That turbo is bored at 16psi, that thing is going to be a monster with more boost. You do have to consider the turbo has to hold its airflow up into the 8k+ rpm range so it makes more sense on a rotary. My 16g wont do that but I love full spool by 3400rpm.

Well your on your own for those new fangled electronic ones. It is kinda hard to tune while driving, theres and abandoned airstrip close to my house where I dont have to worry about tuning my street car. My race car usually gets most of its tune done on an engine dyno so all you do is watch the laptop.

I love this build

I know it can do way more but the goal was reliable HP, not max HP. I will push to 20psi max and see what I get but it has to be streetable too. The 4" exhaust really help the spool. I think it's at full boost before 4K. I will document it next time I drive it. I wanted to tune tonight but not sure I'll get to it.

I did lucky out over the weekend... The last time I tuned an ECU in the driveway all the exhaust smoke was flowing into the neighbor's window. Over the weekend the exhaust was going there again. They wern't home Yay! They were at a race with thier Miata. No complaints at all. Although all the people in my court knew what I was up to because they heard it.

Took my wife out tuning tonight. All was going well until my BOV blew off. I guess the circlip was not seated all the way. I still have the clip but the O-ring is somewhere on the freeway I will see if my FLAPS has one close to the size tomorrow... Anyone have an extra HKS BOV O-ring?

The car ran pretty good but... There is a stumble where the secondary injectors kick in and I need to add more histerisis (filter of noise) to the throttle signal to prevent surging at cruise.

I found a new tuner shop in Hayward (20 miles) that specializes in Haltech. They just opened and have a dyno. They claim 15 years experiance tuning Haltech. expensive though. $800 for the day or $200 per hour. They tune while I watch. When I get it close I may pay for an hour or two for final adjustments.

Got an O ring from the auto parts store. Going to be tuning again soon. I have to take off the intake snorkel to get the BOV back on. It's mounted to the bottom. I an going to ease the edge of the clip a little to help it seat all the way.

I guess I'm lucky the vacuum hose held on tight...

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Sucks about the blow off valve!

I bought 2 hours of tuning for my 914 when it was SBC and never regretted it when I ran that setup.

That is awesome Mike. I really liked your v8 car when I saw it in Tahoe, can't wait to see and hear this version run.

Keep the updates coming!

Jim

Wooohooo
Nice work

BOV is back in and the clip is seated. Did some tuning, but I keep fouling my plugs. Partially due to rich mixture and a bad coil. I have decided to ditch the rx7 stuff and go direct spark. I have sourced 3 MSD 6A boxes and now I need to get coils. I plan to stay with wasted spark on the leading plugs and direct on the trailing. Thi way I don't have to source a 4th MSD. I will if I have to. The tuning is pointless until I fix the spark issue. I'm hoping to get back to it this week sometime.

While I'm waiting for parts to show up I gat bored. I decided to make a GT style lid today. I had an extra lid sitting in the garage for a while. It's now painted semi gloss black. It's drying in the garage so pics will come later. I also picked up some Boxster quarters and vents. I may decide to swap the NACA ducts for Boxster Ducts.

I now have 4 MSD 6A boxes and 4 High Output coils on the way. I am going for a direct fire option on my EFI. This should solve all the spark issues. Then tuning can resume.

Pics to come later...

I forgot to mention, I have a rain tray for whoever wants it. It has 2 small cracks, easy fix. Looks almost perfect. Free, but I prefer not to ship it.

Here's pics of my interpretation of a GT lid. I cut windows in the top. I used a 1" punch to cut the corners. I then welded supports on the 2 center window supports. The window supports mimic the original supports under the stock grill. I also cut out the diagonal support. The diamond mesh is bigger than stock but I can live with it. If I decide to keep this style, I can use the mesh from my other lid. Or use this mesh and make a new on from my other lid. I also did not do too much paint prep. The whole car will get blasted next year for paint anyway. I reduced warping while welding with freeze spray. Worked great until I ran out. I used getto freeze spray. Can of compressed air held upside down.

Big thanks to Sir Andy for letting us post more pictures

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Here is the first of 4 MSD boxes. There will be 2 mounted side by side and 2 above. I have designed a simple bracket to float two on top of two. This way I can maximize the real estate. The targa top will still clear everything. The 4 coils will go in the engine bay on the rear firewall, drivers side. It is very crouded in my engine compartment now. Big difference from just the short block mocked up.

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2 of 4 MSD boxes in place. The bracket is a simple 1/2"x1/8" bar stock. I used the two taillight housing nut to secure one side. The other corners with self tapping screws...

