oops

 

Nice attempt...I have seen worse, not mentioning any names, but certain folk paid over $200 :-)

 

You get a 'B+' for effort, but any such intake is now taking air from behind the radiator.
The stock intake pokes thru the red bulkhead over the rad, and sucks cold air from the huge intake area in front. Until you get that far, you are not going to beat the stock setup.
Check out the housing for the ECU, it has two little 'cold air intakes' for cooling - Mazda knows where the cold air is, and it is on the other side of that wall.
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doc

 

I am glad that someone tried this, I had wondered what the effects would be just doing a "short ram" type setup. I haven't really had the time to look at how the airbox is constructed on the 8 to see if this was possible. I have a "cone style" filter from one of my other intakes off of my Eclipse and would like to try to rig something like this. Can you walk me through what you did here?

I just wish companies like Injen and AEM would step up and manufacture an intake for this car, it shouldn't take so long to do.

 

Very easy. I bought a 3 inch coupler from Lowe's in the plumbing department. Then I drilled a 1 1/2 inch hole in the top for the airflow sensor. I used a dryer clamp for the increased diameter for the rubber accordian. The filter was just an apc from pep boys. I made a bracket to keep it upright on the bottom as well. The problem with this setup as stated earlier is that its really a "hot air box" not a cold air setup. Mazda designed a tube in the front which the engine vacuum uses to draw air from the open grill. You would need to design a way to close the system and connect the filter to this tube so that the vacuum would still draw air from the outside. As this setup is, it only draws in hot stagnant engine air. It does sound great though but it would require a little more engineering.

 

I just wish companies like Injen and AEM would step up and manufacture an intake for this car, it shouldn't take so long to do.


Amen to that
the rx8 has been out 3 months now
I hope parts will become more avaiable after sema in vegas

 

I wonder if one could get a longer coupler, ~18 inches or so, or long enough to get it outside of the engine compartment and behind the grille. I'd want to also use a larger filter element, as the stock factory intake has a big one, and it's not very restrictive. Might be worth tinkering with it...

 

sorry to hijack the thread, when is sema happenening?


andrew

 

I dont know much about how these work. Why dont car companies deliver the car with good air intakes? Does adding one aftermarket void the warantee? Could it hurt the engines longevity?

 

The purpose of an air intake is to just let air in - nothing else.

If the wrong crap gets in .... well, just imaging tipping ball bearings into your inlet and work backwards from the effect you'd anticipate.

There are some that believe rotaries are more prone to intake contaminants than piston engines - I haven't known of many personally.

 

Here's a simple rule of thumb: more restrictive air filters mean less airflow, better particulate filtration. Less restrictive air filters mean more airflow, less particulate filtration. The more fine particles get past the air filter, the more wear occurs in each cylinder.

You get work around the lesser airflow by increasing the filter's surface area. However not all filters are created equal. K&N got a bad rap for their oil covered filters letting way too many particulates past. It won't kill your engine immediately but will have an effect over several years.
________
Rubbi

 

My first post! Yea!

I just got off the phone, after calling around to 4 different Mazda service centers. The "official" word they give me is that ANY aftermarket intake/exhaust mod will void the engine warranty.

However, person-to-person, it seemed to vary a little. One tech mentioned that they log every change they see, even down to replacing the OEM filter with a K&N, for instance. However, another stated that since the computer does not "log" airflow statistics, as long as the OEM intake is replaced before a warranty service, they won't be any wiser.

Any thoughts?

 

hmm sounds like too much risk for 10-14hp. Dont wanna kill my engine.

 

What about exhaust? Any downside/risks to replacing the exhaust? Sorry if these are dumb questions, just curious and dont know much about this stuff....

 

Canzoomer has written about this a few times, but his tests show that the RX-8 stock air intake IS a VERY good intake setup. He figures that chances are pretty good that you'll lose power if you replace it, but you certainly will not gain anywhere near 10-14 hp from replacing the intake. That's just marketing BS. Spend your money elsewhere!

Regards,
Gordon

 

will do, thanks

 

Besides the possibility of voiding the warranty, the build materials/mandrel bending and quality of the system is extremely important.

As an example: A forced induction rotary would benefit from a 3" system, however, NA rotarys - like the RX-8 or FC RX-7, are better off with 2.25-2.5" systems. If the pipe diameters are too large for the exhaust pulse, you could actually lose power.

Many other rules apply, but that is just a basic starting point.

 

i talked to my local service advisor at anaheim mazda, he said that an aftermarket intake would probably void the warranty, or at least any warranty service having to do with the MAF sensor or any part of the intake system but mentioned that if it was replaced before taking it to the dealer that they would hear no evil see no evil.

as for aftermarket cat-back, he said he did not see why it would void the factory warranty.

 

It may be the "official word" of a few techs at a few dealerships, but it's not the law. Unless they can PROVE that the mod caused the problem, they have to cover it. Period.

 

This question about the warranty has to be the most common around here. Everyone is looking for a guarantee that their warranty won't be voided. Guess what, nobody here can give it you (unless they're lying). I can guarantee however that there are some dealers that will refuse to even touch your car, whereas others will even suggest mods. That's the risk you take.

I think if you buy from a reputable company the mods shouldn't directly cause any problems. Mostly dealers use these things as excuses so they can cover their asses. Someone with mods on their car are more likely to drive aggressively (not a shocking assumption really). The Mazda techs here barely understand the stock 8 parts, let alone any aftermarket parts you might be using, so it's fairly understandable that dealers are cautious.

Now everyone knows that there are dealers that pressure their salespeople into using questionable tactics to rip off customers, so it can't be surprising that some dealers will try to rip you off with your warranty coverage. I've heard of dealers not honoring the warranty for a lot of really minor things. It may be the law, but salespeople often use tactics of questionable legality, so why not the service department. You avoid those places when buying your car, so why should you go to them for service as well.

I have heard of dealers that are surprisingly mod-friendly (for other makes though), where they are even familiar with the aftermarket products and will even install them for you before you pick up your car. Some people drive to Irvine from San Diego to go to the Subaru dealership there that's extremely mod friendly. Just call some dealers and ask around, you might get lucky.

 

How are you going to force them to cover it? There's the problem. Despite the Magnuson-Moss Act, if a dealer refuses to provide warranty coverage, and the manufacturer refuses to provide warranty coverage (both despite the law), then what do you do? You end up having to sue them and take them to court to force them to do the work. How long does that take? Your car could be broken and waiting on repairs for months, even a year, while you plod through the judicial process. IF you win, you get your repairs. No compensation for legal expenses, out-of-pocket expenses such as rental car costs while you fought, etc.

It's all nice and good to say they have to PROVE your mod caused the problem, but reality is that life can be real inconvenient while you try to force them to have to prove it. Is it really worth it?

Regards,
Gordon

 

Yeah, if you read about the BMW M3 engine problems, many owners had to sue in order to get warranty coverage for stuff that was BMW's fault. It's sad when even BMW won't back up their products.

There's always a risk with aftermarket products (i.e. non-Mazdaspeed). You can swap parts when you're going to the dealer, but what about roadside assistance, etc. when you break down in a random place? You can't swap parts then.

Some dealers have learned to profit from the aftermarket business. I think we'll see more of that in the future because it's becoming a huge industry.

 

Another misconception is that the dealer is denying it to try to save money, while in fact, the dealer does not lose money doing warranty work. Mazda is who warrants the car, not the dealer, so mazda pays the dealer for any warranty work done on your car. The dealer actually makes some money doing warrantee work. However, they do have to justify the job to mazda, and a lot of times, the maintenance people hate to try to do that. Also, if they can convince you that it isn't covered under the warranty, they can try to get you to pay them for the work, which will make them more money for doing the same job than if mazda was paying the bill.

 

Yeah, it's really worth it! Small claims court costs me $22 to file a lawsuit as long as the claim isn't for more than $5000. Mazda can throw all the high-powered lawyers they want to at me and I'm still confident that I could pursuede a judge to agree with me if the claim was reasonable. I've gotten out of 1 ticket and won another small claims case and I know that, as long as the law was on my side, I could do it again.

So to answer your questions I would:
- Review all the recommendations from SEMA
- Ask Mazda for their denial in writing with specific reasons why
- Pay for the repairs out of pocket
- File the claim with the court
- Go before the judge, cite the law, prove that Mazda's claim is unfounded
- Cash my check!

 

well should it really be covered by warantee if you put on a new intake and the engine dies? Maybe bad particles were gettin in....