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Now I present this info to the installer and see if he decides that he can no longer deny this not being an issue and help me out with the rebuild. If he doesn't want to help still, well I guess I will feel fully confident when I take the rebuilt car out to shows, meets, etc and share my story about this particular shop and my first engine. Either way, the new engine is already re-assembled and should be getting back into the car in the next few weeks here. Fingers crossed I have better luck with this one.
Turns out the only parts we were able to salvage was the irons (with resurfacing) and the rotors. Everything else will be brand new again. The oil system, got 1 oil change while the plumbing was backwards (at roughly 200 kms), then two more after it was corrected before I knew what the issue was (2 oil changes in roughly 500kms after plumbing was corrected).On top of that the cooler and lines have been flushed on 3 separate occasions since it's been back with the engine builder. He is confident that the oil system should be sufficiently cleared out now if there was anything in them even.
Originally Posted by TeamRX8
likely the only reason it wasn’t a worse result than it was is because the filter must have internally been blown through some by the high pressure build up with the oil pump directly chain-driven off the e-shaft.
My thoughts as well. I think the first little bit it "survived" off assembly lube, and very shortly after the oil eventually forced its way passed the ADBV providing restricted oil flow. At around 50kms is when I first noticed any sort of concerning issue and most likely when the engine "really failed" under restricted oil flow. Because of this the turbo appears to be safe. Again, fingers crossed we don't see any issues here once I start boosting but for now, indications point towards a break of luck here.
Last edited by RotaryMachineRx; 05-17-2021 at 06:06 PM.
Finally, finally, FINALLY I have worthy update! Completely new engine installed (not a single part re-used from the first oil starved engine). Current build is nearly identical, large street port, RA superseals, stock side seals, stock corner seals (only change I made, last engine had Atkins solid corner seals but decided to return to stock ones).
The current tune in the following videos was done by Shawn when we were trying to get the blown/oil starved engine to run properly before I knew what was going on; so cold starts are a bit rough, cold idle is not fantastic but as soon as the coolant temp begins to rise even slightly it really smooths out as shown in the first video below. You can hear the TB clicking, talking with Shawn that is just something he can sort out via tune no problem. This engine literally has 0km's on it and you are witnessing some of the first movement of the car with this engine in the second video. I drove out and picked it up last night, getting home around 9:30pm; so I haven't had a chance to tinker with anything yet. Will be cleaning things up and performing a compression test tonight as well as playing with the tune I have created to idle/break-in.
Sorry that I keep forgetting to take these videos in Landscape mode; you'd think I'd learn
Compression numbers on a 0km engine. Pretty happy with these, I expect them to level out per rotor face and most likely climb higher with break in and actual load on the engine. Tinkered around with the tune last night and got warm idle to sit real nice and smooth at 1050 rpm. Cold starts and idle are still another story but those take much more effort and time to smooth out which I just haven't had yet.
Was away on holidays for the last 10 days just getting back yesterday evening; so haven’t been able to tinker with the car. This is still with 0km on the engine last night; but I’ve been cleaning up my tune for it and got it cruising and warm idling pretty damn good. Need to work on some post crank enrichment and idle effort as idle while warming up seems to be hunting pretty bad still. Engine now has roughly 80kms on it after taking out for its first drive last night!
I'd be keen to see what your ECTs are ...w/ the large FMIC ...once you have her up and running particularly under whatever is your most severe ambient temps. Not sure what the highest ambient temp you see there. We regularly see summer temps of 90-95F (32-35C) here.
I'd be keen to see what your ECTs are ...w/ the large FMIC ...once you have her up and running particularly under whatever is your most severe ambient temps. Not sure what the highest ambient temp you see there. We regularly see summer temps of 90-95F (32-35C) here.
So temps yesterday evening were around 28-30C (85-90F ish) here; that's pretty hot for here, we are in a bit of a heat wave right now; it about as hot as ambient temps as we typically see here. Right now with just straight water in the coolant system I was seeing ECT's of 175-177F while cruising and 185F after a really long cruise with a long idle period after. Sorry for my use of both units... we measure ambient temps up here in C but I'm in the habit of monitoring ECT's in F because of this forum lol.
