Beginning to mod my cx7

[Goscx7]

Hey guys. I'm gonna go all out on my cx7 and to a proper build. Bit for the first one or two years I wont be touching the internals. Also where I live we have no dyno and only regular fuel, we can get high octane fuel by the barrels for real expensive. So I can only get it for racing. So yeah. I wanna start off small than go on to bigger mods. Where do I start from? Whay do you guys recommend? I wanna start off with a cobb downpipe and intake, egr and boost cutoff delete, get a new bov, and an electronic boost controller. And also I'm a boon at cars altogether. Always wanted to mod but now I got the chance. So any help and advice will be appreciated

[torquemaniac]

If you are serious about modding, you have to planify the build otherwise you will waste a lot of money

You will not get very far with the stock K04 turbo (even the Mazdaspeed3 K014 is a waste of time in my opinion)...I suggest you dont buy stuff that will only work with the stock K04, otherwise all that stuff will go in the garbage when you go with a better turbo

Best place to start is with the Versatuner tuning software...even with no mods, the software will give you some decent gain

After that, start reading and doing some research to find the kind of setup you want...

A lot can be done on this platform, it just take some ca$h and time

[Tomas]

Are you really in Fiji? Like in the motherfucking Blue Lagoon?

[Goscx7]

Originally Posted by torquemaniac If you are serious about modding, you have to planify the build otherwise you will waste a lot of money You will not get very far with the stock K04 turbo (even the Mazdaspeed3 K014 is a waste of time in my opinion)...I suggest you dont buy stuff that will only work with the stock K04, otherwise all that stuff will go in the garbage when you go with a better turbo Best place to start is with the Versatuner tuning software...even with no mods, the software will give you some decent gain After that, start reading and doing some research to find the kind of setup you want... A lot can be done on this platform, it just take some ca$h and time

I'm dead serious about modding my cx7 man, wanna be the fastest SUV in the quarter mile here. and the fastest time here is mid 14s. but i'd like to tap into the mid 15s first. I want to make the most out of what i spend. and i'd some advice from pros. I am planning to get versa tuner, but can you also recommend other mods which will work even if i do a turbo upgrade?

Originally Posted by Tomas Are you really in Fiji? Like in the motherfucking Blue Lagoon?

Yes brother i reside in the Fiji Islands. own 1 of only 2 CX7s in fiji, and there is only one other Mazdaspeed 3 here. so no support for modding here, but i love the engine too much to give up and go mod a more common Forester.

[Tomas]

Fuck bra there are more remote places but not many.
Welcome.
Been to Nadi once.
And some island hotel called Beach Cumber or something like that. Was backpacking. Unfortunately was not impressed. Sort of a tourist trap. That shit was over 20 years ago. Fuck I am old.

[Ozynigma]

Originally Posted by Goscx7 Hey guys. I'm gonna go all out on my cx7 and to a proper build. Bit for the first one or two years I wont be touching the internals. Also where I live we have no dyno and only regular fuel, we can get high octane fuel by the barrels for real expensive. So I can only get it for racing. So yeah. I wanna start off small than go on to bigger mods. Where do I start from? Whay do you guys recommend? I wanna start off with a cobb downpipe and intake, egr and boost cutoff delete, get a new bov, and an electronic boost controller. And also I'm a boon at cars altogether. Always wanted to mod but now I got the chance. So any help and advice will be appreciated

Hi and welcome.

Between torquemaniac and I you can find out pretty much all you need to know about CX7's. We both have build threads on this forum that you should read.

You need to run a minimum of 95RON or I think E10 fuel (around 94RON) here in the southern hemisphere. So what fuel can you buy from the pump?

The cheapest way to up your octane might be to add methanol either in the fuel tank (there is a whole thread on that here) or with methanol (or water/methanol) injection. I can get 20 litres of methanol for $50AU and I haven't even used my first 20 litres in about a year of driving with WMI.

You should figure out how far you want to go before you start. There are some easy drop in and bolt up options to replace the K04 and keep your stock exhaust manifold and Mazda flanges for the turbo and downpipe. However if you are going bigger than that you can just go straight to a V band manifold, downpipe and turbo.

There is not much point upgrading the intake unless you go a bigger than stock diameter like 3" or 3.5".

There is nothing much to be gained replacing the stock BOV at this point unless you want more noise by venting to atmosphere (needs to be tuned for with Versatune).

You can't mess with the boost control, its all done by the ECU. If you go a bigger turbo you can get a 3 port EBCS to replace the stock 2 port. Again it needs to be tuned for.

Oh yeah and you need the HPFP (High Pressure Fuel Pump) internals upgrade before you do much of anything else.

