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Any upgrades for automatic RX?

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Old Jan 30, 2004 | 10:50 AM
  #1  
stangmatt66's Avatar
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Unhappy Any upgrades for automatic RX?

Hey guys,
Let's skip all the jokes about the automatic. Got it for personal reasons.

Anyone heard of any performance (read: engine) upgrades for automatic equipped RX? Gotta make up those 40HP I'm missing...

Thanks...
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Old Jan 30, 2004 | 11:05 AM
  #2  
donald121's Avatar
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Well, you can start with intake, exhaust and ground kits, but you wouldn't get much gain from those.

One of the most effective mod is carzoomer ecu stage 1 kit, but I'm not sure is it available for automatic trans.

40hp gain is not easy to accomplish! Good luck on your mod.
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Old Jan 30, 2004 | 12:24 PM
  #3  
310Guy's Avatar
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Re: Any upgrades for automatic RX?

Originally posted by stangmatt66
Hey guys,
Let's skip all the jokes about the automatic. Got it for personal reasons.

Anyone heard of any performance (read: engine) upgrades for automatic equipped RX? Gotta make up those 40HP I'm missing...

Thanks...
To be honest, you've added the appearance kit and spoiler (read: more weight). Making your car as light as possible can help in a very big way.
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Old Jan 30, 2004 | 12:45 PM
  #4  
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Re: Re: Any upgrades for automatic RX?

Originally posted by 310Guy
To be honest, you've added the appearance kit and spoiler (read: more weight). Making your car as light as possible can help in a very big way.
I honestly don't think 30 - 50 lbs of body kit will make that much of a difference. Not a noticable difference anyways. If a 2 ton Bently can go 0-60 in 6 seconds, I'm sure there's hope for my "overweight" car.
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Old Jan 30, 2004 | 02:49 PM
  #5  
mikeb's Avatar
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well, I got JIC Exhaust and K&N intake so far and it helps.

but we need a turbo BAD
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Old Jan 30, 2004 | 02:58 PM
  #6  
wakeech's Avatar
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...as i've said 100 times before, the 4 port auto motor is the best candidate for a turbo/supercharger (although a supercharger is... not the best way to go about it IMO). that'll get you way more than what you're looking for, provided you can afford it.
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Old Jan 30, 2004 | 10:32 PM
  #7  
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I got the K&N Typhoon intake. Seems to add a bit of power. I am also looking to get the B&B exhaust in the Spring. Read my post regarding CZ's stage 1 for auto's: https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=19165
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Old Jan 31, 2004 | 10:13 AM
  #8  
310Guy's Avatar
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Re: Re: Re: Any upgrades for automatic RX?

Originally posted by stangmatt66
I honestly don't think 30 - 50 lbs of body kit will make that much of a difference. Not a noticable difference anyways. If a 2 ton Bently can go 0-60 in 6 seconds, I'm sure there's hope for my "overweight" car.
Bad example. What's that thing putting out? 400hp? 500hp?

Anyway, I'll stick to my main point.

Make your car as light as possible. Also changing the factory rims to something lighter will help.

Trust me, beyond forced induction, the automatics will never be as quick as the 6spd.
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Old Feb 5, 2004 | 01:11 AM
  #9  
JeRKy 8 Owner's Avatar
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Yes I think FI will reallybe the only way to go for real gains w/our autos. Too bad turbo kits usually start at $3500. Pretty heftytag and we dont evenknow how well the car would do w/one. Warranty wouldbe gone as well. Id consider putting one in after my warranty expired andthen sell the car to some punk for a ridiculous price though!! That wouldnt be till about early 2007 Id say --maybe even late 2006. Who thehell knows what will be out by then! Id rather take a big hit right now and trade my auto back for a manual than spend over $4000 on a turbokit to lose all my warranty tomorrow and thenspend even more money a few months later if something malfunctions.

I think the only performance mods available nowfor auto are intake exhaust and ofcourse taking off weight. I dont think any of those 3 mods will get you more than 5 hp though. Definitely not worthit for me. I havent done intake orexhaust b/c the productsthat are out right now mostly just make the car louder and dont offer much performance and I feel that my auto doesnt deserveto sound aggressively loud since it wouldnthave the bite to back up the loud bark. Thatsjust my opinion though guys - dont take offense if youve already put mods on your auto!

For making it lighter thebest thing would be to drop down to the 16" rims that come w/the base auto Rx8s. If you think about it -- anyone who bought a base auto Rx8 has the fastest stock auto Rx8 available right now since there is less weight and theircars are also a little lower to the ground. They alsodont have any TCS or DSC systems that messaround w/the driving. I think they went for $25,700 back when I bought mine. Again ifit were only speed that I wanted fromthe Rx8 then I would have bought a base manual Rx8 for $27200 since that wouldhave been less than the $27500 I spent on the auto w/Sports Package.

The next bestthing you can hope for is to pray that Canzoomer will release a variation of his mod for auto owners that canl somehow produce an amazing gain for us. I never was aperson who was optimistic though so Im not holding my breath.

Last edited by JeRKy 8 Owner; Feb 5, 2004 at 01:18 AM.
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Old Feb 8, 2004 | 08:05 PM
  #10  
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Hp Gain

Hey I have read lots of articles on ways to increase power and most of the mods only give you a 5 to 10Hp gain each and cost quite a bit. But I have not seen anything about removing some of the power robbing parts on an engine. Has anybody considered making something that would shut the alternator off at wot I believe this would give a pretty good HP gain probably around 10 Hp or so. Just a thought
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Old Feb 9, 2004 | 11:37 AM
  #11  
Japan8's Avatar
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Originally posted by wakeech
...as i've said 100 times before, the 4 port auto motor is the best candidate for a turbo/supercharger (although a supercharger is... not the best way to go about it IMO). that'll get you way more than what you're looking for, provided you can afford it.
I believe it was CZ, although it may have actually been rotarygod, that posted a revised analysis of the 4 port motor compared to the 6. He said that he doesn't believe that it will have the same power potential as the 6 port and in fact the 6 port is the better candidate for a turbo. I can't find the post yet, but the gist was that the 4 port was designed for low-end power... more torque. Where the 4 port engine runs out of steam, the 6 port opens up 2 more ports to give the power to the 9k redline.

I really wish I could track down that post...
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Old Feb 9, 2004 | 11:57 AM
  #12  
Psychofox's Avatar
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here's the post i belive
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=20148
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Old Feb 9, 2004 | 08:55 PM
  #13  
Japan8's Avatar
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Dat was the post! Thanks Psychofox. :D

So it was rotarygod afteral...

So given everything... I think I gotta agree with JeRKy 8 Owner... I wouldn't hold my breath on getting any significant gains from mods. As CZ is willing now to work on a auto unit once the thaw comes and someone brings him an auto 8 to work on... that's good news for you auto owners. But... I seriously wonder if CZ can pull a magical 20hp out of that engine... and if stage2 pulls 40hp will the torque converter be able to handle it?

Last edited by Japan8; Feb 9, 2004 at 09:06 PM.
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