Of course that is 4500rpm rev limit and no boost right now.
Last edited by RotaryMachineRx; 08-02-2021 at 12:20 PM.
So temps yesterday evening were around 28-30C (85-90F ish) here; ... with just straight water in the coolant system I was seeing ECT's of 175-177F while cruising and 185F after a really long cruise with a long idle period after....
So, it looks like you m/b running a lower threshold t-stat to run at 175-177°F Is that correct?
And to maintain 185°F while idling is very good. At what temp do your fans start?
Just read through this entire thread and am VERY impressed by your tenacity in getting this thing done right. I'll be starting one of my own soon, and I just want to thank you for all the inspiration.
Quick question, in an earlier post you mentioned a custom bracket to keep the AC. Did you ever get that worked out?
So, it looks like you m/b running a lower threshold t-stat to run at 175-177°F Is that correct?
And to maintain 185°F while idling is very good. At what temp do your fans start?
No worries about using both C & F units.
This is just with the stock Rx8 Thermostat. I have the fans kicking on stage 1 at 176F and stage 2 at 185F. Once I start truely driving with actual coolant in the system these may need to be brought up slightly so I'm not just continuously in stage 2 at all times. Will play that by ear.
Originally Posted by brapgarage!!
Just read through this entire thread and am VERY impressed by your tenacity in getting this thing done right. I'll be starting one of my own soon, and I just want to thank you for all the inspiration.
Quick question, in an earlier post you mentioned a custom bracket to keep the AC. Did you ever get that worked out?
Hey Thanks for the kind words.... it's been a stressful and sometimes disheartening journey for sure. As far as the AC bracket goes it is just modified from the Rx8 bracket I believe. I will try to find a photo of it. Unfortunately I didn't have much involvement with this piece, the installer just made something to make it fit.
Currently I have about 300kms on this engine. Yes so far not nearly as many as I'd hoped for, but I've been spending lots of time evaluating my tune and have been away most weekends for the past 2 months. Currently I have a couple small issues which I believe are just tune related.
1. My AEM and Adaptronic widebands read pretty consistently by 0.5AFR apart (the Adaptronic reading leaner). I'm beginning to feel that my AEM is the more accurate as I am fouling up spark plugs every ~150kms to the point the car will no longer start on them (BUR9EQP in all 4 spots for break-in). My current tune is set for Idle/cruise at anywhere between 13.8 to 13.2 AFR meaning my AEM is reading 13.3 to 12.7 AFR. The other factor that leads me to believe the AEM is correct and I am getting excessive fuel is that after a 150km cruise with plenty of idling involved (about 3hrs of run time) I got home and found that an exposed area between my downpipe wrap and turbine blanket was glowing red hot (see attached photo). Doing a bit of research this can happen when timing is overly retarded or you have excessive fueling. I believe because of this AFR discrepancy I am running very rich and the turbine/exhaust is acting like an afterburner of sorts. Yes I am getting flames out the tailpipe way more often than I'd like, especially when approaching 0psi MAP and letting off the pedal instantaneously. I'd prefer to keep the flames to a minimum only when coming off high loads as you'd almost expect to be unavoidable with a rotary.
2. I was idling the car the other day and had another AEM Smart Coil fry on me. Luckily I caught this one right away and shut the vehicle down as fast as I could. I am just currently waiting for a replacement coil to show up. I do have a Holley EFI 556-112 available to me, from the bit of looking into it, it seems identical to the AEM 30-2853. Any opinions on mixing the coil in with the other 3 AEM coils temporarily? The reason I ask is that I have a remote tuning session with Shawn Thursday night and I'd really prefer not to have to cancel this. When my AEM does show up it will replace the Holley coil. Pic of the fried coil below along with a video of when it happened. You'll note the very high pitched squeal as I step out of the car followed by white smoke rising up from the spark plug area before I quickly stop filming and run to shut the car down yelling "OH ****!"
