TriStateTuners.com :: Home of Tristate Auto Enthusiast  

Go Back TriStateTuners.com :: Home of Tristate Auto Enthusiast > Community > Member Journals
Register Rules & Info Mark Forums Read

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 08-16-2020, 09:45 PM   #1
DocWalt
Tri-State Post Whore
 
DocWalt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Royersford, PA
Member #10805

My Ride:
'92 GTI, '19 MX-5

iTrader: (0)
Send a message via AIM to DocWalt
Dorito Fun

I bought an '09 RX-8 R3 back in the beginning of July. It had lots of weird issues... and apparently a blown engine. Spun bearings, so I can't even make funny apex seal jokes.

It had a pretty long list of mods, so not a total waste.

While I was replacing the engine with a friend, I did Hotchkis swaybars and fixed a LOT of other nonsense. Replaced the stupid spherical bearing Megan Racing lower control arms in the rear.







Typical rotary, visiting gas stations often



About a week after purchase the damn door handle broke. The fix involved trapping myself inside the car among other stupid things.



Oil pan full of copper



Pulling the engine a week and a half later





DocWalt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-16-2020, 09:55 PM   #2
DocWalt
Tri-State Post Whore
 
DocWalt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Royersford, PA
Member #10805

My Ride:
'92 GTI, '19 MX-5

iTrader: (0)
Send a message via AIM to DocWalt
Hotchkis swaybar:



Wrapped the stock header:



More swaybar goodness:



Reman Mazda engine arrived!





Quickly turned it into this:



Then this happened the next day:





I got the injectors cleaned and flow tested, when they arrived I quickly did this...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZScG2DmjFg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOcdxvfIBLE

I've been breaking it in since!

DocWalt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-16-2020, 10:24 PM   #3
DaveSTi
Tri-State Post Whore
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Charlotte
Member #1591

 
iTrader: (0)
I LOVE RX-8's!!

MAN this is going to be a fun thread to follow!!

Congratulations!!
__________________
Member Journals:


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
DaveSTi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-17-2020, 08:50 AM   #4
PAdutch
Tri-State Addict
 
PAdutch's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Miataland
Member #17024

My Ride:
Miata, Miata, Genesis, 08 burb 2500

iTrader: (0)
My interest in this is significant. I've been contemplating selling the miata and moving to one of these. Since they have a chance of fitting a child in the back seat and are basically a hardtop NC. The reliability makes me nervous.
__________________
Stinger GTS -
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.


Miatas! -
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.


MY EVO (Sold)-
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
PAdutch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-18-2020, 08:31 AM   #5
rocknrace03
Tri-State Post Whore
 
rocknrace03's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Schnecksville Pa
Member #17593

My Ride:
WRX

iTrader: (2)
I love these cars, reliability factor not as much... but then again, i like subaru's sooooo....

LSX swap?

Looking forward to the build
rocknrace03 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-18-2020, 01:33 PM   #6
DocWalt
Tri-State Post Whore
 
DocWalt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Royersford, PA
Member #10805

My Ride:
'92 GTI, '19 MX-5

iTrader: (0)
Send a message via AIM to DocWalt
Glad to see you guys are interested too I've always wanted an RX-8 R3, so this was a nice find.

Dropping the car off for alignment and inspection tomorrow, it currently has like 1.5" of rear toe in, it's pretty sketchy to drive haha.

Definitely no ****ty LS swaps, that's the one thing that I hate most in the world lol
DocWalt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-20-2020, 03:25 PM   #7
blue91lx
Tri-State Post Whore
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Indianapolis/SE PA
Member #21697

 
iTrader: (0)
Nice!! What are your plans?
blue91lx is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-20-2020, 10:22 PM   #8
DocWalt
Tri-State Post Whore
 
DocWalt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Royersford, PA
Member #10805

My Ride:
'92 GTI, '19 MX-5

iTrader: (0)
Send a message via AIM to DocWalt
Quote:
Originally Posted by blue91lx View Post
Nice!! What are your plans?
Just some light prep autocross/time trial stuff and fun street car. I'm going to keep it fairly simple.


On that note... Went to get it aligned and a vast majority of the adjusters were seized, so there will be updates to come on that front. It did get to a "decent street alignment" but nothing special.

Offset upper arm bushings for more front camber were in the plans anyway, but now I'm doing a delrin/OEM lower arm build up front and replacing the arms with the stuck adjusters in the rear (everything back there is super crusty so not overly surprised)

I've had a tune on the car, but it was set with stock dwell times even though I have upgraded LS2/D585 coils on the car. I tweaked the dwell table to "known good" values and holy crap the car is way smoother, faster, and more responsive. I'm still only part way through the break-in process so I'm only able to rev to ~7k RPM and it feels great.
DocWalt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-21-2020, 02:40 PM   #9
GolNat
Tri-State Aficionado
 
GolNat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: DE
Member #26054

My Ride:
2013 GTI 6MT Coupe

iTrader: (0)
Sweet!! Looking forward to the progress.
GolNat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-22-2020, 01:18 PM   #10
DocWalt
Tri-State Post Whore
 
DocWalt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Royersford, PA
Member #10805

My Ride:
'92 GTI, '19 MX-5

iTrader: (0)
Send a message via AIM to DocWalt
Did new brakes the other day



Tweaked the tune to better match the ignition coil dwell times to what the upgraded coils on my car want and it's *so* much smoother, more responsive, and feels more powerful too. Huge difference in performance from such a simple thing.
DocWalt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-23-2020, 03:11 PM   #11
DaveSTi
Tri-State Post Whore
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Charlotte
Member #1591

 
iTrader: (0)
Quote:
Originally Posted by DocWalt View Post
Did new brakes the other day



Tweaked the tune to better match the ignition coil dwell times to what the upgraded coils on my car want and it's *so* much smoother, more responsive, and feels more powerful too. Huge difference in performance from such a simple thing.
Very cool! I must have missed it, but what are you using to tune with?

