davychronic's build

I like all the options on the new hardware, but it seems like they're asking you to beta test this new hardware--and risk your engine in the process.

IMO, It would be much easier/safer to have split second send you the old hardware with the trigger circuit that has worked perfectly on every other port injection car..

 

Yea he said he hasnt had this problem yet before and ill admit the mazdaspeed is a different animal when i comes to getting a tach signal but yea it is annoying that the old method will not work with the new hardware. I hope he has a better answer for me tomorrow. Thankfully i usually start tuning with e50 in case it does lean out or something so i havent had any knock even over 1 yet but i watch very carefully with my datalogs to make sure i stop if i see anything i dont expect.

 

So im not going to wait around and see what they want me to try at split second so i ordered a dakota digital obd2 speedo/tach converter that will give me the tach signal from the obd2 canbus. Hopefully this week it will show up so i can get moving on this car

 

Have you considered it may be spark blow out? I thought the cam sensor was for intake cam position vs crank for the vvt system. Blowout will cause boost and maf to drop. Sorry if i missed it but any reason you got that specific ss controller instead of the mazda AIC1-V4H

 

Well i did think about that since i did install a new coil, i pulled the coil last night and stretched the spring. It does feel like ignition cutting when it happens. The cam sensor is used for fuel delivery but who knows what else mazda uses that signal for. Im going to try and hook up to the cam sensor again today and try it since i stretched my spring. This model ss controller has better tuning software and a few more features that make it more like a stand alone. Ive run this much boost before with meth and havent had this problem but after i started thinking about it and looking at the logs closer, it is ignition related like spark blowout.

 

Got a pic of this new fangled Controller? I'm curious to see how different it is

 

Looks the same as the old ones just with two boost ports on the side.



Im not so sure im ready to blame the ss controller anymore. So this morning i went to buy some copper wire and replaced the springs in my coils and its still doing it but when it happens it almost feels like rolling antilag so im starting to think it may be the ignition coil that i got from oreillys cant handle the load. Im going to try and get my hands on another coil and see what happens.

 

Ok so i think its safe to rule out the ss controller. I went and got another coil and it still does it although not quite as bad. So i made a map with 0 wgdc with the aux injectors on and it only sputters just a little bit at higher rpm this time. So i know it has something to so with high load and i still think its ignition related. I only got 6ga wire to do the coil mod, maybe i can try to find some 4ga tomorro. If i get down to where im still having issues after that then im just going to look into wiring in ls coils which i know are good.

Also my dakota digital obd tach box showed up today but my obd port splitter doesnt show up til tomorrow so i do plan on wiring that up just to make 100% sure that it isnt the ss controller. Wish i had a way to load test these coils.

 

I didn't realize using LS coils was a thing. Is there somewhere to read about someone doing that with success?

 

Its probably not on these cars but ls coils seem to work on just about anything

 

Well theres always gotta be someone to do it first right, cost me $200 to get 4 delphi ls3 coils, bracket, coil harness, 8.5mm wires and male mazda coil pigtails so these will be mostly plug and play so i wont have to cut my coil pigtails off and is totally reversable minus a pcm ground ill have to add. I can also experiment with widening the spark plug gap a little. Im still going to use my dakota digital box to give me tach signal and now that we are supposed to get a foot of snow today it will be awhile before i can do anything.

 

Well i guess i forgot how big ls coils are, glad i didnt get the truck ones. Speaking of the truck coils, you might wonder why not get the truck coils? Thats what everyone gets because of the longer dwell time. Well we have no way to take advantage of that at least not through the ap, maybe versatune could add dwell tables in the future. It wont be above 40 here for about a week so i guess ill have plenty of time to figure out how and where im going to mount these beasts.

 

This morning i wired in my dakota digital box for the tach signal to rule out 100% that the ss controller isnt interfering and causing the issue im having and it is not. So i guess my issue is spark blowout which is just crazy because last year when i used meth for aux fuel, i didnt have any issue at all. So im waiting for the spark plug wires and mazda coil pigtails so i can get these ls7 coils wired up. It will be a couple days before everything is here so im going to work on making the bracket to mount the coils in the meantime while we get another 6 inches of snow. Hoping to finally have it going with everything working this weekend...

 

What plug gap you running?

0.022-0.024 seems to be the sweet spot where I don't get any blowout at 35-36psi

 

Should be .024 but when it cools down ill pull them out and check. Hopefully the ls coils will let me open up the gap a little.

 

Ok i pulled all the plugs, they were all .025, tightened them up to .022 and problem is gone. Still planning on wiring in the ls coils but at least i know what the issue was.

Thanks @Sho for the suggestion

And for reference i took the dakota digital box out before i gapped the plugs and tied back into my cam sensor for the tach signal. Guess i can use the dakota digital box on my tundra to fix my speedo that reads slow from big tires.

 

So spark blowout is a bitch since it depends on how good the setup flows. One guy can get it at 30 psi another can at 25 ect since boost is the measure of resistance to flow. I had to lower my gap to .020" (stock heat range) to eliminate it when the boost started getting turned up. Im glad you got rid of it! Thoes coils look awesome are they a cop without the other cars oem boot or are you gong to make a AL bracket and wires? Do those coils put out a higher voltage? What is the voltage difference?

 

It baffles me that i didnt have this issue just 5 months ago when i ran essentially the same boost level spraying direct port meth for aux fuel. Now it kind of happens a little in the high rpm, and when i say a little you dont even feel it but i can see it happen in the logs. Im hoping this switch to ls7 coils works out like it should then that should be a great fix for us with spark blowout. Its really not that expensive to switch to ls7 coils and the way im installing them would be easily reversable since im building plug and play harnesses for them. Its stupid that mazda put such dinky little coils on a turbo car but i understand why they did it.

Lsx coils arent cop, they mount on that bracket in the picture on top of the valve covers and have short wires going to the plugs. Im going to mount them pretty much how they sit in that picture i posted with short 8.5mm wires. Im not really sure of the difference in voltage but i highly doubt its less than stock. The fact that the coils are that much bigger means more wire can be wrapped around meaning more surface area and a “stronger” spark which should let me run a more “normal” spark plug gap.

It was nice yesterday to finally be able to run to 7500 rpm at 32psi, i was off in my injector calculations and i should have gone bigger so im looking at some 720cc injectors for the near future.

We are getting shit on with more snow today so i should have lots of time to get the ls coils figured out.

 

So here is kind of how i plan on mounting the coils, probably make the bracket for them tomorrow. I know it doesnt look the best but the places i want to mount them so they will look good will require different length wires for each cylinder and function over form right...

 

So heres how i wired everything for anyone that wants to know. The ls2/7 coils are 4 wire coils, the extra wire is a pcm ground. On the mazdaspeed miatas, they just wire the pcm ground and the chasis ground together so thats what im going to try. Once i pulled all the tape off the chevy harness, it was very similar to how our ignition harness is with the +12v and both grounds all tied together so it was easy to figure out the trigger wires.

So i wired the chevy plugs to the factory male coil pigtails i got with the middle wire being ground and looking at the connector the same as looking at a coil would have +12v on the right and trigger on the left.

Ill try it all out tomorrow and see if it works.
Fingers crossed