Car Throttle 'Living with a rotary' - Any Questions or requests?

[13Black]

Haywards Rotormelon

[zippyonline]

Why wasn't the dip in the power curve that could be seen at Sussex Rolling Road evident on the Rotary Revs dyno? Or was it and that's all part of the editing? As I saw it, pops and bangs etc. sorted at Revs and dyno runs, then down to Sussex Rolling Road and there's the ssv problem - or I spose that could have cropped up later.

[13Black]

The obvious answer would be that the solenoid failed between the mapping session and the Sussex rolling road footage.

[warpc0il]

The SSV solenoid can fail without notice or just stick for no apparent reason.
A quick-n-dirty fix is to swap the loom connector and vacuum pipe with the Secondary Air solenoid that sit alongside.
All 3 solenoids are identical and the SAS is only used for (very) cold starts and worse-case triggers a CEL.

This fix confirms the diagnosis - it was the solenoid - gives you time to source a replacement and find the time to physically replace the faulty solenoid, which is impossible without at least loosening the top half of the intake manifold.

I have had some success getting suck solenoids working by connecting 12V across the connector and giving the unit "a light tap" - alright it was more of "a heavy thump". Repeating a few times eventually the solenoid clunks when the 12V is connected/removed, confirming that the valve is moving.

On one occasional, on a JDM auto that had only been driven around town for years, this fix to the SSV solenoid was totally effective and AFAIK the car is still fine years later.

The two other times, one on a SSV and one SAS, the owners decided to replace the solenoids fairly soon after, just for peace of mind.

Then there was the time I showed the guy what to do and he waited until I wasn't looking and whacked it so hard that the vacuum pipe snapped-off...

[zippyonline]

he waited until I wasn't looking and whacked it so hard that the vacuum pipe snapped-off...

That sucks

(Or rather doesn't I guess)

[New Duke]

Turns out it was a good job we filmed on Monday and not Tuesday...

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Aaaaand a couple of behind-the-scenes-ey type pics

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[shroom]

I would love to see Alex at the AGM would be a dream come true for my son

I'm working on it. Chatting to him on Monday he seemed open to the idea of coming along. Not sure whether they'd do any kind of filming or anything, or whether it'd just be a social thing

[GreySilver Beast]

I've had a chat with Nigel and Alex this morning.

Upshot is that Castle Combe are OK if CT want to do some filming, providing they have indemnity insurance - which I presume they do.

Alex has said he is going to have a chat with some of the guys and also check his own diary as he'd be keen to come along but obviously can't come along if he's not and can't do any filming etc. if the crew aren't

Obviously I'll keep everyone posted, but in the interim, check out the series and keep an eye out for this week's episode on Friday!

[Nickp47]

Looks like Friday’s episode will be another good one, looking forward to it.

[PeteH]

Dr. F. Do you remember when televisions had a "colour" knob, and you used to turn it all the way up to see what happened.....?

(Actually, nice photos )

[Dr. FrankenRex]

It may be difficult to tell from the picture, Pete, but the reason there's no colour is because that first one is of snow...

[13Black]

Ah fink e meens dat most of the photos have had the saturation bumped up

[Dr. FrankenRex]

No sheeet bruv?!

[New Duke]

Well Alex just completely undid my previous criticism. As soon as he had a working RX8... bam! Smiles all round and more than making up for the previous episodes with praise. Very happy for him. I hope he's hooked

Nice work advising him Dan.

Just goes to show (unless you're making a CT series on restoring an RX8) skip straight to the fun and buy a decent example to begin with. Total joy!

[Lemon]

another great vid, loving the sound of the new engine Dan.

is it me is is Alex's car sitting high at the front?

[New Duke]

another great vid, loving the sound of the new engine Dan.

is it me is is Alex's car sitting high at the front?

It looked to me conversely that the rear was slumped a bit... or, I assumed, had a boot full of heavy film equipment that day...

My R3 has similar clearance on the front when I stick 18 inch track wheels on it. The gap looks huge compared to when 19s are fitted.

EDIT: maybe it is also a bit high at the front.... hmmm

[Nickp47]

Was another good’un, I liked that Alex had nailed within the first minute the reason why I (and probably most others) stick with the RX-8, the grin it puts on your face!

[jondkent]

another great vid, loving the sound of the new engine Dan.

is it me is is Alex's car sitting high at the front?

Yeh, I noticed that as well. Even with a boot full of kit it still looks too high.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[leetrx8]

Really good episode this week. Josh's rotary sounds are spot on! Your car looks and sounds sublime, Dan. All the aftermarket touches like the DRLs and the big fat calipers look great.

Someone in the Youtube comments said they want to see a track battle with Felix and Phil, that would be awesome.

[tyler82]

Late to this, but I checked this out and enjoyed it.

Great to see the 8 running right and sounding great. Really nothing out there that sounds like it.

Dan your car sounds amazing! I hope your car makes the power you want in the near future

[Lemon]

what on earth was in Alex's coffee in this latest episode??

certainly a surprising feat and i would be curious to see if you could go even further with cruise control

[warpc0il]

Cruise control is notoriously bad at achieving the good fuel consumption, as it's reactive and not proactive, e.g. it applies more throttle too late for hills and doesn't lift-off when approaching a congestion that might cause you to brake.

Adaptive cruise control can be a little better, as it tries to maintain "a time gap" to the vehicle ahead, up to the set speed, but it still can't anticipate in the same way that a (good) human driver can.

[tyler82]

Watched this video this morning and couldn't believe it. I struggle to get more than 200 miles on the motorway. Just shows what is possible.

Hats off to him because that would have been a long demanding trip. Yes I noticed he got excited with the coffee

Good point warpcoil. Even if I had cruise control on the 8, I'd never use it.

[Lemon]

Cruise control is notoriously bad at achieving the good fuel consumption, as it's reactive and not proactive, e.g. it applies more throttle too late for hills and doesn't lift-off when approaching a congestion that might cause you to brake.

Adaptive cruise control can be a little better, as it tries to maintain "a time gap" to the vehicle ahead, up to the set speed, but it still can't anticipate in the same way that a (good) human driver can.

that surprises me, i'd always thought that it should be better as the system should have finer control over the throttle.

[qwakers]

on the motorway it probably is, infact im sure it is... on the flat sections, anyway,

its hilly stuff it doesn't do too well with.