Gaining power or making up for losses?
 

Hi all,

Let me start by saying that I haven't got the car. Waiting for mine (US import). But I have been reading a lot here, and it strikes me that most of the stuff that isn't FI seems to be making up for powerloss in the original setup of the RX-8. Like the Mazsport ignition, and perhaps the CobbAP. Now is this true? Some people seem to dyno pretty bad results with a stock car while others are decent. It kind of sounds like it would be better to buy a hard driven car than one from a "proper owner". In that case I may regret getting a car with few miles and mid-age owners? Carbon buildup abound :)

How would you know what mods you need though? I'm curious about what people in here judge their car on, and how they pick the mods. To be honest all I'll be looking at first is exhaust, for the sound of the rotary to be more pronounced, don't think it adds much power.

Anyway, just looking for some owners opinions about how to judge the car. I'll be new to the car and engine, only owned an MX-5 before. I want to treat it as good as I possibly can, as it's for me really expensive. That means I want to have all the power it's supposed to have, and more in a while ;)

if you want to get the most of the power to the wheels minimize drive train loss

I would recomend swap out all the fluids, engine with royal purple 5w-30, redline 75-90 gear oil for both tranny and differential.. and get a lighter flywheel and stronger clutch

and then the AP..

exhaust doesnt do muhc its mainly for sound.. the ignition solution is good to but get it when your coild beging to go bad they give you more power as well but not much like 5HP maybe even 10HP but thats if your coils are already going bad..

if your worried about carbon build up just deap sea foam it or buyt he mazda engine cleaner.. ive driven mine hard since day one and she runs stronger than when she was new..

my gas mileage is also 16MPG its not too bad but not reaaaallyy good haha

how low is your milage? I got my 05 with like 5k miles on it and it was rarely driven hard

so when I got her, the plugs went bad in about a week, and carbon build up excessively, so cleaned the damn engine changed plugs and coils and all was good

redline daily

i swear to god

Thanks for the tips. Exactly what is that engine cleaner, like name and brand? Isn't that what some people say will just make the carbonated stuff go loose and get stuck other places?

My car has about 10k miles on it apparently, not sure of the exact numbers. But one owner since bought, and a garage car. They might still have floored it when they took it out, but you never know :) All I know is that I will ;)

Since it's a 04 I guess the coils might start to get weaker, I'll see, maybe do the Mazsport upgrade for the winter or something.

I'm not sure if I can get redline products in Europe. But might be able to ship it with seacargo from the US, I know they don't take liquids on planes anyway.

I guess swapping the flywheel is one hell of a thing to do though? Like workload :) I have been thinking about a short-shift though, love the shorter feel of a gearbox.

The first thing you should do is bring it to a dealership and have it checked out for all TSBs and recalls. Many of the '04's have had their engines replaced under warranty/recall by Mazda. You should have the dealer perform any/all recalls and tests to make sure you have the latest PCM flash and that your engine is in good working order. Or they should replace the motor for free.

Check the TSB thread out in the Problems section of the thread.

Don't worry but just get it checked out before you do any modding so there is no warranty debate.

BG44K works well as an engine cleaner.

My importer did that in the US before he took it to the port, so that should be ok. Nice to have experienced people handling the selection. But I'll probably stop by my dealer here too when I get it and have them look at it. As warranty probably isn't worldwide the only warranty I'll have is one I eventually have with my importer. But as you said it's still good to check out, so it should be ok :)

BG44K? Allright. Maybe I'll ask the dealers here if they have needed to do any of the stuff. I used this local dealer for my MX-5 and there's always an RX-8 around, don't know if that's a good or bad sign, haha :)

dang straight.

Cool. Glad to hear you are working with someone that understands the car and is looking out for you. In that case I would look in to the BHR or Mazsport ignition upgrades first and switch to a 10w-30 or 10w-40 motor oil. I'm not sure how cold it gets in your neck of the woods (Norway sounds cold :)). But we've started to see e-shaft bearing scoring and wear on rebuilds due to the oil being too thin.

Then my advice is get the AccessPort. If you have a US model it will work. If not though it won't.

Thanks for the friendly advice. I will consider all these upgrades as I go along, will have to look in my wallet as well :)

I've read some of the threads where they look at the engines and people seem to recommend 10w-30 or 10w-40 due to some issues. You are right that Norway is cold, but I'm not in the coldest part (luckily). I guess we get -10C (which seems to be 14 degrees Fahrenheit) at most in winter here in south-western Norway, more often it's around 0C (32F), probably only a week or two with snow. But that's probably could enough to matter. Perhaps the original recommendation is the best then? If I can get a place to change oil I might change oil before winter and before summer myself anyway though.

AccessPort should work on mine, so might consider that later. First have to get the car and feel how it's performing stock. May consider FI later, but it's probably fast enough if it's not bogged down by something.