BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

Replaced the hood latch release cable because it broke on the molded plastic part that creates tension. I can now see that Mazda revised the part by adding a little bit of metal overlay.

Untitled by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr


I also had to replace the throttle cable because the older one was looking pretty shabby.


Untitled by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr

BlackBandit

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I'm going to DGRR this week. Any miatas going? Some show up to the meet.

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

This past weekend was awesome at Nantahala Village were Rotaries on the east coast gather for a 4 day event.
Jeanne and I drove up to Atlanta late Wednesday afternoon taking back roads from the Florida Georgia line to Macon on mostly US23. We took our time sight seeing and viewing the Old towns of America like we always do for trips and enjoyed the cruise. We rather not take a Interstate to preplanned destinations if we have the time to avoid them.


The next morning was Thursday and I noticed a big decrease in power other then my slow engagement of the second turbo and low boost. This leak and power loss was affecting the entire power band and there was a big whoosh sound when I got on it. GREAT! only boosting close to 6lbs.

Dale was quick to point a finger and say, "well that doesn't look good. Your problems right there!"

I tore a nice slit in the exhaust pipe to the intercooler. I was glad it was something we can fix with ease and that it wasn't an expensive one. Dale quickly told me that Addicted Performance might have a stock pipe laying around from their work on rx7s. So I crossed my fingers and hoped the entire trip wasn't handicapped to waste gate pressure at DGRR. But I was also happy that it wasn't anything else.

That night we got to Addicted and what do you know, Dale was right. They had a spare hose that they were ready to toss out for that same very reason I had just experienced earlier that day. I paid 20 bucks and had the tools to do a quick but very hot install because we take the dragon to get there. 10 mins later and I'm back to 12lbs primary. Wahoo.

Drove home after dinner at Calhouns which is in Maryville with a group of 13 people. Dinner was good and we are exhausted from the barbecue and long day of driving. We unfortunately took the Dragon back to our lodge and it is no fun driving it at night. It is dark, the percentage of danger increased dramatically and I'm tired. We pushed on and in the middle of the run I get dizzy and somewhat get vertigo and pull to the side because I lost focused. The tree line ended and my headlights hit across the valley to the other side of the mountain and tripped my brain out. The Depth of Field like in photography played games with my sight so I pulled off. I let the other guys in the group drive ahead of me and I followed last regaining my focus. WE all made it back to the village safe and sound.

The next day the group did a run on the Cherohala Skyway. Before we headed out I wanted to know why the car was feeling so out of place and my confidence was out the window. The car didn't feel right to me. I come to find out the dampening on the front struts are at two extremes of full stiff and full soft. NO wonder. This isn't the car that feels great out on an autocross coarse pulling times right behind BSP class. So I dampened all four struts 8 clicks from full stiff. I also was too high on all four tires. I was maximizing my fuel economy up to Atlanta because we all know rotaries are excellent on mpg. Not.

I was at 45 all around and lowered it closer to my Autocross pressures which are 32 up front and 29 in rear. I had 36 up front and 32 in the rear after the deflate. After the adjustments, the car felt normal to me again. I regained my confidence and ran the rest of the day proud and confident. I can't believe how I'm starting to feel the car out and notice when something is wrong. Its taking a while this time around. We drove out to Bryson City to wash the cars off of the extermination performed on the runs and ate dinner at Pasqualianos.

On Friday, the event holds a classic meet for all the rotaries to participate in Judging for best generation RX7s and receive an award that evening. So I got my car at the site rather early. I won't say how early but it was brisk at low 40s. Got there and saw that everyone had left their cars in the lot over night. There were two unofficial parking spaces left so I pulled backwards into one. I walked back to my cabin made coffee and got ready for the day. I let Jeanne sit back on this event so she isn't overloaded with cars this cars that blah rotary brap brap. When I walked back to the main lot, everyone was already out cleaning their cars with detailer and rags of micro fiber clothe. So I began my quick clean up of the engine bay and wiped all the pollen that the Appalachian had given to me. I detailed the outside just in time and the meet was underway.

I took some pictures of other rotaries and enrolled in the car show. The meet closed at around 12 and Jeanne and I headed to Bryson City to enjoy each others company as well as eat lunch and go shopping at mom and pop venues.

