So my car has of course been where else but the shop for quite a while...again. Now Rotorsports is at the point where they can get the car to crank easily when it's cold, but it will not restart with the IntX. But, if they unplug the IntX and go back to the factory computer, it cranks up everytime despite how hot the motor is. The map on the IntX is the base map. I was thinking maybe when the water temp gets to a certain point is when the trouble starts for the Interceptor but since the factory computer uses the airflowmeter that it is able to instantly compensate or handle the problem. Rotorsports thought along the same lines but were still unable to fix it. They are gonna go back to the E-manage just so I can at least drive the car and get it outta the shop, but it's been very frustrating. Any thoughts??

 

It sounds like a simple tuning issue. Contact Mazsportscott. He can tell you how to fix it.

 

They called Scott once and he was more than helpful. That was just for referring back to the basemap. They've tried calling him again but he's a busy man. I guess this should be in the issues and problems section but more people look here.

 

ok, before anything gets thrown out of control possibly i want to come in here and explain our situation with this car.

we originally got the car with a cranking issue. we were told mazda said it had low compression. we verified this as there were low even pulses on the rear rotor. we tore the engine down only to find that, aside from some seriously excessive fuel, there didn't seem to be much wrong. it's possible the seals were sticking for one reason or another.. regardless we put new seals in there and have triple checked the tolerances just to be safe. there is no reason this should happen again.

on to the interX; when we got everything back together we were unable to crank the car. it was dumping massive amounts of fuel. now we don't ever mess with microtech... it's not our stand alone of choice (we mostly use PFC, TECIII, haltech, etc...) so there was a quick learning curve but alas in theory it's all about the same. i figured it out and we did get some good help from Scott as mazsport.

the original cranking issue with it was the fact that the map had been altered to a point where the car was just going crazy rich and just not allowing it to fire. this could have been an issue in the first place before we even pulled the motor. doesn't matter.

we loaded scotts base map and it did finally crank and we started tuning it out some. i got it to a point where it would drive and boost wonderfully! the car would dip down in the 11's on spool up, then stay around the high 10's up to the 7psi i had it set for. i even tuned out the big lean spike it likes to have at the 7200rpm mark. the car ran great... it just would not hold a constant idle and didn't always like to restart.

so to make sure it wasn't something other than the ecu, we would swap to the stock computer and the car would fire right up instantly without a hitch no matter how much fuel was dumped in there from before. so we knew injectors and initial timing were still good.

when the car was here before we had set it up using the e-manage. we know the emanage works becaues it's obviously just a piggy back. yes, it may not be ideal for ultimate tune and power but it WORKS.

we could throw a TECIII on this car and make it wild as hell, because it's what we know. Scott as mazsport knows this ecu so ofcourse i'm sure if he had the car with him he could probably sort out the issue. it may be something simple, but like i said we have discussed this with him a few times already and even going by his base map nothing changed.

so as of yesterday i re-installed the e-manage and the car fired up perfectly on the first try and came to a nice steady idle. i did an initial test drive not hitting boost, just to see drivability and it's great. cruises at a nice afr where it won't be such a gas hog and best of all once it's hot and we shut it off.... it cranks right back up.

today i will be going back out for some boost tuning and we should have the car ready to go.

Scott @ mazsport is a great guy and has been helpful as much as he can be over the phone. i am not saying in any way that the microtec is a bad ecu or is messed up, again it's just not our ecu of choice and we've never messed with it. if anyone is used to the pfc or tec systems then you'd know what i mean. we have about 20 other rx7's out here at the moment that are getting alot done and we just don't have the time to completely go thru the microtec and i also know that he is wanting his car back. we didn't mean for it to be here this long and we apologize for any inconvenience.

thank you,

Zac of Rotorsports

 

The motor has low compression? Has this car had the recall done because low compression engines are being swapped out.

 

the low compression was probably because of the excess fuel washing the oil off and not allowing for proper sealing.

has any one checked to make sure the harness is ok? the first thing i would do is make sure there is not a problem with hardware- starting with the harness.

