First post.

One major thing I am not seeing anyone here mention is the use of a wideband o2 sensor to monitor afr's. From what I gather, the greddy kit comes "pre-tuned", and there are some other fuel maps for those who wish to fine tune, all on the eManage.
I'm sure most of you who have been on the dyno have used a wideband there, but how many of you have one permanently installed in your car? It seems like it would be a really good idea for monitoring your tune, since narrowbands are practically worthless in terms of resolution, which is what you need when you're experimenting, and that is pretty much all the time.

 

I have tried to query this kind of information here before. And you know what I get? "Just use your canscan" or "install an aftermarket one that comes with a sensor, but for the price you pay, it's not worth it"

I would like to attach a digital AFR reader to the existing wideband O2 sensor in my RX-8 someday. There are times when my car feels so powerful and time when it's annoyingly weak. Seeing the AFR could spit out clues as to why or how my ECU is mixing A/F.

 

I guess you didn't manage to find any of my posts on this subject over the past year or so?

Of course, all of my experimentation, tuning and measurment have been performed with an LM-1 wideband permantently installed in my exhaust.

The probe was initially mounted adjacent to the factory WBO2S (which is, BTW, fairly useful as a tuning tool by itself - its measurment almost exactly parallels the LM-1 down to 12:1 where it runs out of scale). However, I found this position was too hot for the long haul. I fried several of the LSU 4.2 sensors.



I moved the sensor to a position directly after the resonator, about 18" downstream from the original position.



Feel free to do a search to look at the logs and charts I have produced as well as all of the tuning data I have provided.

 

i must have botched my search somehow. i did search for wideband, beforehand. don't get all bent out of shape

So you only needed the LM-1 to read below 12:1?

I'd really like to turbo an rx8. My only concern is given that FD engines have to be rebuilt on the order of an ~85k interval (see rx7club.com), and they apparently had "engineers" designing them to be turbocharged, I don't think it's intuitively obvious that the renesis will be any more robust in turbo form.

I realize there are still a lot of unknowns and it's too early to tell at this point what the limits of the engine are. if you guys prove that these engines can be run 100k on the average given all the proper circumstances, namely a good tune, that would be a deciding factor for my next car purchase.

Being a member of other forums, I know how annoying it is to see repeated questions. It's sort of difficult to find a distilled version from all the posts. You or someone like you should make a sticky with current mileage/setup/stats on turbo 8's. It is one thing to find info on installation/issue, etc. It is more difficult to find out how many members have done this, what kit, what results, etc.

If I were to do this, I'd probably just start from scratch. I'm thinking an equal-length manifold, but that's another story...

 

An equal-length manifold would be quite an engineering marvel. Have you looked at the available space?

The LM-1 is also faster than the factory WBO2S via the CAN bus.

The Renesis is a much more sturdy engine than the 13b-REW was for some obvious and less obvious reasons.
The main strength, I think, is the lack of a peripheral exhaust port. Without having an exhaust hole to fall into, the apex seals stand a much better chance of surviving detonation. That and they are wider and stronger.

 

Mazdamaniac, it looks like you've got a catless midpipe so placing the sensor further down doesn't affect your AFR. What about people with cats/ hiflow cats and needing to install it in a pre-cat position? I was wondering if you knew anything about the heat sink bung for the bosch LSU4.2 O2 sensor from innovate motorsports. Could this help extend the life of the sensor?

 

Yeah, I have one of those along with an external heat sink. It still ate sensors in the pre-CAT position.
If you have a CAT, mounting downstram will not be a good option for the reasons you mention.