Domino81

I'm a noob. I know... so, I'll apologize in advance for the nature of the question I'm about to ask...

How well do RX8's respond to mods? Its my next car of choice and I want to reseach it a little. Did a search, didn't reveal a lot. Mods, move this is need be. Thanks in advance. :D

cgrx

With the mods available now - not much. Exhaust mods are yielding the best gain.

If you want to fiddle with fuel maps and ECU stuff get the canzoomer mod.

gsdev

As with every first year model, it takes a while. There are many very promising projects going on that should turn out to make for a decent selection of mods very soon. Hopefully the market for mods will be good enough to make competition between the major names. For now I recomment K&N Typhoon Intake, SR motorsports Cat, GReddy Exhaust and AEM Race Programmable Engine Management System

Domino81

I went to SR motorsports. Everything there was super-expensive. I wasn't terribly happy... I'm sort of used to grass-roots type prices from grass-roots type people. Building, welding and making their own parts. Kinda happens when the aftermarket doesn't support your car. (Mazda MX-6/Ford Probe) I've heard that being a rotary that exhaust mods WILL wield the best gains. Why is that?

shelleys_man_06

My guess is the rotary has more exhaust pulses than a piston engine. I'm not too sure myself. Don't worry about aftermarket support. It is a rotary engine after all. The market is already beginning to swell.

Domino81

In its 1st year of production it already has more aftermarket support than the Probe/MX-6 has ever had cumulatively.

cgrx

I've heard rotaries don't like back pressure. Could be B.S.

shelleys_man_06

I don't think there are any engines that like backpressure. However, it has its uses, especially in FI.

shelleys_man_06

The Hyundai Tiburon has similar aftermarket woes with the Probe/MX-6. Sadly, I don't think these cars are considered by tuners, most coveted. However, I love grassroots parts; they prove you don't need big names, just smart thinking.

gsdev

The design of the engine (no exhaust valves) means that the rotor is more affected by the back pressure. This means that you will get better increases by getting rid of pesky back pressure. When FI comes into play (Please God let it be soon!) you will get better benefit from the back pressure.

zevans

Yeah with no exhaust valves "in the way" any improvement in exhaust exit path will -directly- improve the speed the exhaust is pulled from the chamber, which has to be goodness. Could definitely do with a better exhaust note too.

devoid

Does any girlfriend like wearing a muzzle all the time? Well, than why should your RX-8 be an exception...Give it some breathing room to open its mouth and make some noise, you won't be dissappointed!

mazlanta

I think Jim Mederer at RB sums it up pretty well - especially for you 7 fans:

The following is an update from the desk of Jim Mederer as he shares his thoughts on the progress of his testing:

"Racing Beat is about to come out with a number of products for the new RX-8. Others have already brought products to the market with what we have found to be some rather exaggerated claims. Rather than echo these claims we prefer to report exactly and honestly the results we see. In the long run, the customer will appreciate dealing with reality, not a wish. In the past it was common to see improvements in the exhaust and intake systems of rotary engines in the 12-20 HP bracket, depending on the product. Headers in particular were a great source of power- this is no longer true. Although we are still working on a final header design, we have yet to observe more than a slight horsepower gain. Space is a limiting factor to becoming creative with a header design, and besides, the port configuration is fairly restrictive on the Renesis engine. We have found that Mazda’s exhaust manifold design is actually pretty good. Mazda has already wrung almost nearly everything they can from the engine. The are small improvements possible, but the days of the early rotaries when 10-20 horsepower gains could be realized fairly easily, those days appear to be over."

The following table lists the measured power gains from various aftermarket components. Testing has been conducted on the Racing Beat engine dyno with both pre-production and production Renesis engines.

1. Intake – enlarging the oval inlet to the factory air box - +2 HP (this modification eliminates the VFAD intake duct.) Developmental work is still being undertaken.
2. Headers – approximately 4 HP peak power gain.
3. Mufflers – muffler & connecting pipe - 2-3 HP.
4. Removing the muffler from the car (engine) – about 4 HP.
5. Remove catalytic converter and resonator from the engine completely, and replacing with "cat" replacement tube – max benefit 8 HP – regardless of what muffler is used (or even no muffler).

"The muffler "off" will yield about 4 HP, with a very loud exhaust note. With it "off" the car, the noise is unbelievable! We find 2-3 HP peak RPM maximum improvement from our exhaust, or any competitive system that we have tested. So someone can see from these numbers, it is quite difficult to get a lot more HP from this engine. The max potential with a header and race exhaust would be around 10HP."

Follow-up Notes

During the prototyping of our RX-8 exhaust, we kept hearing claims of rather large HP gains from other aftermarket exhaust systems. Since we were not observing gains anywhere near some of these claims, we decided to obtain two of these systems for our own reference. One of the systems performed as expected and produced around 3 HP, as did the RB prototype unit. However, the other system did not fare as well and actually produced less power than stock!

Since it is our policy not to "bash" or downplay competitors products, nor do wish to embroil ourselves in a controversy over HP claims, we will keep the brand names of these other systems confidential. Aftermarket manufacturers test products using various methods, and as you can see the results can vary!

It has been our recent experience with normally-aspirated Mazda applications that significant HP gains from an aftermarket exhaust system are hard to obtain. Mazda is simply doing a very good job with their exhaust systems! In today's horsepower hungry marketplace, it is unlikely that a significant amount of horsepower would be left behind in an ineffective OEM exhaust design. But hey, that's just our opinion!

Domino81

Wow. I'm beginning to re-think buying an RX-8 if getting more power out of it is more difficult that a KL03 (2.5l MX-6/626/Probe GT)

wakeech

stop.

search.

learn.

there is no such thing as "responsiveness to mods", as an intake or exhaust is hardly modifying anything. if you want to make your car fast, learn how. it doesn't matter what car you get, it's all done in fundamentally the same way. this aftermarket ricer bullcrap is just a waste of money: learn how the engine in stock tune is deficient, and improve it. this guess-like usual "intake, exhaust mod" stuff is just smart people who make good looking parts that make lots of money off of people who don't know a lot about performance.

wakeech

btw, this is *** covering bs.

Rxdriftingaction

i will mod the car. but not right now. cuz it still in the warranty!! and..it's not the right time to mod car.. i think. cuz the option company is not very maturity to mod the car. and the part also.
maybe 3 or 4 years later.. will be the perfect time for that. no warranty. and. then company is skill enough to mod.