Help a noob that just came over from the dark side.
 

First a little background. I grew up on pistons. Tweaking my mom's slant six as a teenager then later autocrossing my '72 Vette. The motor head in me just won't die.

I have been reading though the forums for my "new" 2006 Rx8 and...

1. A friend of mine was sponsored by Pettit racing and swears by their fuel additive, but most of the posts here say it is not needed.

2. I want to get rid of the cat. BHR midpipe seems to have the most positive posts. If I do this do any changes in the "tuning" need to be done?

3. I have already installed a K&N air filter. Most posts here seem to say that is enough. Other air intake mods are not necessary.

Any help will greatly be appreciated. I may or may not autocross this car, but for now I just like the interstate cloverleafs. . If I can ever get time away from the career and family.

1. You don't "need" a fuel additive, some just add it as a precaution.

2. Exhaust mods do not need tuning.

3. A cold air intake by itself won't do much. Add a custom tune on top of that and an aftermarket intake helps a bit more.

Grab a Cobb access port from MazdaManiac
Get BHR ignition and midpipe
Follow the MMCCS tuning instructions.

Mazmart makes a kit to increase maximum oil pressure by changing the regulators.

Axial Flow Engineering makes a great short-shifter

Race Roots has a great clutch pedal reinforcement.

Thanks for the replies. The access port will be my first purchase. Anyone else?

I found the change to Redline 75w90 gear oil made a huge difference to the car.

First off, I just wanted to applaud you for searching before randomly starting a thread asking questions that have been answered a million times.
Thank you, I think you're going to fit in nicely around here.

While this isn't exactly a '72 Vette, but in some ways it's a much simpler car to mod.

1. Your friend swears by the Pettit additive because he was sponsored by them. ;) It isn't necessary though.
2. The BHR cat is a very popular item and if you choose to go that route, you do not need a new tune. You can however choose to tune for the lack of a cat as it'll let you run leaner AFR's without having to worry about burning up the cat and you could see additional performance increases.
3. The OEM intake is extremely well designed and seldom needs replacing. I have an AEM intake because I like the sound and the very small performance increase. The k&n drop in filter is a good choice and you should be fine with just that.


I do have to agree with Dark Brew in that an AccessPORT is a great mod as long as you understand how it works, aren't expecting miracles from it, and can follow the directions for using Mazdamaniac's Custom Calibration Service. Instructions <--- click

For the M/T model, I also highly recommend the short shifter from Axial Flow. If you think the shifter feels great now, wait until you experience the bolt action rifle feel of the Axial flow shifter.


Other then that, you might want to look into the BHR ignition upgrade down the road as unfortunately our OEM ignition coils aren't the greatest and can fail prematurely leading to poor performance / misfires.

Add:

Mazmart water pump upgrade and thermostat upgrade

SOHN adapter so you are burning clean 2-stroke oil instead of 4-stroke

And Mazda now warranties the clutch pedal assemble to 100,000 miles, the bracket is not needed, and actually voids that warranty.

While I have the Mazmart water pump and Thermostat upgrade, I wouldn't recommend that yet because it depends on where the OP lives and whether he'll be tracking the car (in which case cooling mods are recommended)

SOHN adapter is nice but if he has an AccessPORT, MM can turn up the OMP settings. I have 67,000 miles on my original motor and don't have a SOHN adapter. :)

+1 on no longer needing a clutch bracket since it is covered by an extended warranty.

SOHN is not about increased oil. It's about clean burning oil. AP has nothing to do with it.

Damn! I forgot the Sohn adapter!
I recommend the bracket simply because it makes the clutch feel better. Also, I don't want to worry about that piece of crap pedal stranding me.
+1 on location filters for water pump and thermostat mod. Not required where I live... :)

Welcome!
You sound like someone that would actually take advice and have gotten some good input so far.

The following threads would be a good read(at least the first few posts) until everyone else starts jumping in and asking questions. Do yourself a huge favor and look them over!


https://www.rx8club.com/new-member-forum-197/new-potential-owners-start-here-202454/

https://www.rx8club.com/new-member-forum-197/congratulations-you-got-8-a-202548/

https://www.rx8club.com/new-member-forum-197/rx-8-faq-please-read-before-posting-959/

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...&highlight=FAQ

Oh....................and no matter what, I still believe the short shifter is the best overall mod I've EVER done to this car that wasn't purely maintenance oriented.

Thanks, I had found and already bookmarked some of those, but not all.


I live in New Orleans and drive hard, so I had been reading some of the thermo threads. You guys just beat me to the question.

Really appreciate all the help.

Mark

Really? I made the switch and it felt basically the same. Changed the old fluid at 50K miles.

Correction . You moved over TO the dark side !

I agree with JEDI 67kish miles no sohn adapter but been premixing for about 37k miles..(minus the last 3 or 4 tanks since ineed to buy more premix....which I'm doing tomorrow since the car just seems to not run quite as nice without it)..