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.
A Dieter Rams fanboy, I wanted the new interior "clean" as possible, though a minimum awareness of systems is de rigueur. Asides from the usual customizable dash engine performance offerings, the idea was to approximation the stock instrument cluster awarness as best I could afford. Aside from engine parameters, this meant figuring out warning lights: fuel level, fuel low, and oil low (though coolant low was deemed low priority). Here's how it turned out...
I use the V_REF from the AIM DASH and the GND from the stock connector 1E (Black/Blue)
C1-19 (in-tank sender troubleshooting) - float sender output is 6Ω (Full) to 80Ω (Empty);
I read 7.4Ω (Full) to 76Ω (Empty) somewhere in the manual but couldn’t find now.
Settled on a 470Ω pull-up resistor. With the 4.5V_REF, which outputs .12v (F) to .72v (E) signal. I'd preferred a ‘stronger’ pull-up to provide more resolution, but the risk of exceeding the unpublished AIM DASH amperage limit outweighed the better range. Suspect I’ll use 200Ω when I transition to a MOTEC dash.
Fuel Low light – This is effectively an on/off thermistor (thermal resistor). Unfortunately, no electrical specs are provided in the FSM (nor on the interwebz). I assumed the amperage limits (.2A) for the AIM DASH and settled on a 2000Ω pullup to 4.5 V_REF w. a 4.5v (FULL) to 3.6v (LOW) signal range… sufficient spread for the AIM DASH to trigger a warning.
FSM details: C1-3 (wiring schematic) and C2-26 (in-tank thermistor troubleshooting)
Inst cluster connector pinouts: connector 2C (I2 - Blue wire)
Oil Low light – Exactly the same as the Fuel Low light, except...
FSM details: C1-3 (wiring schematic) and C2-26 (in-tank thermistor troubleshooting)
Inst cluster connector pinouts: connector 3G (I - Blue wire)
AIM DASH pull-up pigtails
A point of compromise was the perhaps a silly fear of hacking up the harnesses to the point of no-return. Here I let the future possibilities override current wiring design. As a result, these modifications aren't as tidy I prefer, but maybe the thoughtfulness that a future owner (e.g., me, my son, the bankruptcy conservator, et.) will appreciate (if the factory dash is ever reincorporated). Guess old Milton Freidman lives even in my dash design!
This will do until I scrounge up a MOTEC CDL3 which will give even great display flexibility. Hopefully later this year.
The CF panels appear to all be EVO-R pieces. I say “appear” because I’ve had the hood and HVAC panel for so long that I don’t remember their original source. While everything fit relatively well, it did require some trimming and mounting reinforcements (3M DP420NS is my new 'bestie'). The HVAC panel is not tight against the dash at the upper right corner. It sticks out about 1/8” and will require a not simple solution for proper fitment. I’m ‘kicking that can down the road” while I work on higher priority project tasks. Aside from fit, I’d give the kit an “A” for looks/wanabee-ism, and overall a “C+”. That’ll do… for now!
The aluminum heel plates are from Ben (BubbleTech). A lovely bit of kit that solve the annoying problem of my heels getting stuck on retaining fasters and other non-carpeted annoyance. This was his latest version from a couple of years ago. Now that he's back, can't wait to see what he'll come up with!
I also got around to re-powder coating the the M2 rollbar black. It was silver and was another (aesthetically) can that I finally stopped kicking down the road.
Interior wise, I’ll leave the passenger seat out until I’ve confirmed all of the electronics are up to snuff. Just giving “Murphy” his dues in case he’s got some plans for the cooper and Tezel spaghetti I created. Likewise with the Schroth harnesses which I got all new hardware for. Oh yeah, and the MOMO driver's seat is a Medieval grade reminder of how big my *** has gotten in the past 20 years.
Now if I can just get someone to cough up some misc center console trim plastic, I can put a bow tie on the interior... hint. hint. hint!
Last edited by Carlos Iglesias; Feb 5, 2022 at 03:30 PM.
Reason: ADD
Hey Rick, I had you in mind when I published the mod since I knew you where going down the aftermarket dash route. I always find it nice to be able to give back/contribute to our rotary community with something new (errrr, custom). And yes, shift lights = hypnotic shiny, shiny! After for Race Studio, I'm stuck with the antiquated Race Studio (RS) II vice newest RS III upgrade. I've downloaded III to play with it and it is indeed a nice upgrade. Oh well, just something else to nudge me towards a Motec dash.
... cause Custom Crap
Custom is cool. Custom is rewarding. Custom is cantankerous!
