Try doing that with a 60mm wastegate instead of a 35-38mm.....

Chris

I saw this Kit first hand at a Dyno meet, it does look sexy but the WG was pretty damn close to the ground. I would say about 3 to 5 inches max. I am no expert but from what I can tell many people are apprehensive in buying this kit due to the WG position. Why not change it's design? Is it a huge problem in doing so?

The wastegate unfortunately IS too low on this kit, seen it in person. I would not feel comfortable driving over speed bumps or small obstacles. Especially when the city is redoing pavement, they tear the old layer away and the manholes stick out a few inches, now way in hell you would make it with them in between the wheels. The kit does look nice though :)

We'll look into it.

Chris

Ok, it's just that from what I have read many people like the Kit and it's potential. It's just the WG that has been a issue with many. Good Luck hope you can come up with a solution.

Yes, some of us have seen this kit installed and everyone, including the owner and the shop that installed it said the wastegate location is a problem. I am not a "hater" againts any products that shops/companies/people are willing to make for the 8. I just try to provide constructive critism. In this case you should seriously look into redesigning the wastegate location for this kit.

I am almost certain that is a 44mm wastegate. Granted its not a 60mm but size doesn't always matter. :)

It looks like a 35mm-38mm to me.

Here are some pics of a 35, 38, 40 and 44mm wastegates. The flanges change. the 35 and 38 are the only ones with two bolt flanges. The 44 has a V-band setup.

If you have seen a HKS 60mm wastegate....its about the size of the stock turbo in the greddy kit.

I totally see your point and like I said, we will look into it, its just that in this particular case, size does matter.

Chris

You are probably right Chris. I was just assuming those were pictures of a Mazsport Type 1 kit and their website says that the type 1 kit comes with a 44mm extermal wastegate so that is where I was getting my information from. The real question is what turbo kit is that in the pictures?

Jeff - care to let us in on what kit is in the pictures?

Until we see someone with an actual problem with the wastegate being "that low", we can't say it's "too low" or a "problem".

Why don't you ask importshowoff84 if he has had any problems with the wastegate being too low.

Yep, he had a problem with it.

what happened?

--Jonathan

After looking at the pictures again of staticlag's car...I don't think I like the looks of the I/C. It's massive and to me doesn't look right with the front of the car. I'm sure it serves it's purpose, but I like things a little more stealth than that. Just my opinion of course.

--Jonathan

I regularly hit my under-braces on speed bumps and the like.
The WG in this kit is almost 2" lower than that.

The intercooler is bling, but it would be less silly looking if it were right-side-up!

Oh wow, I didn't even notice it was upside down. lol.....

--Jonathan

Come on lol Chris at esmeril engineered this ebay kit perfectly

Well, technically, there is no right-side-up for an intercooler, but it ALWAYS looks better to have the small end up.

Racing Beat built it for Mazda.

Its a pretty nice design. What turbo did they use?

It's no ebay kit for sure :). Looks real nice and supposedly performs very well too. Couple issues that should be taken care of and it'll be a top notch kit.

agreed

lmfao! you gotta love that first post LOL!

from the pictures on the esmeril site the construction looks really well made. the waste gate location should be an easy fix also.

You can keep the grill installed and not even see the intercooler if you want that stealth look. As for the size of the Intercooler you want won't regret the size as you increase the hp and the turbo isn't self-destructing.

Interesting, I thought you had to remove that grill. If it was kept on, wouldn't that considerably effect air flow though?

--Jonathan

anyone who's serious gets the MS bumper at a minimum anyway.

This is true, however, I am a little tired of looking at that bumper....they are everywhere. Although, it is nice that it's painted already to match if you go authentic.

--Jonathan

they look good, and aren't made from fiberglass. I'm sold.

Agreed on MS being played out.

Yes, another plus to them. I agree with you on its nice that it isn't fiberglass. Too bad there aren't more kits out there with the authentic MS quality.

--Jonathan

So...static...where'd you go? What's up with your car? After having this kit on for a while...what are your impressions about it now?

I just recently talked with Static and he can't really give his impressions on the car cause he isn't driving it. :wallbash: He has had a few problems & things are looking to good for his Rotary, mainly the engine. I didn't get too many details from him though.

oh snap.....tell him to get on here sometime so we know what's up. I'm afraid to turbo my car now...so many people lately losing there engines.

Tuning is key. The higher the power level, the more accurate your tuning must be. People are running around with crap ass tunes, or no fuel management and wonder what went wrong. Go figure.

Yeah, I dont want anything that much over 300 at the wheels anyways. Hopefully the tune with the BHR/MM turbo will be ok. I mean I shouldn't be second guessing that in the first place. Just gets me worried when I see these things happen.

Even without turbo, just watching NA engines die is enough to give anyone pause about owning a RX-8.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who have had more FI miles than me, but I put on 25k without issue. Engine had normal compression and everything.

True. I know you have been pretty successful with it (except for some coil issues :icon_no2:) and its a DD for you if i'm not mistaken. Mine would only be a nice weather car.

A good enough number of people blow engines NA but with the warranty update they can generally get them replaced by Mazda. Thats the main concern with turbocharging the 8 is voiding the warranty. A good number of people like you have had a good amount of time as daily driver turboed 8s though and are totally fine. With a good tune and quality parts it seems just as likely to last as a NA Renny. I've also seen a couple vendors offering rebuilds on Renesis motors which could cut down on the cost of a blown motor I guess.

One thing I've noticed from reading a lot of the threads on the forum over time is that detonations and popped engines seem less likely since the AccessPORT came out. I just ordered my AP and will use it NA until I get the time/money to get a BHR/MM kit installed.

^nice choice!

Yes.

Yes.

No estimate - I held it in my own hands.

Total waste of resources. A 40mm WG is plenty large.

I'd hope so.

Nope, it doesn't. This kit is not pushing enough boost to need that kind of flow control.

On mine, the bolt wasn't screwed in enough and was very low, so I nicked it on a speed bump, bending that bolt. So what I did was screwed in a shorter bolt. Now I have been able to clear all speed bumps so far. If you are going to hit anything, it'll definitely be the margin of the bolt that makes the difference. If you get this kit, I recommend swapping out the provided bolt for a 20mm length bolt or so, and screwing it down flush, or close to. You definitely don't want that adjustment bolt hanging down lower than you need it to be. But I've had no problems after I swapped bolts.

Now I am worrying about the clearance of a whole new thing. Just put in the TurboXS exhaust and it looks really low near the differential. I think I grazed it a couple times when rounding this bend near my house at speed with a slight dip which causes my shocks to compress and I think I heard it hit a couple times. Gonna check it for scratches later. After all my worrying about the wastegate, now my exhaust is causing a ruckus.

edit: And fyi my car is NOT lowered, and I would not consider lowering it due to the wastegate. If your car IS lowered, think twice. I love this kit, but the only real flaw I have come across is the wastegate clearance. Other than that, I am quite happy. Personally, I wasn't going to lower my car anyway, because I drive really hard and beat on it, so I didnt want the hassle of worrying about hitting this or that or grazing the lip of my bumper etc.

great review! thanks!and aw poop, i was considering this kit and another but i also want to lower it :/
and if you can pull from a c5 z06, does that mean u could do 0-60 in less than 4 seconds? :P

hi Anthony,

The kit now has a new design with a specialty low profile tial wastegate so customers with lowered vehicles no longer have any trouble with it.

That review was from October 2008 and the design change occurred January of 2009.

Best Regards,

Jason

I also believe it offers upgrades name brand turbo's to! The quality of these parts are very reliable if your lucky to be around a great tuner I see this kit a big win!

I have this kit on my car and I have to say that so far everything has been great. No issue whatsoever. Car runs strong and the kit comes with quality components. The turbo spools up quickly as mine see boost at around 3200 rpm and it goes ballistic when it hits 7200 rpm. I am lucky to have Chris as a tuner for my car. He spends a great deal of time answers my questions. He also install Esmeril Apex seals in my engine as well. I am very happy with his service and his turbo kit.

thnaks! :D

there goes another point to the esmeril turbo

I think I am the first one to have the new low profile wastegate. It is a tial MVS38 mm. I have a photo posted here somewhere. Do a search using Esmeril turbo as keyword and you will find it. The lowest point on the car is now the tip of the dump pipe. The wastegate is sitting a bit higher than the cross member bar.

what good is that? reminds me of the 1000HP Supras that are no faster than the 500-600HP Supras.

Here come party crasher....keep your opinion to yourself please.

Oh man...here we go again:

The car has full boost from just above 3krpm, lucky cat specified this in his post.

The reason it goes "ballistic" above 7k rpm or so is because all six ports are open at around that time. Hello?, its an RX-8 and it runs on 4 ports until the APV opens and unlike the Greddy, this kit has the air flow to feed these ports so when they open it feels like another shot of power just like the stock car. TQ remains pretty flat throughout the entire powerband and when it "should" drop (based on a 4port powerband) the APV opens and keeps it up just like in the stock car all the way up to redline. I don't know what people's problem with having power up top is, Luckycat didn't say it didn't have power below 7.2k rpm, he just said it went balistic, how is that a bad thing? All he is saying is that when you would expect the power to taper off like with every other engine in history the APV opens and the tq goes/keeps up there high in the RPM range. Basically, no tapering down of power until you hit the redline.

Best regards,

Chris