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We definitely read it
I have the RE-medy for 12 years now. knock on wood...
It may be an isolated event because when i had the re-medy previously i had no issues- dating back 2007 or so.
Or who knows the quality might have went to **** since then.
. i have decided to bring the pump back to the us with me and send it to mazmart and see what they say.
i have been plenty happy with the oem pump for years and if I change it it will be with an EWP system through the pdm otherwise the stock waterpump will remain
...and if I change it it will be with an EWP system through the pdm otherwise the stock waterpump will remain
I PWM'ed the EWP and fan and love the setup... if/when the day comes, let me know how I can help. It would be just a little payback for how much I've enjoyed your build.
I PWM'ed the EWP and fan and love the setup... if/when the day comes, let me know how I can help. It would be just a little payback for how much I've enjoyed your build.
That is very nice of you Carlos. The feeling is mutual and I have a lot of respect for your build and your positive attitude. The fact that you can fabricate your own stuff also, makes your build more enjoyable as opposed to slapping parts together. and with a gorgeous garage with all your equipment!
I will take you up on your offer. It will take a while but its definitely happening !!
I used similar logic for the methanol pump and i do not use any controller. i am assuming it will be something similar for the EWP.
(not trying to take the credit for it but John Renna did the logic, not me LOL)
Curious. For the meth pump. I've seen PWM done 2 ways. Did you PWM the pump directly, or full voltage on pump and is a PWM to control a solenoid near the nozzle?
Curious. For the meth pump. I've seen PWM done 2 ways. Did you PWM the pump directly, or full voltage on pump and is a PWM to control a solenoid near the nozzle?
i pwm the pump directly.
i am however planning on adding a solenoid
as when i leave the car overnight i do get water in the engine.
this solenoid will be enabled by the pdm when theres power and boost present while the pump kicks in over 14 or so psi
i can upload a screenshot of the logic if you like
Cool. Thanks for sharing. I was planning to PDM the pump as well, but will look into the solenoid. I think just need to make sure the pump has the internal bypass/regulator built into it. I know the pumps all look the same, but I heard some do not (not sure if true or not)
Cool. Thanks for sharing. I was planning to PDM the pump as well, but will look into the solenoid. I think just need to make sure the pump has the internal bypass/regulator built into it. I know the pumps all look the same, but I heard some do not (not sure if true or not)
Colin,
This is how we set the logic for the pump
I am using the devilsown methanol pump. I am not aware of any differences between the pumps but we did test this with the mityvac vacuum/pressure gun and it works perfectly
definitely the way to go if you want my opinion but i am planning to add further stuff to my system including a methanol flow sensor.
I have also replaced the level sensor . i initially had the self-sealing float switch which i think it is total garbage
Thanks dude thats very nice of you to say
its far from perfect, i dont think its the best build thread ever but your words honor me.
I love to experiment especially in design and manufacturing (since i do this for a living ) and come up with stuff that others dont.
But because of your nice words, expect updates coming next week
I am gonna drop this here for now before i go write a whole essay with the updates and the issues.
Some of the exterior updates, and back with the oem wing at the track
i will start with the obvious changes as shown with the above picture
the canards and the hood carbon duct garnish from re-amemiya.
I wasnt sure how these duct garnish would look. I bought them several years ago but i i didnt want to drill the hood to install them. I am planning to strip the car completely for a respray so i figured it would be the best time to try them out. If i dont like them i will plug the holes and repaint it. Overall i think they look great in person
I had previously installed the 3 piece canard kit from FEED but it only lasted a couple of days before my pants got caught on the sharp tips. First i broke the one side, and 10 minutes i broke the other side. It didnt feel like the carbon feed used was durable nevermind the tips being exposed..
I initially decided to reverse engineer the feed third canard. After i cut a few of them i realized that they will probably have the same fate as the original 2 that i broke with the only different that they will cause a lot more damage if i was to hit someone so i scrapped that idea pretty quickly. They were razor sharp thin.
Since i did not like the feed design, I wanted to remake them to fit perfectly on the 2 piece canard first and be safe in the event that something would happen.
