When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Hello fellow rotorheads. This is a magic fairytale about a poor 4 port 2005 5spd manual EUDM RX8. Left to rot under the sun for 10 years, it ressurected in 2019 with 18k miles on the clock.
After doing all thats possible on a NA engine, the time has come for it to be turbocharged. Long story short its gonna be a low mount, low boost, small turbo build with all the bells and whistles that can be bought or made. Being a 4 port, I have never aimed for the stars with this engine. Since its such a low mile excellent compression unit, keeping it in +100psi compression for many years to come is #1 priority.
A short mod list:
sohn adapter
battery relocated to trunk
SPAL 1660CFM cooling fans
can-bus based monitoring system of AFR, ECT, IAT, oil pressure, oil temp, EGT, advance and whatnot my soul desires
aftermarket ignition coils
cluster water & oil needles are hacked to be more useful (i.e. water needle starts going off center at 190F and maxes out at 210F, the oil gauge shows true oil pressure or boost)
ashtray display for some parameters, updated and changed as needed
6spd gearbox swap. The 5spd has its gearing ratios way too high for this torqueless coffe grinder of an engine, so... any small wheel torque helps.
Now the spicy stuff. The turbo stuff. Its gonna be china's finest GT3076 with a .82 hot side. Remember this 4 port engine has weak stat gears and smaller exhaust ports c ompared to the 6 ports. So this means no super-duper awesome 350whp from here. 7-8 psi is what I intend to run, and some water meth injection. Its gonna be like a greddy kit but not used and with some improvements. The final number should be ~250whp and a wide powerband starting from 3000rpm.
Starting from 150whp at NA and no torque whatsoever it should be a decent upgrade for the money. Again, I am well aware of my limitations here. Not blowing the engine will always come first, power second.
Tomorrow I am dropping the car off at a fab shop to have the turbo manifold done and the intercooler piping. I know electronics myself, but otherwise can't weld 2 scrap pieces together. I've made my own WMI and EBC controller too, but more info on that once I get the turbo in and get some use to my contraption.
ECT/oil temp/AFR/oil pressure
Last edited by ciprianrx8; 10-27-2020 at 02:50 PM.
I'm thinking of setups for a turbo build hopefully within the next year. One thought I had was swapping to a davies craig electric water pump setup and run a rear mount radiator to avoid removing the crash bar or heat soaking issues.
Excuse the sizes, they are in centimeters. I won't mount it exactly like this because this requires removing the crashbar. I don't wanna die in a black tin can, so the intercooler will sit lower to clear the crash bar.
Progressing well ! Looks like you will get away with the stock engine mount ?
I was thinking the same until I saw picture 5 (viewing through the wheel well), looks like the top of the engine mount was cut off similar to how the turblown kit is?
Thank you for the nice thoughts. That's not my job though, I can't weld 2 scrap pieces together, that's my fabricator hard at work.
About that engine mount:
Ugh. OMP leaks again. Hate that thing.
About the intake, the current plan is to reuse the oem maf housing tube because:
1)its free real estate - free stuff is the best
2)its the right diameter and has a flange to it already - welding/cutting a new flange really doesn't seem to be of any benefit, apart from delaying the conversion because I don't have that thing laying around.
3)it has an air straightener in it - which would be very hard to source.
About the intercooler:
Don't ask me exactly how he's gonna pull it off, but he said he doesn't like running the pipes through the suspension arms, so the charge pipe will come in/out through the OEM air intake hole, while the air intake will be run where the coolant bottle sits. The bottle will be shifted to the center to make room.
On top of that, the charge pipe before the thr body will be full of sensors, and a water injector, so i'd rather have that 2ft long straight pipe instead of a twisty curly boy near the fusebox.
My concerns right now:
1) oem ecu is buggered - keeps throwing a P0601 code, cuts the thr plate, idles to 2000 rpm. Have a new ECU on the way, which I hope to be able to code in myself and still run mazdaedit on it without having to call Moscow.
2) I have very little fresh cool air going to the AC and water radiator. I'm a comfort creature, I want my AC cold... yeah keeping the coolant below boiling matters too.
3) the turbo is tiny. Yes yes, size does matter regardless what women say. It's a bit bigger than greddys' T618Z, and my engine is a 4 port, so no high boost/high RPM here. My concern is of the backpressure created, which I do not want to exceed 15psi. I have an EMAP sensor installed, and now its time to cross fingers.
Last edited by ciprianrx8; 12-17-2020 at 01:11 PM.
