Archwisp's "Build" Thread
 

Hey all,

I have wanted a concise place to put all of the work I've done on my car. So, this is where it's going to be. It isn't so much of a "build" thread, so to speak, as it is a "stuff I have fixed" thread. With some major suspension work I'm tackling this week, I figured it was time to start.

I have a bunch of stuff to back-fill but for now, I'll just add new posts as I do the work.

Rear Toe Control Link Removal
 

October 27, 2014

My driver's side rear toe control link was damaged apparently before I bought the car and I didn't notice it until I tried to have it aligned.

For anyone who needs to do this in the future, separating the toe link from the hub is a challenge, to say the least. Follow all of the steps in the service manual and get the brake caliper out of the way. Then, I soaked the rod/hub fitting in penetrating oils and used a puller to press the rod out of the fitting while applying brute force to (read: beating the crap out of) the control link itself (with a breaker bar) until it came out.

You can see a how the old link looks sitting next to a brand new link.

Yikes, glad you got that sorted. I watched a shop flunky try and jack my car up from the control arms once. Luckily shops rarely touch my car so I was watching him like a hawk.

Thanks. Yeah, I generally don't trust anyone else to touch my cars except for tires and toe alignment. Even then, I try to vet them out pretty well and establish a relationship so it's not just some random customer's car they are working on.

First Day
 

March 29, 2014

This is what my car looked like the day I bought it. Before I bought it, I made sure that all of the decorations were stickers that could easily be removed. Also, note the terrible mirror tint that is mismatched with the front windows... work to do.

It also had the aftermarket wheels, an upgraded starter, the Racing Beat REVi intake, and Racing Beat REV8 exhaust on it.

March 31, 2014

I started working through the "First $100" thread and the first thing I did was clean the MAF and ESS. As I was doing this, I noted that my intake only had two bolts holding the filter element in place. Ugh.

Cat Code
 

April 4, 2014

From the very first day, I noticed that my car would intermittently pop a P0420: catalyst inefficiency. After reading many posts, I knew that if my cat was bad, the first thing I needed to do was to ensure that my ignition system was in good shape. So I ordered a set of plugs, wires, and coils. I knew that the Intermotor coils would not last long but I didn't want to sink money into a BHR ignition without knowing that the rest of the car was in good shape.

Replacing Ignition Components
 

April 5, 2014

My 5-year-old daughter helped me change the ignition components but I don't post photos of her on the Internet, so no cute shots of her for you to see :)

But here are some before and after shots with some nasty highlights.

Based on the stamp on the old coils, I'm pretty sure these were the original factory coils.

Lifts?!?
 

April 16, 2014

After driving it for a few weeks, I noticed that the wheel gap on the rear wheels was about an inch different, so I slid under the car...

WTF!?! Are those zip ties on the springs? An LIFTS?!? Yes. Yes they are.

I pulled all of that crap off and cleaned the outside of everything with some WD-40.

After doing that, the car sat evenly. It looked pretty low but it I wasn't sure if I was just imagining it with the aftermarket wheels. I compared the measurement from the hub center to the fender to some numbers I've seen on the forum and it seemed reasonable. It was even within the service manual specs at 14". (Turns out, my shock assemblies were trashed and needed to be replaced - more on that later.)

Lifts????

WTF? Those dont look safe at all. I'm sure one big enough pothole would send those flying and might even take a chunk of tire along with them. Glad you got rid of those. Hope you change the shocks soon.

Why the hell would anyone install something like that?

Because people are retarded and have no idea what that does to a progressive rate spring. But you bought it that way...............

Yeah, I deviated from my standard car purchase process this one time and I have kicked myself many times for it. Just moving on and getting stuff fixed.

Suspension components are converging on my house from many parts of the country. ETA for all is tomorrow!

What did you go with?

Have you pulled your cat yet? Do you think it's blown out, or just clogged? What midpipe are you looking into?

What Charles helped me decide on given my circumstances and the current state of the market. ;) Photos to come once I have it all up and running.

Boring.

