ZEX Wet Nitrous Install!!
 

I finished installing my ZEX wet nitrous kit yesterday! Install went smooth and I got the tank filled today. I haven't tested it out yet although everything works perfect. The Purge button is a great deal of fun and gets a lot of attention. Feel free to post any questions! More pics of the purge shot to come...

A special thanx to Charles R. Hill for all his guidance and support. I would have given up without his info! Couldn't have done it without ya!

Another special thank you to RotaryRasp for donating his time, garage, and tools.
Thank you both big time!
I will update with "butt dyno" results!


Enjoy...

more....

looks great, and hope it works well.
let us know your butt dyno results :D

how so....?

Damn thats awsome, wonder how much you'll pull away from us on the streights. How long was it to install it?

what the HELL ................. It looks like a JUNGLE!!!!!!!!!

I wish you routed the hoses better.

Congrats.........

Main thing is it works.

I can always count on you Razz! :)

I will be going out for a run in a bit...

Damn still considering the nitrous............

Nice work, don't get a ticket.

Have you seen the night time purge kit you can get? Adds a light so when you purge it lights up the NOS spray.

haha sweet job dan. looking good. hope u like it. congrats

I guess a lot of people are turning to nos

Well, the butt dyno results are in.....They say:

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO

Deffinatley a noticable difference. Nothing crazy, but its deffinately there. Third gear pinned is the best because before u know it, your at 96 mph! I love it!
Its just enough "umph" to make up for whats missing whil stock, yet its not too crazy to where you're afraid to use it.

Could you put all the power to the wheels or did the ecu kick in the traction?

I thought about NOS until I saw the vid of the C5 Vette blow up from a NOS backfire. I think I'll save and do it right with FI.

The DSC/TC will activate even with the stock engine so, yes, you need to disable the DSC/TC so as to not wreck your rear brake pads.

Dan, you can loosen up the big hex coupler and rotate the gauge for better visibility without loosening up the feed coupler(that gauge looks familiar, BTW). Plus, Razz will fully understand why the lines could stand to be better organized once he gets his own system, won't he? Right now, the important thing is to make sure the system works properly. Next comes the contemplation and line re-routing for apperances. If you had another 55 h.p. waiting to be used which would be your priority? :)

I call third gear the "Time Machine" gear because that seems to be where everything really comes together, as Dan mentions.

Now if I can use Dan as a guinea pig and ask him to get the "N" flash to see what my problems are.....JK.

Not to diminish the dangers of a backfire but I had one recently, the reason is still unknown, and the only thing that happened was that the resonance box blew open. I fixed it with Super Glue, ordered a new one, and the engine runs fine. The nitrous is still giving me headaches but I am beginning to think it is the "N" flash messing with the nitrous.

CRH

I'd be very scared of nitrous after seeing this video of a mustang w/ Nitrous on a dyno.
What size shot are you running?

Dan and I are both running the 55 shots. That's all the Renesis will allow without ignition mods. That's why GReddy has limited their turbo to the same neighborhood. I am also running the exact same set up that I ran last year and back then it was flawless and cut 1.0-1.1 seconds off my e.t. The only thing I can reasonbly think of that has changed is going from the M to N flash.

I am almost at my wit's end and I am also bumming because the street scene right now is ripe for my taking and I can really use the cash.

Don't get all hung up on these nitrous backfire videos. Sure, there are risks to be taken with just about any mod but the real question is whether or not the cause of the backfires was user error or improper installation. Most of us on this forum have no clue how lucky we are to have each other because there are people who make livings knowing less than we do about cars. Quite sad, really.

CRH

CoooL! I never saw that video! But obviously something went wrong there. You could hear the nitrous shot was waaayyy too much. Especially on a dyno

I would venture a guess that the fuel solenoid wasn't hooked up or responding properly, for some reason, because of the immediacy of the explosion. If the ignition advance was not properly reduced, or the A/F/N ratios were incorrect, it would have knocked way before it would have blown. Mine blew in much the same way except that the resonance box contained much of the concussion wave and gave itself up. $90 later and I am back in business. There are days, however, that I wish I had a turbo kit instead.

CRH

I second that^

Hopefully,(knock on wood) I wont experience any major problems. And lets not forget it was a ford that blew up. Also, we dont know how much nitrous he used. It sounded lke a lot since you could clearly hear the "kshhhhhhhhht" before it blew

I believe the traction control works by retarding the timing.

Isn't Mazda a Ford product now? If so, where does this leave us....:(

it SURE is kwescott, ford saved mazda's ass from bankruptcy, i grugedly am starting to try to not hate ford as much...

Ford owns part on paper only. The car is still designed and built in Japan. And Ford could NEVER master the rotory engine like mazda has

To my knowledge, the RX-8 was a project that Ford had nothing to do with. If I thought the RX-8 was full of stuff out of the Ford parts bin, I may not have bought it.

The Mustang and Mazda 6's are built on the same line in Flat Rock, MI at the Auto Alliance plant. I'd be willing to bet that they share several parts. I'll also tell you from first-hand experience that manufaturers use shelf parts as often as they can to reduce costs. DCX did that with the Crossfire using several Mercedes parts.

People at my work griped a bit about me buying a car built in Japan until I showed them where the wiring harnesses are typically built. When they saw several tags saying "Made in China" or "Made in Mexico" they backed off. The same goes for Harleys, too.

But we were talking about nitrous systems, weren't we.....