We ate lunch at https://www.theeveretthotel.com/bistro.html which is a farm to table restaurant and it was FANTASTIC. Not expensive at all. It was delicious. After Lunch we walked around antique shops, stopped by the local brewery to try a flight of beers and bought a bomber to bring back home. We also discovered that the train depot in the middle of the city does rides through the mountains leaving at 10 and arriving at 3pm. It is something we might do next year. The though of riding a train along mountainside and through tunnels excites me. Its something a car can not do.

We walked back to our car and stopped by an old Soda Fountain business and had Chocolate and Vanilla malts for the ride back to the resort to meet up with the Florida crew to eat dinner at https://noc.com/places/restaurants/r...end-restaurant

Super delicious food and big portions. This restaurant was inspired to feed hungry hikers. Plus its on the river with locals fly fishing and kayakers. I ordered local trout tacos which was good and Jeanne ate the Sherpa. For dessert there was peach and apple cobbler. We were excited to get the blackberry cobbler but they changed it up a bit. Don't get me wrong. The apple cobbler topped with vanilla ice-cream was just as good.

So we paid our bill and head back home for the raffling prizes and awards. Jeanne and I held our tickets for the drawings and we won a long sleeve DGRR shirt, mazda iron on badge, IRPerformance Poly Urethane Motor Mounts, two adaptronic hats, Concentrated jug of rubber/vinyl cleaner, and some miscellaneous stuff. It was a good roll for us. But that didn't end the night. Awards for best car was being announced. I'm already pretty happy about the motor mounts.

So we hear the awards being named for best SA and FC with first, second, and third place. It was time for the FD awards. And what do I mistakenly hear? Third place FD goes to Heraldo!!! Now I was confused because it wasn't my name. But I've been called that in the past by friends and it couldn't be me. There were too many other good looking FD's out there with single turbo this, AERO that , Widebody, 3 piece wheels and so forth. I'm just a simple clean FD that stuck to how he wanted to share what an FD should look like for others to enjoy. And that is just that. I was a simple clean example of a car that we all love. And I received 3rd place after I was called up more then once and car was described as Montego blue.

I was super honored to receive the award and very gracious. I almost wanted to grab the megaphone and say an Academy Awards speech naming Jeanne as priority of the award.


That ended my day and my entire year of hard work getting the car to the point to where it is at right now.

As a bonus for the drive home, the car performed 342.7 miles on a tank of gas before triggering the low fuel light. I filled up 15.63 gallons which equates to 21.9257 mpg.

Remember I'm not tuned but running the base map off the PFC ecu. We also took a very nice curvy road back home that is in North Carolina. I will get that route later tonight to post it up. It was a beautiful drive with creeks alongside of the road, lakes, and falls.

Pictures follows......

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

DSC09219 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr



DSC09170 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr


DSC09086 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr


DSC09103 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr


DSC09020 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr

codrus

Man that Rx-8 looks ugly parked next to three FDs.

--Ian

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

No hate in the 3? The rx8 is a half breed. It has a 13b inside with a single EFR turbo.

codrus

The 3 didn't disappoint me the way the Rx-8 did.

--Ian

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

Your right. Lets hope the RX-9 doesn't either.


1090698 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr



1090697 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr



1090696 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr



1090695 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr

18psi

iTrader: (76)

so sexy

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

Thank you. I'll be posting some pictures that I took at the event shortly. Surprised that I won 3rd place for best 3rd Gen

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

I purchased some updated twin turbo intakes to get rid of the pettit racing filters etc.


DSC09309 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr



DSC09293 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

This week the car is going to kilo racing so they can tinker the low secondary boost. I am experiencing a 12-4-6 pattern.


While its there I have a few things getting down.




Brand new oem tps sensor installed

IRPerformance motor mounts

Elite rotary oil pan brace ( looks like I'm leaking oil around the brace and on the oil mixing pump lines) so when they look deeper into the leak, I have a set of steel flex lines to replace the plastic lines.

Fixing the 99 fog lights. They light up connected to the battery but not when hooked up correctly to oem connector. I'm receiving power too but it's all weird.

Banzai Racing delete kit



I'm dropping off the Hks RS intake to get painted and clear coated silver along with the Hks S pipe. to have an oem look. I cleaned and have the Hks filters but I'm going to use the K&N filters instead.


I also purchased a HKS twin power.






Untitled by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr





Untitled by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

So I got back news from Kilo Racing with and update that is upsetting but comes with opportunities.



The car wasn't leaking oil from the oil pan as I thought it was. It's leaking from a broken oil mixing pump line. Its basically severed. He offered to do a fix to it that I did not want to do but asked him to do it the right way. He offered a different fix since I'm to be Wed this September. I'm still having him install the oil pan brace to prevent future leaks from the engine flexing.


