When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
It's been a busy few weeks as I've continued to scramble to get my FD all done before my twins arrive (still in the oven...any day now). I got my Haltech Elite 1500, harness from @C. Ludwig at LMS-EFI, sensors, and new IGN1A coils put in. The install went mostly without a hitch minus the one oh $hit moment when the plastic OEM diffuser in one of my primary injector ports broke during removal. Thankfully, it didn't fall all the way into the engine and I was able to shop vac it out!
Why was I removing my injectors? Because what better way to finish a project by throwing more money at it! Bryan at Rotorsports was booked for months (good for him, bad for me) and due to my timeline he recommended a few folks who could remote tune me. I ended up going with Nelson Siverio. While talking to Nelson about my setup, he suggested I think about upgrading my fuel system as my injector setup is based on late 80s technology (OEM primaries and Bosch EV1 1600 cc secondaries). I had come this far so putting a modern ECU with a dinosaur fuel system did seem like a dumb idea so bought a FFE Fuel Rail kit with new Injector Dynamics 1050 and 1700 injectors. I also upgraded from the Denso Supra TT pump to a Walbro 450lph.
To mount the Walbro to the OEM hanger and bought the @IRPerformanceFuel Pump Adapter Kit which made install plug and play. The FFE kit was pretty easy to install. The only challenges were 1) 2 of the AN push fittings in the kit were leaking so I had to go to Amazon to buy more solidly built ones and 2) Installation of the included 6 micron fuel filter. Whoever designed the placement of the OEM fuel filter should be shot! I probably didn't to myself any favors by mounting the new one where the old one was, but it was the path of least resistance. @DaleClark your post on 20 minute install was something I should have read first. When I came upon it, I went and got those hose pliers from Harbor Freight. Totally worth it.
Once I got this all installed, I had my first initial starting session with Nelson to get the sensors setup, verify engine timing (he suggested I buy a timing light, which I did), and then he put a basic map on for me to drive on for a week or so just to make sure things were operating as intended. Right now my car is limited to 3psi which has made driving around very hard at times. As soon as I hit 3psi, the Haltech cuts fuel and spark momentarily.
Aside from that, all I can says is WOW. The first thing I noticed is how easy the car fires up (also put Denso Iridium plugs in BTW) and how stupidly smooth and consistent the idle is. I got so used to wondering what my PFC was going to do and whether or not it would idle or randomly stall that the first time I came to a coast and the needle dropped on my RPM gauge and the car got quiet, I thought the car died. Instead, it hits the perfect idle. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I guess it's the little things, but I've been dealing with crappy idle issues since I got this car running. They are all gone. All my worries about a crusty engine harness. Gone!
Nelson is remoting in on Thursday for us to go for a drive. My laptop will be connected to the ECU and a hot spot and I'm gonna go drive the car while he looks at the data in real time. The goal is to get everything dialed in so when we go the dyno next Thursday, we can just strap the car on and get to work on the final tune. Hopefully he sees what he needs and removes the psi limit so we can get back to 14psi or something close to that. We also need confirm the Haltech has the right settings for the boost controller solenoid (kept my apexi one).
The only issue I'm currently chasing down is is some flaky Coolant Pressure Sensor readings. I got an AEM Brass 100psig sensor. Sometimes it reads between 10-15psi (which should be normal right?) and sometimes it just drops to 0psi. I know I'm not leaking and I can't figure out WTF is causing it. Maybe Nelson can see something during my drive but I also need to get with @C. Ludwig and confirm it's not an error in his harness. There was one little mistake in the harness that caused my oil pressure sensor to be whacky but I was able to swap the pins and fix it. For the Coolant Pressure sensor, the pin out is right so I have no idea what's up. Maybe a faulty sensor?
All in all, this project finally feels like it's nearing the end. My AC is back working and my new goods are installed. I really just need to finish getting it tuned. With my luck, my twins will show up the day im supposed to dyno (which is also my 40th birthday) so I guess that wouldn't be the worst thing but im so so close to done, I can taste it and im growing impatient.
Really bummed I can't join some of you for DGRR. If there was an award for biggest transformation since last DGRR, I gotta think I'd be in running for 1st place.
