranks a tad better, and i know its subjective--but it feels that that little flat spot in the higher gears at 6K --is better. I dont have an area to test 5th or 6th gear but i did in 4th.
Overall I am very pleased. I will increase the gap in my plugs one day this week. That should help just a tad more--maybe. I will do a hard run before I take them out--i want to see how they look with this change.
After doing more dialing in and settling in this change---i am going to tie open the ssv. I cant open it earlier with the cobb since my tune is locked. I did that once before for a day and the car ran better in the lower rpms--up to about 4.5 K and it didnt affect anything that I could log--except the fuel trims changed just a tad. I hate the intake valves in this manifold. Cranking/cold warm up, idle were all the same. Go figure.

After that I get to work on the exhaust and THAT is going to get very interesting.

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

after speaking with juan--i checked the voltage to the boost a spark from the pcm and I get the same as to the battery( controlled by the voltage regulator and pcm). Today at the temp it was and the current battery charge I am getting 13.4v.to both. i havent disconnected the hobbs switch yet to see what volts would be delivered from that. i truly do not know what setting gives what voltage--thats the reason i am keeping it very low
more to come.

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

check system voltage on the way in to work and the system varies from 13.5V to 14.2.
this was measured with the cobb at the obII port. My check yesterday of the coil power wire recieving the same volatge as showing on the cobb leads me to believe that the power that is going to the ignition coils does vary. .7 of a volt is a big change for the ignition coils ( and the fuel pump).
The oem dwell table is voltage compensated--but only at specific volts--its not a floating table.
This may be spitting hairs--IDK at this point, but if you are trying to tune/modify the ignition system I guess you cant have too much data.
I do understand that the boost a spark also serves as a voltage stabilizer and elimintaes this varience.
next --I have to disconnect the hobbs switch making the bas operational all the time. that way I can measure what voltage is being delivered at what setting.
After that I will widen the gap on the plugs.
more to come

Brettus

iTrader: (2)

one word : Interpolation

Interested to try ssv open all the time on my car as well now - logging g/s before and after should tell me if there is any benefit .

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

does that mean it's infinite ? Going to make me look it up arent ya?
I didnt do a grams/sec when I locked mine open, but the increased throttle response was very apparent.

marsredr100

iTrader: (1)

Denny!...are you still with us???

I have researched the intronet for BAS review/feedback/before and after dyno but all I can come up with is this:

1- Hey guys have anyone tried/used/using the BAS.
2- Then followed by...try something else cuz the BAS sounds like snake oil.
3- Then followed by...I don't care, just ordered one.
4- Then followed by...BAS came in, looks solid, easy instal, here are lots of pictures and DIY instructions.
5- Followed by...car runs smother, sounds better, going to open the plug gaps next time and maybe a dyno.

Then long and behold everything goes quiet.

So, I'm wondering. Do their cars morphed into a BAS utopia along with their owners? I wonder if we will ever be able to communicate with them via Earth Intronet to BAS utopia intronet? Or maybe they spontaneously combusted or with so much voltage they made it back to the future...yeah...that sounds better.

Regardless Denny...let your folks at home know before you become another case of BAS disappearance...and if is too late...then farewell old RX8 SC friend. It was great knowing you and your somewhat entertaining/confusing and lack of or tiny pictures post. Maybe you'll be able to show Mazda the way to another rotary production car while at BAS utopia. I'll keep my eyes on the intronet and maybe you will be able to find the way to communicate back with us the unBAS folks on good all planet Earth.

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

Huh?---made two posts yesterday in reference to what I am doing/seeing.
I havent had a chance to go any further with it.
Fact--there will be more voltage/current supplied to the coil. What else are you asking for? Every car is going to be different in its response to something like this. Research a little more and you will find that a lot of people have increased their plug gaps without problems that they had before installing the bas. Supra guys running a lot of boost in particular.
You want me to electrocute one of the backyard squirrels with this thing? Lol!

Thanks to Brettus for my dictionary lesson about interpolating. So our dwell table is a floating table with certain set points. I dont think that changes anything in reference to the bas --but it is good to know.

Kinda busy:
Big Mazmart meet Saturday and the Ga club guys are at Road Atlanta
Sunday is Fathers day and the family has made some plans.
Refinancing our home Tuesday ( have yall SEEN the newest interest rates!) at no cost to me and its an unbelieveable deal.
I am retiring in 2 weeks meanwhile working every day M-F.
So patience young one--my little findings will come asap.