I said to him lets do it the right way because Jeanne and I drive this car a lot and I autocross it on occasion.

He hasn't fixed the secondary Turbo issue because this is a new issue.


We discussed a few things and he mentioned that in order to replace the lines he needs to remove the motor. I was apprehended by that sentence and asked to call him back. I talked to a few people to make sure there wasn't another way to do it and to have my rotary friends reassure me that this is the way to do so and the easiest.


So I called back and asked a ball park number that'll stick to let me fiance know and be prepared for with tonights dinner and opening a really nice bottle of wine thats several hundred dollars.



I am having the injectors sent to marren. The previous owner has a reciept from 2004 when he had them rebuilt. So it'll be interesting to see the differences once again.
I ordered new injector grommets since marren will more then likely provide new o-rings.

I purchased a new oem fuel pulsation dampener and new fuel pressure regulator. I was contemplating ordering the new fuel hose that connects the primary and secondary rails.

I like to get things powdercoated to look nice but today isn't the time to do it. I simply can't strain the wedding funds anymore. We still need to pay off the remaining balance to the venue, pay for the catering next Friday, and find a florists, photographer, and music. Luckily we already have the dress. Thank god.

I do need an efini y pipe. I'm going to ask kilo if he has one. Well degrease the engine bay though it's pretty clean from the view up top. I'm pretty sure it's ugly down under and inside.

I'm skipping the harness unless kilo says or recommends a new one since they are about 840.00 from my dealership and there's only one in North America.


Kilo is going to inspect the sequential system. All the solenoids and vacuum hoses are a year old now. But it'll be easier when the motor is out.

The coils are new as of 16 months ago. He is suggesting I hook up the choke again that Pettit racing deleted. Each mechanic has there own points of views. I'll just let him do so.

We will block off the air pump with the delete kit I purchased.


and just Purchased an efini y-pipe and crossover






DSC09219 by
DSC09099 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

So the motor is pulled out and Kilo said one of the injectors is potentially leaking. Not from the diffuser or metal grate but possibly from the body. He sees stress cracks on a couple of them.

So He is installing a set of 99 injectors he knows works well. I asked him if we should take them to get cleaned and flowed and he emphasized that they are good and work well.


He also looked around the turbos and thinks some lines are not correct for the secondary turbo. Ill confirm with him tomorrow when I stop by to drop off the new emissions harness I just dished out.


He said that it is his recommendation to replace the harness since the car not only has 155k miles and is 25 years old but because a couple of clips are broken and the wires are brittle. FML

The car has been in the shop since May 2nd but because I had to order parts along the way and wait for them to arrive, is wait pushed my car back from getting fixed any faster.

And its funny that David Hayes was there pulling out my motor on my car. I saw his car there when I dropped mine off and it looks fantastic.

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

Im heading over to Kilo Racing now to drop the harness off. Ill have more pictures taken once I'm there.


Untitled by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

Everything got done as I hoped it would. I was a bit hesitant in my first year of owning the car but regret not going sooner to Kilo.

I have absolutely zero oil leaks. Hooray!!! I hope to not replace the Oil mixing pump lines ever again. Though, I took advantage of the situation being that the motor was being pulled for multiple things.

Today I installed the Hks twin power and man does it go through the power band ultra smooth. I couldn't believe it. The motor felt effortless. (could be that new harness too)

So the boost is not where I'd like it to be. It doesn't drop to 3 psi like it used to before I took it to Kilo Racing. It drops at 8psi where it should and climbs back up to .67bar

I tried to manipulate the PFC with boost levels between the turbos and percentages but I couldn't get it to .8bar

I kept blowing off couplers every time I took the car out to day on the exhaust intake side.


We'll some pictures after 7 weeks of diagnosing, ordering, and performing on the car.



DSC09446 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr




DSC09447 by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr

ajay842

Just read the thread, very nice work I love it!

Carry on

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

Thank you ajay842. I'm relieved that the forum and its admins nonchalantly let the thread transition itself the way that it did. I feel it's almost like a journal.

BlackBandit

iTrader: (2)

This is what lunch looked like today with both my baes



Untitled by Gerald Mugar, on Flickr

codrus

So what do you think of the Mazdacomp bushings? My new FD needs a few bushings (all the inside ones on the driver's side rear) and I haven't figured out what to put in there yet, other than NOT poly.

--Ian