What Mods
 

All, I have an 09 m/t 8 that is stock right now. I use the car for the daily grind of 60+ miles. I don''t participate in any sanctioned events or races but kicking some kids butt in a jazzed up Civic on the street isn't too uncommon for me. I am looking for your thoughts on what would be your top 3 performance improvements. If you want to add more than 3 please do.

is bhammer short for Banhammer?

Incoooooommmming!!!!!!

its called search bro... jeez what do people think that tab is their for...

CobbAP tuner with a custom tune (e.g. MazdaManiac)
BHR Ignition system
AFE Short Shifter

There you go, although as others have cited an easy search to an oft asked question.

I did try the search and as with other vbulletin searches, they suck. Plus, I suck at searching. I got about 1000 series i threads that I got tired of searching through.

Sorry to take your couple seconds of your valuable time that you will never get back... Bet it took you longer to actually hit the reply button than it did to read my quesion. :dunno:

Did they start making those for the Series II?

I did a search on their site but as said, i suck at searching and couldn't find one. Only for the Series I.

Damn, you are just too funny!:ylsuper: But your title applies to you though!!!

^ sorry, re: CobbAP didn't see you had a S2 - not yet.

An RP SuperCat is another good bang for the buck enhancement.

He made that comment due to the fact you made a reference to street racing, which is not condoned here. :dunno:

^ Huh???

This is the sum total of my prior posting. Where do you get any "street racing" crap???

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CobbAP tuner with a custom tune (e.g. MazdaManiac)
BHR Ignition system
AFE Short Shifter

There you go, although as others have cited an easy search to an oft asked question.

====

^ sorry, re: CobbAP didn't see you had a S2 - not yet.

An RP SuperCat is another good bang for the buck enhancement.

OP, beating up on street Civics.

Not you.....

Yeah, fixed my quote.

^ OK, if you say so StealthTL, but it was I that was directly quoted, for no apparent reason.

As you in particular may appreciate I'm a little sensitive to being accused of being outside the board's posting rules.

^^ Very good Sir tubingchamp. No big deal really.

Gotcha... I don't street race as I value my life too much. I can see how my comment could be taken that way though. It was more of a point getting the jump of the line.

Thanks. Am reading about them now.

I've got full exhaust.. Headers, had a midpipe, 3" catback..

It really does not make much of a difference. The butt dyno might tell you that you've gained 10HP, but the most to the wheels is probably 2-5.. The only reason I got these parts is because I'm putting a supercharger in. It WILL make a difference with more air entering the engine.

Intake is also a waste of cash..

For the same price that you can get an exhaust system, you could contact Charles @ BHR and get a sick, safe nitrous setup.

Not sure if it's been done on an 09' yet though.

Lol Apple your pretty new as well... I don't think you have put in enough facetime yet to use that line...:smoker:

The newly offered BHR upgraded fuel pump just made my to-do list as well. ;)

^ do you tempt for the devil on the side? (well, it IS hot enough in AZ). ;)

No shame when you have the best stuff! :)

sway bars...

I think they are the best mod to start with. They really make a difference IMO..

Sways, from what I've read, can make your car Understeer or Oversteer really easy. I believe it's the adjustable ones that cause most people all that trouble, so I'd just try to stick with Racing Beat Sways...

if he is just daily driving under/oversteer should not be a problem

I mean if op wants to take turns at the limit then yeah

well if it's a DD, idk to me it seems why mod it? I plan on tracking my 8 as well with some AutoX in there as well...

Did you drill out your front bar and make it bigger for the 12mm Endlink they have? And have you had any seizing issues?:Wconfused I read that once you get aftermarket sways you gotta grease them puppies up alot...

What kind of grease do you use Charles and whats the proper torque for the sways? Just hand tight or?

Just to chime in here but, for the aftermarket sways I would suggest putting a washer underneath the clamps, between them and the frame that you bolt it onto. Reason being without them it squishes the bushings down and makes it difficult to pivot the sways which should pivot easy in design; they should be free and not binding. I did this and it helped a lot initially although after 1000 miles it was quite stiff again which I attribute to the stress that was imposed on it which would of been worst without the washers. I believe torque is 44.8 ft-lb last I recall; you can find it on the online shop manual that is posted around the web for an '04 Rx8, just google it.

If your car is lowered I would suggest aftermarket end links, stock ones are way too long and can attribute to preload on them. You can read up on a lot of people who've snapped their end links lowering their cars. Ideally, you want the bar to be horizontal to the ground when mounting the end links but that doesn't always work out. Even at my lowered height, adjustable sways and end links the links are not short enough to get this.

All in all what really matters is you don't bolt the end links into place until you have the tires loaded by the car via on the ground or level blocks on all 4 corners. You do not want to bolt them into place when the suspension is in full droop. Otherwise it will preload those end links imposing even greater stress on them when you go into a corner.

Lastly, I would recommend adjustable sways, why not? After all, if you are understeering/oversteering they allow you the adjustable options of tweaking the handling to perform neutral.

Thanks guys for the great ideas. I am now in the process of reading up on the various mods you presented. I am sure I will be back to ask more questions.