A few other things I've added during the last few weeks:
Strong Rear Hatch Strut from JP3 Motorsports since my OEM Wing was too heavy for the (old) OEM struts
Haltech Mounting bracket from Z-precision. Nice piece and reasonably priced compared to others on the market
Haltech Multi Function OLED Gauge -- this is really nice. I got rid the 3 pod A-pillar mount and now have a single center speaker pod. The MFG is nice since you can configure up to 4 sensors per page and like 8 pages. I see just about every metric the Haltech collects. The only downside is that even being OLED, in direct sunlight, it can be hard to read. I suspect if this wasn't mounted in my center gauge and someplace less likely to get sun, it wouldn't be an issue
Fixed the rear defrost as the electrical tabs that mount to the glass were not attached in the replacement hatch (and glass) I bought. I got this Permatex Read Defroster Repair Kit and it was easy and works as advertised for mounting the tabs.
SakeBomb Garage RHD (yes RHD) IGN1A coil mounting bracket -- this mounts the coils on the drivers side frame rail right below the steering shaft so I didn't have to lose my cruise control if I got the LHD kit.
Once this is done and my paint has completely cured, Im gonna get this baby ceramic coated so it will always look shiny and new and be easier to keep clean. So. Close.
Coils mounted in frame rail as seen from under the car
Coils mounted as seen looking down from engine bay near oil filter on drivers side
Fuel Lab 6 micron fuel filter in OEM location. Even reused the OEM bracket.
IRP Fuel Pump adapter for OEM hanger. Plug and Play.
Oh... I forgot..my key snapped in half when I was leaving Auto Zone the other day and got stuck in my trunk lock. Thankfully, I had spare keys made so I wasn't stranded for long. Getting the broken half out was a pain in the ***. I used a pick set but the hardest part was trying to get the right angle to hold the spring shutter open so I could use a second pick to try to slide the stuck piece out. Took me a good 30 minutes of trying and failing and WD40, but it worked...
You know you can always pop over to DGRR on Saturday and say hi even if the car isn't running, right?
Seems like the coolant pressure sensor could be more of a hassle than it's worth. I guess it's cool to have a warning if you blow a coolant hose or something but typically the coolant buzzer going off and the giant cloud of steam under the hood is a clue
You know you can always pop over to DGRR on Saturday and say hi even if the car isn't running, right?
Seems like the coolant pressure sensor could be more of a hassle than it's worth. I guess it's cool to have a warning if you blow a coolant hose or something but typically the coolant buzzer going off and the giant cloud of steam under the hood is a clue
Dale
Yeh. I was chatting with @Molotovman and I'm wondering if I'm chasing down a non-problem. Someone on Facebook group mentioned if my AST was overflowing into the overflow tank, my pressure would drop. So dropping to zero may not be an issue and to your point, the coolant level sensor would go nuts. Having a safety around too much coolant pressure is probably more useful and at that point, my warnings around temp are more useful anyways.
I wish I could pop into DRGG but I can't be more than an hour away from home with if the wife hasn't popped and DRGG is 4 hours away.
Having a potential issue with my oil pressure. I posted outside of this thread for wider visibility but would love the thoughts from those of you following my build (although I think most of you are are DGRR)
My dyno tuning day got delayed since my twins decided to show up that day! Fast forward a week later and I finally got her on the dyno and tuned. The last shop I used when I dyno tuned my PFC had a Mustang Dyno. The shop I used this time had a DynoJet Dyno. From what they told me, their DynoJet tends to read lower than other DynoJet dyno when the same car has been on both. So…the final numbers are 408 HP and 297 ft-lb of torque at the wheels. My previous dyno was 377HP and 316 ft-lb. Both are on 14psi of boost.
That being said, the tuner was different. My PFC was tuned by Bryan at @rotorsportracing and the Haltech was tuned remotely by Nelson Siverio. Nelson told me he wasn’t overly aggressive with the timing and that given that it was 96 degrees out, it really wasn’t a great day for dyno tuning in general. The only downside with Nelson is that he locks his tunes so I can’t even look at the maps to see what he did differently. Locked tunes was definitely a hot topic on some of the RX7 Facebook groups, but Nelson claims he has some strategies he’s learned over the years from tuning and from his experience tuning for Formula Drift that he wants to keep his. I’ve heard through the grapevine that someone(s) have copied and passed off his tunes as their own which is partly why he’s now locking tunes. I don’t know crap about tuning so in fairness, i wont mess with my map. I never did with my PFC.
