Whatsup guys? Ive been looking into installing a turbo in my 8 but i wanted to know if it would severely affect my engine life. Opinions??

 

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yep, but how much it effects the engine depends entirely on how much boost you're running, a tune (i think), and you're driving habits. someone more knowledgeable will chime in soon. also, read this sticky:

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-major-horsepower-upgrades-93/power-adders-fi-dummies-turbo-supercharger-nitrous-122645/

 

Yes, it will. No, it will not.
The truth is... it depends.

When modifying ANY car extensively engine life becomes a concern. Pcm tuning, power levels, car's use (show car, track car, daily driver etc) and maintenance play a role in that. So the truth is that it isn't necessarily forced-induction dependant but rather build and use dependant.
Some engines last 150.000miles, other last 20 hours. Is it necessarily the engine's fault?

 

if you read in the major hp threads there is a bunch of info. there is no cut and dry anwser

 

Okay, thanks guys!

 

 

usually forced induction in general will affect engine life. i am highly against forced induction in any car that you want to last. i wouldn't even put a supercharger or turbos on my LS3. and thats a much stronger engine than a mazda rotary.

 

adding cams that add 40 extra hp would be potentially the same wear as adding a turbo that gives you 40hp. Its more the HP increase rather then the turbocharger itself....sure you have increased heat and some other side affects but the underlying remains the same

 

If i were you, don't do it. It will definitely reduce the life of your rotary engine and what was already said, it will depends on your driving habits and such.

 

well when you put a more aggressive cam in a car. ( which i have done and gained 40HP like you said.) you replace the value train, springs. Valve Springs, value seals, locks, push rods, retainers crank bolt etc.... the list goes on. aggressive cams are not "forcing" air into the engine. all cams are doing is increasing duration and lift over stock. which allows the engine to work more efficiently in terms of producing more power.

 

You ask ANYTHING to generate more power then it was designed to do it will decrease it's life expectancy (and its proportional). However you can help the situation by keeping temperatures in check and making sure your tune is optimal. That means shell out the $ for a bigger intercooler, upgrade your radiator (common sense if you're generating more power you are generating more heat), and pay for a professional tune instead of running around on a base or non-specialized tune... to name a few. Cheap, fast, reliable - pick two and you can't have the other one.

 

My opinion about turbos, is that it'll only lead to 1 problem.....more problems

 

This brings up an interesting point for me. I have an 02 jetta 1.8t engine that has over 200,000 miles and has never needed any engine or turbo service work. Granted the cars now throwing 20 lbs of boost or anything, but still, just as reliable as any na engine. So why can't that be achieved on an rx8? I would love to add 7-8 lbs of boost to my 8, but would rather not kill my engine prematurely.

 

depends on the setup. I'm more than likely getting the GReddy kit soon and keeping it at the 5-6psi. Actually after doing the fix it would drop to an effective 4ish psi and I'm fine with that. I'm just looking for a little more oomph for passing. At such a low boost pressure I don't expet to shorten the life of the engine.

 

it might have something to do with the car being made from with a turbo. the engine was made for a turbo. any n/a car was not made to be turbocharged. of course you can mod the engine to work well with turbos. but that is always pricey.

 

same thing can be said to FD'S, they may last forever, or some may last a few months.

i don't like how people seriously underestimate the renny, i think that achieving 231 HP without the help of twin turbos (to achieve 280), is a great feat. you will see later on someone will find a way to make a More reliable renny.

as the other stated, if your going FI; make sure you have added reliability mods,and get yourself a real bad *** tune (AP,ETC..) the magic number seems to be 300-320whp to have a somewhat reliable renny.

if adding a turbo to achieve big numbers and reliability, is a main concern to you. then as ignorant as this may sound; you chose the wrong car.

in layman's terms yes....

 

Forced induction will shorten the life span of an engine; we do not know how much shorter, that depends entirely on the tuner of the car and your throttle foot.

 

It doesn't make sense. Anything moving more air in any way will generate more torque hence more stress on the parts. However, there's a range that doesn't affect reliablity at all thanks to engineering margins. Find that and you'll be golden.
Add reliablity mods and you can go even further up.

Amen! There's still a margin where engine life is barely reduced, if at all. Nobody ever cared to find what that point is for our engine though... they all messed up something sooner or later lol.
No comment.
That car has a lot of potential left on the table whereas sportscar engines don't\shouldn't. The part where you talk about random numbers in lbs has no sense. Flow, not boost, is what makes power.

 

a turbo will shorten the life of any engines. end of story.

 

well my point is that making a N/A engine work more efficiently in general is better for a N/A engine. as a rule of thumb. yes there is a "safer"limit. but you have to ask your self, if 6-8k worth the safe limit? and if you want to go "further up" with the boost. be ready to spend ALLOT of money to insure to minimize problems down the road.



on a side note, my camaro put down 410WHP. with bolt-ons and a custom tune. i put in a stage 2 street cam. and gained about 40WHP now around 450WHP and the car is still very drivable . 40 HP gains are not even that big of a cam. its decent gains for a v8. so don't go around thinking a 40HP gain is a huge cam lol. there are plenty on my forums with bigger.
i spent 5k to get about 95HP over stock. and the car is drivable and reliable. a supercharger/turbo would have costed double, and the gains wouldn't have been as much in the "safe" limit on boost. now you see why we put cams in our car ?

 

Basically if you're gonna go F/I don't go cheap!

Aftermarket radiator, water meth cooling, bigger intercooler, larger capacity oil pan, whatever you can afford...

 

basically, boost doesn't kill cars, ignorant people do. If you do it and do it right, then you will be fine.

Stand alone fuel management

3 inch exhaust to get rid of the heat

Better radiator and the mazmart waterpump

Good engine oil

Nice intercooler with good airflow

Possible fuel pump and injectors with highest pump octane

Wideband o2 sensor and meter

keep boost reasonable unless you wanna build an engine first.

Possibly a vented hood to help get rid of heat?

Don't forget about the tranny and rear diff. Some nice redline fluid.


Just a few things off the top of my head with my experience with turbo cars.

 

Bad tune, installation aside. If the metal parts, etc are still within tolerance range while performing their function, i doubt it would decrease the engine life.

 

The problem is that the v8 your camaro has is an engine with 50 years old technologies and built stronger to keep it cheaper. The v8 i drive wouldn't gain 10% of its power with cams just like yours. Why? it's already a sporty engine.
Anyway cammes will affect engine life no matter what you say.
We lost around 5hrs of engine life in one of our fiat engines to gain 7hp with a new camshaft thanks to the rule changes. That engine lasts 25hrs now, then it's rebuild time.