Yep. I replaced it months ago with a BHR midpipe with catalyst and love it. It turned out to be gutted. But that's still to come in photos!

Remember, I'm back-filling as I have time. Removing the lifts happened in mid-April. I have a crap-ton more work I did and documented.

Oh ok, lol. Isn't selling someone a car without a cat illegal? You should sue and take their children.

Alright, I've added the date of the work to each of the posts to give an idea of the timeline.

They will self gut, I've seen me do it.

Installed Koni Sport dampers, Tein H.Tech springs and new bump stops
 

November 1, 2014

My rear suspension was completely shot, so I replaced all of the dampers with Koni "Yellow" Sport dampers and Tein H.Tech springs. I also replaced the obliterated rear bump stops with new OEM bump stops.

The wheels and tire setup are:

Front: PIAA Sport Mesh 18x8.5 +42, Bridgestone Potenza 970AS Pole Position 245/40/18
Rear: PIAA Sport Mesh 18x9.5 +38, Bridgestone Potenza 970AS Pole Position 275/35/18

Edit: I'll add photos of the work once I get back to my computer and have some down time.

Looks alot cleaner.:icon_tup: I loved the H-Techs on stock shocks, I'm sure they'll be better on Yellows.

Initial alignment
 

November 2, 2014

I had my alignment done today after installing the new toe control link, dampers, springs, and bump stops.

-1.6 degrees was the lowest camber setting we could get per side in the rear and -1.8 was the highest negative camber setting we could get in the front. The caster looked like a PITA to adjust so we haven't played with it yet. The new suspension components will likely settle in a bit, so I'm going to take it back in about a month to get that sorted out. Reducing the caster should give me some more front camber to play with should I need it.

As it is set up now, it feels very responsive. If I'm not on the power at the apex of a 90 turn, it pushes into understeer. If I hit that same turn at over 5000 rpm, the tail slides out just a little. Pretty much perfect - you shouldn't be powering through corners anyway.

I'm guessing that all those people who say that staggered setups ruin the balance of the car just haven't bothered to set it up properly or they are speaking from no experience.

I also have experienced no obvious power loss from running a 275 tire. (previously 245)

It's not about power loss that you will really notice with the butt dyno, it's about reducing rotating mass. Adding weight makes it slower, simple as that. While I am sure it feels okay, you won't really know until you hit the drag strip or road course against another RX-8.

does anyone know where to get a starter 2kw for a steal?

Posted From RX8Club.com Android App

No, and stop thread crapping noob.

haha, I can't get PM's from noobs.

I'm loving this setup!

I took it to an empty parking lot today with lots of dividers and it went exactly where I wanted it to go on every turn. I need to correct my previous 5000 rpm tail-slide statement. It's more like 3000 rpm. I couldn't be happier with the balance of this car.

I can't wait for spring so I can get it on a timed track. With these wheels, it looks like I'll be running in CSP, so without significant mods, I won't likely be competitive. But I'm really more interested in the fun and personal challenge for now.

Settled Suspension
 

November 12, 2014

Just a quick shot of the new suspension now that is has settled. Ride height is 13.75" all around. I pulled off all of the mirror tint that was previously on the back windows. Now I need to schedule an appointment to get them matched up.

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1419285420

Took the hood stripes off
 

January 17, 2015

Small update: I gave her a good cleaning and decided to take the hood stripes off.

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1421552705

Looks good, why not take all the stripes off?

I probably will. It just takes a lot of work to remove all of the adhesive from the stickers.

Fabricated Oil Temp Sensor Adapter
 

Sunday, February 1, 2015

My wife bought me a Prosport oil temperature gauge for my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I forgot to mention to her that I would need an adapter in order to install it because I never thought she would buy it :)

The two popular adapter options are:

1. The oil filter sandwich plate
2. A modified banjo bolt

After looking around, it it looks like you can't get one shipped to you for less than $50. I don't have a problem paying for good quality parts but I'm not going to spend $15+ to ship a small piece of metal.