Buy some thoughtfully designed braces from Banzai. Definitely a nice and straightforward upgrade, right!?! Certainly looking forward to simply installing and enjoy the anticipate extra 300rwhp. So mock into the initial position and try adjusting into alignment... and instantly from the dark recesses of my mind I hear "Murphy's" cackle, "CUSTOM FTMFW"!?!? Damn it to hell!!! Sigh. <push the Do-All bandsaw ON button and don the eye pro>.
Banzai Transmission Brace modified for Spic Racer
Modified Banzai Transmission Brace Install
Alternate to Starter harness 2.0 -> 3.0
And then sometime (when "Murphy" is on a coffee break), CUSTOM can be cathartic...
like upgrading a 20-year old wiring hack...
Alternator to Starter harness 2.0
.
.
Two hours later... a proper job worthy of its engine mates! Alternator to Starter harness 3.0
PS: Sucks to be stupid... I do know the difference between "Tail" and "Tale". Stupid ADD!!
Last edited by Carlos Iglesias; Feb 15, 2022 at 05:00 AM.
Reason: ADD
Don't touch a thing Peter - I was just singing your praise on how a street track balance should be done with carpeting and full interior comfort and cleanliness
You and I are going to sort out with relatively apple to apple identical twins at Watkins Glen that less weight isn't always better
You and Fritz on VIR though... that's for you two to sort out
This is great, Carlos - I will be back here referencing some of your pieces and alarm settings, bouncing in and out of AiM Race Studio
The toddler in me hasn't gotten past having fun with shift light settings
Said it before, but I love that interior - perfect balance of business and beauty
not to threadjack, sorry Carlos, when you are setting the haltech with the AIM make sure you set it up through the aux connector on the Elite and depending on your firmware you can choose the correct CAN protocol.
it took me a while to find the answer as haltech was just saying that my AIM pdm was damaged (its brand new).
Peter - I'd be surprised if I saved 50 lbs total, so not sure I'd promote the spartan interior just for that. For me, the interior crossed into the "Uncanny Valley" of interiors when the rear bins and trunk trim came out. Not stock and not race 'nuf. Sure, the weight savings don't suck, but I was as much driven by stripping my way to the other side of the minima on the interior aesthetic curve.
Costa and Rick - As long as the content is valuable to our community, all are welcomed to add to discussions here!
TeamRX8 and joelle, very much appreciate the kind words. Joelle, may I ask what you previous forum ID was... I'll beg forgiveness for my forgetfulness.
Ethanol Content and Spark Plug Heat Range
After an unfruitful (and even partially wasteful) attempt to gain some insight into the observed relationship between fuel ethanol content and spark plug heat range, I'll need to pioneer my own answer. So my plan is to start, idle, and free rev on BR10EIX-9 plugs. That should be hot enough to suffer foul-lessly through the rich mixture indignities of first-start through some low boost tuning. It also has to be cold enough to guard against the ubiquitous threat of pinging. Once complete with spring-rate (7 psi) tuning, I'll swap in R7420-10.5 plugs. We'll run these through to the final tune and then read the plugs. Dyno runs are ideal for reading plugs (i.e. read immediately after full power). The sticky wicket here will be the need pitstop quick plug swaps at near full temp plugs... the dyno and tuner billable clock will be spinning. Then to make sure I waste the maximum amount of "benjamins" during the session(s), I will also have a set of R7420-9 plugs on hand to replace the 10.5's if they read too cold. Of course, that swap will also require a verification of the final tune, but at least I'll finally have some data and hopefully optimize plug choice.
About midway through my career, I had a very talented HSL-40 Pararigger (parachute rigger) that was working on a project retaping most of the instructor's helmet. The latest instruction had come down that they had to be 100% white reflective tape covered; many helmets still had squadron-colored designs back then. Anyways, while turning in my gear after a flight, he ask me what my hobbies were. I think ya'll might have an inkling of my answer. A couple of days passed and when I next went to check out my gear, I discovered why he'd asked. Apparently for a few of us that he thought well of, he had razor-cut designs into our helmets reflective tape. Mine was a sublimely artful rotor. I was thoroughly thrilled with it! A rotary rotor on a rotary pilot's helmet... I will ALWAYS be thrilled by it!
Last edited by Carlos Iglesias; Feb 19, 2022 at 08:06 AM.
Reason: ADD
Rick, the picture captures a tale of a 27-years Naval Aviator, (rotary) Seahawk/Blackhawk bubba, two at-sea rescues, and a year commanding a Special Operations Company in Iraq; all in an awesome sea-chest full of strips of cloth and trinkets.
Got it first started about a month ago. Amazingly and perhaps to my tuner's credit, it literally started after about a dozen engine cycles. Straight to 1800 rpms. No leaks and everything looked solid which was disarming; I was expecting a mechanical/electrical **** show.
Far from perfect, the first challenge was idle. I couldn't get it below 1500 even after the car was stable at full temp (initially mid-180s). Tried all the idle screws accessible and checked the throttle cable tension. Only got about a 100rpm decrease. So pulled the intake. Blacked out the fast idle screw (no fast idle system left) and cleaned the butterfly bores. Reinstall. Got me down to about 900rpm. Acceptable since I expect 950-1000rpm idle.
I've been fighting the next issue since then: 200-ish RPM loping. While it's been a LONG time since I heard IRP's largest street port idle, I don't remember it being this lumpy. I've tweaked the no-load map (up to 3000rpm) as best I can in the garage. I've also turned off the closed loop systems: Idle Control as well as Fuel Control. Idle Ignition Control IS active. Below is my current tune. While I'm planning to reach out to my tuner for his input and help, I would love to hear from some of our RX-7 tuners' (e.g. @Howard Coleman , @IRPerformance@Skeese ) and their perspectives of the idle quality. Certainly, any suggestions on how to smooth it out will be very appreciated?.
Specifics of the setup:
Fuel is a E10 through break-in.
IRP Street Ported intake and exhaust
ID 1300/2200 ; base fuel pressure @ 4 Bar
IAT sensor in Greddy elbow
ISC Disabled; Double throttle and accelerated warm-up/cold start solenoid removed
Both knock sensors are deactivated
This mornings operating temp datalog snapshot:
That aside, quite happy with the initial startups and idle to operating temps (about 5 so far)... especially a decade after it last start:
No leaks... so far.
Cranking with the new @Banzai-Racing starter takes less than 2 seconds.to "light off"; good compression helps a wee bit!
Even with 95-100F ambient, the coolant fan only requires about 59% duty cycle to maintain in the 190Fs.
Electrically and electronically, I've had no issues (i.e. sensors, wiring, CAN bus, et.) and @C. Ludwig 's LMS-EFI harness has been flawless.
So I'll be in the holding pattern until my tuner reaches out to me or I figure it out myself... whichever comes first. After that, it'll be to the dyno for break-in and no-boost tuning. OF course, stay tune... Same Bat Forum, Same Bat Thread.
A "Tank" of a Can
I've seen my share of over-built **** before. One or two while in my previous gig. But about 2 weeks ago, I got what is easily in the 10-top most over-build things I've ever worked with: Radium Competition. Universal Cat Can. Very impressed! Whodathunkit for a simple can. But it blindingly obvious. All threads are O-ringed, the dipstick is thoughtfully designed, and the flexible mounting ring all screams industry-leading quality. Construction-wise, it's the Abrams M1A1 of catch cans. Very much looking forward to installing it next weekend. Now I just got figure out how to incorporate a Guinness Draft Stout wrapper on it to carry my original Black & Tan fluid containers bonafides!
Last edited by Carlos Iglesias; Jun 20, 2022 at 05:59 PM.
Reason: ADD
That are some big primary injectors. what is the pulsewidth?
It coud be that you are pretty near the minimum tme for these injectors.. the only thing you can do to easy it is either switch to smaller primaries or for now easier retard the spark timing. something like 0 to -5 on the leading works well usually. this will increase idle airflow and thus also fuel and get you a bit further away from the Ti min.
It could also be too any governors are active at one time. like the ISC, idle spark governor and the lambda controller. Therefore maybe first start without lambda control active and try to get the air path slow enough so it doesnt over react and have the spark govern the minor oscillations.
I agree those injectors seem pretty rowdy for targeting 0.89 lambda on pump gas. It might be a bit easier when you switch to E85, since the pulsewidth will get larger and ethanol tends to behave more nicely once the engine is warm. But the process is the same, so might as well try to make improvements before switching fuels. I would try to richen the target mixture to 0.81-0.85, so the engine doesn't lose as much power when it goes 5-10% leaner than target. It's hard to suggest exactly which cells need changing in the fuel map, but it's important to get all the cells surrounding your target idle RPM and load correct without adding too many large/rough changes in the map. Try adding 10% for the load cells that are more load than normal idle, for instance if it idles at 40 kPa try adding some fuel at 45-50kPa so it will run rich (not lean) when the load increases. On my car I have the target lambda a bit richer when the load goes above normal idle load because I want it a bit rich (never lean) when the load increases. Turn on the headlights or very gently release the clutch to creep forward and check that the engine behaves nicely when the load increases just off idle.
I also agree that O2 feedback will make it harder to dial in the idle fueling. The exhaust transport time or sensor lag or whatever makes it especially tricky to use O2 feedback at idle.
