Going Straight to Turbo. Drawbacks?
 

Hey All,

Been focusing most on appearance and now getting into performance.

I've read two sides of the coin on here. 1 says perform performance mods in stages (Flywheel > Catback >Exhaust >Turbo, etc.). Some guys say dump those lesser impactful pre stages and go straight to turbo.

My question is, if that is the case, would you hurt any stock parts in the car by going straight to turbo? I would prefer the raw HP first and other optimizing goodies later if the car was tuned at each stage. I am definitely not down with spending $1000 for 20hp increase as I know the 8 doesn't do well with those early stages in terms of raw horsepower.

Thoughts!!

Time

I say just wait a few months and see what develops with Richard Paul's Supercharger.

If you're willing to fit the bill and pay more for labor and re-tuning in the long run, I say knock yourself out.

I'm trying to do my car in stages, with FI being the end result. But I don't want to possibly have to get it retuned multiple times either. That "20hp" may not be much at first, if even 20hp, but if you pick the correct parts than in the long run it will accentuate your turbo or SC.

The thing is that, although 20 h.p. doesn't seem like much, at near stock power/weight ratios each 5 h.p. is roughly worth .1s in the 1/4 mile, at least until you hit the high-12s so those "minor" mods work well, too. I haven't yet gotten to PCM mods nor serious levels of nitrous and I am already running low 13s. For some, that's quick enough but for others, like me, who have different objectives that is just getting started. The power mods I have that are most effective are the catless midpipe, light fly, and nitrous. Together they don't add up to near the cost of a turbo kit. BTW, without nitrous I run high 13s, easily on street tires.

Hi Charles ,
hi 13s without nitrous - are you not telling us something ? What other mods do you have ?

It seems to me that the people who have the FI love it and swear by it because of the huge kick in power. I don't think I'll be going FI for a while. Plus isn't the Greddy turbo meant for you to install and go without brace of previous parts? I don't know if "brace" is the correct word but I'm sure you'll know what I mean.

If you look in my VGarage you'll see that I have just about anything short of an FI kit that's worth having. The thing I love about the RX-8 is that it responds very well to even small mods if they are done properly. I just read in Hot Rod mag that the Shelby Mustang is supposed to run easy mid to high 12's on street rubber. Now you know what/who my next victims will be come this fall. Hell, if I just used drag radials I would be hitting 12.90s right now at 55 h.p. With the E-Manage or Interceptor X and upping it to 75-125 h.p. shots I'm looking at potential 11.80-11.90s. We'll see in September.

I was wondering the exact same thing because I wanted to go through stages and eventually turbo at the end. However, I realised that when you end up turboing, you have to replace some of the modified parts once again to fit/work with the turbo. So I don't have a clue what to do now...

Well, Oz, where is it you see yourself ending up over the long term? A light flywheel will payoff now and later, so that's one worth doing and maybe even a new clutch while you're in there. Pulleys, same idea. Factory intake works nice so leave it. Cat back and/or catless midpipe may also work now and later.

Well over long term, my goal is really to try and get as much torque as possible from this car. I've heard people with 300 ft/lbs of torque on this car? I don't know if its possible or anything but if I can get that from this car, I'd be a happy camper! So I guess a big turbo would be the "sensible" (being the best bang-for-your-buck it if done correctly) way to get that much torque. Oh and at what psi should you really start strengthening the internals of the engines (and I'm guessing this would be like apex seals and "resleeving", if that even exists with rotaries....?? :dunno: )?

Oo thanks for that list of parts! Just one thing, I've heard like underdrive pulleys messing up with the effectiveness of the air conditioner? Is this the same with the 8? Because I've been reading that there's already some problems with the air conditioners blowing cool but not "cold" air? So I definately don't want to make the air conditioners worser than it already is if its true.... unless of course it makes that much difference to the performance of the vehicle :dunno:

Thanks for the reply :sad:

I have pulleys and find that the air conditioner is working at about the same rate, but this may depend on which pulleys you go with, and how much they are underdriven. Check the "pulleys, pulleys, pulleys" thread. I believe the problem with our ac system is that the piping runs across the top of the engine. I've seen a couple who have wrapped this piping and they claim that their ac system works better than stock.

I've installed flywheel and pulleys, they work well together and change the driving experience.