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I keep getting more and more tempted to sell my TII trans and get an Rx-8 one instead. I plan to go turbo eventually though. How much hp can the S2 Rx-8 trans take? I don't want to make big power. 300 to 350ish at the wheels maybe.
I don't have a good answer for that. I make just under 300whp now with a 10k redline. My main reason for this swap was driveability. The S2 rx8 trans is simply a dream to shift versus my T2 box. If you're pushing high numbers or high TQ, I'd assume this wouldn't be a great swap.
In addition, I will say that swapping to a modern starter has also been an eye opener. The old units crank so slowly in comparison.
dude 4.77 is crazy. im hoping to be in the 4.56 range like i had on my 2sk
I always felt these cars didn't have enough gearing with the amount of torque they produce. I'm going to see what I can do to make a good driver that also fixes many of the Mazda "Let's do our best to squeak out MPG" type stuff.
Enough with the hijack. I can't wait to hear about the results of this swap!
Not much has been happening. Too much work to do on the house to really enjoy the car this last summer. I did make it out to a few cars and coffee events, but nothing very large. With the little time I've had, I've been making the car more "35 year old man" friendly. The exhaust volume of the peripheral port has been steadily wearing on me, so I installed some thermotec sound deadening in the hatch area. I still need to install it in the rest of the car. So far, the difference was huge in terms of killing some of that resonance in the cabin.
I traded my old corbeau GTS II seats for some OEM blue turbo 2 seats. The OEM's are much more comfortable, still have a decent amount of bolster support, and I sit much lower. I actually kind of like the blue seats with the rest of the black interior, but maybe I'll get them reupholstered over the winter. I did get the black plastics and levers for the seats, so at least the seat "trim" is black.
I got sick of looking at my old cracked center vents and warped radio surround, so I bought them both new. It's amazing how nice NOS parts feel in comparison to used. The center vents actually have tension in the parts that move. Blew my mind lol.
Upgraded my 15 year old single DIN deck for a Pioneer 2700NEX with wireless car play/ Android auto. Works great minus my Google assistant not performing functions. It hears me, but won't carry out any tasks. Still working on that.
Finally decided to bite the bullet and install my new Elite 750. The old E6X still works, but the limitations were starting to get frustrating. Day 1 was spent removing all necessary interior and getting the ECU pulled. The plan is to put in new sound deadening (since I removed it 11 years ago, so dumb), clean up some wiring I'm not so proud of, and get this thing back up and running within a month.
While both the Haltech fuse box and the ECU won't fit in the glove box, I'll be putting the ECU in the glove box and the fuse box near the passenger kick panel.
Carpet and E6X out. If someone wants this ECU for a random project, I'll sell it. Otherwise, I'll sit on it for any dumb projects I may have in mind.
I've got most of the wiring figured out, ordered new sensors, crimps, pins, etc. However, I still need to find a suitable mounting spot for the IGN1A coils I'll be using. I want them near the brake/clutch master, but I haven't found any mounting brackets that will work in that area. There's not many flat surfaces there, so most brackets I've seen won't work. That's really the only hurdle I have to knock this out quickly.
Yeah, I saw that. I just don't like how it looks. I ended up making my own by modifying the stock trailing coil bracket and installing a riv-nut in the shock tower. I'll have more pictures to come in the next few days.
Here's what I did. I cut the studs out of the original trailing coil bracket and drilled one new hole. Obviously, I painted it as well.
Installed a stainless riv-nut in the shock tower give the bracket an additional mounting point.
Mounted.
Rough mock-up for right now. No issues with hood clearance. I definitely had to play with spacer length to ensure the coil connectors have enough clearance from the chassis. As it is, everything fits. Just need to finish the wiring to the coils and install some nicer hardware.
I definitely need to repaint the engine bay the next time this engine comes out.
While waiting for my TXL wire to arrive, I decided to tackle the spark plug wires. Since the coils are mounted in a different location, I'd need different lengths. I could've bought the SakeBomb wires which would've been close, but I already had two brand new sets of NGK replacements that I didn't feel like throwing away. Also, it was a good excuse to learn how to make my own.
Got all the materials together. Wires, spark plug wire crimper, snips, and 90 degree LS coil style boots/connectors.
As I've never made plug wires, I cut off the original connector to see what I was dealing with.
After removing the wire from the original NGK connector, I noticed a metal tab inserted into the spark plug wire. While I don't know what it does, it's probably wise to reuse it.
Cut away of the wire: The metal tab is simply inserted into the center of the wire next to the core. Easy peasy.
Tab removed and inserted into the shortened wire section.
Wire inserted into the connector, with the metal tab facing down to ensure good contact and then crimped.
Rinse, repeat, and voila! A new set of custom length plug wires. Super easy with the right tools.
I made a second set as well, so I have two complete sets ready to go. To ensure I didn't ruin the wires and cause myself problems down the road, I measured the resistance of the wires at the original lengths and after I modified them. Results below:
Unmodified NGK leading wire @ 40" in length: 7.9K ohms
Modified leading wire @ ~28": 5.5K ohms
Unmodified NGK trailing wire @ ~26" in length: 5K ohms
Modified leading wire @ ~24.5": 4.7K ohms
At the very least, I lowered the resistance by reducing the wire length. Makes sense to me!
Rob from Pineapple Racing is retiring; so myself and several others have been helping close down the business. Ergo, I haven't had much spare time to work on the car.
I did find a shop to shorten my speedometer cable for the GPS speedo. It was way too long and ended up dangling near my feet. I cut it down to about 17" and mounted it under the dash. I also took the time to install rubber insulating clamps in the cabin to secure the main power wire (no more zip ties) and the fuel pump wire. Most of the ECU harness is done, and I only have a few sensors left to pin. I also decided to upgrade from my AEM wideband to the Haltech CAN wideband controller. That should show up in the next few days and I can button the harness up.
After the above is done, I need to start working on laying down more sound deadening and putting the interior back together.
Rob from Pineapple Racing is retiring; so myself and several others have been helping close down the business. Ergo, I haven't had much spare time to work on the car.
I did find a shop to shorten my speedometer cable for the GPS speedo. It was way too long and ended up dangling near my feet. I cut it down to about 17" and mounted it under the dash. I also took the time to install rubber insulating clamps in the cabin to secure the main power wire (no more zip ties) and the fuel pump wire. Most of the ECU harness is done, and I only have a few sensors left to pin. I also decided to upgrade from my AEM wideband to the Haltech CAN wideband controller. That should show up in the next few days and I can button the harness up.
After the above is done, I need to start working on laying down more sound deadening and putting the interior back together.
Rob is cool, and he's older than me so we weren't there together, but we both used to work at the same dealership, Almaden Mazda.
Legend is that his REPU with the 13B P Port from the race car would do 0-100 by the end of the Chevy dealership
i also think he still has the truck, but this was a looooooong time ago
Rob is cool, and he's older than me so we weren't there together, but we both used to work at the same dealership, Almaden Mazda.
Legend is that his REPU with the 13B P Port from the race car would do 0-100 by the end of the Chevy dealership
i also think he still has the truck, but this was a looooooong time ago
this retirement sounds abrupt, i hope he's ok
Such a small world! If it's the green truck you're talking about, he still daily drives it. As for the retirement; it's been disheartening taking down the shop but necessary for Rob to get the time off he deserves.
Got the injector and CAS wired up last night. Waiting on new TPS & fuel pressor sensor connectors/pins. Those should be here in a day or so. The list is getting shorter!
Sidenote: picked up some OEM clutch/brake pedal pads for the car, and a couple random parts for another *secret* project. Astute readers may get the hint.
Finished wiring in the new Haltech CAN wideband controller, TPS, fuel pressor sensor, and gave everything a test. Success! The Elite is powered on, fuel pump is kicking on, sensors are all showing up. As a quick test, I calibrated all the sensors and everything seems to be reading accurately. The only questionable thing is the Engine Control Latching Relay setting. I disabled that for now until I figure out if it actually needs to be on.
Of course when there is progress, there is something that halts it.
While buttoning the car back up, I started putting the interior back together. In doing so, I discovered my pioneer head unit no longer turns on. This struck me as very odd as the only stereo related wiring I touched was extending some speaker wire harnesses. The head unit harness was left alone. I did some trouble shooting and found that my factory stereo 12v constant wire isn't getting anything over 0.15 volts!! I tested the following and am stumped. In addition, everything else in the car works as it should (with the car off, that is. No map loaded on the ECU yet to start it).
I poked around and checked the wiring under the dash, nothing is unplugged that shouldn't be. In addition, the wiring to the stereo power wires is fine, not cracked or broken.
@j9fd3s Got any clues as to what may be going on here?
When messing around behind the glove box, I noticed two stock antenna connectors (near the evap core) were unplugged. So logically, I plugged them into each other without thinking about it. After looking at the FSM, I realized that those connectors are for the front and rear antennas, separately. So, I unplugged them from each other and VOILA! I have 12v constant at the stereo again.
I'd love to know how plugging those two connectors into each other basically removes all voltage to the wire though. Interesting.