Also try adjusting the injector phasing / firing angle. My process is to move the numbers by 50 degrees and watch the AFR at idle and the manifold pressure/vacuum at idle. If you go in the right direction and get the injector firing angle/phasing correct, the AFR should get a little richer (for the exact same fuel pulsewidth) and the engine should pull a little more vacuum (lower MAP pressure) because it's running better. On my car with stock ports and small injectors, the window of 'good enough' is about 100 degrees wide and the throttle response seems more noticeable than the idle improvement. On a piston engine, fuel economy and throttle response are the main benefit. But on a rotary engine, I think that firing the injectors at the wrong time can result in more fuel sprayed at the intake port when it's shrouded by the side of the rotor. Without the same valvetrain as piston engines, I think fuel sprayed at the wrong angle might end up getting past the side seals and oil control rings on rotary engines.
That catch can looks great.
Last edited by scotty305; Jun 20, 2022 at 08:00 PM.
Rub20B - Appreciate the quick and very helpful response. You pointed out a strong lead to pursue. Frankly, with so much being new on the car, I didn't even consider the injector size. Once I planned it for E85 (now to be E50) I mentally put it out of consideration. Also, I did mention the wrong injectors, as I swapped out the ID1700's for ID1300x; I corrected it on the original post above. Regardless, the duty cycle at idle is between 3.5-4.1%. Update the datalog with the Injector Duty Cycle and zoomed in to a 10-sec clip for a better look.
Unfortunately, it's not immediately obvious if that is in the non-linear response portion of the injectors. While it appears that the ID1300X have a linear response that extends lower, I still need to convert duty cycle (MoTec M1 standard parameter) to pulse width to accept or reject as the root cause. Definitely some hopefully fruitful research ahead.
Here's an ID chart for reference:
scotty305 - A lot of meat in your response. Thanks. I'll reply more deliberately after work today...
i have run Bosch EV 14 1350/3 BAR (primary position) injectors for 10 years.
let's take a closer look at your fuel capability:
7000 cc/min total fuel nominal capability at 3 BAR
you are at 4 BAR
58/43.5 = 1.33. square root of 33 is 5.7
7000 X 1.057 = 7400 CC/Min
7400 X .85 = 6290 (max sustainable duty cycle)
6290 X .8 = 5032 (net of lag/deadtime reduction)
5032 = 1.33 gallons per min
1.33 GPM X 6.35 = 8.44 lbs of gasoline per minute
8.44 X 10.0 AFR ( conservative) = 84.4 lbs of air/min
84.4 X .75 = 633 rw rotary hp 100% gasoline
adjust to 50% ethanol:
116,090 BTUs per gallon gasoline X .5 = 58,045
76,330 BTUs per gallon ethanol X .5 = 38,165
BTUs per gallon = 96,210
96,210/116,090 = .83
.83 X 633 = 525 rw rotary hp 50% ethanol.
power discount at 3 BAR static:
1 - .057 = .943
.943 X 525 = 495 max power at 3 BAR @ 50% ethanol
running at 3 BAR might help your idle situation and the cost is 30 hp.
whether it would help or not depends a bit on your Actual Pulse Width. please re-post your log with Effective Pulse Width, Dead Time and Actual Pulse Width.
the nature of your primary port could also be a contributing factor. Mazda initially cast a fairly good port and then decided to place a significant restriction into it. if re-worked properly the primary can be a major factor as to flow. it will not only add overall flow but will idle better.
Congrats! There's NOTHING better than hearing a first start!
So you have no ISC, are you basically just using the throttle stop for idle control? If 900 is as low as it will go it's very possible you have a minor vacuum leak between the throttle body and engine. That's worth sorting out since minor leaks will wreak havoc on many aspects of how the car runs and drives.
In theory if you close the throttle plates 100% you should stall the engine. You need air to make the car idle. If the idle is high extra air is getting in somewhere.
My go-to for finding vacuum leaks is starting fluid. Run the engine and spray where you think the leak is coming from, the engine will smooth out and rev up a bit when it sucks in the starting fluid.
3-4% duty at 1000 rpm are around 0.5 to 0.6 msec. should still be halfway ok for the ID1300 injectors.
Try to go a bit later w the spark. it will increase airflow and fuel atomisation. Are the injectors in the stock location in the center iron? do you use the plastic spray guide inserts? I once made an engine with an xcessive LIM without primaries in the iron and that was a total mistake. idle and low driving where impossible to get smooth.
An air leak or not will not really affect the idle quality on a speed density system. so I think best is to retard the base spark. Also in the screenshot it looks like the minimum spark is capped to 10 deg which a bit weird
