I have a 2008 mazda 3 gt and i would like to build it to its greatest potential i have a cold air intake a chip and a choice needs to be made turbo or super charger so can someone let me know what would be the way to go and what should also be bought to beef up the brakes and suspension . i will not build it and go the cheap way i want to do things right and also keep the car safe ...thanks for any help and advice beacuse i love my mazda too much to cheap out or to think i know more than i do lol!!!!zoom zoom

 

From a performance perspective, when it comes to Supercharger versus Turbocharger (aka. Turbosupercharger), with the exception of off-the-line acceleration, a Turbocharger is always (and I do mean ALWAYS) better than a Supercharger.

 

A chip? What chip do you have?

OK. I am unaware of any supercharger made for the 2.3L Mazda MZR engine. The current turbo "kit" of choice would be the Tri-Point Engineering setup.
My "opinion" would be to go turbo if there even is a supercharging option available. supers are great for cars that already have gobs of torque, traditionally V8's and diesel engines, but not so much with 4cyls cars. You will lose too much low end torque due to the power toll (friction/drag) the super is always taking away from it.

Several questions for you, as I don't remember all the details about your car:
1) What year, body style and trim level do you have?
2) Is it a 5-speed manual or an automatic?
3) What have you done, or do you plan to do (brakes, suspension, engine internals, larger axles, different transmission, etc) in support of all this extra power?
4) Are you prepared for a less reliable car?
5) Do you have +/-$10,000 to commit to this car and this car alone?

 

To answer your first question its a g force performance chip as for the rest of the questions its a 08 grand touring 4 door and as unfortunate as it may be it is a automatic .I have only done the chip and the weapon r intake as i am just starting as far as having the cash to go the right way yes i do but is putting 10k in a car thats worth 15k if that is a real great idea i say yep its a great idea lol ...I would like to do work on the brakes and the suspension but i dont want to lower the car to much like i said i want to do things the right way but would also like not having to put money in the thing every week when im done with the build ya know so if it take 8 k to 10k so be it !!!! as for the super charger i was shown one on line but i was under the impression that they would not have made one for a 2.3 litre 4 banger i will look it up and send the link if i remember correct it was advertising 125 bhp bolt on ...sounds too good to be true huh....thank you for the repl

 

What do you think about the t25 bb extreme turbo kit it seems to priced fair about 2,400 dollars but what the hell do i know. thanks for the reply

 

Putting the kind of money you're talking about into a Mazda3 is, well, a very bad idea from many different perspectives, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Reliability: No if-ands-or-buts about it, your reliability will suffer.
• Resale: Not only will you never get the money you put in to your mods back out, you will destroy the resale value of your car as well.
• Liability #1: Should you get into an accident, there is precedent for insurance companies to deny claims due to the modifications.
• Liability #2: Should you get into an accident and someone gets hurt, there is precedent for them to sue you on the grounds that you altered your vehicle and made it unsafe. If this happens in conjunction with the item above, you could be ruined financially.

From my perspective, it would be less expensive and much smarter to sell your current ride, take the proceeds of that sale and add them to what you were going to spend on the mods and buy a car that came from the factory with the performance you are looking for. I'm thinking a MazdaSpeed3 would be the most logical place to start looking. Another option would be to look at something like a five or six year old BMW 540i/545i/550i. If you chose "swap-a-car" route, not only will you will end up with a good performing vehicle that will most likely be significantly more reliable than a modded Mazda3, it will retain far-far more of its acquisition price compared to dumping a bunch of cash on your car.

 

From a practical perspective, that is hard logic to argue with. But we don't mod our cars to be practical. We do it to learn about them and have fun doing it. Plus it's something you built yourself.
I'm not disagreeing w/shipo's POV, just playing devil's advocate, from a modders POV.

That "chip" you have sounds like snake oil. In spite of what they say, it appears to be the same kind of scam those "resister chip" people sell on eBay. There is no way pugging something into the IAT is going to "reprogram" the ECU.

Apart from that, modded (turboed) autos have been tried and failed, but not all the news is bad here.
The stock auto seems to be good for about +/-200hp. IF the clutch packs could be enhanced, an enhanced valve body and pump, a stronger torque converter installed as well as a bigger oil cooler, you might get away with more. Otherwise, those that have tried it have had to stay in the 5psi range in order not to blow up the tranny, and that would simply not be worth it.

I am not familiar with the turbo kit you speak of, but it sounds awfully cheap. Something has got to be wrong there.

A partial list of what would be required to turbo your car would be: A tunable standalone ECU; a full exhaust system including the exhaust manifold; an air exchanger (TMIC/FMIC- air-to-air, or air-to-water) and related tubing; a new intake and filter; injectors big enough to handle the extra capacity; engine/ECU wiring harness; and obviously the turbo itself. And to be fair about it, I probably missed a few things.
Does this kit include all of these things, or are you liable to have to buy and/or modify more beyond the cost of the kit itself?

 

Save your money, learn how to drive stick, buy an MS3. End.

 

Well said, I couldn't agree more.

 

No offence taken Richard, I was doing a little Devil's Advocate thing myself.