LS RX8 Build - Project Norito

More Stuffs

I did end up wrapping and sealing the headers. I want to try and keep the heat out of the car as I will not have AC anytime soon. This took a few hours and was gross. Wear some gloves and clothes that you can wash right away. Keep the wrap wet or else you will just breathe in glass all day. I was happy how they turned out and hope they hold up. The main issue with doing this is now when you work around them you need to be more careful and under the car can get fibers and crap in your face.





Intake Arrived

Stock LS6 intake


You will need to trim one side of the map sensor to fit on the intake.


Throttle Body - New Hitachi ETB0024 Fuel Injection Throttle Body - Gasket/O-Ring Included
Converter - For LS Throttle Body - LS1 / Truck Adapter 3 Bolt Intake to 4 Bolt 92mm
Bolts - STAINLESS STEEL LS1 INTAKE MANIFOLD BOLTS KIT For LSX LS2 LS3 LS6 CAMARO CORVETTE GM




Fuel Rails
Billet Fuel Rail Kit For OE LS1 LS6 Stock Intake Manifold 6AN + Hardware
Delphi GM 50lb/hr LS Truck Flex Fuel Injectors 12613412-8

It took me a while to find a rail that would work without needing adapters. I ended up with the one above. You can see the bolts pass through which gave me more room to work on mounting.

I made my own brackets out of L brackets and some spacers. It is very solid and I am not worried about it.


I also started to break down the wire harness I ordered and covert it to what I need.



Sad News

We had to say goodbye to my best friend of 14 years the other day. She was the best dog I could have ever asked for.

Sam 2011 - 2025

 

Damnit man it was a great update until the end ....

 

I felt the same way. Your build progress is always something I look forward to because you are attempting something I can only dream about.
A loss of a loved one is a huge loss and I feel your pain. I hope your future is about all the great times your dog offered with nothing but joy.

 

Small Update: but tons of time and work

I have started digging into the wiring more. I have all the engine wires hooked up. I decided to ghetto wire them for now to check that all sensors are right and that things are behaving as they should. I will upload the excel sheet of how it all works once it does work.

I also got the engine to crank from the key so that is a great step forward. I ran 2awg from the busbar to the alternator and starter. I will get into more detail on that in a later post.

I went through the ebay harness and traced each wire I also put the proper ends on whatever needed it such as changing the injectors to ev6.


I have been using these Terminal Block 12-Position Strip 10 Amp 380 Volt White Screw Terminal Connector Dual Row Electric Barrier Block to test all the wires that are going to the haltech and other places as a temporary connection. I plan to fire up the motor this way and check all the sensors to make sure it is good before I clean it all up and make it nice.


It looks like a total mess but it starts to make sense if you take it one wire at a time. If I were to do this again I would probably just get the LS harness from haltech for a few hundred more but at the time I had no idea what I was doing or going to need and this will work fine and save me money.


There is a 4 pin "circled in yellow" on the fuse box that has a wire that feeds the starter for the OEM rx8. This sends 12v+ to the relay on the starter. It is a blue/yellow wire and like 10 awg. I used it to feed the signal to the LS starter. It works great as long as the clutch switch is working and you ground pin 5a on the rx8 ecu harness to bypass the immobilizer which no longer exist. There are also two other wires that come out of it and I have no idea what they do.

The green circles need 12v+ which I fed from the alternator as I already had a fat wire going to that and it is more or less how the rx8 did it as well. I broke down the factory cable feeding these and cut and put on my own ends for the alternator side.


Next step is to connect the ECU after I program all the wires and sensors in it properly and hope that it does not catch fire. Once that is confirmed working I can clean up all this wiring and shorten stuff.


Powah - still tons of work to do but getting there

 

She's Alive!



Still a decent amount of stuff to do, exhaust, cooling, wire cleanup, vac lines, driveshaft but it is getting close. I will add more info when I can but most of the work lately has been wiring and testing. It is not super hard but it is very tedious.

 

Small Update:

This is just a quick update of what I had been doing and what I am now working on with lots of pics. I am at the point now where I need to figure out cooling and driveshaft and the car is ready to drive. I still don't have an exhaust but that does not stop the car from rolling around the block...

Fuel Stuff

I ended up running a 6an line from the mazda fuel pump to the front of the car. It took me a while to figure out a good route without getting near the exhaust. I ended up running it right next to the OEM line but then came up the frame rail into a flex fuel sensor then up to the rails. I put the fuel pressure sensor on the rail passenger side. I used evil energy ptfe line and it was pretty easy to work with and did not leak first try. I will probably replace the hose that connects the rails at some point so it matches but it works for now.

EVIL ENERGY 6AN PTFE Fuel Line Kit,E85 Nylon Braided Fuel Hose 20FT AN6 PTFE Fuel Line Hose(5/16Inch ID)






Intake "Intake Air Temp Sensor"

I modified the intake to put the temp sensor right on it. I am not sure if it will heat soak here or not but it will be easy enough to plug and move the sensor if needed. I drilled it out and then just used the sensor to thread in the plastic.




Non Insulated Butt Connectors Kit

This is what I used for pretty much all the wiring. Solder is not recommended under the hood due to it heating and cooling which can cause the solder to break over time. These worked great and feel very secure.




I used the ebay harness for a lot of the wiring and merged it with the haltech/ran haltech wires for cam and crank etc. I did not really like the wire size for the injector and ignition 12v "I am sure it was fine" so I decided to run 14awg for the ignition and 16awg for the injectors.



I have been slowly cleaning up wires and looming them. I also ran a fuse panel and relay in the old spot where the OEM ECU was. I am going to run the haltech inside the passenger footwell as I have heard it can overheat in the small rx8 bay. The fuse panel gets power with key on and provides 12v+ to everything that needs it. I will upload the wire spreadsheet when I am done with it. It all fits nicely and should look pretty clean when it is done.




Twisted blue and white is for the rx8 canbus to talk to the haltech so the dash and power steering work.

I guess a lot of people skip this step but I did want the reverse lights to work when so I found the Red/Yellow wire in the drivers side door well. When you give it 12v the backup lights come on.




Cleanup


I think I have everything wired in now but just got back from vacation and have not looked at it since. Still lots of stuff to do but getting very close to driving it.

 

Got a little bit of time this weekend. Cleaned up the wires, mostly done and got the top side of the radiator mounted. I need to make some brackets for the bottom and will likely mount them to the frame rails. I also found out the shifter I have sits too high and does not clear the trim. I found a better solution but need to see if I can return the one I have.




Wires Cleaned up


New Rad and some cutting/fabbing, I kept the stock fans and only had to trim them a little. It still gives me about an inch from the fans to the belts and I have room for the ac core when I want to put it back on.