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I tried to find my old thread, but couldn't.  So, here are some pictures of my new exhaust and a video of the new exhaust and newer tune.  First, I used to have 2 Borlas in line and they sounded "tinny" to me.  So, I swapped them out for 2 Magnaflows or about the same length plus 2 5 inch Vibrants.  It made the sound deeper and not tinny at all.  Second, the exhaust note used to sound lumpy, like a cammy piston motor and the idle was at 1500 or so.  I found pinhole leaks in the intake runners and plugged them up.  Found 2 of the injectors had similar small leaks.  Fixed them.  The throttle plates are still misaligned or not in sync and I'll fix that shortly.   

Gordon   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EShtSYUyWx0

Very nice new setup.

Thanks, Hobbawobba.  

Gordon

Thanks, my sick friend.  I am cruising through page 2 of your build thread now.  The flocked, re-designed dashboard is great.  What are you going to be racing?  Mostly Enzo\'s?  

Heck, I almost would have re-done the whole hatch and fuel tank just to get that dual exhaust out the back so high up.  There\'s a picture below of my (completely civilized) dual exhaust setup without losing my subwoofer...  

Great build!  :cheers

Gordon

Very nice, Charlie.  Whoever did the leather interior work is very good.  An artist.  And the medium gray paint looks great with the black and red interior.  Not too up on the aero bits, but the rear with the center exhaust and diffuser looks great.

Gordon

Marf...  Thank you very much.  I bought my first one new in 95 and had Peter Farrell tune it, then tried Hitachi T25\'s keeping it seq.  Then, went single in 1998 with a T78.  I bought this R1 in 02 and went 20B NA over the next few years.  Tried a lot of stuff.  I wanted this to be a more upscale car thinking of Aston\'s "Gentleman\'s Express".  

Will66...  The sound was really important to me.  Thanks.  The fact that NA rotary torque is essentially completely flat across the entire power band (say 2000-7500+).  This may be extraneous, but the issue I had with a lot of power from the turbo 2 rotor was that you could see torque go from 125 ft lbs to 300 ft lbs in 1500 rpm, for example.  That makes for some real control issues when either road racing on track or on back roads.  With NA, the torque is always the same everywhere and you can move your foot a little bit and the motor responds just as much as you told it to.  Also, you note the car isn\'t that heavy.  My car weighs less than stock despite the 20B and the leather interior and a sub enclosure.

CharlieP...  Hehehe.  I get about 18 mpg and that\'s fine with me.  I got less with the single turbo.

re_japi...  Thanks much.  I like the looks without the socks better, but worry about getting something in there.

Gordon



Grant...  Honestly, the problem with machining could be overcome, but I just don\'t want to redo everything now.    But the car drives great and pulls very well everywhere.  There is about 240 foot pounds from 2000-7000 rpm.  To make up for some things not working, I really opened up the exhaust ports more than I wanted and sacrificed a little civility at idle, but I\'ve decided I like the sound so much that screw it.  If you haven\'t already seen these quick takes, click on the videos below and you\'ll see what I mean.


Gordon

I finished the mechanical and interior and just have to get it repainted over the winter.  Its been done and seems pretty bulletproof over several thousand miles of driving it.  The NA 3 rotor motor has been simplified a good bit and the more trick things were a big waste of time and money.  We misjudged the level of machining necessary to add the 3rd plugs and primary and secondary throttle butterflies.  So, we eliminated them.  The motor is now a fairly straightforward NA motor with ITB\'s and a fair amount of porting.  Still a fairly lux-touring exercise, since at age 66 I\'m less into track mode.  Heck, I can barely turn the steering wheel at parking speeds with the Atomic Rex manual rack...  

G

Here\'s a few pictures of the engine bay.






The dual in-bumper exhaust works well and there\'s been no issue with heat.  The aluminum under valance has lasted pretty well.  The sound is great.




The front aluminum grille surround has gotten a few nicks from stones, but held up pretty well.


Wheels are off my old 1994 Porsche Turbo...


All leather interior and modded Spirit R seats are comfy...

Although I\'m into the lux-touring mode now at age 66, this is the nicest track FD I\'ve seen.  Could you post up some pictures and a summary on the Rx7club site?  I think the guys there would really like to see this!  Love the color.  I have 9 bikes and have always hankered for one of the Green Machines.  The color is the best.

Gordon

Beautiful racecar presentation for Japfest.  Those stickers look great.

G

Clive...  Just read the thread from beginning.  Like the whole thing.  Keep it affordable, understressed, 400 hp, and light weight.  Btw, several guys I know tried the Rx8 tranny in their FD\'s and did not have a good experience.  

G

Obviously, black and yellow go well, as the hundreds of cars and bikes that have used that color scheme suggest.  Personally, I would try something a little different.  Maybe the tangerine color that porsche uses or one even a bit more red than tangerine.  Then, maybe something like that good old British tan on the interior or the kind of orangey color of baseball glove leather?

Gordon

Syed...  I was simply wondering if the fuel pressure regulator was acting up or too much pressure under certain circumstances or whatever.  The biggest thing is that it would seem that you are adding too much fuel somewhere on your maps and that should show up in your AFR\'s.  They should be running, say, 10.5-11:1 and I suspect somewhere, like idle, you are adding too much fuel.  Since your motor is fairly fresh, the tuner may have set a very rich AFR, like 9.5:1 to be safe (at least in his mind).  If that were right, its still the wrong thing for him to have done.  Even keeping it very rich to be sure it doesn\'t detonate, mapping that rich is not at all necessary.  

I would also ask whether, when you rebuilt the engine, you put in new seals and springs?  The only real issue on break in is bedding in the seals and they should be seated by now with 800 miles on it.  Do you have a dyno sheet with the afr\'s when it left the shop?

Gordon

Syed...  Neither the coils nor the ecu would cause the plugs to flood from a mechanical or electrical issue.  What are your air fuel ratios running?  If you are flooding the plugs, I would suspect some physical issue with the fuel setup.  I had a 20b single turbo for a few years while I was building my NA motor and was running a pectel ecu and stock coils.  (Could never use the power effectively and don\'t drag race.  It was useless on a road course.)  Never had any issues with flooding.

Gordon

My old 13b single turbo used an MSD DIS-2 on the leadings and a 6a on the trailings with MSD Blasters for coils.  It was a bit of a pain to set up, but worked great and I loved it.  However, many people over here have had issues with the MSD\'s.  I never did, but several tuner shops don\'t like them here.  I think it was more a customer service issue, but don\'t know for sure.  I may eventually try an MSD setup on the 20b, because the motor spins to 10,000 rpm.  I think there should be a benefit from the more accurate digital firing at high rpm.  The capacitive discharge effect up to 3000 rpm of the MSD\'s might be of some marginal value as well, but not much, I think.

The stock Mazda coils are really very good, but I have seen some of them turn to goo from overheating over an extended period.  New Mazda coils are quite good.  However, the MSD coils have faster rise times, so they run cooler, and of course, they have a higher output.

I am thinking about going with a third plug per rotor like the 26b\'s have and might try the Denso coil-on-plug setup.

Gordon