runs better when cool? how can I keep it cool?
 

I've noticed my rx8 seems to run better & the rotory has better responsiveness when the weather is cool. I live in south Florida... so cool weather is a luxury I rarely see. I've also read thet these rotary's are pretty temperature sensitive. Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep this thing running cooler than it does (that won't degrade the life of the thing, or my wallet)?

I've noticed the grill is mostly solid in the front. Does anyone know of an aftermarket grill that lets more air flow through and has less wind resistance? Or... any other thoughts for me?

has it been tuend ? I have owned roterys here in Ca for a while now. MY old RX7 had no problamb with the 105 deg temps in my home town. All summer long ! as for the 8 it should be even less critacal because it has a much better cooling system.

as for in flow of air !! look again. the air intake is really below the grill it's giant! i can stick my whole leg in ther ! and its low to the ground where the air is forced into the rad. you wont get much better cooling than that. Take it in to the dealer. have them reflash it and tune it up ! it should run fine in FLa.

I've had it just over a month and have near 2k miles on it. It hasn't been tuned yet. Not sure if I should have to worry about it, being so new. What does the flash do? I've seen it mentioned in other threads that I should get the latest 'M' flash. Is there documentation somewhere or can someone tell me in a nutshell what the flashing may fix/change? And... if I take it to the dealer to have it re-flashed... should this be a freebie because I bought the car there or will they have it in the shop for hours and charge me?

Well I have noticed that removing the engine cover keeps it cooler :p

CAI?

Turn the AC on.

I thought its the opposite?... Im sure you know about that cold stop engine flooding problem? :)

water wetter will help as well. youll have to get it from a performance store such as jegs. any place that sells redline oil should also sell this

I think he is talking about the cooler weather not the engine temp. The air your engine pulls in can only be as cool as the outside air unless you use NOS, which is what NOS does it cool the incoming air allowing alot more fuel to be used. When air temp changes your ECU compensates for it and changes the fuel ratio to make it run at its peak. When cooler temps are present air is usually less dense and has less moisture in it. This happens even on forced induction cars and not only on naturally aspirated. My friend had a Toyota Supra TT and when it go cool at night it would run around 15 or 16 pounds of boost, but during the hot 100 degree days we were lucky to get 12 pounds. Engines make more power at cooler ambient temps and there is really nothing that can be done about that.

Yes, I did mean the weather. It's very responsive in early morning when temperature is 70 or below and humidity is less than 50%. By mid day when temps are mid to upper 80s and humidity is 90%+, it feels kind of sluggish in comparison. I imagine it is the humidity more that temperature that's the problem. Not sure if the computer knows how to compenate for humidity though or if there's anything that can be done aside from tuning it to run better in higher humidy... which would probable degrade performance when humidity is low. I do only notice it at lower speeds/rpm's though. On the highway at high speeds... it's responsive as ever though.

By the way. Water wetter sounds ineresting. Thanks.

Actually cold air is more dense, thus you can burn more fuel per charge...but you've got the right idea.:)

actually it's not just that NOS is cooler and more dense, it's that it has more oxygen than the atmosphere does. I think it's N2O vs the atmosphere which is like 80% nitrogen and like 18% oxygen and 2% other gasses. Don't quote me on the numbers, look them up if you really want to know. The fact that NOS comes out of the can much cooler than air is just icing on the cake.

You might find that, for performance applications, a 180 degree thermostat and fan switch will give you the performance you are describing. The RX currently has (I think) a 195 degree setup.

Charles

Re: runs better when cool? how can I keep it cool?
 

I noticed the same thing as well. Yesterday rained like crazy and the temp dropped. The cool dense air definitely made a difference, I guess our air mass sensor is working good! Now if we can learn how to trick it into thinking it's always cool and dense without detonating!

I'm testing out a new PWR racing radiator for just that reason. Just in case no one has heard of them they are imported from Austrailia and have been making rads, intercoolers, and othe cooling parts for a while now. They got thier start fromt the huge racing scene down under and they have since then made there way to the states.

