K&N Typhoon will decrease power - the stock intake is more efficient. AEM and Racing Beat intakes are the only ones that will not cause you to lose power - and they will only give you 1-2hp. There is nothing you can do to this car that will give you significantly more straight line performance short of porting/rebuild, forced induction, or nitrous. Exhaust, headers, race pipes, intakes, etc. will not do much for you as the stock components are already very efficient. Best you could do for your money would be a race pipe and a tune which will cost less than $1000. That will give you anywhere between 5 and 10 hp. It would be hard to feel a difference, but still its the best option if you want more power. Otherwise it will be many thousands of dollars. Or nitrous.

Search this forum, everything you've asked has been answered many times.

 

Im more or less getting an intake for the sound but do you think it will hinder the gas mileage with the aem?

 

No it will improve very slightly if anything. The AEM intake can drone a bit on the highway, and if you have any warranty left (8 yrs 100k miles on engine), dealerships can void it for having an intake. So if you are just getting it for sound, maybe look at exhaust.

 

Sorry for sounding dumb. What do you mean by drone on the highway

 

Loud sound in cabin any time you accel slightly. It's very annoying. A handful of people here have sold theirs due to the noise.

 

K guys need to know what yall think. I called a mazda tech to consult with him, and he was nice enough to run my vin # for me. The car im driving had 8 recalls all of which were taken care of by dealers has had the flash for the comp. The engine was replaced by mazda at 97,000 it was a refurbished engine. The car has 111,000 on it. So is it worth trying to save? I dont seem to jave any compression or power loss just that burning oil smell to get checked out

 

So the refurbished (rebuilt) engine has 14k miles on it? That's a good thing right?

 

Your engine is almost certainly fine, and the oil burning smell is something else. It's REALLY hard to diagnose smells over the internet, since you might be smelling something that is entirely normal. Our cars DO intentionally burn oil after all, and the exhaust doesn't have the same smell as a piston engine car.

Get under your car and start looking for any oil leaks, oil on the exhaust, oil spills around the filter, etc... It just might be that the prior owner spilled some oil during an oil change and it is slowly cooking off on hot parts.

 

Ah I missed the part about the smell. You could have a dead or dying cat? Maybe they didn't replace that when the old engine died. Wouldn't really be an oil burning smell, but would be a smell.

Turn your car on and stand behind it. Does it stink pretty bad back there?

 

No smell from the back, my dealer has agreed to take it to a rotory tech to get it looked at properly. Quick question, when im burning carbs and really giving it a go i generally shoft out at 8500 but is it better to take it to the beep

 

I don't usually deliberately take it to the beep, but I often do when driving in "fun" mode. Which is pretty much every time I drive it.
The most important thing IMHO is to not drive it hard (above 4k) until the engine is at normal operating temperature.

 

Due to the advice given here i dnt even move the car untill its at half temp and let it idle a couple min before shuting it off. Im studing as much as i can n want to take the best care possible of my 8. So thanks to everyone for the advice and care tips.

 

Its good to drive right away, I just keep below 3k rpms until its fully warm.

I read somewhere - I think from someone who races an RX-8 cup car - that there really isn't any point in going past 8500 RPM's, and that you can start causing stress on the seals at 9k. So I just get ready to shift at 8k, and am always on the clutch by 8.5k.

 

I can't seem to find the old (No Bashing) thread, so I decided to pop into this one. As a little back story, I traded my 2000 R1 for a 04 rx8 that was running terrible and hard to start. After asking a few questions here and a ton of research, I was able to diagnose it with a bad apex on the front rotor. I tore the motor out and found that the front rotor was completely destroyed. To no surprise the housing was unusable along with it.

So I started pricing and was flabbergasted on the prices I was looking at spending. I didn't have the money to even start gathering parts so I starting looking at junkyards and the all mighty craiglist for parts or even a donor motor. As luck would have it, I found a motor but it looked to be a 4 port and I have a 6 port. After doing a little research to see if the rotor housing matched and finding that there was no difference in the housing (just the irons were different), I decided to buy it. When I got there to pick it up, I found it to be a 6 port anyway so I got lucky. I got it home an tore it down to find that rotors and housing were perfect. On top of that the apex, side and corner seals were all in great shape as well. It was smoking really bad and I found 2 of the oil control rings had blown their o-rings causing oil to literally dump oil into the combustion chamber (hints the bad smoking issue).

I am looking at having it finished next week and get it back in the car. I just wanted to show off my progress and thank RWWIP for all the advice. The pics are in my profile and there will be more to come along with a video once I get it in the car for the first start!

 

thank you for this site I am a new used owner of an 05 mazda rx8 65,000 miles on it I love it just got a quick question am I supposed to run the car at higher rpm I have been shifting at 4000 rpm most of the time while driving

 

4,000rpm should be where you cruise at. Full throttle acceleration should shift around 8,500, or where you hear the beep (that's what it's for). More casual driving should have a shift point between 5,000 and 6,000, maybe up to 7,000 as needed.

Don't lug it around under 3,000rpm all the time.

You have a 6,000rpm usable power band, so use it all

 

Hey guys im looking for a local track to run my rx8 at. Not on a strip but on an actual track where i can really see how she handles. My problem is im gettin to much wheel spin on my take off. Ill only have to take off from a stop once on a track but still would love some advice to minimize my wheel spin as much as possible so i can get a good start on my first lap

 

I have a 2008 RX8 with an exhaust smell in the cockpit. No smell externally back or front. No exhaust leak noises. My prior RX8 had a Cat failure but in that case it caused RPM cut off and no smell at all. Car runs like a beast. Before I go to dealer does anyone have similar experience and resolved it?

 

Okay, so I've had my 8 for a little over a year and I got it used from a dealership. I am just now seeing this thread for newbies. I haven't really noticed any problems with my 8, but should I still follow all these steps to ensure she lasts a long time? I am in no way, shape, or form a car genius, but I do want to take care of my car since I've pretty much been waiting my entire life to buy an 8! Are these mods fairly simple and easy to do on my own?

 

If you mean the new owner sticky, absolutely!
I've had mine nearly 2 yrs now & I'm still reading up every day learning about it.
I don't know what mods you speak of, but I have the BHR midpipe, which likely will help your 8 last longer as failed catalytic converters are a common contributor to engine failures.
I am also considering the BHR ignition kit, but that's probably all I want to do.

 

Welcome,

If it is a gen 1, I would definitely start down the list. They are in increasing levels of difficulty. That said, they are not bad. If you are uncomfortable, stop.

You do not say what year, or where you live. The cooling mods, in my opinion, are a must. Especially fans on low in the summer. I just hooked the wire back up on mine. It will stay that way all summer. The version I recommended is very very easy, even if you have never used a soldering iron. Worst case, find a buddy who has one.

The foam is important too, and again, that one is pretty straightforward.

And, again, welcome.

 

Fist $100 went to 2 tanks of gas totalling about 200 Miles of FUN!

 

+1, we're all with you man

 

Do you have a link to that BHR midpipe and ignition kit? I'm interested...

 

Here you go BHR Midpipe