A shop i was doing some work in the past had this car in their shop for a build. I figured it was the best to bring the romer arm and probe the 2 canards so the fitment would be perfect, with no sharp corners
the dotted lines are the original canard shape. And this was a preliminary design of the canard. I also, it would be best to add at least pilot holes for a much easier fitment
After several design iterations, i came up with the following design. the only problem was that i didnt realize that the top vs bottom canard were offset. i was focused on the 2 dimensional side of things. It was late in the day, the guys at the shop were going to leave so i didnt have the time to do much. The feed 3rd piece canard was a flat piece so it did not initially cross my mind.
When i went back home on a previous trip i saw this difference.
So in order to account for this difference i have decided to have 3 different size canards with the finalized design. the difference in height between the canards is .060"
Initial installation with self tapping screws
And then replaced with black rivets and i think it looks pretty good overall.
One thing that i absolutely hate with my car is the light output.
Putting the stock pop-ups is unfortunately out of the question for 3 reasons.
I no longer have the provisions for the pop-up motors since i am using the PDM to control everything in the car
and even if i had the provisions, my 34 row oil coolers are just too big for the headlights to fit in there.
and i cant put the oil coolers any further foward because i cant fit the bumper combo lights. I cant even fit the 99-spec combo lights due to the oil coolers, hence the need to switch to the FEED combo lights.
So i have decided to replace the round lights of my headlights that it is used for the high beams.
The low beams are ok (could be a lot better) but my high beams are pretty much non-existant.
The PIAA 004XT that R-magic uses are 60mm in diameter.
I tried to find something close and i came up with these PIAA LP270 and they are 70mm in diameter.
I knew i had to lower the headlights in order to account for that difference. I reversed engineered the stock bracket and i have used the bolt pattern Rmagic uses and i came up with this. This was a preliminary design which was later changed
I lowered the headlights to the minimum height as shown below and i have even used "ultra low profile" bolts to gain every little bit i could. i have also changed the round hole into an oblong slot to have some further adjustability
The issue with trying to build a car half way around the globe, i often have doubles of everything and whatever i dont have i have to either bring it with me or have someone from back home to ship it to me.
Luckily, i had the PIAA 004X here with me in the states . I figured i can compare them and see if the lowered height was going to be close enough to the 004X lights. I did not have the complete headlight assembly with me so i wasnt sure they would fit
I asked a friend to take some measurements of the brackets that the R-magic lights mount on so i can confirm that they will at least fit in this depth, since the LP270 are significantly longer . Thankfully that cleared
The LP270 sits higher than the 004X by ~4-5mm but i thought that there has to be some room under the headlight. I figured that worst case i would just cut the bottom housing of the Rmagic headlight if this did not work
I was worried that it would interfere but the more i was working on it, the more i was trying to convince myself that it would clear....
So i finalized the design and i made a few samples. I decided to make the same parts in aluminum and in stainless steel also
and they did not fit !!!
I decided to cut the bottom housing of the housings and it still did not fit.
So yeah all this work for NOTHING
I could have changed the design so the bracket would fit on the bottom of the Rmagic mounting bracket but it was already too much work, and i was pretty pissed. Well i decided to revisit the idea with a new set of lights
I was very annoyed with the headlight situation so i have decided to find something else that would work but finding a good candidate with good light output deemed a little more difficult than anticipated
after hours of trying to find something that would work, i came across the Baja Design S1 but my approach this time was going to be drastically different
I liked the fact that Baja designs gives you the option to choose the light pattern you want. Obviously since these were the high beams, i opted for the Spot pattern
I did a comparison of the existing 004X and the S1 and they seem to be more or less equal in height
The Baja is 55mm as opposed to the PIAA which is 60mm but the bracket places the light at a similar height with quite a bit of dead space between the light itself and its mounting bracket
So I modeled a simplified version of the original light ( i did not do the same while i was doing the LP270 models) but fairly accurate for the purpose
I have a 3d printer here in the states and i do print a lot of prototypes but if i need to do a test fit on the car it is nearly impossible and i am not going to be shipping parts back and forth. So i determined that i can 3d print the light itself and mount it with my new bracket on the car to overcome the previous issue.