Here in the valley of the sun it gets smokin hot. Temps were at 100 today. We've used PWR radiators in all of our project cars with good success. We let them know we had the car and they sent out a test peice to us. Very nice construction as usual with them. Twice as thick as the stock radiator, fully polished and nice fitment. Also it reuses the stock cooling fans and hose fittings. Installation is a little lteadious but not hard. I'd like to get a better thermostat as well, some thing that opens a few degrees sooner to help out the cooling as well.

So far so good. It's been in the car now for 2 weeks and the temp gauge still sits in the same spot it did in Jan. when the weather was cooler. I will have more to report later as well as when they will be available. If anyone is interested give me a call.

vividracing, is it possible to make a mod for the Airmass sensor, as this would increase air+fuel+timing= power. This along with the radiator would provide some interesting results.

Anything is possible though honestly I'm not the one for such a mod. That would be best left to someone who better understood the direct effects of the sensor and how to change it. Good idea though.

Empty all the radiator fluid and add either Redline "watter wetter" or Royal Purple "Purple Ice", then top off with Deionized water. No anti freeze (remember guys in in SoFla).

If you really want to improve cooling via stock components, then drain radiator and fill it with NPG+

www.evenscooling.com

I think he meant:
www.evanscooling.com

Its an airflow sensor and such a mod already exists.

Its called the Greddy E-Manage.

E-MANAGE INSTALLATION

An airflow sensor mod would maybe kill the engine. If the MAF sensor or what ever it is had a signal saying that the temp was ???? than it would give the engine that signal and give it the wrong amount of fuel, giving negative results to the engine. Wait until a proper cold air unit comes out or wait for a super/turbo charger and your engine will make all the power it needs.

Thats why you have a mod that mazdamaniac just introduced to us that will control air, fuel and timing for a safe tune. I would guess the that the E-manage is similar to the Canzoomer mod.

Exactly.

So the airflow sensor has the capability to measure air density as well as air volume?

I just read some of the E-manage installation. Very interesting and in depth material indeed. Oh well, I thought I was on to something with the Airmass/flow sensor and figured it might be apart from the E-manage and canzoomer mod in existence, but they do play a critical part as I have read.

himitsu,

That's a cool little animation of the rotary. Did you make it?.

if those of us living in miami, florida would like to have our 8 run as cool as possible... would it be safe to run watter wetter or purple ice w/ nothing but distilled water? i'd like to know whether or not these products provide enough corrosion protection for our 8's. if not, what would be a good amount of antifreeze mix to add?

cheap DIY mods that help reliability and heat soak

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tech-garage-22/rx8-reliability-mods-cheap-diy-102143/

thanks! but i have close to all of those mods... :)

i just really wanted to know about the corrosion issues of simply mixing water & one of the above additives... in miami every little degree counts for my rotary... if i was electrically inclined i would do the fan diy. i may just end up buyin mazsports unit.

i'm gonna drain out all my coolant. i'm just looking for the optimal cooling / corrosion protection ratio... ANYBODY???

thanks again!! :rock:

Wet Cell....
 

Straight water will corrode your block, the aluminum reacts with the steel plates. Anyone who has opened a shortblock will know how the steel gets really rusty and the aluminum grows that white corrosion mungus, even in normal use.

Anything less than 50/50 is not worth the risk, and Water Wetter won't stop it.

It would be difficult to design an engine with more electrical corrosion "potential", due to it's "alternating bi-metal plates" design.....

S

thanks bro!

Not right - the 8 has a 180F thermostat.

To get the same effect as cooler outside temps, let the engine run cooler all the time. I suggest the MazSport Cooling Mod. Even though my 8 is also relatively new, I added this mod and highly recommend it.

This mod controls fan activation to engage them much sooner, keeping the coolant and thus engine, cooler all the time. Stock, fan 1 turns on at 197F, fan 2 at 206F. With the mod installed, both fans turn on at about 193-195F and runs until temp gets down to 185F (slightly above thermostat temp). This keeps the engine running generally cooler all the time and will prevent power loss due to heat soaks and I think create the benefit you are seeking.

BTW - it also make your A/C much cooler, which I noticed right away when I installed it this past summer.

Mazsport Fan mod is highly recommended. Also if you get a 3rd party reflash of your ECU, like I did from Re-amemiya, you may have it turn your fans on sooner too.

I'm really interested in NPG and RedLine and Royal Purple additives. NPG would seem like a really good mod if it can really lower operating temps and there is no problems with switching to it from regular Anti-freeze. So does NPG really work??? Did anybody notice a performance difference or measure temps???

Anybody have any NGP, Redline, or Royal Purple cooling stories and experience? Would like to know if anybody thinks its a worthwhile mod/add in.

Silly question... where do I get the MazSport Cooling Mod and about how much should I be paying?

FYI - It's been in the 70's for the past few weeks and the car has been a blast to drive again. It's amazing how different it runs on non-humid 70 degree days vs humid 80-90 degree days.

Is this normal or should I be hounding the dealer for a fix, or are there more mods to deal with this situation? It's hot down here (s. florida) way too often to not make a big deal about it.

http://mazsport.net/store//page9.html

look at my sig.. it is by best bang for the buck... you might note my location...

tell um swoope sent ya...

beers :beer:

This may be a silly question - Is the Mazsport Fan mod compatible with cars built for areas using the metric system like we do here in South Africa? I'd like to get hold of it myself and just don't want my radiator fans to only switch on at 197 degrees celcius (386 Fahrenheit!)...

I'm 90% certain I know the answer will be yes - but just wanted to make sure... :confused:

yes

Ok cool - so theres one of my first mods for 2007 :)

Hey swoope (and any other Floridians),

Have you noticed a HUGE difference in power between 70 degree non-humid days and 85-90 degree "Florida humid" days? I swear I must lose 20 HP depending on the weather. I know temps and humidity should make some difference, but I doubt this much. Is this normal?

The fan mod should cure the heat problem, but I'm wondering how much of the problem is from the humidity(?) and if there's anything that can be done about that(?)

cold dense air is better than hot humid air.. it is noticeable.

i do my testing late at night..

beers :beer:

No one likes to work when hot. Your engine are no exception.

OK from the temp guru:
My recipe for running as cool as possible-
1- run a 65/35 mix(distilled water please)coolant during the warm season.
2- get a underdrive pulley--our water pump cavates a lot and a underdrive pulley helps with this(this will probably start a discussion)
3- use a 5/30 wgt synthetic oil in the summer days 80F or above(this will probably start another dicussion)
4- take the aftermarket protective screens off of your oil collers and a/c--believe it or not they do impead airflow(this will start another discussion)
5- on the street use your a/c/fan settings to activate the fans, or get the RB flash that gives you more power and activates the fans at a lower temp.The fan mod is a good thing but for a little more you can get the flash.
6- Get real gauges--no substitute.
7- if you are tracking then sort the car for the track and get the best final drive ratio you can by changing your wheel height. Shifting at 8.5K (unless you have a better than OEM flash) makes a differance in track temps.
Doing the above--I have never seen coolant temps over 215F nor oil temps over 240F. And that is the exception. Most of the time collant temps (on track 205-210 and oil temps 220-230) on the street --just a little lower on long trips coolant at 190-200, oil at 200-210, short trips(20miles or so) coolant 180-190--oil at 190-200.
Our thermostat does not fully open until approx 210F.
3 things i would like to see are moving the battery and airbox away from the fan flow--currently they are in the way of some of the air flow from the fans, a true 180F thermostat , barrel type(they do not open into the flow of water but open with the flow and have 3 small holes in them to allow some water flow even when they are fulley closed) and "HOLD ON" an electric water pump---dont laugh--they are oem on some cars now and a few years ago who would have believed we would have electric power steering.
olddragger

high performance radiator or intercooler would be best. i've even seen a guy that had a water sprayer that sprayed onto his intercooler to keep it cool. hes a drifter so the engine is always overreving but he never had performance problems.