Now I have a new problem to address. The weather has warmed up and although my ect's are great and stable something else as become apparent. Since I installed the fan controller ( that have worked out great) the fans are more active now. This has affected my IAT's at the MAF. They are at times much too high . Would you believe 135F? The temps also do not cool off as fast as they used too before. I still have the short intake with the pettit maf tube and cone filter. Yes- I do have all the fan shields like oem on.
So I am looking for a way to get the filter outside of the engine bay. I have to figure out like others have what fits and what doesnt to get this done. Meanwhile i am driving easy. Been wondering why my gas milage has taken a hit.
What have others done?

marsredr100

iTrader: (1)

That will be awesome.

I'm wondering if you could monitor the voltage and also amperage readings after the BAS. I did it on my car and I get the same radings as the one out of the OBDII.

BTW...there are 24 hours in a day...make them count Denny.

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

Man you are HARD!!! Give an old guy a break

Thats my plan is to monitor post bas voltage. I have researced about how to do that and I have found that it is ok to run the bas all the time. In order to do that you have to disconnect the hobbs switch and connect the hobbs switch wires together. I dont want to do this for long as the dwell in the lower rpms is right on and I dont know if the bas will overheat them or not. But I think it will be ok for a few seconds. i can have it all hooked up with the bas voltage controller in my hand while i read the multimeter.
If I set the bas controller to 0 then that is just oem voltage--so I can slowly turn it up while the engine is running to see what voltage starts coming out.
I havent checked to see what it is post capacitator. I need to do that too.

skc

OD, I made up my own CAI using 3.5"pipe, 1 90 degree pipe, some silicon couplers and K&N filier. I also cut up the stock box to use the MAF mounting.

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

thanks--thats exactly what I will be doing this w/e. I am picking up the parts Saturday.

OK HERE ARE SOME BOOST A SPARK FINDINGS!!

I took the hobbs switch off which means the bas was activated all the time.
my system voltage was varing from 13.5 to 14.2V
I only tested at idle as it doesnt make a difference in this.
0 setting = system voltage
from 0-20--really no appreciable change --only a few tenth of a voltage change--but the voltage was more stable
at 25 it was about 1/2 volt increase so it was a stable 14.1-14.5V
at 30 it started changing significatly it was at 14.5 to 14.8
at 35 really a change as it got from 14.8 to 15.3
at 40---YEA BABY--high 15's to 16.5V
at 45--OK HOLD ON--from 16.5 to over 17
at 50-- ZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTT----bug zappler time--it got to over 19 V before I could cut it off.
I did not run it enough at any of the higher settings to cause any wire or coil to warm up.
It would be ok at 40 --i am thinking BUT I am at a setting of 35 WITH the hobbs switch now and it will stay there until Steve Kan comes to town in a couple months.
Hopefully this w/e I will have time to open the plug gap from the present 28 to 32 or so. I dont really think it is going to may that much difference.
Oh-- yea--the car feels just as strong with w/m on as with it off now.


at 50-- JUMP BACK--it got to 19 volts and I turned it off!

marsredr100

iTrader: (1)

Eggcellent!

Now let's try it with the hobbs hooked up, set at 35 and monitor voltage while driving (a/c on/off) (lights on/off) (various rpms).

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

Why? All the hobb switch does is turn it on and off. The voltage output from the bas is unaffected by rpm or load. What you see is what you get ghost rider! .
I do wish I had a way to actually check the coil output though.

I do have a question --- in running different than oem coils--how do you know how many additional amps are given to the coil just by increasing the dwell?
Different coils have different rise times etc. so what a coil absorbs over a particular dwell time may not be as much as you think or it could be more than you think. This could affect the coils output and the result may be not what you expect. Plus you have varing system voltage ( i know the dwell table accounts for this, but how fast does it react?) and I wonder about that.
Be careful when changing ignition parts around.

marsredr100

iTrader: (1)

Prove it. The car at idle was the constant and the BAS control **** was the variable. How about the other way around? You know before hand that the RX8 is sometimes weird and what makes sense with other cars doesn't follow the same reasoning with ours.