Waiting for more parts to show up...

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All 4 MSD boxes installed. I used a label machine to bust out tags for the boxes and cables. Leading 1 & 2 and Trailing 1 & 2. Now to get it wired and connected to the 4 coils (whenever they show up). I hope this fixes the plug fouling and bad spark problem

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Got all the MSD boxes installed. As soon as I connected the battery, One of them fried. All the smoke fell out... My local FLAPS had one so I picked it up today. The company I bought 4 coils from only sent me one So I tested several stock coils until I had 4 that "worked". The Car runs better but I have a fuel issuel right as the boost kicks in. If I go WOT at the lead into the boost, it runs great but I have to back off or run into/over traffic. I think the problem is the "accelerator pump" mapping. I just havent figured out which way it needs to be tuned. I know it goes lean during the transition (WB tells me so), but there are 7 different tuning pages for the enrichment. This would be easier on a dyno but I'm not ready to kick down the $$$ yet. I want to get it close so I don't have to pay for a full or multiple days. I can tell you what driving I have done is a shit load of fun. The car has great power and pulls and pulls and pulls. Once it is fine tuned I will have to decide weather to get rid of my H gear. 3000rpm on this engine cruising freeway speeds (75-80mph) is bogging. I think the stock 5th would be better. I hate to pull apart a perfect Dr. Evil approved tranny. But My rear gasket is leaking. It's will come apart at some point either way.

I blew out my turbo flange gasket today. Problably due to my flange bolts coming loose It was a sandwhich type gasket POS. I ordered a new stainless steel gasket to replace. Tuning this setup is a PITA! I know I will bite the bullet and pay for tuning at some point. The only tuners that specialize in both Haltech and Rotarys are all down in SoCal. 7-8 hours away by trailer Plus $125 per hour. The fee is not to bad but it will take me $400 is gas just to tow it there and back. It does run well enough to tool it around as long as I stay out of the boost. When the boost comes on, the secondary injectors come in and it falls on its face. Going way lean.

I'm going to play with fuel maps more and see if I can get it worked out. Either way I plan to have it to the breakfast next saturday.

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Here is my badge (Thanks Jim). It looks cool except for the speckles of tranny oil from my drip.


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I use this setup to suck all the air out of my cooling system. Vacuum pump pulls on the storage tank. Storage tank pulls on the closed cooling system. This forces all the air out. I then pinch off the line, remove it from vacuum and put the hose in a tank of water. Then release the clamp and the cooling system sucks water back in. I leave the vacuum sucking for about an hour at a time. I do this every time I run it for a couple of weeks, or more often on a whim. It's kind of anal but my V8 ran between 160-180F. This motor in known for running hot. When you overheat a rotary it's rebuild time


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I swapped out some defective coils and my turbo gasket. I found a Haltech Guru (Claudio) that is working with me. He used to work for Haltech and runs his own tuning shop. He's on the east coast. He sent me a remote access program from his site so he can tune my car fom Florida in real time while we communicate via skype. Very cool and the price is very reasonable! Claudio is convinced he can get my car running great without actually touching it. Very cool! I will then have to take it to a dyno and do some minor fine tuning on my own. Our first session is tomorrow after work.

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That's awesome Mike! Make sure you have a great internet connection!




Matt

This thread is great. Nice work Mike

Thats a killer air removal setup!!

My tuning session went very well tonight. We spent 3 hours. Claudio uses software called Team Viewer. Every time I open the program it creates a unique login and password. I give it to him and he can operate my computer from his. Even transfer files. This is the first time he has tuned remotely. I am his test subject. We also used Skype to communicate as well. He said he needed to find a test subject with a good high speed DSL to try this type of support.

I found out my crank trigger is one tooth off. He was able to configure my setup to compensate. Timing is perfect now. He also re-mapped everything I did. The car runs very well. Tomorrow we will adjust the throttle pump circuit and boost mapping. 1-2 more sessions and I will be ready for dyno time. The car now runs better than I had it configured.

Claudio ahs been working with Haltech and Rotarys for 10 years. He actually lives in the Dominican Republic, educated in the states. He even travels back here to tune race cars. Very smart and very nice guy. I would recommend him for tuning to anyone.

Looking forward to driving this to the next WCR and everywhere in between!

Awesome Mike! That is really pretty cool!!!!

