shinka/10ae

Hey guys,

My first time posting here but I am familiar with forums in general. I know that it is better to search then post rather than just posting a question which could have been answered a million times already. However, bear with me as I try and get through this in as short a time as possible.

in October of 2006 I bought a 2005 Shinka Edition RX-8 but chose not to trade in my 88 Tenth Anniversary RX-7. I still have it but it only gets driven once every month or so. It has approximately 50,000 on the motor and 125,000 on the frame and, aside from minor rust in the rear quarters and a dent in the passenger side fender, it is in pretty good shape. It just sits in a car park and gets washed about once a month when I drive it.

I put a full exhaust from racing beat on it a couple of months after the new motor went in it. I would say that it has maybe 30-35k miles on the engine since we replaced the converters which were rusted through. At the time that we put the exhaust on, we asked racing beat if we were going to damage the engine by allowing the turbo to boost more without a boost controller and they said that it wasn't boosting enough to be a concern. At the time I took it to heart and did not think about it again until recently. I have been reading on here that it is dangerous to increase the boost without compensating with upgrades to the fuel injection system and I am wondering if I did serious damage to my engine. I am not the type that drives the car very hard at all times, but I do get into it every now and then. I just want you guys to know that my intentions are not to mod my car to the extreme. I am happy with the performace increase that the full exhaust and fuel cut defenser. I love the car as it is right now, but I want to make sure that I am not doing any damage to it.

I checked the compression a couple of months before I bought the new car and it was fine (I don't remember exactly what it was, but I do remember it being within whatever the spec was at the time that I checked it).

My questions are this:

1) if the compression was fine towards the end of its regular driving life, is the engine ok so long as I get the proper modifications done before I drive it again?

2) If I have done damage, what are my options next? what would you reccomend as my next step?

It is also in need of a new clutch. I have searched and searched about clutches on here but there is so much to read that it's hard to get a handle on what I should do. From what I read, I believe that my best course of action would be to replace the clutch with a stock set-up. I am not planning on doing any other straight-line performance modifications other than the exhaust and the fuel system and I understand that the stock clutch is pretty good for that.

My question about the clutch is this: Is there an aftermarket clutch that would be an upgrade over the stock clutch for the set-up that I have without being overkill?

I have also thought of buying the lightweight flywheel from racing beat as well but I understand that, in addition to making the engine rev faster and easier, it makes a significant difference in drivability on the street.

Clutch and flywheel aside, I am more concerned with getting the car to a point where I can have fun driving it without doing any damage/further damage to it by not having the proper modifications.

So sorry about the length of the post guys. Thanks so much for your patience and any help that you can offer.

Tim

p.s. if there is a search that I could do to get these answers myself I am all ears. Or if there is a part of this website, or another website in general which has the answers please direct me there. Thanks again!

drugblock12a

iTrader: (7)

1.Check the compression again....no harm in doing that. As long as it's decent do what you want.

2.What damage might you be talking about? I used to have a T2 with a FCD and the info I got was 12psi was the max you would want to take the stock fuel system and turbo without doing any damage.

A decent street/strip clutch will do the trick for you. I think I have the stage 2 or 2+ Spec clutch and it grabs well over stock but still drives great on the street too.

I'm not a big fan of swaping flywheels if you're not doing something drastic. Remember with most aftermarket flywheels you have to add a counterwheight to it. So you have to add both weights together. The stock flywheel has that weight built into it.

Hope that helps.