The only thing we didn’t set up is boost by gear. Nelson said the proper way to do this is via a clutch switch wired to the Haltech so it knows when gear changes happened. @C. Ludwig says that’s not true and it can be done via speed and RPM. Nelson says it technically can, but its not always going to work. He said I could just log gear position in the Haltech on normal drive and watch how the gear hops around. Not sure if either is right (or wrong) vs different philosophies. Right now, I have a trim switch that I can adjust my boost on the fly from 7 to 14psi in 1 psi increments. The other thing that is left to setup is the trim switch for traction control. Anyways, here is the dyno graph of my best run and here is a link to the YouTube video so you can hear my car sing in all it’s glory.
Never say never, but my car in finally in great driving shape now. New ECU, harness, fuel system, tune, working AC. I got a few minor things to do like lube the tracks for my windows, figure out why my wipers move slow as mud (and don’t return to the right position), replace/upgrade some random interior trim pieces, and get the paint ceramic coated in a few months once the paint has fully cured.
All in all, this has been a really fun project and I’m proud of what I’ve learned and what I’ve accomplished. I blew my budget by about 5x but it is what it is. It’s a FD so I’m sure something will break that needs fixing…lets just hope it’s aesthetic.
That's BS not being able to see your tune. There is no magic in a reliable 400whp tune these days. That's just forcing you to go back to him every time there is a little issue. No way I would ever go that route.
That's BS not being able to see your tune. There is no magic in a reliable 400whp tune these days. That's just forcing you to go back to him every time there is a little issue. No way I would ever go that route.
There was lots of debate on my part about this, but Nelson came highly recommended. He was one of a few people Bryan recommended to me. I did a lot checking on Facebook and asking around and I don’t think I came across a single bad story about Nelson. He tunes for Kyle Mohan in Formula Drift and while it’s not a factory sponsored team (not sure Mazda even has one), it’s a legit team with sponsors (like Haltech) that competes well against factory backed teams.
At the end of the day, I dont mess with my map because I dont know WTF I’m doing nor do I have time for it. I want this Haltech to be set, forget, and drive. Nelson does offer unlocked tunes as well. He said the main difference is that his locked tunes have some of engine protection strategies and minor tweaks based on his experience and learnings. Now do I know what all those are? No, but in fairness to him, he does offer both locked and unlocked. He says there should be zero reason to mess with my tune unless I make a major change.
Whether I used him or anyone else, if I made a mod to my car, I’d rather go pay someone who knows what they are doing than to mess with things myself. I know with a PFC, you have to write changes to the ECU. With the Haltech, changes you make get written immediately if you’re connected to the ECU. That to me means one fat finger away from boom if I dont know what I’m doing.
But I get it. There is a stupid long thread on one of the RX7 Facebook groups about locked vs. unlocked. Most people are in favor of unlocked for obvious reasons, but the guys who lock their tunes are people who do have pretty solid reputations.
Congrats on the arrival of your twins. That is a magical time for you and your wife. An exhausting yet rewarding adventure awaits the two of you!
On the tuning front, I have to agree with Collin that locking a tune is crazy, especially when the customer has paid for the service. And with Haltech, I think you are underestimating your ability to make "tweaks" that will inevitably arise with the car. For example, you tuned the car in 95 degree temps. What happens when the temp drops to 30 degrees outside, and your startup settings are not quite right? The parameters (coolant temp correction, prime time, and post start enrich) in Haltech are pretty easy to learn and adjust. Or, you want to control a new sensor or component you've just aded (like when I added back into the car an aftermarket idle speed controller), or you need to add a new input or output into the system (I am doing a DCT transmission conversion and will need to add in outputs) and you can't configure these. I know I'd be pissed if I could not go in and make the needed adjustments.
I agree with you that we want Haltech to be "set it and forget it" as much as possible, but the reality is things change over time and you need access to making the adjustments, additions, and deletions as necessary.