CRH

Ya the 6s is basically just uses a standard 3.0 V6 duratec, which happens to have a cam sproket which allows for poor mains variable valve timing. Other then that, its pretty much the same 3.0 duratec engine in everything else...which isn't bad, as the engine is pretty bad ass. (Forged crank, forged rods, hyperleutic pistons)

With the right modifications you can get that baby to redline to 8k, with peak power at 7600 rpm. Its no rotary excitment, but its good enough to make the noble M12 its home.

true, but mazda is using engines designed by ford/mazda now too. im sure ford will never take part in any rotary related things.

hey guys, how 'bout that ZEX wet nitrous install?

Just got my remote bottle opener! I will post pics as soon as I am done with the install

TADAAA! Remote opener is done! Now its time to go out to find some trouble :D

Thanks again Charles for the location suggestion! As you can see it worked well!

"there are people who make livings knowing less than we do about cars. Quite sad, really."

But then again those are the people you beat on the street for money, right Charles?

I had a guy approach me Saturday night with a Buick T-Type(Grand National) wanting to race me for $1K. I laughed and said "Hell no!". I figured anyone who comes up cold and offers a grand has a lot more going on than I do. Then I told him that I would take that bet, provided we race first in a 1/4 mile. Then we go double or nothing on a road course. He kept bitching as he walked away refusing to race under those conditions. I'll tell you guys what though-last year the RX-8 was laughed at for being slow. After my handful of races last year and even the few races I have had this year(crippled performance and all) the RX-8 is now developing a rather decent reputation. Now those same guys who mocked me are showing some props when I roll on the scene. I have overheard some flattering comments that last couple of times I showed up to race. I may be correct, after all, when I said that the RX-8 will be feared on the street once we start to sort out some serious mods.

I wouldn't venture to guess that anyone I have beaten has any sense regarding how cars work. I find it rather peculiar that in the "Motor City" there are very few people who work on their cars with anything other than voodoo science guiding them. You guys shoulda seen the crowd last Saturday. I really wish my car was in tip-top for that gathering. I have found myself one step closer to getting back to expected performance.

Dan, I figured that with the Mazdaspeed rear tower bar the tank would be hard to remove for refills. That's why I relocated mine from the rear shelf to the driver's rear corner of the trunk, as my avatar shows. I'm glad to see you straightened out the gauge, though. My students shouldn't come off half-assed in their installs. Didja clean up the routing under the hood yet? :p

CRH

looks like the best placement for it charles.

also, adictive, is that button in the center of your navi controls the remote bottle activation? and is that a new button or what(i dont have navi so im unfamiliar with the control panel)

Charles: Nope I havent worked under the hood. Honestly, It doesnt bother me. I am not one of those that opens my hood for all to see so it doesnt really matter. I am more into functionality than form :)

StealthFox: Thats the stock Navi control panel. Though it would be friggin awsome if it was for the nitrous :D

By the way, Charles, meet Razz. Razz, this is Charles. Good luck

Hey guys, first off don't bad mouth Ford too much, I had a 2.3L (same engine as the mazda 3 but without vvt) Ford Focus running a 50 shot that was very impressive. 2nd, I want to thank you guys for being the guinea pigs and having the "balls" to do this as I was looking to Nitrous as an option myself (something about the power ON DEMAND is quite addicting.) I have been looking into this for a while, but have decided to put it off until I had conducted more research. Though Nitrous will probably find its way onto my car in someway or another, I am very happy to see you guys succeeding with it first (I'd rather be the one to do it best then the one to do it first :D haha just kidding). Anyways, Just wanted to send my congrats out to you and to warn not to set it off too early or hold it on too late. Again congrats and thanks for being the guinea pigs on this talk to you all later.

I have probably used the nitrous in every way that we are told not to and the Renesis has held up fine. I have been having some problems since getting the N flash but I am a little closer to solving that problem and the next few days should tell me more.

Nobody is bashing Mazda(I think) and you are right that the 2.3 is a cool engine. Whether used in the early Pinto, SC Thunderbird, or Ranger, it was/is a pretty durable engine.

Tank placement: I had mine in the same spot except it was hanging from the rear shelf instead of on the floor like Dan has. I was saying that I only moved it when I installed my rear bar because I didn't think it would be convenient. Looks like I was wrong. Different strokes, I guess.

Razz likes to call me "Ed Roth".

CRH

I often use my trunk and placing the tank there takes waayyyyy too much space :) Besides, its only 2 bolts that hold the bar and removing it take less than a minute.

To each......his own :)

ahh, you have a third seat heater...cool, for the back seats? :)

hehe. I wish (though its not like anyone sits there for long. Car sickness is an issue when i drive:))

yeah that would be AWESOME...except for some rather unruly passengers testing your new button right under their arm on the highway at 65mph

I still have to arm the system and purge...No way anyone but me can reach it :)

you should get a red or blue ZEX purge light, that would look cool at night :D

Yah, that was what I was talking about..didn't realize Zex had one...very cool.

It boosts your style points, but with only one purge, its gonna be difficult for you to get above 4 stars...unless you get spinners, a split hood or scissor doors. :)

Its like 100 bucks for a stupid LED. Not worth it IMHO

NFSU2 reference? :D :D

wow they want a 100 bucks for the kit? you could make your own system for 20 bucks probably

not probably, easily. But I dont wanna, ok! god!

hehe

you know you're scheming a plan right now to make your rx8 just like the one in need for speed underground 2...

Yup, then all he would need is the Orion body kit and Level 3 hydraulics. :)

hell ya. Hydros are on the way baby!