Thank you for the nice thoughts. That's not my job though, I can't weld 2 scrap pieces together, that's my fabricator hard at work.
About that engine mount:
.
Nice solution. Way stronger with that upper brace in place.
Originally Posted by ciprianrx8
About the intake, the current plan is to reuse the oem maf housing tube because:
1)its free real estate - free stuff is the best
2)its the right diameter and has a flange to it already - welding/cutting a new flange really doesn't seem to be of any benefit, apart from delaying the conversion because I don't have that thing laying around.
3)it has an air straightener in it - which would be very hard to source.
I've seen this tried before ...was not successful . The tube is too weak once cut off the airbox.
Great job with that engine mount . What size of inlet/outlet are on that intercooler? Squeezing piping between the crash bar and the engine bay is pretty tight, I know 3" won't fit, but I don't actually know what size of piping will (2" probably will, unsure about 2.5"). Also when I had my greddy intercooler I had it sitting tight up against the bottom of the crash bar to allow more flow under it to the Rad and AC condenser. Just food for thought.
Last edited by RotaryMachineRx; 12-17-2020 at 01:41 PM.
My current IC setup definitely blocks more flow to the Rad and AC condenser but in the small amount of light driving I've done since swapping, the AC seems to still function excellent. This is obviously comparing apples to oranges as my REW seems to run about 10-20F cooler coolant temps than my MSP did but I haven't pushed any boost through it yet. You can also see how battered my oil coolers are in that previous pic, the fins were all straightened out while I was waiting for the new engine.
Last edited by RotaryMachineRx; 12-17-2020 at 01:50 PM.
Nice solution. Way stronger with that upper brace in place.
I've seen this tried before ...was not successful . The tube is too weak once cut off the airbox.
I have thought about that too, and I see 2 aproaches here:
1) inner steel bands at the ends where the air filter/intake pipe join with clamps, so that when the clamp comes on, the inner steel band prevents the crushing of the plastic.
2) 3D printed circular reinforcers with a + in the middle. Many 3d parts are used in my build, more on that later.
Anyway, the amount of times i've pulled on that piece of plastic pipe and dropped it, it really amazes me how tough that plastic is. Doesn't seem to be hard to make it even stronger if needed. Certainly easier than fabing a new flange, since even finding some 3,5" alu pipe proved difficult.
@RotaryMachineRx the intercooler has 57mm input/output. The intake starts off on 3,5" at the maf, reduces to 3" till the OMP, then 3" to the turbo. The charge pipes are 2,5", or so its planned - it never works out as planned.
No it never does but having a well prepared plan does help you to navigate the challenges as they arise. You're well on your way and sounds like your vision is in the right direction, we've had a few discussion on the Boosted Renny FB group too (Jesse Aumiller). Look forward to seeing future updates.
on second thought likely to end up as another flash in the pan, came and went never to be heard of again after blowing an engine or two being a penny wise and a pound foolish
on second thought likely to end up as another flash in the pan, came and went never to be heard of again after blowing an engine or two being a penny wise and a pound foolish
.
What happened to you that you that made you feel the need to put people down all the time?
You’re reading too much into it. I’m only emphasizing; sarcastically so, the bad choice he’s making. An aluminum maf flange, a short piece of 3.5” od x 16 ga tubing, a small hole saw to cut the hole, and 5 minutes of welding labor over taking that flimsy OE maf tube and trying to jury rig it to work. A blown engine in comparison is not a trifling matter. That will crush his spirit 10x worse than anything I post here
if he pm’s me his address I’ll even send him one at my own expense just to prove you have no idea what you’re talking about.
because there’s a lot of stuff that goes on here that you don’t see or know about
or go read my prior response here even or the one before when I offered him a turbine housing in support of building this
but then that was only your 4th or 5th post here compared to my 15 years
.
That's great what you did with the crash bar ! It's details like that, that matter
Thanks! Downside, no more tow hooks. Rebuttal to that, the tow hooks weren't accessible with the MazdaSpeed bumper on anyways. I wasn't willing to give up the crash bar, same as Ciprian, so figured I'd throw it out there as an idea of what can be done if he wants to move his IC upwards.
All performance/race RX8s should make the same change (if permitted by the rule allowances) because the bottom portion of the crash bar blocks the top of the radiator opening as well. It’d also require modifying the top of the front bumper grill or replacing it with mesh etc. to allow full fresh air flow in to the radiator. Which also feeds the intake, though not directly