Mazda RX-8, Series 2 - R3. Refresh Build Thread. **WARNING PICTURE HEAVY!!**

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Revving.

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Well, continuing on with the refresh upgrades slash future proofing the reliability items so to speak, I took delivery of my new oil lines yesterday.

Not much choice out there to honest as we know, I went with the Race Beat kit in the end over the Mishimoto.

The Racing Beat kit cost is a bit more, but I just wanted a fit and forget kit as have seen couple of people complain of a slight hiss sound with the Mish kit? Possibly just a fitting error maybe as only couple people had stated it, so who knows.

Anyway as I know the Racing Beat stuff always under goes serious R&D before they sell their products, it made sense to get this kit.

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More parts!

I’ve been after a short shifter kit for some time, they seem to be a bit of a marmite mod on the owners club forum.

Although I’ve always been a fan and like the more positive mechanical gear shift feel personally.

There has been lots of talk about weather they do or don’t damage the gear box, but that’s really more down to people using excessive force via gear slamming, but that’s all covered in another thread so il leave it at that on the subject as want to keep my build blog, a build blog.

So I got the Axial Flow shifter, and here it is.

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And again, more parts.......

Well well, can’t have a project build or a performance car without gauges can we!

I’ve built a few projects over the years you could say and this will be no different, so for any real performance car it’s a no brainier to add some proper monitoring equipment of some sort and I’ve gone with the AEM brand.

I’ve used these before and the quality is top level as well as the accuracy they give and all fitting hardware too.

So I’ve got four AEM X-Series (these are programmable with warnings should needs be.) gauges being,-

Oil Temp, usually over looked, vital to know when it’s up to proper operation temp before going crazy.
Oil Pressure, obvious reasons.
Air/Fuel Ratio, well worth while investment with these engines, will catch on straight away if Coils etc start playing up and for future planned use.

Lastly, an OBD11 gauge! Mainly for 2008 cars onwards. I went for this over a dedicated water gauge for a few reason, mainly to try keep how many gauges I have to a min. But, this reads the ecu and can show and clear fault codes as well as display any info a normal reader can, ie it will show water temp, volts, Maf reading etc etc and more, so made sense.

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When I ordered my gauges I originally was only getting two being the oil temp and oil pressure, but that soon went out the window as seen above.

Anyway, I order two with the plan of getting a twin air vent pod to which I did but as above ordered another two gauges a week later, whoops.

I got a twin air vent pod in 52mm size from “Block8head”, he custom makes them to order in the USA.

It’s not perfect, but I’m fairly happy with it and price, I plan on rubbing it down and giving it the magic touch anyway.

If anyone interested in getting one? Mine for twin pod in 52mm worked out at $144 dollars including post to the uk, which at the time of order worked out at £106.54p GBP.

States around three weeks post, mine turn up today via standard Royal Mail delivery and took 28 days (4 weeks.) with no extra tax charge etc, result.

He has a Facebook page, but here a link to his web page I order’d from for anyone who interested. -

http://www.block8head.com

Here’s some pictures and test fit.

The fitment is spot on, clips in place nice and tight to.

Overall happy purchase.

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Couple more parts pop up today, nice shinny smooth gear knob to go with my Axial Flow Short Shifter.

This is for an MX5, but the thread pattern is the same for my shifter. Not really a fan of the standard one, just don’t get on with the shape plus was rather worn out from previous owner wearing a ring. I like this one as it screw all the way down as seen in the pictures below, so helps keep my short shifter feeling like a short shifter, lol.

Also, got the Lockwood Oil Cooler and Rad vent hole grill mesh kit too. A lot of lose gravel on our rubbish uk roads from all the pot holes, plus I’m considering getting a alloy radiator possibly so made sense anyway.

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Upgrades............ We all love them!

For those who are following me on my build journey, your really going to like what’s going to be popping up over the next few weeks!

So here we go, todays delivery's are from “Ryan Rotary Performance”, and Carl sure does design/make some top quality parts.

https://www.ryanrotaryperformance.com

Got a set of his engine mounts, I do actually already have upgraded ones, but prefer the build quality and look of the ones he sell.

Here’s some pictures, as your see the quality speaks for its self.

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Obviously I didn’t stop there, also got a bit of bling whilst I was at it being one of his 4 peice Pulley kits in red.

Yet again, Carl out did himself and yet another top quality product.

Picture overload...

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The “MONEY” shot!

Overal, very happy, going to look great once I get them on.

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What had started out as a bit of banta with friends about my car build had turned into a reality!

I would of owned this car for two years come next week and had not heard the end of jokes about how everyone had labelled my R3 a “ghost”!

This is mainly because it’s white and no one ever see’s it along with it making all my spare cash vanish.

So last weekend one of my friends looked up personalised registrations to send me the link trying to be funny only for me to actually buy it and sent back a screen print of my receipt thirty minutes later! Haha.

Paper work and fresh plates turn up today. The official plate display is GH05 TOE, my “show plates” I’ve had made up read - GH05T OE.

Obviously the OE is for O.E.+.

Luck be have it, I couldn’t of actually asked for a better combination, it’s bang on in every way and suit my car.

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So finally after a long 12 week wait, what I ordered back at the beginning of February which you could say cost a little more than 50% (Once added brake pads.) of the price I paid for my R3.

Somewhere in this thread I did mention a change of direction with my car build and you may be thinking why such serious brakes? Well as stated at the top of this page, sit back and keep following my build journey because I’m not even halfway to where I want to be with this car and I’m waiting on a whole load of fresh parts to be delivered still...

Now, less about the hype and more about these brakes!

Jesus, they really are car porn!, and well worth the wait. I very nearly paid the extra £280 for “express delivery” which would still been 4/5 weeks.

So here we have my new full front and rear big brake kit by K-Sport.

I got 8 Pot Mono calipers on the front and 4 Pot on the rear with the handbrake feature.

Discs are matching two peice directional vented, grooved in 356mm dia, they are big!

The kit includes all fixtures and fittings along with braided lines to suit and even a pair logo’d towels.

I was a bit worried they might have some damage as the boxes look like they taken some beating while being shipped, but after opening them up everything is mint and extremely well packed from start to finish.

They was rather pricey, the wait was long, but now there here and I’ve had a good look over them I’m very very happy with them.

Anyways, here’s the pic’s!

Enjoy.

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Front 8 Pots and 356mm Dia Discs.

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Rear 4 Pots with Handbrake Feature and 356mm Dia Discs.

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Moved onto upgrading my cooling system!

I ordered a Pro Alloy S1 radiator. The quality speaks for its self, plus I like the way the end tanks are built a-posed to other ones available. “Apparently” these have a better flow design due to the shape of them and with inlet and outlet pipes being properly curved unlike others it makes sense.

Being the S1 radiator, I got the extra bonus of now being able to get and fit the bling bling Mishimoto fan shroud kit instead of putting non fancy looking factory shroud over my beautiful Pro Alloy Rad!

The fixing tabs on the fan kit ain’t the best, one not qute straight but easily bent into place, you can see the weld not great on that one too.

I fixed it to my radiator just to see how it fits and for the pictures, I got some sealing foam tape with the kit which needs to be put on and then il bolt it all together properly after that when I come to fitting it.