Edit: Just to confirm, this is not the same coil as last time. This time was L2 and last time was L1. I have a Rywire subharness that appears to still be in fine shape. This leads my to believe this was an unfortunate internal short on the coil. Dwell times at idle are around 3.85 to 4.05 ms.
Last edited by RotaryMachineRx; 08-17-2021 at 03:21 PM.
I concur with Brett, cutting out the OH **** comment after mentioning it, removed the most entertaining part. Oh and it is good to hear the engine running, may it continue to do so until a 100k is driven.
I did some poking around with a multimeter on the Holley EFI coil and tested some resistances. The signal and power pin loops tested similar enough to the AEM coils that I was willing to give it a try. After trying start up I could hear only 1 rotor was firing. Found my Fuse for the rotor 2 ignition relay on my Rywire harness had blown when the coil fried. Replaced a new 30amp fuse in both circuits and problem solved.
Here are some videos of cold start and idle with the new Holley coil in with the AEM smart coils. Don't mind my cold start, it really needs some work and I'm finding as I lean the tune out the cold starts and idle RPM's are getting more.... aggressive . Hoping Shawn will get this all sorted out for me tonight.
Getting there !
Hope that's not a cold start that first one ?
why wouldn’t it be given his own words? Seems like maybe you have a bad case of lockdown-fever or something recently. 🤔
Originally Posted by RotaryMachineRx
Here are some videos of cold start and idle with the new Holley coil in with the AEM smart coils. Don't mind my cold start, it really needs some work and I'm finding as I lean the tune out the cold starts and idle RPM's are getting more.... aggressive . Hoping Shawn will get this all sorted out for me tonight.
Enough about idle go get some pulls in before winter comes to you in a few weeks!
Unfortunately I am moving a bit slower than even I had expected (I find I am defaulting to being very cautions after the first engine fail).
So a couple things came to light over the past few days. Firstly Shawn had to reschedule our tuning session last Thursday; so I was booked in again for this past Monday afternoon. I was away all weekend and got home Sunday evening where I began to tinker with the car so more. Over the weekend I really noticed a strong smell of fuel in my garage. Couldn't find much upon first investigation so I fired the car up and let it idle for a while. Found a significant fuel leak so I had to dive into that meaning this time I had to cancel our tuning session.
So I pulled the UIM off and inspected the entire fuel rail system. Turns out we had a loose AN fitting (it wasn't leaking prior to this, so it must have been just loose enough that it was able to slowly back off over time). Upon removing my UIM I also found that the rear UIM to LIM nut closest to firewall was not even installed on the stud . So most likely we were dealing with a vacuum leak due to that. After checking every thing over fuel system wise and performing a leak test by priming the fuel pump I'm confident that everything is now in order here.
Prior to putting the UIM back on I installed an oil pressure sensor into my engine inlet fitting using a -10AN fitting w/ gauge port. Ran the pig tail over to the ECU so now I just have to pin this to the ECU and set it up.
Oil Pressure Sensor Install
Maybe not the update everyone was looking for..... believe me I want to get some tuning and hard pulls in this season before winter strikes; but my confidence in others has been real shaken as of late so as I mentioned above, I'm being (maybe too much so) overly cautious after being stung bad on the first engine.
Re-routed some hoses and lines that I wasn't a fan of after getting my car back from the engine building and as of last night the car is all back together. I wasn't able to give it a test fire because by this time it was late and my neighbors still don't seem to hate me yet
Everybody makes those kind of mistakes; most often you’re lucky and no harm - no foul, but when that kind of reality bites the cautious approach is best.
I took Strokers car out for the first time on Sunday, all I can say is “wow, mind-blown 🤯”.
You’re going to love it once sorted, but better safe than sorry. Take your time and get it right.
05-17-2021, 06:04 PM
, on the road?
. Hoping Shawn will get this all sorted out for me tonight.
. So most likely we were dealing with a vacuum leak due to that. After checking every thing over fuel system wise and performing a leak test by priming the fuel pump I'm confident that everything is now in order here.