I got this baby tuned! It works good until 20psi and then my injectors crap out. I never did replace them. Claudio also recommended 2000cc injectors. Big ones! I will now save my nickles and budget some new injectors The car is driveable and I plan to drive it. I will wait to fine tune it on the dyno until I get bigger injectors. I learned a lot about this system. Apparently Haltech does not use VE tables for rotarys. Most other system have setups where you identify engine size, injector size, theoretical VE and some other parameters. The system will then create a base fuel map based on your system. Haltech does not. For rotarys you must build the fuel map correctly or it just won't work right. Every other Haltech system uses VE tables. It has to do with the staged injectors on the rotary. I was told that there are no real rotary guru's working for Haltech anymore. It is a great system with a 32 bit processor. Most others are only 16 bit.

I am very happy with the results so far. Big thank you to Claudio. He can be reached at tuningtechnology@gmail.com If you are considering going to EFI send him a note. I'm sure he will steer you in the right direction.

Enough with the plug!

How does the power feel? I'd bet 20PSI is about 450HP!

Right on Mike! All your hard work and $$$$ is paying off!

He estimated my hp at 250 @ 10psi. The 20psi number will have to wait for new injectors but I don't think you are to far off. I'm only limited by the amount of fuel I dump in. At 40psi it should be 600-750hp, but I will never run it that high.

This this is way quicker than my V8 and has better throttle response. I can hit 10psi @ 2000 rpm no problem It's all in the amount of throttle I give it.

Awesome Mike! Great to hear your driving it again . You da man

I took the car on its first voyage today. 50 mile round trip to the 914 breakfast. Car ran great! My new injectors should show up this week, so I hope to get them in and tuned quickly. It's very hard to stay out of the throttle. The car wants to go. Once the injectors are in and tuned, I should see what this thing can really do. For now I keep telling myself that I'm breaking in the clutch, so I have to stay out of the throttle... The next major drive will be to the 914 Family Reunion. If I don't have to tow it home from Sacramento, I will feel more confident with this new power plant. Freeway running is good no surging or wierdness. I do have a little water flow issue. Below 4K rpm the temp get to 200+ if I speed up to 4500 rpm, the temp drops by 20+ degrees. This tells me the RX7 water pump does not have enough flow at low rpm. I will have to install an inline electric pump sooner than later.

Damn, I so wanted to ear that motor with that killer looking exhaust system. Next time for sure.

For those that showed up to the breakfast you saw my car covered in specs of rust. This was caused by over zealus grinding and not realizing the car was covered in metal dust. Covered! 9 months of fab and moisture created a nice patina on my white paint. I spent a few hous this weekend wet sanding and polishing the paint. To start with my paint is junk, but It needs to last me for a year before I strip it apart again. It looks great now (relatively). No more rust specs, just chips and cracks now. The crappy race car paint job polished up pretty good.

I also pulled my intake manifold apart to prep for injectors. Glad I did! I found 4 vacuum lines that had blown off from pressure. Most guys that use silicone lines also use a zip tie to hole them secure. Guess what I forgot to put on? I resecured them and added a little blue locktite on the barb as glue before zip tieing them in place.

I also troubleshooted my boost controller. It does not work. it is connected correctly. Programmed correctly. But alas... it no workie. It always alows me to go to full boost... Up to the point the injector duty cycle cannot keep up 17-20psi. I have decided to ditch the electronic boost controller and go simple. A manual boost controller is on the way. I also plan to use the ECU boost cut to prevent any accidental 30+psi bursts.

Just for fun today I filled up with 100 octane fuel. Good thing I have a small tank! $$$7.38 gallon.

Well I had the car apart for the injector swap and then...

"NOTICE: YOU ARE IN VIOLATION ON CITY CODE. 1) TRAILER PARKED IN DRIVEWAY. 2) VEHICAL REPAIRS WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS. PLEASE CONTACT THE CITY OF SAN RAMON WITHIN 48 HOURS BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 9AM AND 9:30 AM."

Yes I was doing that stuff. Trailer in driveway. Car in driveway. I did have a couple of jack stande and a floor jack too. This is not the first time the little old lady c*nt has called the city on me. Fucking Bitch! Husband died and she has nothing to better do. So I have to call the city within the 30 minute window to get hold of somebody... Bullshit...

So I had to slap the intake back together tonight. Quickly! and clean up, power wash, trim bushes, move trailer... etc...

BUT! I did have time to through in the 2000cc injectors. Got it tuned, sort of... WOW! This car hauls ass! All the way to 25psi. I still need to fine tune it a little at boost but... Holy Shit... Boost comes on fast and strong. I can get to full boost way before 4K and it just pulls and pulls. I did not have much time to play tonight but I will tune more tomorrow after work.

Sorry to hear about the neighbor issue. That is one good thing about living in a slightly redneck neighborhood is people stop by to compliment my car on jack-stands!

So will you dyno-tune the car?

Matt

That's just a mild violation! You should see what sort of attention you get when you start and run an IMSA Mazda racecar (unmuffled of course) up and down some neighborhood streets to check that things are bolted together correctly before loading it on a trailer to haul it to a racetrack a couple of states over!

Ah, the good old days!

I will dyno tune the car as soon as I can finish the custom fuel rails. I did not have a chance to install my 1000cc primary injectors. I only installed the secondaries because they fit in the stock rail. Primaries will not fit.

This is the second time my neighbor has called the city and told them I'm running an auto repair buisness out of my garage. She also called the Police to complain I was illegally parked in front of my house. She also calls every time I park a trailer in front and tells them it's been there a week. I'm sick and tired of this bitch. I can hardly wait until she moves into a retirement home. I don't wish any ill will on her but I wish she had something better to do with her time.

Eeek. Sorry to hear mike! Im glad my neighbors like me, because it really LOOKS like im running an auto buisness from my garage! Always in there painting or sanding or making noise (I always turn off the compressor at 10pm though and if I can I keep the garage door closed).

Also I cant wait to see the numbers

Next time she complains about the trailer, let the cops mark it for the 72 hour move it or it gets a ticket, move it on day two to infront of her house and see how she likes that. I was in the same boat when I was younger with the ahole that lived across the street from me. I played this game for about 3 months and after awhile he gave up and found someone else to piss off.

Mike

It's already parked in front of her house! Not much choice though. I live in the back house in a court. She is next door. There are two car lengths betewwn my driveway and hers.

Sorry to hear that...maybe find out if she likes to drink or why she has a problem with your hobbie/addiction.

I tracked down my overboost problem to the Wastegate. It does not open, or not enough. I instaled a 6psi spring and it still will not open. I'm going to take it all apart to see what is going on.

Todasy I spent the day cleaning my side yard and dump runs. I've been collecting to much stuff. My trailer now sits in my side yard and off my driveway.

Tomorrow I am taking the car out to Euro Sunday in Walnut Creek. After that I'm going fore an amssage with my wife.

I'm beat...

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Trailer in the yard, massage with the wife.......
Things are {boost} coming {ignition} together bro!

Mike, did you make room on the side yard for the roller I have on my side yard?

It will fit if I put it on my trailer...

What happened to your trans output flange?

Nothing. Those are install pics. One while the CV's were in bags, before bolting on.

The wastegate is the only problem right now. I picked up some fuel rail blank to make my custom fuel rails. I'll get to it in a week or so. After the city comes back to inspect my property. I can't be working on my car when they come.

Well, on the way to the 914 reunion I broke down on the freeway. They are repaving 680 NB by my house. They have ground down the road bed 2-3 inches. At the transition of an overpass the built an asphalt ramp on the freeway. I got airborn in the rear at 75mph. When it landed it hit something on the road bed and peeled the oil drain bung right off the pan. The bottom of the oil pan is almost exactly the same as my engine mounting bar. I connected the factory low oil switch to my dash mounted check engine light. That's how I knew something was wrong. The smoke and oil all over the road was another clue. I think I got lucky and I hope the engine is OK.

I took some advice from McMark when fixing the pan. I shortened it by 1/4-3/8 inch and built kick outs to hold extra oil.

Not my best welds but I had to keep fixing leaks. I built it with 14ga steel I had. The extra sump is semi isolated with baffle trap doors (hinges). They open to the center, to the pickup tube. I think I almost doubled the capacity.

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Here is my side yard. It is 20 feet wide by 60 feet long. I knew I should have installed concrete there

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What are your plans for the hinge pins ????? Are you sure they won't work thier way out ??
Pan looks great , more capacity too = A big +.

Jack

AHAHAHA! I love the use of the 5 knuckle plain bearing hinges!

Very good fix!

This is exactly how my road racing oil pan on my V8 was set up. Hope i didn't infringe on any patents...

Got the oil pan back in. Pretty easy fix and more volume and strength. I added a littler skid plate to the rear of the pan.

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This is what it looks like inside... Not much. Oil pick up tube and oil pump chain are visible. I had to adjust the pick up tube some. I used a jack, block of wood and a folded rag to lift the pick up to its new pan depth. Worked out good.

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