I figured 3d printers are widely and globally used, primarily as a toy; someone i know in cyprus should have one and to my surprise, i dont know anyone who has one. I asked friends around whether there's someone we know but again to my surprise no one does.
i mentioned in the previous post how i need to have everything in doubles... well i had to add a new 3d printer to my arsenal but this time, on the other side of the planet.
I was not going to run in the same trouble again. So i printed the model of the light i made compared it with the original for the sake of testing
Side to side comparison with the original Baja S1 bracket vs with my version (+ the adjustability) but both at the same height
So i remotely programmed the 3d printer to print the headlight along with the brackets to perform a test fit
fitment was ok but my friend who helped me mount it recommended that i should lower it a little to the light pattern wouldnt be obstructed by the housing.
So i asked my friend, how much lower should it be but he couldnt figure out how much lower as it not easy to measure. Since the printer is there; i thought to give him all the different height variants,
Starting from left to right as you see the picture below, orange is the stock height and the rest were lower by the number embossed on the bracket ( 3mm lower, 5mm lower and 7mm lower )
He tested all the brackets and if memory serves, the 5mm lower was the right one for the job.
I decided to make them in stainless steel and not in aluminum as the stainless was obviously significantly stronger. I dont think the aluminum would have been a problem but i wanted to eliminated the possibility that the lights might vibrate at high speeds.
I only needed 2 obviously but **** it, why not make a few extras
Fitment is pretty good. but these brackets are reversible and this enables me to further adjust them without making the bracket too big. So if i need the headlight to go closer to the housing, but i dont have enough room with the the smaller oblong slot, i can flip it and gain some more adjustment front to back
i did end up getting ultra low profile screws for the mounting just to make sure that i can have all the adjustment i need to tilt them at the right angle
if you are to compare the 2 pictures below you can see the part in both orientations, flipped and original
Another complaint of mine which i had previously mentioned was the jdm 5th gear with the 4.77 final gear
I was getting quite a bit of drone in the car and i was running ~3800rpm cruising at 120km (75mph). i want the car to be quiet and enjoyable when i want to cruise.
so i switched to the US 5th gear ratio (from .806:1 to .719:1) and my rpm now is ~3200rpm at 120km. the car is pretty quiet now and its a joy to take it for a cruise, all things considered. I will eventually re-do the dash panel as i want to lower the dash a little more. I cant see the top corner indicators which are the turn signals . I can potentially add a warning that will cover the whole screen if any of those indicators stay on for more than X seconds or something but i think its best if i lower it altogether. It is in the plans to replace the steering wheel
and since i am covering the interior bits, Here is the Limited edition Recaro Pole Position SL mounted on. They are so damn comfortable but i would like them to sit a little lower.
I ended up getting the ronin speedworks mounts but in all honesty i was not at all impressed . Mounting them and figuring out the proper placement for a seat this big, is just wrong. i spent a whole day to mount one of them on as i didnt want to cut them up.
Other seats may fit on these rails without the need to chop these mounts but for the pole positions they need some serious trimming. I need to place the seat even further closer to the transmission tunnel so the seat will clear the door cart. It clears 95% as is but i do not like these mounts one bit. i considered other mounts after getting these but i did ultimately regret getting these.
Another problem with my car is that when i leave the car overnight, methanol will flow in the inlet. The car will start just fine but as soon as you step on the gas you can see the water/methanol steaming from my exhaust. I removed the hose overnight and used a container to see if this was my issue and it was. So i need to add a methanol solenoid for that. I ended up getting the snow performance one. from the pictures online it seemed to be a little better in terms of mounting as opposed to the other options i encountered .
I decided to design a simple bracket that will enable me to mount it somewhere. it shouldnt be too difficult to find a 6mm stud or a threaded hole that i can just bolt this one on
some slots for the adjustment for the ease of installation
After i modeled this bracket, i figured that i needed a few more options, depending where the mounting point will be.
So i made a longer version also, as well as flipped versions
and similarly to the PIAA lights, i had make them in aluminum as well as stainless steel . Only one would be used but yeah **** it lets make a whole bunch
This car is truly a labor of love. The level of detail you go to in pursuit of improving things is spectacular to read about.