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

ok -- i will see that bet and raise you five
Just monitor the system voltage while you drive. Same voltage in --the same voltage out.
bas doesnt care if you are idling or at 9K rpm, going up hill, or pulling a mack truck.
Its dumb. Its just a transformer.
I have monitored the system voltage while driving a good bit. The voltage varies.
Get this--the iat sensor tells the computer how much voltage to allow in the system.
So dwell, in a way, is also dependent on how hot the air is in your intake. I am told Mazda did this years ago to protect a hot battery.
Today for example I got caught in traffic with the a/c on--intake temps got to 130 per iat, my system voltage went down to 13.2, 13.4 max. Its usually 13.6 to 14.2. That small change makes a difference.
I am fixing these intake temps this w/e!

Brettus

iTrader: (2)

OD - is this a pic of you ?

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

no-- but I think he is a relative
and by the way--thats the best compliment I have ever received on this forum!

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

just got back from a big meet at Mazmart-many many really sweet mazdas.
more to come.
Rick E liked my ignition set up.

slvrstreak

iTrader: (3)

We do call him the mad scientist locally

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

well after some trial and tribulation I finally have my air filter outside the engine bay. All the extra "stuff" I have made for a tight fit. But, it sure was worth it. IAT's now about 3 degrees over ambient. In town driving only about 5 degrees + ambient. No more triple digit iat's!!
Also noticed that the intake air charge ( post supercharger)dropped a noticable amount also --thats to be expected.

OK for you guys that think I have been lazy...............................
This is what I have done over the past 2-3 weeks.
1-Installed and explored the kenne bell boost a spark---it works for me. No more seat of the pants flat spot at 6K and the water meth doesnt seem to make the engine loose power. But, waiting on Steve Kan to return to Atlanta and we will get it on the dyno for the numbers. I have mine turned up to 30% with the 4psi hobbs switch. Rick E at Mazmart really like the set up--especially with the hobbs. I also rewired the coils power supply harness and used 16 ga sized wire.
2- moved the air filter outside the engine bay--since my fans are working more and my iats had climbed with the warmer weather. This worked great.
3- OK AND HERE IS A SIGNIFICANT ONE! I have tied my ssv open. It's open all the time now. It does have more low in grunt. My a/f's have not been affected, I still get the targets Steve set. I run rich and according to my innovate wideband they are 10.9 on intitial tip in ( accelerator pump )and then settle to 11.2--11.3 . I think what is happening is the supercharger is handling the air flow well and doesnt need the ssv to keep the charge velocity up.
This is true even out of boost. a/f's unchanged and crank, idle, idle vacuum, cruising are not affected--except the throttle response etc is much stronger. Can we say break the tires loose in 2nd gear with just throttle stronger!
Now i looked at this for a while guys and asked Steve about it---he said if my numbers are ok then there wasnt a problem from a tuning perspective. So I cautiously approached this and it has worked for me. Maybe my ssv wasn't working as well as others are--IDK. But it did change my car some.
Now back to my regular job!

Galen Darkmoon

Great pic OD of your air filter. hehe

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

Hey man--how have you been--got a better instructor now?

I just did the out the front vent hole and elbowed to the passenger side--nothing special. Just keep near or bigger pipe size.

NEW FINDING CONCERNING THE BOOST A SPARK ( I THINK)
I just swapped out my sparkplugs out ( ultrasonic cleaning them) and when I pulled them--they where a light gray ash color. I have never seen that before. They have always been the usual--very dark brown/black deposits --before. Now this was the light gray you see in a fireplace after burning hardwood--that light gray/pewter ash look. Hmmmmm???!!

By the way --i redid my ssv's so that they now perform as oem. The car is more driveable with them in the oem config. I had too much power with just slight throttle movement. with them open all the time. I had more power at below 4.5--5K but above 5K it all evened out.

marsredr100

iTrader: (1)

Did you re-gaped? What gap are you running?

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

32--right now. i was at 28 per Pettits recommendation.
Do yall know that for us indexing the plugs actually makes sense? Look at the flame pattern on the sparkplug. Mine is very distintive.

olddragger

iTrader: (3)

ok moved my gap up to 36 --so far so good. I do run denso plugs. Seat of the pants tells me it does seem to have a little more grunt. We shall see next time I am on the dyno.
The color of the plugs DID change.