This is what I was told by K&N while asking about why I was hearing they had been dicontuned. (copy of email and copy of email response from this site. What to do on a stock 2004 RX-8 with 4,000 miles to start upgrading. Got to take those 350Z's down. O.K. here are the emails.

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in K&N products. The kit is being updated. The original kit had worked fine however Mazda had upgraded their ECU several times. With the upgrades in the later years the kit was not compatible so we had to wait till the settled and then remake a kit compatible with all tunes of the ECU. There is no estimated date of release at this time.

Thank you,
Leon S. Collins
K&N Technical Support
1-800-858-3333

Response from this site.

K&N intakes are bad because they oil the Air cleaner it had nothing to-do with the ECU..
Sad that they would say that.. The Rx8 MAF sensor is very sensitive.. and the K&N oiled Airfiter's Oil blows on to the MAF. and cause it out stop working..
FYI
RB is to date the best Intake system for the Rx8.
Intake and Ram .
http://www.mazdaparts.com/ProductDet...000-1118051141

Second email from this site.

there is so much you can do, From Turbo kits to intakes.. But the Rx8 will never be a fast car off the line.. its a rotary ... However that said to increase off the line response I recommend a Lightened Flywheel from MazdaSpeed and the MazdaSpeed Clutch and pressure plate.. The loss of the Extra Weight on the flywheel alone is a tremendous advantage and it wont break the bank..

Log on to the Rx8club.com and you well get more info then you care to read

What to do?
I did this because I saw the ad on this site for K&N which who I wanted to go with til all this talk started.
Give me some feed back. Wanting to get started little at a time to my RX-8 Quick (I mean Quicker).

 

The ONLY way you're going to be "taking 350Zs down" is by installing a Turbo.

In regards to the K&N Filter, they just released their new updated model. You can buy it if you like but you won't see the gains that they claim of 10whp. No way. You'd be lucky to get 3 or 4whp out of a CAI on the RX-8.

 

I have but it is getting a little old going in circles spending this kind of money. I mean a cpu chip or something, exaust, would like to get to 300 HP as quick as possible and have a warranty to worry about.

 

The guy at K&N said there was'nt a new release date set yet?

 

Is there a good exaust system that would get good gains with a CIA?

 

RB CAI should get me what kind of HP over the K&N?

 

You won't get to 300whp without a turbo. You won't even get to 230whp without a turbo.

You can get a CAI, an Exhaust, a custom MAF tune, and a lighter flywheel -- total expense of about $2000, and you still won't beat a 350Z in the 1/4-mile. Even the guys with $3,000 GReddy Turbos (with an additional $2,000 in supporting mods) are only just holding their own against the times a stock 350Z can easily get.

You're going to spend A LOT of money if you want to "take 350Zs down".

It should be. Someone here just got one and posted pictures.

You'd be lucky to get more than 10whp with both a CAI and an Exhaust. Any of the exhausts will do, they're all going to net about the same. The stock exhaust is already damn near perfectly efficient.

It's unknown what the new K&N gains. But certainly nothing over the RB. The RB only gains 5hp peak.

 

THANKS for all your input, I really appreciate that.

 

wow, that amazing advice considering the RB intake uses an oiled K&N cone filter in their box

 

Yeah aside from the air cleaner nut, I also recommend the stuffs from Mazdaspeed. Just can't find the specific article.