Regarding the seat, there's an old thread in the Interior/Exterior section where someone cut the body where the stock seats attach to and sectioned them so they would be lower. Then he used stock seat rails to mount the seat. I've been considering doing that to mine when I have some time. Similar to what we do with race car seats in my Miata but reuses the stock rails so you have fore/aft adjustability.
Regarding the steering wheel, similar to the above, I have also been considering modifying the dash bar where the steering column attaches so that the steering wheel can be raised slightly. It is a round tube so was considering sectioning the tube and reinforcing.
@gracer7-rx7 thank you for your kind words. It puts a smile on my face when i see that you responded to the thread (and some others of course)
i am always trying to improve stuff even if its something as simple as a bracket. It changes the build entirely when there are stuff that mount on appropriate locations with purpose intended parts/brackets
i do have some more updates to post soon but I figured to wait a little since i posted a whole bunch in one shot
i did not think about removing the oem mounting points for the seat but to be honest i would rather if i avoided that. i think different mounts will allow me to place the seat maybe 1/4” lower, which is insignificant, but perhaps changing the cushioning might allow me to sink in the seat further. I would also like to use sliders but at this point i think its out of the question. Its nice to fine tune it exactly to the length that you need as with the existing mounts its a tad longer than i would like it to be but at the same time if i am pulling them out for readjustment i am throwing them in the trash
For the steering, i actually like the steering placement. I am using the 350mm deep corn from nardi which I actually like very much but i was looking to get something better matching to the interior, or go wild and do an F1 style steering from Aim lol.
i see on ebay a guy in poland converting the stock steering wheel to a D shaped Oem steering wheel and I actually like the look of it and i think it will be more appropriate for my current simplistic interior.
if i go that route i wont have to redo the dash panel as with the larger in diameter OEM steering wheel i will be able to see all the indicators (i think).
I have previously installed the Re-medy Waterpump which is the same but i don't recall having issues; but this was good 15 years ago (or something like that)
not trying to dig at old wounds, but noticed you mentioned swapping out an underdrive pulley on the alternator, but couldn’t find any reference for the rest of the pulleys.
Just wanted to say that the REmedy water pump is not intended to be underdriven in case you had other underdrive pulleys installed with it. It’s intended to reduce cavitation using the original Mazda pulley ratios, which is where the factory water pump has issues in the higher engine rpm range.
Again not knowing what other pulleys were installed, sorry for the bump if that wasn’t the case.
.
not trying to dig at old wounds, but noticed you mentioned swapping out an underdrive pulley on the alternator, but couldn’t find any reference for the rest of the pulleys.
Just wanted to say that the REmedy water pump is not intended to be underdriven in case you had other underdrive pulleys installed with it. It’s intended to reduce cavitation using the original Mazda pulley ratios, which is where the factory water pump has issues in the higher engine rpm range.
Again not knowing what other pulleys were installed, sorry for the bump if that wasn’t the case.
.
i kept the same pulley on the alternator. It is the same that this alternator comes with the Advance Alternator.
I had changed the main pulley from underdrive to the stock size and my low voltage on idle disappeared.
for the Re-medy waterpump i had used the stock size main pulley. I was having such a hard time bleeding it with this waterpump while the oem waterpump bled pretty much immediately.
While my cooling issue is not resolved ( it seemed that it did initially) as the car overheats at the track now, it at least does not overheat on the street when i am abusing it.
It does not appear that the motor is hurt. Everything is in the clear with the lisle funnel, no funny smells, no smoking. i even had a friend of mine follow me on the highway to see if anything was coming out of the exhaust but everything is clear.
I am in the process of adding a secondary independent temperature and possibly a pressure sensor for the coolant, just for data verification.
It looks as if the cooling system is just not enough but I know that this is not the case, this system worked perfectly for a number of years.
over the years i have tried pretty much all engine mounting options out there. I have not tried the latest options because the OEM motor mounts + the @Banzai-Racing transmission cross member has served me well for plenty of years. I have recommended that combination to many of people and they have all been very happy.
However if you pay close attention to this picture you will realize that at least from the engine mounts, this is not the case
My oil pan had started to leak about 9-10 years since it was sealed (from the engine re-build time). The car has been sitting for about 11 months out of the 12 and for the 1 month it goes through some major abuse.
it wasnt leaking per se but you would see the condensation from around the oil pan flange. I figured it was time to re-seal it; and while i was at it, i wanted to remove the Autoexe sub-frame brace. And i am very glad i finally did. The autoexe brace mounts on the wheel alignment bolts and every time i had to remove the transmission i had to take the car for a wheel alignment.
In theory, sure the autoexe brace works. in reality if it does help, i think what you gain is negligible. The car feels like it is on rails with or without it.
The only mounts i had tried and i was actually happy with are the KSP Attain ones from Japan on my previous car but the only issue is that it raises the engine quite a bit. While i liked the softer feeling of the mount itself, i didnt want to raise the engine. Everything is a tight fit as is i did not want to have to mess around with anything especially if the OEM ones worked perfectly fine.
However, my OEM ones are the originals that came with the car and they are 22 years old. While they were in perfect condition i wanted to upgrade them to either a set of new mounts, or something else.
So i came across a brand new set of the FFE motor mounts with the softer 68A mounts. I tried pretty much everything else, eh why the hell not.
these things are top notch quality and the feeling is superb. It felt like they were OEM mounts.
I did read a couple of complaints that they are harder than the stock ones. This has not been my experience. No additional vibrations resonate to the cabin. It feels like they are the OEM mounts.
I have had this oil pan since 2007 or so and its probably the only thing that survived the fire from my previous car. i have removed the drain plugs so many times but i never thought to check what the hell the thread is and i have been wanting to add magnetic drain plugs.
So i reached out to Xcessive to confirm what the thread size was. Xcessive promptly responsed that the thread is is -8 ORB which it translates to 3/4-16 O-Ring Bung.
Moroso makes these magnetic drain plugs in the 3/4-16 ORB. Xcessive had mentioned that this question came up multiple times. so i am posting it here along with the related part number in the event anyone needs it Moroso DRAIN PLUG, -8 AN, 3/4-16,MAGNETIC
about 15 or so years ago i came across the JUN-AUTO control arm brace.
Jun-Auto which at the time it was a very well respected Japanese tuning company, barely did any parts for the Rx-7 but this was one of them. Whether it serves a real purpose or not it's to be determined
I never proceeded to get them, but it felt like the car was braced in pretty much every way and these were "missing". Fritz had a pair in the past but i had spent a lot of money with him that day and I decided not to get them for the time being. So, in the back of my mind I wanted to try them.
anyhow, Part shop max offered the same brace. with one main difference that the parts shop maxx was much beefier. And again who knows if it is actually needed. I did not like the original parts shop maxx copper color so i powder coated them black and here they are mounted
Ages ago, someone on here reinforced the OE upper control arm tabs by welding on some tabs to effectively box them in a bit. I think they autox'ed the car. Seems like it would be helpful with big sticky tires and hard, fast, frequent transitions. A bit of preventative medicine.
The Miata, MX5 and RX8 have those UPCA mounting points on a very beefy and much larger front subframe instead of the unibody.
Ages ago, someone on here reinforced the OE upper control arm tabs by welding on some tabs to effectively box them in a bit. I think they autox'ed the car. Seems like it would be helpful with big sticky tires and hard, fast, frequent transitions. A bit of preventative medicine.
The Miata, MX5 and RX8 have those UPCA mounting points on a very beefy and much larger front subframe instead of the unibody.
Yeah i am not exactly sure if its a weak spot there despite the structural difference of the other similar mazda models. i dont know whether someone has managed to stress crack them but installing these parts was one of those "while i am there" moments. My rotors started rattling, I suspect i managed to stretch the bolts of the rotor hats? Who knows. So during the hardware replacement i figured let me put these on.
i have some updates coming up. i am starting to more seriously consider the possibility of switching to an EWP system. i am eyeing the one from sakebomb but preferably i would like to use the pdm to control the pump while getting all the feedback from the ecu as opposed to a temperature sensor that the system is equipped with.
01-09-23, 09:27 AM
