Bottom line, I wanna know whats worth it. I've heard lots of different things about many of the kits out there. The most common recommendation I hear is Greddy kit a turbo upgrade. The esmeril racing kit looks really good on paper (roughly 400whp from their big kit), but I've heard some they've had some quality issues.

Next, is porting worth doing on the renesis motors? Before I boost, I plan to drop the car off at my nearest reputable rotary shop to rebuild the engine. They recommend rotary aviation seals, but what about porting? I hear there's hardly a gain on these motors. Maybe with boost, port work is more worth while?

I don't have specific power goals, just making the car as fun and beastly as I can manage. Longevity is also one of my concerns.

 

Worth is subjective. There is no kit that works out of the box and the HP per dollar return is very low. Greddyis workable, Esmeril is ****. Porting gains are basically nothing.

 

From what I've seen (as far as quality and design), I like the stuff turblown offers, but they're a bit on the expensive side compared to their competitors. Any input on this brand? I know there's a lot of info from people that tried various setups, but the boundless info I get from searching just seems like beating around the bush for the info I seek.

 

Where have you looked? There is a reason TURDblown is absent from this forum.

This is the "custom" engine mount kit that my best friend got in his $6000.00+ turbo "kit". Then he got to spend another $1500.00 getting someone to fabricate another one. My other buddy waited a year for his Turdblown kit and then then manifold cracked after very little use.

 

This is some more Turdblown work for a friends FD RX-7. This only a small sample of what I have on my work PC. He received a **** ton of fail and it took him years to get his refund. They sure do post pretty pictures on their site and facebook page though.

 

Oh one more, another friends Turdblown "custom" (hacked up stock engine mount bracket). But hey these were probably just isolated incidents of scumbaggery right?

 

I think someone has a crush on turblown....

 

I'm planning on turbocharging my Rx8 soon and am leaning twoads having a local fabricator I'm build me a turbo manifold and intercooler piping. My car has a street port and is running on a Adaptronic select so I don't have much use for the greddy e-manage thing. As far as the value of the street port goes it was good for a few horsepower NA (especially after some dyno time) and if your already rebuilding the engine it doesn't cost much, as far as I was concerned you might as well port it. 9k, do you see any reason to go with the greddy kit over a custom set up if your already have a standalone capable of running a boosted motor?

 

Also has anyone used the RX8Performance turbo kit? Ive seen some negative things about their motor mounts and such but their turbo manifold and IC piping looks to be competently welded and correct.

 

The main reason I took a liking to turblown was because I like the design of their turbo manifold and turbos they offer. Seemed like high quality and a good design. I haven't seen any actual reviews of their stuff until now.

 

It's a great way to reduce engine durability/life ....

 

No one has posted any real results with that kit and given the vendors history of bad dealings with customers under his current company and under former business names, my opinion is that it would be a huge risk to go that route on such a big ticket item.


The manifolds are below average quality at best, I have seen better quality Ebay turbo manifolds. The turbos they sell you can get elsewhere.

I paid $900.00 to have them rebuild my turbo, machine it and install a billet compressor wheel, modify the CHRA and create custom SS lines for it. after almost two months of being dicked around I got a package from Comp Turbo in California (sent it to Turdblown in Minnesota). They painted the CHRA and installed the billet compressor wheel.

I had to then pay to get the machining done on the CHRA myself and get the lines made. That turbo lasted less than 10,000 miles. I had it completely gone over by Majestic Turbo here in Texas for $400.00 and it has been fine for years.

 

I've always taken RacingBeat for a very serious company, and they claim quite decent gains by porting, even if 25-30Hp might be best case scenario:
http://www.racingbeat.com/manuals/11309dyno.pdf

Are you saying that this is a waste of time and money for NA application as well? Or are you thinking about in a FI application maybe?

 

RB has done little to nothing for the RX-8 platform.

And yes I am saying it is a waste of time for NA and FI. If you look at the Renesis race engines (Star Mazda, old Ultra Lites, etc), none of them are ported and they can make 260-280WHP depending on the application. Look up Darryl Drummond, none of his Renesis engines are ported and my buddies made 268HP on the engine dyno. Now does that mean it will make 268HP in an RX-8 running the OEM ECU, and non race header,etc? No. Lot's of variables.

 

I must say that this was surprising answer to me, how have I missed that during these all these years at rx8club...

Made me a bit curious as well(as usual):
I see that exhaust will make a difference, and maybe intake if you go for a narrower power band(?). And then you have pulleys, pumps, flywheels etc on top of that, that all adds up. But what can an aftermarket ECU do for power, that the stock cannot do(with tuning of course)? After all, ECU does not perform witchcraft, it only utilized the potential that's already there.

 

Well, some people see what they want to see. I have never understood the blind support of RB or the affiliated Mazdatrix. They may have done a lot for the RX-7 world but definitely not for the RX-8 world. I have seen several RB committed guys with everything they offer including the mail in ECU service make near stock HP on the dyno.

They do fabricate nice parts though, the RB Revi has always been a nice exhaust.

 

You will be lucky to make 10 hp on an all out race engine with short seal life ... that comes from the guy who knows the most about the Renesis engine imho ... so factory-ish engine pcm etc. not even that