I decided to go the fabrication route. I ordered a new bolt from Mazda, bored a hole through the head (punched and then stepped up over 4 sizes), and tapped the hole to accept the oil temp sensor included with the gauge from Prosport. The bolt and washers were $13.09 from my local Mazda dealer. The tap was $6.99.

I did this with a hand-held drill but I would highly recommend a drill press because all-in this took me about an hour and a half. Most of that is drilling really slowly.

Edited: I was informed by feedback here that NPT is a tapered tap. I noticed the taper in the width but didn't realize that the thread size is tapered as well. I'll update this post with the number of turns I gave the tap to get the depth seen here. At 50 ft-lbs, the sensor has only engaged 2.5mm of threads out of the 9.5mm available. The trade-off of tapping any further means possible oil-flow restriction. I took a perpendicular photo that shows where the tip of the sensor sits in its current configuration. It looks like I could get away from another couple of millimeters.

For anyone who wants to do this, you'll need the following parts:

1. 1 Prosport Digital Oil Temperature Gauge - 52mm
2. 1 Banjo bolt (Mazda part number 9938-11-400)
3. 2 washers (Mazda part number 9956-21-800)
4. 1 21/64 drill bit
5. 1 1/8 NPT tap (Irwin/Hanson part number 8202)
6. Cutting oil

Also, here are some measurements:

1. Banjo bolt hex head size: TBD
2. Banjo bolt length: TBD
3. Space from top of bolt head to inside of bolt head: 11mm
4. Space from top of bolt head to side holes: 15mm
5. Oil temp sensor length: 23mm
6. Oil temp sensor thread size: 1/8-27 NPT
7. Oil temp threaded portion: 9.5mm
8. Oil temp sensor hex head size: 14mm

Till next time.

NPT threads are tapered. You didn't tap it deep enough is the issue.

^True, NPT is tapered, NPS is not.
You also have to be careful to not tap too deep.
We use thread gages for the correct depth.
You can buy a pipe plug to use as a guesstimate gage in a pinch.

Ah, that makes sense.

It sounds like I can just tap a further 2mm to get the depth I want, be able to give it some torque, and I won't have to worry about a spacer nut or anything.

Thanks for the feedback.

She needs a bath after driving in winter grime for a couple of weeks, but I finally finished removing all of the stripes.

New Battery
 

March 18, 2015

My battery (Advance Auto house brand Gold series) was only charging to 75% so I decided to replace it with an Optima Red Top.

My car never had starting problems but it was not quite as quick as my wife's Mazda3 which starts instantly. It took 2-5 cranks - well under 2 seconds - to start. Well, with this battery, there is no hesitation at all. It starts on the first crank. I love it.

Did you use the advance auto parts coupon code for $50 off?

I went thru two Red Tops in two years. My dad had similar issues with Yellow Tops. Make sure they have your info on file for the warranty, you will need it.

Yes I did.

They have it and I have the receipt.

Coolant Flush
 

April 9, 2015

I was in 10 mph interstate traffic with 60 degree ambient temp and my oil temp jumped up to almost 240F / 115C for a minute. I don't have a water temp gauge or an ODBII data logger at the moment, so I'm not sure where the water temp was but my OEM needle was still a tick before the middle. This event has definitely raised my priority on a proper water temp reader.

Anyway, with that and an autocross event coming up this weekend, I decided to flush my coolant ASAP.

I decided to go with 12 oz Water Wetter and filled the rest with 30% Prestone and 70% distilled water. I'll probably flush and refill before winter just to be safe.

During a hard run in the evening at 50 degree ambient temp, it stayed a good 15-25 degrees cooler than normal. It peaked at about 200 and averaged about 180.

I did another hard run - stayed over over 6k for about 5 minutes at 60+ MPH - during the day at 65 degree ambient temp and oil temp peaked at 210F / 99C. During highway traffic it sat around 185F / 85C. Cruising went up to about 195F / 90C.

At this point, I'm pretty happy with the results.

What's the main ingredient in water wetter? Snake oil?

Probably water. And then food coloring. *shrug*

:lol: