Nice build. I dunno if anyone told you, but the center cap on that air filter is known for falling off and getting sucked into the turbo... just a FYI.

 

That was changed out almost immediately. Thanks for the heads up though.

 

God that engine bay is soo nice !!

 

Tuning Update!

Went down to the Elite Rotary Shop tuning event in Chicago on the 21st... Came back with my tail between my legs.

I wanted to start out by saying that Sal from Elite is an awesome guy and I have nothing but respect for him and what he is doing for our community! That leads me to Nelson... the guy is a genius! Within 15 min of him starting my car he knew something was going on and spent the next 3 hours narrowing it down. No other tuner ever figured this out, they just strapped it to the dyno and went ***** to the wall. Nelson took the time to find the issue and most likely saved me another engine build in the process. I will not let anyone else ever tune this car!

Now to the tuning.

Nelson said that the car seemed slow to respond and had a lazy throttle. I have never known the car to act any different and seemed completely normal to me. After about 3 hours Nelson found that my leading 1 coil and trailing 1 coil were firing at the exact same time... on top of that my trailing 2 coil was firing at the same time as the leading 1 coil. After quite a bit of digging we found that it has to be a wiring issue as all the settings were correct in the computer. So the car was take off the dyno and the rewire of the ECU will commence hopefully in time for the next tuning session with Nelson in June.

Needless to say I was disappointed, but now have the answer to why my car was having a hard time breaking 400 rwhp when the car was easily set up for 550. I also met a lot of great people and saw some pretty awesome cars.

Update to come on the rewire and meth injection.

 

Awesome man, glad you narrowed down the issue and hopefully now you can see some good numbers!!!

 

glad you narrowed down your issue.

 

Nice meeting you at the Tune!

 

Well I have started the next phase of this never ending project... Figuring out the wiring issue. I ended up just pulling the entire dash as there were wires tapped into wires from the prior owner so I wanted to get that all straightened out, as well as pull the A/C evaporator to put in the OEM delete section.

I have verified that the wiring to the ECU is all 100% so that narrows it down to the Sakebomb adapter harness or the ECU itself.

 

Glad to see you attacking this problem , it'll be worth it !

What made you to decide to inspect the Firewall harness?

Maybe it's a typo but didn't you mean **Banzai patch harness* (wasn't aware that there is a SBG one)

Keep the updates , one of my favourite thread

 

Another update:

After hours of electrical testing I found that the wiring in my car is perfect and the Sakebomb adapter harness has no issues ether. This leaves one that that could be causing the issue, the AEM V1 ECU. I called AEM and explained the issue. Advised that I had them update the revisions and drivers in Dec of 14 and I am wondering if something was screwed up from that. After hear that they no longer support V1 for about 10 minutes I finally got a very helpful person on the phone that offered to upgrade me to AEM Infinity for 45% off.... Needless to say I will be receiving my Infinity box in the next week. If the issue is still there I will most likely burn the car to the ground, kidding... kinda.

On another note I took the time while the dash was out to rewire my gauges and install the OEM A/C evap delete. I was also able to find all of the crap wiring the PO ran... whoever did this build before me was a real *** hat! He decided to run the speaker wire from the deck to the door speakers by drilling through the connector and out the a-pillar... I will be fixing that and welding is shut when I paint the car this winter (Sorry for the crap photos)




I am also taking this time to remove all of the brakes and have a friend of mine powder coat them. If I didnt just spend a small fortuine on tuning and the new ecu, and then tuning again, I would have just sprung for all new rotors and pads while I was at it.


More updates to come!

 

More small details while I wait for my new AEM Infinity box.

Front calipers installed. Also changed out my springs back to the coils that came on the JIC Coilovers. The ones I swapped them with were to soft and almost bouncy. Back to 12k up front and 9k in the rear. The extra tire on the 17s vs my old 18s should help.



The rears still need to be rebuilt:


Shot of my car and a co-workers Mazda 3... That thing has some *****! I use to laugh when guys in these things would rev at me.


I also have been distracted with my new beater car/daily driver. 2007 Infiniti G35X. She needs A LOT of love but its coming along.

 

Congrats on the new DD beats eyes close my DD (99 Contour) hahaha

Im in the market for an ECU, and it was either an infinity6 or a 2500 ...my soul wants to go with AEM but Haltech is well-known here.

Glad to see your going with the infinity , Im still considering it strongly

 

Thank you!

Honestly I went with AEM because they gave me a great deal through the "trade up" program.
They took 45% off the list price if I sent them my old ECU... It was an offer I could not refuse.

Haltech is also very well known here, and almost preferred, but the Infinity6 has all of the features as the Haltech 2500 plus some.

 

Where did you find the OEM A/C evap delete? I have been looking online and at the dealerships and they don't sell them anymore.

 

I actually got 1 of the last 2 available in the country! I went to buy the last one and it was gone the same day I bought mine.

 

Just get a 1/8 piece of plastic and RTV it to the box , once you remove the system from it.

The extra hole it give is perfect for extra wiring ,
2years later without any leaks.

 

...which went to me

This is quite the emotional thread. You should go back to the first tuner and ask for your money back. They should be liable for the engine work too, but probably made you sign a bunch of papers absolving them of any responsibility.

Glad to see you are sticking with it.

 

You would be correct, all (smart) tuners make you sign your life away prior to getting on the dyno. Lesson learned!

 

Nice DD.

You thought about sanding the red off the Mazda on the caliper?

 

Funny you should ask that, I just had a coworker ask me that today. I did think about that but wanted it to look more like a performance brake caliper rather than a stock one... if that makes sense.

 

Well, it's been a long time since I updated this thread, mainly because not much is happening. My car is at a friends house getting a brand new custom harness made (trading labor, I'm painting his engine bay in his BMW). I decided to stick with the AEM Infinity and buy a flying lead harness to build from. I also threw out all of the stock sensors and changed everything to AEM and Bosch for the knock sensors (added one for each rotor housing). Not much on the picture front ether. My truck and trailer were rear ended with my FD on the trailer heading to my friends house. Luckily the trailer held up well and there was no damage to the FD, just totaled my tilt back trailer and bent the hitch in the 3500. The wiring is all laid out and the pin process can start. Under the dash is looking way cleaner! I can't wait to see it all when its done! I will be waiting to tune until spring. I have some parts of like to get prior to tuning and also want to pay off our (my wife & I) student loans to help get us ahead. More updates to come!

 

Time for an update... 7 months later.

I bought so Corvette Z06 Speedline wheels that were made with a 5x114.3 bolt pattern and put them on my car. I really liked the look but didnt really want to run spacers all the time, so they are for sale.

I bought a decent set of Mazdaspeed MS-01 wheels and decided to clean them up. When I bought them they were rough and had the centers painted black at least twice. I pulled them apart and cleaned every bolt by hand, polished the lips the best I could, and had the centers powder coated a dark grey. I think they turned out great and cant wait to see them on my FD once she is back on all fours.
Lip Condition Before & After:




I Paint Stripped The Over Spray Out Of The Barrels:




The Centers Blasted:


Finally The Finished Product:

 

Looks great! So weird that they egg the centers like that, with the partial mounting surface on the sides. Wonder why they do that.

 

Those MS-01 look sharp! ^ I think because the MS-01 was designed after the 787B wheels?

 

Thank you! It is so you can fit it into the barrels of the wheel. It comes with "centering ring" that fill that gap on ether side.