mx5cartalk.com

Hi guys,

I've been advised by my mechanic that, when I fit the CAI (Some Euro Brand) they recommend, and a Fujitsubo Catback exhaust midpipe and muffler, and some no name high flow headers I will see a 30% increase in power atleast, so my NB8B will effectively go from 113KW to 147KW. Now this guy seems nice and I get my girlfriends NA serviced there aswell, but I can't help thinking that 30% sounds a little optomistic. He services plenty of 5's.

What do you guys think?

matt9111 wrote:What do you guys think?

I think he's.........being economical with the physics and you'll be disappointed.

I'm not sure if it is possible but others here who have done similar things should be able to put some light on the power increase.

I recommend before and after dyno runs to stop the BS.

Make sure you talk about power at the wheels and none of this "at the engine" nonsense.

JBT wrote:

matt9111 wrote:What do you guys think?

I think he's.........being economical with the physics and you'll be disappointed.

agreed. he must be quite an optimistic guy, and particularly generous with his figures.

i would be very, VERY surprised if you even get more than 10kwrw increase.

you'd probably be looking at another ECU as well.

the best i've seen on an nb8b is probably jolt's one, clocking up about 98kwrw.. and that's been worked with top notch jdm parts..

Yeah, that's what I was thinking aswell.

He said he's never had a complaint about the power increase.

Do you guys know of any dyno places around the Northern Melbourne Suburbs area, like Eltham, Mitcham, Ringwood areas?

Fujitsubo's a good brand though isn't it?

I want before and after results, to show him my "30% increase".

try a 3% increase (at best)
140 kw is turbo territory

%30 is a lot without an ECU or without replacing something very restrictive. Worse than standard restrictive on an NB8B.... you can get some pretty good gains with an ECU and retuning the Variable intake cam though...will depend on your tuner.

I've got an NB8A, and with exhaust/headers and mania CAI, I managed to make 92.6 RWKW, which is roughly a 15-20kw increase over standard (so there are some decent gains to be had). However, the mechanic is essentially saying that once the exhaust/headers/cai are fitted, your car will make only 10kw less than an SP!

I don't think so...

Yeah fair point, it'd be nice though, lol

Is there any way to hit around 130-140rwkw without FI?

it seems your talking about at the engine while everyone else is talking about at the wheels.

I'd give him a margin of error and draw up a contract.

Ssay that if an independent dyno can't show a 25% or higher improvement then you get all the parts and labour free.

See if he'll put his money where his mouth is.

Hahaha, fair point. I like the guy though, I want to get alot of my work done through him, good bloke, I think he's just a little optomistic.

individual throttle bodies with stand alone ECU, some headwork as well as your headers & exhaust as well as some cams thrown in might get you around the 110-120 mark. and that might be debatable....

I think Warwick's BP powered race NA was on 180+ rwhp which is between that 130-140rwkw mark (I'm going to assume from now on that we all taking 'at the wheels' power).

So that had high compression pistons, ITBs, ECU, headers and complete exhaust and intake upgrades. I can not remember if he had cams as well but the fact that the bottom end was touched means a difference in the dollars spent (at the time it was done in Japan).

The more I think about it, the 30% increase suggested by the OP's mechanic seems too far fetched ... unless he was talking about power at the engine which is a whole different COW and unless it will be put on a engine dyno, is almost impossible to determine accurately IMHO.

Cheers for that, whats an ITB?

I'm going to hunt around for a dyno in my area, and get a before and after to accurately determine how much I actually pick up.

Anyone know of a dyno in northern suburbs of melbourne?

Cheers