Mawnee

Woot!

Mawnee

Disenchanted with my Turboed Rx8...

After reading through this...it may sound like I'm bashing the Rx8. I'm really not. It IS a great little car....this is just just where my head is this week.

A few days ago I nearly traded in my Rx8. Some of you may have even caught a post I made in this thread offering my turbo kit for sale. I deleted it after a couple hours. I was literally sitting in my car in the garage about to leave to go look at a car and talked myself out of it. What made me change my mind? Honestly....the car I was going to look at wasnt exactly what I wanted. It was really close though, just a few too many miles on it. Hell, my Rx8 only has 26k on it...my wife is..annoyed I am considering trading it in.

As many of you know my car before the Rx8 was a heavily modded C5 vette. I have the vette bug again, or rather it never left. I cant shake the need to sit in a corvette again. I still have a "Corvette parking ONLY" sign in the third stall of my garage which no other car has been allowed to park in. Hanging from it is the tag from my beloved vette ...."BLWN C5".

Lately I cant get the thought out of my head that with the time and money I have invested in mods for my Rx8 could have a mild modded C5/C6 vette with more horsepower and far far less risk of catastrophic failure. I keep raising the boost on my Rx8...I'm driving around at 15 PSI atm and I'm not satisfied. Right now I'm probably making 350+ rwhp in a car that started with 180. How far should I really push it? My personal tune is safe enough...but really...I dont trust it. I enjoy everytime I hit the throttle, but then later wonder if that was the time I hurt something. The trepidation consumes my enjoyment.
And its not that I'm not prepared or able to handle if my motor lets go. I understand the risks. Its more that at the moment I dont want it to...because I just dont feel like the hassle of rebuilding it to have another go at unsatisfying results. Besides, that would be again...money that could go towards mods on my next car.

And the thing is...I am fascinated by the Rotary. I would love to learn how to tear one apart, port it, assemble it, tune it. I LOVE to learn new things. But the info is just too.....sparse...too guarded. Its too much work to get the answers or info I need. I'm not enjoying the rotory experience like I hoped to. Maybe I'm spoiled by the LS1 community. I learned everything I know about those engines and drivelines from the communities. I could tear my corvette apart in my sleep with just the knowledge I easily collected from those communities. If I had a question, no matter how basic or advanced ...there were 10 friendly people responding within a day with the exact info I needed.

I'm currently waiting in MMs que to get my car properly tuned. I have no doubts the car will be more responsive and more fun to drive.....but will it be enough? Waiting the however many months to get a finished tune to maybe see the results is....depressing. BTW, no fault of MM here, I understood how his service worked before I signed up. Its not that I'm impatient. Its more like...I just wanna get the disappointment over with so I can steel my decision to move on.

I dont know, maybe this will pass. Perhaps once its properly tuned I will be.. satisfied. But in the meantime....I am actively shopping for a C5 ZO6 or C6 vette. I'm very very picky when picking out a car.....so it may take a while. But if my turbo setup shows up in the "for sale" section....it means I found the right one.

Kane

iTrader: (1)

I know the feeling man, for me it is more about being bored now that my toy is basically done.

I'm shopping for something to frame up rebuild.... an option for you perhaps?

I got that C3 vette for 4K...that was fun to do.

FazdaRX_8

iTrader: (1)

I think boost and performance in a car gives us a feeling, the pulling hard, the adrenaline, the excitement. but like everything, we become jaded by this stuff. we want that feeling again so, more boost and performance. but no matter what we get jaded, disenchanted yet again. I mean a pro drag car racer probably perceives everything else to be slow.

I am willing to bet that at some point your vette didn't do what you wanted, so you got more parts. but maybe the vette has some magic with you, not sure.

I still think you should make me a kit though!!!!!

Mawnee

I think I actually went TOO far with my last vette. Was making 660RWHP and had trouble keeping the driveline together. I think this time around I'm going to settle in at a nice heads and cam 450-500hp and leave it.

You could buy my kit

FazdaRX_8

iTrader: (1)

so what happed to the vette?

Brettus

iTrader: (2)

I never really understood the whole American muscle car thing till I drove on your roads , but having done so I now understand how straight line speed is really where it is at in your country.

I would have enjoyed seeing where you could get with what you have done so i'm dissapointed - not to mention that I'll miss the entertainment value of your posts .

FazdaRX_8

iTrader: (1)

i agree, like your signature quote.

Mawnee

Housing market tanked before construction of my new house was done. Still hadnt sold the old house. Two mortgage payments for over a year. Couldnt afford a vette that needed a new clutch/rear/torquetube every other week when I took it to the track. So I demodded it and traded it in on the 8. Old house finally sold like 2 months later, a week later I messed up my back and spent near two years unable to work.....

I actually started this turbo build out of sheer stir craziness at the end of that two years of not being able to do anything :P

freaklinkmusic

when MM tunes your car @ 15psi, youll probably end up @ about 390-420 whp if your engine is in good condition. I envy you!!

Mawnee

I have installed a new air filter in the standard location above the bumper brace. Now everything is as it will stay through my tuning with MM. Should get my base tune from MM before too long as its been about 3 weeks since confirmation.

On my test drive I actually set off the alarm on my boost controller by going over 16psi.. I had to lower my duty cycle on Boost setting B

My wife is REALLY fighting me on the idea of getting another Vette. Even to the point of offering bribes of body kits, spoilers, hoods, ect. I'm not sure of her reasoning. She keeps saying "It only has 26k miles! And you are making more power than your stock vette did!" I have told her though, I WILL blow the engine in the Rx8 at some point. I figured it would be easier and cheaper to move on before doing so. Once I invest the money on a new engine it will make even less sense to trade it in... Maybe she really likes the Rx8. It may just be she fears I'll end up with another track duty vette that consumes parts. I dunno. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. For now though I will follow through with getting the car tuned by MM as long as I have it. If nothing else, finally getting a dyno sheet with real numbers would make it easier to sell my turbo setup when I'm done with it.

FazdaRX_8

iTrader: (1)

its nice that your wife is getting involved, and throwing upgrade purchase options at you. my wife, most of the times, says "thats fine"

laythor

perhaps give the car to your wife?

shadycrew31

iTrader: (6)

Its allot cheaper to rebuild your engine than it is buying a vette lol.

And you can even rebuild it yourself!!

Mawnee

Nah, she just got a new Avenger. And she drives like 50 miles one way to work.....Avenger gets like 28mpg. Her having a nice bigger car that I dont mind driving is what allows me to go back to a two seater.

A good used low mileage C5 Z06 isnt that expensive. I see it like this:

My rx8
+Turbo build cost
+Eventual engine rebuild cost
--------------
not far from the cost of a vette.

And I'm not saying the Renesis cant handle my turbo kit. The problem is I WANT MOAR POWAR!! so I will keep upping the boost until I go too far.

Last year I was actually kind of looking forward to tearing apart a renesis...... I would love to rebuild and port one, just to say I've tried it. But now it feels like that would be too much effort for a car I'm not completely satisfied with

I think it has more to do with me having the Vette bug than anything else. Its not that the Rx8 isnt performing well. I have one of the more powerful Rx8s here. My heart is just set on another vette.

Kane

iTrader: (1)

I'm telling you, frame up a C3 man.... fairly inexpensive and it will keep you busy for a looooong time.

:D

Mawnee

Wife actually suggested that. "Get an old car to tinker on and put your Rx8 back to stock". I really really love the C5s though

shadycrew31

iTrader: (6)

Rebuilding the engine is lots of fun. Minus the cleaning (depending on you OCDness) and removal and install.

alonso72

I have to say this is by far one of the best posts ive read...
But I'm still getting me an RX-8

Mawnee

arghx7

You're in the wrong rotary community. You should have gotten a 7 if that's what you were looking for. There are much more hardcore DIY and technical people there, but of course the cars are much older and quirky.


Also I've seen lots of jaded/depressed Corvette or Camaro owners with very modified *****-fast cars. And I also had this friend with an AWD 3000GT Vr-4 who ran twin Evo 16G's at 30psi and was never happy with it. He actually welded the wastegates shut and spanked every car he raced. I remember he cut a 12.5 in the 1/4 with a huge boost leak. He embarassed the crap out of camm'd and spray'd LS1/LS6 cars and supercharged Cobras. It still ran well but he pulled the motor out to build it so he could get beyond 600whp.

And then he got laid off. The engine couldn't be finished and the car had to be parted out. It was a black '95 3000GT Vr-4 with only 58k miles on it, with basically the most desireable combination of options for that car. With all that power he could annihilate almost anything on the street because of the AWD and the weight reduction he had done.

The enjoyment is all in your head.

And I hate to say this, but LS1/LS6 Corvettes are just not that fast without spray or a build that will otherwise compromise longevity. I know that sounds absurd to most Rx-8 owners, but times have changed. 12's are the new 14's. You're still going to get spanked by an R35 GT-R with a Cobb AP or a college kid with a $5000 DSM. The C5 still perform well in comparison to many cars but they are dated looking, the interior sucks, and cheap enough that they aren't exactly status symbols anymore. Anything less than a C6 Z06 and IMO you are just wasting your money. My neighbor had one and it's an awesome car. My friend had a C5 Z06 and it was good but is matched by too many cars these days.

If you're going to go for a Corvette, don't waste your time on a C5. They're too slow unless you mod them to the point that you start breaking things again. Better yet, be happy with what you have right now because there's always going to be somebody faster.

Brettus

iTrader: (2)

what have you done ?

Mawnee

I had my C5 in the 11s with heads, cam and bolt ons. I didnt start having driveline problems until I put on the procharger and started playing in the 10s. Even then I wasnt sick of it. only reason I got rid of it was for financial reasons. I can rebuild a C5 in my sleep, hell I still have a ton of parts for em in my garage. Besides, this isnt even so much about speed or performance. I just love C5 vettes. I actually prefer the smooth lines of the C5 to the angles ont he C6. I'm gonna be that guy in 20 years that still has "that old vette" in his garage.

After dinner I"m removing the turbo and putting the 8 back to stock. Tomorrow I go to see a Z06....... =/

Mawnee

Its about 5am. Been at it for about 7 hours at a slow but steady pace. All of the turbo kit is out and laying on the floor. Came out easy, just had to pull the motor mount, omp and do a little up and down dance with the engine. Found a few exhaust leaks that were probably hindering my spool up. Just a couple loose bolts/clamps and a couple of pinhole leaks in the manifold.

Stock manifold is back on and I just got the injectors swapped. Now I just gotta get the uim back together. Then the air pump and stock air box and finally the stock exhaust.

This has been fun, but laying here with my back screaming.... I think I'm done doing big projects on cars for a couple years. My vette is gonna stay mostly stock.........for a while

Mawnee

Bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch. Whatever mother bitch thought it was a good idea to have the injectors uner have the damn engine needs his ***** sawed off with a spork!!!

I had to take it apart because it was leaking fuel. Found a pinched o-ring, replaced it. Back together and the ****** is still pissing all over my garage.

GGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR