What can I add to our 2008.5 Mazda 3 s Touring - like a Mazdaspeed turbo charger or K & N air intakes to enhance the performance and HP?

Are there any 'easy" upgrades

 

Easy upgrades? No, none that will give you any measurable performance (hint: a K&N won't do squat for performance or mileage)

A turbo can significantly increase the output of your engine, however, it's A) expensive, B) not such an "easy upgrade" to perform, and C) will toast your automatic transmission in short order (assuming your car is so equipped) if you boost the engine by more than a few pounds.

 

shipo: Never thought about toasting the tranny.....excellent point. It is not geared to a Turbo boost. it is an auto tranny. The K & N air intake / filter systems don't add anything? I read somewhere and on their web sites that 15-25 horse power increases?

 

There is little chance of a K&N adding even 1 HP over a clean OEM filter, and even then that added power would only come at redline at wide open throttle. The fact is, OEM intakes are pretty good these days at being matched to the engine they service.

 

The Hypertech is really easy to install.

 

I've looked into the Hypertech reprogram a bit and as far as I can tell, it's worth no more than 2.5 hp and 2.3 lpft of torque. With that increase comes a potentially dangerous (for the engine) leaning of the mixture toward stoichiometric. No thanks, I'll stick with the factory setup.

 

Stoichiometric or Theoretical Combustion is the ideal combustion process where fuel is burned completely. With unburned components in the exhaust gas, such as C, H2, CO, the combustion process is uncompleted and not stoichiometric.

You are worried that it would make your car more efficient?

I’ve not dyno’d my car or had it at the track. I wanted to this year but due to being laid off I didn’t have the money to spend on that. But I can tell you that there is a significant difference. It is fairly easy to spin the tires in first where it wouldn’t do it before. The easiest way to describe it is the feeling of your stock car with and without the a/c on. As far as harm to the engine, if it caused pinging or other issues the computer would alter your advance and it would also throw a code. I’ve had it on for over a year now in the mid tune (for regular gas) and have had no issues.

 

It doesn't work that way. Under any significant load at all a mixture at or near stoichiometric (on the slightly rich side) will detonate and cause significant damage to the engine. Fact of life. That said, if one could develop computer control sensitive enough and fast enough, running on the lean side of stoichiometric is both very safe and very efficient. Unfortunately the difference between smooth running on the lean side and not running at all (i.e. not a dense enough mixture to allow the flame front to propagate) is so razor edge as to not be viable in the dynamic environment of a road based vehicle.

I seriously doubt there is any measureable difference in the output of your engine at all; what you claim just isn't possible.

 

Uh, ok. If you say so.

In any case, Almatti, the Hypertech will make a difference in the performance of your car. You also will not notice a difference in mpg if you are driving the same. I noticed a bigger difference when I changed tires.

 

Unless the Hypertech somehow manages to increase volumetric efficiency (i.e. packing more air and fuel into each cylinder) then there cannot possibly be any performance increase as dramatic as you suggest. True if the Hypertech advances the timing a tad (and you compensate with higher AKI fuel) then it is possible to eek out a few more horse power; but beyond that, it is scientifically and physically impossible for a chip alone to generate meaningful increases when applied to a normally aspirated engine.

Background: There are decades and decades of research available both freely and for pay on the internet that discuss air to fuel ratios vis-à-vis power output. Consider the following:

• Gasoline engines (with the possible of the "Direct Injection" engines built by Audi and now coming into vogue in development labs around the world) are throttled by air.
• Said another way, the ONLY way to get a meaningful increase in power is to pack the cylinders with more air.
• When running under any significant load, virtually all gasoline engines run on the rich side of stoichiometric.
• With the above given (i.e. a rich mixture), the power curve is virtually flat from stoichiometric all of the way to really rich (i.e. rich enough to wash oil from the piston rings and damage the engine). For a great graphical representation of this point, see the middle set of plots on this chart: http://www.gami.com/img/gamijectors/...nderstandg.gif

To understand the above, let's first look at why running at stoichiometric is dangerous for your engine.

• When the air to fuel ratio is at or very near stoichiometric (on either side), the flame front accelerates across the combustion chamber very quickly, and this in turn causes pressures and temperatures to effectively run-away.
• When studying combustion science as it applied to piston gasoline engines, there is one extremely important metric to consider; how many degrees after TDC does the Pressure and Temperature reach their respective points.
• These points are typically very close together; close enough for this discussion to be considered the same. As a general rule, most engine designers target about 20 degrees ATDC for the Peak Pressure Point (PPP) and Peak Temperature Point (PTP). Why? That is the beginning of where the piston/rod assembly has the greatest mechanical advantage over the crank.
• If the flame front moves too rapidly, the PPP/PTP occur too early and two things almost always happen, 1) mechanical advantage is lost, and 2) detonation occurs in small (or not so small) pockets of end gas.

Assuming we're dealing with an engine with proper timing and the air to fuel mixture is what is in play here, how do we control the speed of the flame front? Simple, if there is an abundance of either air or fuel, the extra molecules of either gas (on the rich side) or air (on the lean side) will slow the flame front; and adding even more will slow it even further, eventually reaching the point (on either side) when the flame front becomes unsustainable.

So, long story short, leaning out the air fuel mixture will not generate any more power, but it may well cause a condition where engine damage becomes possible.