Congrats on the new additions to your family and getting your setup where you want it! I totally hear whar you're saying, but locked tunes sounds like BS to me. You paid for it. It is your tune. This was a topic of conversation between Ryan and Shawn at one of their seminars at DGRR. I need to get your '21 DGRR shirt to you some time, the design was pretty badass this year.
I guess it all depends on how people look at it. I’ve heard the argument that you’re paying for the car to be tuned and for the final product and not the steps to get there. Like if you hired a top pastry chef to make you a cake. You’re paying for the cake but you aren’t entitled to the recipe. I think the broader debate is whether tuning is an art or a science. If it’s a science then everyone should be able to just follow directions and achieve the same results. If it’s an art, then there are subtle nuances and lessons learned that different people bring on what works and what doesn’t with different combinations of parts etc. To some, that is intellectual property and others see it like open source code that should be shared with the masses.
It is what it is now. At this point I’m just gonna drive and hope that the things Nelson brings to the table gives me a very good balance between performance, reliability and protection. When I mentioned the lock tune to Bryan at Rotorsports Racing, he didn’t have a problem with it and understands why Nelson would lock his tune even though Bryan doesn’t.
So after a few days of driving, I really love this Haltech. The multi function gauge is awesome for seeing all my sensors in a single gauge vs the 3 pod A-Pillar of analog gauges I had before. The tune is working out really well. There is no tip in throttle lag/delay at all. The responsiveness is night and day.
One thing Nelson did that takes a little getting used to is that he made my boost control target proportional to throttle percentage. In other words, if I want 14psi of boost, I have to be WOT. If I’m at less than full throttle, I don’t get the full 14psi. With my PFC, I could easily hit (and overshoot) 14psi on half throttle. What I do like about this is that in order to get the car at its max power, I have to be deliberately trying. In the long run, I think this keeps me out of trouble. I think this will serve me well on the track (whenever I get back there) because now I don’t have to worry as much about giving the car gas exiting a corner and losing traction since I can feather my boost/power with throttle vs. my PFC where I would just get 14psi with some unknown and unpredictable throttle percentage.
One project I need to take on is removing the Thermowax. Nelson said having that in place isn’t needed and frankly messes with startup idle since the ECU sees a certain percentage of throttle being applied since it cracks open the plates and can cause the Haltech to switch from an idle map to a driving map prematurely.
We were also seeing about a 20 degree delta between water temp and oil temp which he says is a bit off/suspicious. I’m wondering if my oil pressure/temp sensor is bad (we confirmed calibration since it’s the standard Bosch sensor) or if maybe its not as accurate getting reading from the oil pedestal vs the OEM sender location. I ordered a 1/8 BSP to 1/8 NPT adapter so I can relocate my sensor to the block just to rule out location. My TPS is also slightly out of spec so I need to adjust that as well.
One thing Nelson did that takes a little getting used to is that he made my boost control target proportional to throttle percentage.
Yeah! This is something I do as well but didn't know if it was common for others to do. Linking boost control with throttle really seems to help linearize the power to the pedal.
After a 3-month "curing" period, I got my FD ceramic coated (they used Ceramic Pro). The shop did multi-stage paint correction which really brought out the Innocent Blue Mica even though my car was just painted 3 months ago. They also cleaned my interior, applied coating to the leather seats and buffed the "haze" out of my rear taillights housing. I was going to have them lay down some paint protection film (PPF) on the front bumper, hood, and fenders, but the installer advised against it once he saw there was not a pre-cut pattern for the FD. Having to apply PPF manually ("bulk" wrap) means they will likely need to lift the film during the application process. Apparently, with aftermarket paint, there is a high chance of lifting off the clear and/or paint. He offered to do it carefully but I could tell he'd rather not risk it unless I was adamant about having it. Even if he was able to put it down, had it needed to be replaced down the road, it would likely lift the paint so it made no sense since the whole point of PPF is to replace it should it get scratched or damaged. Overall, Im pretty thrilled with it. Every external part including rims was coated so I'm curious to see how much easier it will be to wash and keep the car clean.
I hate to say Done because you know...it's an FD, but I might be pretty much done. I think the only thing I need to address is my wipers move slow as molasses. I'm hoping I just need to pull the arms and lube some stuff down. It's a low priority since I try not to drive on rainy days any ways.