[Goscx7]

Originally Posted by Ozynigma Hi and welcome. Between torquemaniac and I you can find out pretty much all you need to know about CX7's. We both have build threads on this forum that you should read. You need to run a minimum of 95RON or I think E10 fuel (around 94RON) here in the southern hemisphere. So what fuel can you buy from the pump? The cheapest way to up your octane might be to add methanol either in the fuel tank (there is a whole thread on that here) or with methanol (or water/methanol) injection. I can get 20 litres of methanol for $50AU and I haven't even used my first 20 litres in about a year of driving with WMI. You should figure out how far you want to go before you start. There are some easy drop in and bolt up options to replace the K04 and keep your stock exhaust manifold and Mazda flanges for the turbo and downpipe. However if you are going bigger than that you can just go straight to a V band manifold, downpipe and turbo. There is not much point upgrading the intake unless you go a bigger than stock diameter like 3" or 3.5". There is nothing much to be gained replacing the stock BOV at this point unless you want more noise by venting to atmosphere (needs to be tuned for with Versatune). You can't mess with the boost control, its all done by the ECU. If you go a bigger turbo you can get a 3 port EBCS to replace the stock 2 port. Again it needs to be tuned for. Oh yeah and you need the HPFP (High Pressure Fuel Pump) internals upgrade before you do much of anything else.

So I should just forget about everything else for the moment and just get me a versatuner right? Just so that I atleast get access to my management system, because with all the ecu controlled sizzle in my csr it'LL need to be tuned

Originally Posted by Goscx7 So I should just forget about everything else for the moment and just get me a versatuner right? Just so that I atleast get access to my management system, because with all the ecu controlled sizzle in my csr it'LL need to be tuned

Oh and here in fiji we only get 91 octane here. No other

[Ozynigma]

Originally Posted by Goscx7 So I should just forget about everything else for the moment and just get me a versatuner right? Just so that I atleast get access to my management system, because with all the ecu controlled sizzle in my csr it'LL need to be tuned Oh and here in fiji we only get 91 octane here. No other

Versatune is a very good start. It will let you get the most out of your existing turbo.

You will be very limited with tuning if you can only buy 91 octane fuel. i can't imagine your motor is too happy with 91 octane fuel and tropical weather.

Do you have a sticker on your car fuel cap telling you what fuels to use? In Australia it says minimum 95RON.

[cardoc4u]

Use water injection

[Dropen]

I will start my tunne too in my CX-7 2008, i will buy versatuner this month with the group code discount and see whats happen with it =)

I will start with the intake first, i have installed one now but is not easy to access to the filter (is in front of the front wheel) and i dont know his dust status becase is hard to see it.
For intake i have 2 options:
1-. JBR Power Path Stage II Short Ram Intake [MS-PPI-S2] - $250.00 : James Barone Racing, Aftermarket Performance
2-. https://corksport.com/corksport-stag...e-for-cx7.html

In my country is 0 provability that E85 arrives (I've been listening since 2010 that would be available in the gas stations and nothing) so i dont know if i should to upgrade the HPFP yet, because my turbo works fine, so i dont need to change it... for now...

I really dont want it for speed, i want to spend less money in gas. Here we have 93, 95 and 97 Octane, i suppose that i have to use it with 97oct, but... hell is expensive (like 1,2USD/lt) so i use 95 (like 1USD/lt), i tryed to use it with 93 but the car doesnt feel right and i dont want to mess the internals.

[torquemaniac]

I run 91 octane all the time in my car with no problem (even beforte I injected meth)...the max power of the engine will be limited though (versus with 93 or more octane)

The absolute basic mods are : Versatuner with the HPFP internals upgrade

Link to the HPFP internals upgrade : Autotech FSI High Pressure Fuel Pump Upgrade Kit

[Ozynigma]

Originally Posted by torquemaniac I run 91 octane all the time in my car with no problem (even beforte I injected meth)...the max power of the engine will be limited though (versus with 93 or more octane) The absolute basic mods are : Versatuner with the HPFP internals upgrade Link to the HPFP internals upgrade : Autotech FSI High Pressure Fuel Pump Upgrade Kit

MON or RON? We use RON in Australia which has a higher number for the same knock resistance.

Same question for OP. You need to be sure your local fuel is up to the octane rating specified by Mazda for your model.

[torquemaniac]

Originally Posted by Ozynigma MON or RON? We use RON in Australia which has a higher number for the same knock resistance. Same question for OP. You need to be sure your local fuel is up to the octane rating specified by Mazda for your model.

I have no idea if its RON or MON...its not specified

[Goscx7]

Guys here in Fiji we use 91 octane to Australian standards. Like our 91 is America's 89(I guess)

[frothy]

Originally Posted by torquemaniac I have no idea if its RON or MON...its not specified

Canada uses the same AKI (Anti Knock Index) Octane Rating as the U.S., so it uses both RON and MON. The two numbers are added together and then divided by two to get the average.

If you look at the pump, you'll often see "(R+M)/2" listed above or below the octane rating number: