Speaking from experience, I find the turboII more reliable than the na, plus when your in fifth gear and step on the accelerator the car actually moves faster, unlike the n/a.

I own both and none of which is a *dog*.

 

Eh,

my5Ababy is an expert now.. Read some books, learn some stuff.. whatever..

 

If you say so.

I'll be the first to admit I don't know much. 99% of what I know about RX-7's I've learned from this forum. In my opinion, N/A's tend to be more reliable. That's not saying TII's can't be more reliable...

I just see it as there's more stuff to go wrong on a TII. Because of the turbo, small little things can cause major problems as opposed to an N/A. Any of my vac lines (assuming I had more than 3) come off, no biggie. Nothing's going to blow up. Correct me if I'm wrong (quite possible...), but can't one of the lines pop off on a TII and cause it to overboost?

Would you say TII engine last as long as N/A engines when both are given equal and proper care/maintenance?

 

Yes!

 

Hey if you do those tests on the temp difference between stock and cone you should post!!

also, anone know th best kind of exhaust heat shielding? is it worth it (does it significantly lower temp)?

 

Heat wrap or ceramic coating.

 

A TII due to the added stress of a turbo will never longer IMHO. But if both are maintained Im sure they are within 20K of each other if they do blow up. TII's here on the forum are usually purchased by fanboy ricers who put on a 3.125" exhaust, let it hit boost creep then bitch how they just lost to a Taurus because they lost compression.

But it then again comes to if they are modded, driver style, owner, and just plain how the motor was doing when it came from the factory. Kahren once said he liked NA's because that they DID have less little parts and it was easier to beat on. But like always, it's subjective. Look at JRat's car, stock block and like 399HP and dragged daily (or I swear).

So it comes down to how much your engine loves you. My NA has, my TII didn't (god bless its soul). Because of that, I have more of a bias towards NA. Sure I want a TII again, but I want to be to get one in good shape and fix it the way I want.

Circumstances people, that's what matters.

 

Agreed. Put pretty much how I would, but in more words. Glad somebody isn't lazy.

 

More like 450 wheel, but thats the point. My car was at a drift event the weekend before last, where I beat the crap out of it for 8 hours, then last weekend I was beating it up on the drag strip.

Fact is, that motor has been getting the living **** kicked out of it for the better part of 3 YEARS now. Most of that time the motor has been making over 300 HP.

TII motors are RELIABLE, and they can tolerate abuse as long as they are tuned correctly, and have the proper mods for that HP level. Now, my engine's days are numbered, because you induce more wear as you make big numbers, but if you had an N/A that was making over 400 HP, then you would have the EXACT SAME wear on the motor.

So, you can form your own opinion, but unless you are out there proving people wrong, you are just regurgitating what you read on a forum and really not providing any helpful insight.

rat

 

Ok, we're saying the same thing.

I'm not saying that TII motors AREN'T reliable. All I'm saying is, they put out more HP which induces more stress, thus reducing their lifespan.

An N/A with the same HP will probably have the same lifespan.

I was also referring to reliable as lifespan, not proneness to break. Sorry for the confusion there.

 

Fair enough..

 

Damn misunderstandings. I almost declared a jihad.. YOU GOT LUCKY!

 

Thread Hijackers FTW

 

i believe routing the filter to cold air yielded like 7 more HP over stock, so sounds about right.

 

hey sorry i ment the heat wrap

 

Yay, the theory matches reality. 8HP is the ideal anyway, with the (very well-insulated) cold air box just as cold as the outside air. Now that people know it's available, I wonder if anybody's going to try to grab that last 1HP.


A large N/A getting 400HP is more reliable than a small turbo getting 400HP. I think that's the point: small N/A's don't often get 400HP. That's why current manufacturers are building bigger and higher revving N/A's instead of turbos. Then they use some of the money saved to put performance exhausts on them. That's right: on modern sports cars if you replace the intake, exhaust manifold, cat, exhaust, etc. with the most ridiculously beefy setups imaginable you'll gain about 8HP... total.

We can't get bigger rotaries (not easily, anyway). So here's a better question: which is cheaper in the long run for getting 200HP? N/A or turbo?

I'd say turbo is better for racing, but there was a "beginner" racer in the forums and N/A was the only practical (affordable) option for starting out.

IMO, turbos are better for racing when big money is involved: Eventually you reach the point where it's either big N/A + aluminum & carbon fiber/chromoly/etc. or small turbo + aluminum & steel and then the turbo finally becomes cheaper to buy and maintain. Just a guess.

 

^consider starting a new one, jesus...

anyways. the autocross was great fun and i had my stock intake back on this time.

i was hoping it would be another 100 deg day so the testing was more accurate. nevertheless, i stuck my thermocouple inside the stock box right after the filter. this is after installing a K&N element and adding weatherstripping on the panels that isolate the stock intake snorkel from radiator heat.

air temp: 80 deg f
temperature inside box in grid fully warm: 145 deg f
temperature inside box during runs: 127 deg f

on a day 20 deg cooler (measured 3 feet off the track both days) the stock intake was only 5-10 degrees cooler than the cone filter! that means it was 10-15 degrees hotter! correct me if i'm wrong, but that sucks.

i also noticed slightly less power. however, this was much, much more noticable on the road during mid speed accel, than at the auto-x. this wasn't enough power loss to make or break my time... my shitty tires took care of that just fine

i'm starting to think the box heat soaks like hell and that the air it takes in from the bumper area isn't so minty fresh at lower speeds. this would mean that unless the engine is stone cold and on the highway it's no better than the cone filter.

i will try and measure stock intake again on another 100 deg day... anyways

my next setup to be measured:

-cone filter with heat shielding (some kind of cold air box, haven't decided yet) and reflective tape on the black intake pipe
-FTP lenses removed
-headlights up

i'll be posting pics of the shielding/box too

 

I would definitely do the aftermarket cone and custom box. I'm probably more biased towards that though because I've done a lot of machining and metal work, so it would really be a fun project for me.

 

This is what I did, not such a great idea in rainy areas as the filter is fully exposed but this way it sucks the most air possible and it is all cold air. For even better gains you could wrap the piping with heat wrap or reflective tape.

 

^lol gross! what if you hit a mud puddle?

i was also thinking something along the same lines, but can't find a suitable space to route the filter into that's also big enough.

a more exotic idea i had was to modify the hood and cut/bend louvers right above the filter and have a cold air box there. maybe have a cover i could put on it for wet weather.

 

I dont drive it when its wet out here so :P. I was worried when I put it on that itd suck up a lot of water so I just drive my truck if its excessivly wet out.

 

I had this with my car, for around a week or so, towards the end of summer last year.

I just wanted to see what, if any difference it would make.

Don't laugh.

 

**** you're right! My turbo is robbing all of my power! Im gonna take it off right now!

 

i like that actually. the filter element wouldn't last too long with all the debris hitting on the highway though.

did you move the radiator back some? hard to tell from the pics

momma used to say "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

in this case it goes more like "if it ain't about cooling the intake temps, take it the **** on somewhere else"

i started this thread trying to share info and ideas, but with a page+ of you all's bickering and BS i doubt anyone will get anything out of it.