Huge difference before and after! Car looks great right now, props to you for saving her. Was the car kind of sunk into the mud a little in that picture?
I used to have that same key for the MX-6, guess it was very popular in the early 2000s, by the time I sold the car that key was showing sign of cracking.
Last edited by ZE Power MX6; 08-04-21 at 01:19 PM.
Huge difference before and after! Car looks great right now, props to you for saving her. Was the car kind of sunk into the mud a little in that picture?
I used to have that same key for the MX-6, guess it was very popular in the early 2000s, by the time I sold the car that key was showing sign of cracking.
The car wasnt sunk in. Just the front tires a little bit. That car was on the coast of NC and had I not rescued it, it would have flooded during the big hurricane a few years back.
So I had this great post about how I put a catch can on and then look the car to VIR for another track weekend and had no oil issues. Instead, I have a blown motor :-(
Car ran great on Saturday. Sunday morning she struggled to start in the morning but it was also about 30 degrees so I assumed my battery just didn't wanna play nice. As the day went on, she didn't wanna start but she still ran when she did. Nothing felt out of the ordinary to me. Got her home she was still finicky. Thought maybe it was fouled plugs. Nope.
Borrowed a rotary compression tester from a local FD owner and sure enough, I blew seals. Here are my COLD corrected readings from the test.
Rear
Test 1:
94 72 85
Test 2
72 79 57
Front
Test 1:
69 67 66
Test 2:
70 70 23
Ugh. I had so much fun. Frankly, I'm kind of amazed the car ran for my sessions sunday as it was misbehaving as of Sunday morning. This also explains why I found out at the end of the day from another driver that he heard I was shooting fire. I guess I'll take the car to Rotorsports for a teardown and fix. The question will be what to do when the car is back. I would have really expected my rebuilt motor to last more than the <5k miles it has on it. Maybe I didn't premix enough (I still run OMP), maybe my tune (tuned by Nelson Siverio) didn't help? I dunno. I do know I ran this motor last year at VIR on a PowerFC and old *** fuel system and it was fine. New ECU, new tune (from a reputable tuner), and new fuel system and pop. Ugh
So I had this great post about how I put a catch can on and then look the car to VIR for another track weekend and had no oil issues. Instead, I have a blown motor :-(
Car ran great on Saturday. Sunday morning she struggled to start in the morning but it was also about 30 degrees so I assumed my battery just didn't wanna play nice. As the day went on, she didn't wanna start but she still ran when she did. Nothing felt out of the ordinary to me. Got her home she was still finicky. Thought maybe it was fouled plugs. Nope.
Borrowed a rotary compression tester from a local FD owner and sure enough, I blew seals. Here are my COLD corrected readings from the test.
Rear
Test 1:
94 72 85
Test 2
72 79 57
Front
Test 1:
69 67 66
Test 2:
70 70 23
Ugh. I had so much fun. Frankly, I'm kind of amazed the car ran for my sessions sunday as it was misbehaving as of Sunday morning. This also explains why I found out at the end of the day from another driver that he heard I was shooting fire. I guess I'll take the car to Rotorsports for a teardown and fix. The question will be what to do when the car is back. I would have really expected my rebuilt motor to last more than the <5k miles it has on it. Maybe I didn't premix enough (I still run OMP), maybe my tune (tuned by Nelson Siverio) didn't help? I dunno. I do know I ran this motor last year at VIR on a PowerFC and old *** fuel system and it was fine. New ECU, new tune (from a reputable tuner), and new fuel system and pop. Ugh
Aw man, sorry to hear that. Good thing is the community will help diagnose the issue, and hopefully will have a more bulletproof engine next time around. Look forward to the diagnosis for what caused this, and what you end up doing to bring that amazing FD back.
New ECU, new tune (from a reputable tuner), and new fuel system and pop. Ugh
Those words sent a shiver down my spine!
I'm sorry and sympathetic, as you're not alone. Thankfully those number don't foreshadow a catastrophic fail. Hopefully the breakdown will point to mechanical culpability beyond a reasonable doubt.
05-11-21, 10:50 PM