 

The Low compression was originially thought to be caused from what zoom44 said said, the excess fuel. If the engine is flooded, the compression readings are gonna be usless. The only problem was originally after I got the new starter kit it ran great for 2-3 weeks, and then had the same cranking issues. Possibly caused by a rich tune over time?? Then, when it got to the point of no cranking at all, I thought it had to be computer related. I bought the interceptor, and the same problem. I got on the phone with Scott and he walked me step by step to alter the base map just to see if it would crank. That map that was first seen by rotorsports on the interceptor was a result of Scott and I trying to get the car to start up. I'm glad that there is sum progress being made now, and I know Brian and Zac at rotorsports are doin everything they can to take care of me.

 

Did you zero out all of the water and air compensation maps? Turn off after start enrichment and the cranking map.

If I had some screen shots of all of your screens it would be easier to figure out.

 

the engine has been rebuilt. it does not have low compression, please read my post

we have zero'd EVERYTHING out in different attempts at solving it. we dealt with scott directly on the interX setup. we have gone thru different adjustments on almost every single setting. we had some minor success with some of the changes but not what we would call "ready to go".

one thing we don't like about the microtec tho i will say... is that you can not go thru the map without the car being connected to it. we like to sort thru the map and all and be able to see full out tables which we can't get thru this microtec. so as i said, it's not an ecu we are completley comfortable with, but we're not stupid.

the engine is fresh, it now cranks up immediately having the e-manage in and i will be getting it safe under boost.

thank you,

Zac of Rotorsports

 

Zero-ing everything is not the answer, either.
There are a whole bunch of really convoluted menus in the setup. The MicroTech software is pretty horrible.
I can help you, but I need to see the menus.

 

MazdaManiac, if u help us I will see to it that ur eccentric shaft never runs out of lube....Ok I guess it's kind of an inside joke.

 

^^ Thanks, but I can maintain the lube on my shaft on my own.

Just what I need - an eccentric shaft fluffer...

 

Oh jeez... sex for tuning...

 

U know how we do .

 

Ive only had one starting problem that took weeks to diagnose. I thought it was coiles but was getting spark when I checked , had to put a jumper box on it to get one rotor to fire and get it started. It did end up being the coils anyway. Look behind each of your coils and see if you see any white cloudy stuff and not a solide black in the epoxy.

 

so has anyone checked that the HARDWARE is actually ok starting with the harness?

im having a deja vu

 

I think you are missing the point.

You don't know what you are doing.
You may be well versed in various stand-alone EMS systems (I, too, was a fan of the Electromotive stuff for years, as well as Haltec, Link, SDS, Apexi and a bunch of others), but you obviously don't have a handle on this.

If you don't want to write a novel, fine. But understand that by ducking out on this one and blaming it on the box you are just making yourself look inept.

BTW - if the timing is moving the wrong way, you have changed a setting on page one of the setup screen. That would seem to indicate that you have botched the setup in general.

There isn't much harness on the Int-X, though I guess you could crack the box.
The best thing to do is get a new dongle from Scott with a known good calibration in it and try it on a different car.

 

first off, i want to apologize. i shouldn't have even come in this thread, i'm sorry i can't explain to you every single thing we tried, but i'll leave off with this.

every time we went to try something new, we started back with the base map and tried one thing at a time just to look for changes. also, on the base map the car was waaay off and was going very lean under boost and had a transition issue. if i didn't know anything, i probably wouldn't have gotten that cleared up so well. i see where you are coming from.

i am not blaming the box and am sorry if that's how it sounded. the interx seems fine but all i know is with the e-manage it's working beautifully.

i didn't mean to start an issue of which ems is better, i always suggest to people looking for a stand alone to mainly go with what you know or only get one that is suited to a tuner in your area, or else... issues like these arrise.

again, i apologize for coming in here under aggrivation and being unclear. if you want to believe we are "inept" then that is your choice. i will say this, the car will leave here running great.

thank you,

-zac

 

Thanks Zac, i trust that the car will leave there running great. Lemme know when I have to come and get it cus I'm at school up in VA near DC so I have to make a date out of it.