Aren't these super sensitive to detonation?
__________________
Member Journals:


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
DaveSTi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-23-2020, 06:44 PM   #12
DocWalt
Tri-State Post Whore
 
DocWalt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Royersford, PA
Member #10805

My Ride:
'92 GTI, '19 MX-5

iTrader: (0)
Send a message via AIM to DocWalt
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveSTi View Post
Very cool! I must have missed it, but what are you using to tune with?

Aren't these super sensitive to detonation?
I didn't say anything about it, haha. VersaTuner! It's odd, it's like playskool tuning in a way coming from MazdaEdit on the ND and MegaSquirt on the GTI.

*super* sensitive, so knock is definitely a "must avoid" thing. Not as bad as the turbo engines, but still horrible.
DocWalt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2020, 08:57 PM   #13
DocWalt
Tri-State Post Whore
 
DocWalt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Royersford, PA
Member #10805

My Ride:
'92 GTI, '19 MX-5

iTrader: (0)
Send a message via AIM to DocWalt
Ok, since my last post I got the tuned pretty well dialed in. Should be ~190whp now on 93 octane.



Got the midpipe with HFC done up with my buddy Jeff! He has quite a collection of Mazdas, haha.



Got the car inspected and an alignment was attempted... Unfortunately 6 of 8 adjusters were stuck so that turned into an adventure with the sawzall and new bushings and new arms where needed. Unfortunately I got the front control arms out fine but they exploded trying to press out the camber bushings... so Jeff volunteered up his spare control arms. I did Mazdaspeed offset bushings in the front upper control arms for more camber while it was apart.





Alignment specs now are pretty nice!



Pretty low when the bushings are properly clocked (loosen them and torque everything at ride height)



DocWalt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2020, 09:03 PM   #14
DaveSTi
Tri-State Post Whore
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Charlotte
Member #1591

 
iTrader: (0)
How does it handle now with the new changes compared to the Miata? I'm imagining a bit stiffer?
__________________
Member Journals:


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
DaveSTi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2020, 09:13 PM   #15
DocWalt
Tri-State Post Whore
 
DocWalt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Royersford, PA
Member #10805

My Ride:
'92 GTI, '19 MX-5

iTrader: (0)
Send a message via AIM to DocWalt
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveSTi View Post
How does it handle now with the new changes compared to the Miata? I'm imagining a bit stiffer?
Definitely softer. Just kinda mediocre shocks & springs. ND feels like a scalpel, this feels like a sportier normal car.
DocWalt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2020, 09:20 PM   #16
DaveSTi
Tri-State Post Whore
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Charlotte
Member #1591

 
iTrader: (0)
Quote:
Originally Posted by DocWalt View Post
Definitely softer. Just kinda mediocre shocks & springs. ND feels like a scalpel, this feels like a sportier normal car.
I completely forgot the hardware your Miata has on it. That makes total sense now.

I remember driving my friends R3 about 6 years ago. Fell in love with it, except for the lack of power. Everything else was so dialed in for a street car, I really, really loved driving that thing. Of course everything on it was still relatively factory fresh.
__________________
Member Journals:


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
/
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.
DaveSTi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2020, 09:37 PM   #17
DocWalt
Tri-State Post Whore
 
DocWalt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Royersford, PA
Member #10805

My Ride:
'92 GTI, '19 MX-5

iTrader: (0)
Send a message via AIM to DocWalt
At this point it's definitely an older car but not terribly far off the mark. It doesn't do anything badly, just needs some refinement and you can definitely tell it was still designed to be more usable as a normal car. I'm taking it camping this weekend and it's stuffed with camp chairs, a tent, etc... and I'm barely using the cargo space.

The power delivery is really unique, with the tune it's a lot better feeling but it definitely needs to be revved. It's smooth so revving it out doesn't feel aggressive like in a normal car, but it still needs to be worked which is pretty fun!
DocWalt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-29-2020, 11:08 PM   #18
DocWalt
Tri-State Post Whore
 
DocWalt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Royersford, PA
Member #10805

My Ride:
'92 GTI, '19 MX-5

iTrader: (0)
Send a message via AIM to DocWalt
It rained a bunch, I only did two sessions, the truck broke, I spun the RX8 through the grass violently and avoided any sort of damage! Unfortunately the GoPro cut off literally 2 seconds before crossing the line on my fastest lap (1:54.7, nothing impressive if it was dry) and it missed my spin too.

Here's my first session:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysPl1rCwvO4

Here's my second session:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf3pt149H1E

DocWalt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-14-2020, 12:01 AM   #19
DocWalt
Tri-State Post Whore
 
DocWalt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Royersford, PA
Member #10805

My Ride:
'92 GTI, '19 MX-5

iTrader: (0)
Send a message via AIM to DocWalt


New wheels are on, used takeoff tires from my Miata.

Coilovers ordered...
DocWalt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-18-2020, 11:01 PM   #20
Shipman
Tri-State Post Whore
 
Shipman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Maryland
Member #20326

My Ride:
06 STi/08 Legacy/10 Forester

iTrader: (5)
Love a set of perfect spec RPs
__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.


Quote:
Not as dead as TST apparently.
Shipman is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -4. The time now is 01:47 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.