[Blk16SS]

As me and AndyUK sat across the table and yelled at each other, he really had me thinking what really is the BEST mods in a specific order. For me personally, my mods are meaningless so far (drop in filter, rear cat delete and crush delete). These have yielded ZERO in the performance category box . I can even claim that the car is a bit slower. Right now by me being self employed, it's tax time and I always owe so I can't just run out and buy a blower or drop my car off to my boys with a blank check and tell them to make it fast.. Around March, after the blood dries up, I may be able to splurge on a few things.. I've ordered a Hooker mid pipe that's yet to hit my door step . I would love to get this sometime before I pay this car off (Hooker/Holley's customer service stinks). I'm not the one to bash anyone company or person but God help me. I really don't see how they sell one part (and I hope one of their reps reads this). .. Back on the topic:
Here's a list of mods (and the costs that I'm aware of) that I put at the top of the list trending downward... I'm inviting AndyUK, PRAY, Oldman, Tim, Ted over at JANNETTYRACING for their knowledge and experience... Anyone else willing to share their experiences is welcome at the round table as well...
Oh yeah one more thing, all dyno #s that are posted by me are at the pavement...

1) Tune - $500-$600 , 5-15hp
2) EFI Tuning Ported TB/Intake - $575, 5-15hp
3) CAI or ROTO-FAB CAI kit - $350-$450, 5-15hp
4) CA Performance Test Pipes - $400, 5-10hp
5) E85 Conversion (installed and tuned)- $1000- $1200, 15-30hp
6) MSD Atomic Intake - $1100 - 10-20hp
7) LT Headers w/mid pipe- $1000- $2000, 15-25hp
8) LT Header exhaust system- $2000-$3000, 15-30hp
9) Nitrous Outlet NOS sys (installed and tuned)- $1500-$2500, 75-150hp
10) CEN Blower (installed and tuned)- $7500- $8000, 150hp
11) PD Blower (installed and tuned)- $7000- $9500, 150-200hp
12) Cam swap (parts and labor+tune)- $3000-$4000, 30-60hp
13) Cam swap w/ported heads- $4500-$5500, 100+hp
14) Weld Wheels RTS Wheel and DR set- $4500, 0hp but it will make it quicker...
15) Turbo (no thanks)
This is my list in its respective order... Feel free to dive in...

[moonrider]

Originally Posted by Blk16SS

As me and AndyUK sat across the table and yelled at each other, he really had me thinking what really is the BEST mods in a specific order. For me personally, my mods are meaningless so far (drop in filter, rear cat delete and crush delete). These have yielded ZERO in the performance category box . I can even claim that the car is a bit slower. Right now by me being self employed, it's tax time and I always owe so I can't just run out and buy a blower or drop my car off to my boys with a blank check and tell them to make it fast.. Around March, after the blood dries up, I may be able to splurge on a few things.. I've ordered a Hooker mid pipe that's yet to hit my door step . I would love to get this sometime before I pay this car off (Hooker/Holley's customer service stinks). I'm not the one to bash anyone company or person but God help me. I really don't see how they sell one part (and I hope one of their reps reads this). .. Back on the topic:
Here's a list of mods (and the costs that I'm aware of) that I put at the top of the list trending downward... I'm inviting AndyUK, PRAY, Oldman, Tim, Ted over at JANNETTYRACING for their knowledge and experience... Anyone else willing to share their experiences is welcome at the round table as well...
Oh yeah one more thing, all dyno #s that are posted by me are at the pavement...

1) Tune - $500-$600 , 5-15hp
2) EFI Tuning Ported TB/Intake - $575, 5-15hp
3) CAI or ROTO-FAB CAI kit - $350-$450, 5-15hp
4) CA Performance Test Pipes - $400, 5-10hp
5) E85 Conversion (installed and tuned)- $1000- $1200, 15-30hp
6) MSD Atomic Intake - $1100 - 10-20hp
7) LT Headers w/mid pipe- $1000- $2000, 15-25hp
8) LT Header exhaust system- $2000-$3000, 15-30hp
9) Nitrous Outlet NOS sys (installed and tuned)- $1500-$2500, 75-150hp
10) CEN Blower (installed and tuned)- $7500- $8000, 150hp
11) PD Blower (installed and tuned)- $7000- $9500, 150-200hp
12) Cam swap (parts and labor+tune)- $3000-$4000, 30-60hp
13) Cam swap w/ported heads- $4500-$5500, 100+hp
14) Weld Wheels RTS Wheel and DR set- $4500, 0hp but it will make it quicker...
15) Turbo (no thanks)
This is my list in its respective order... Feel free to dive in...

How is the E85 convo kit no. 5 and why would it cost $1000 or $1200 when the kit is around $350 and tune is like $500 or so.

[Blk16SS]

Great question... It kinda hits #5 on my list based around what guys normally do performance wise..A CAI kit and tune is what the average Joe tends to lean towards initially ... It could easily be as high as #3 do to its growing popularity. As far as the pricing, the tune is abit more than 500. Shops in this area charge around 700. It is abit more time consuming than your average tune. I can't speak for anywhere else. Then there's parts + install. Installing it yourself would fall below the 1000 mark....

[oldman]

14) Weld Wheels RTS Wheel and DR set- $4500, 0hp but it will make it quicker...

with FBO these cars are traction limited to say 70 MPH.. so at some point this is the ONLY mod that increase performance....

[MuhThugga]

You can't treat modifications as standalone items that don't interact with one another. You have to look at the entire build and select parts that are going to work with one another. You can just generically say a cam swap is going to yield 30-60 HP because it doesn't take into account any other feature of the engine, or the chassis in general. It also doesn't look at any number under the peak curve, or where that curve is going to lie in the RPM band.

[oldman]

in general the mod alone will can do at best the bottom figure and with supporting mods and tune you would be looking at the top of the figure.

[AndyUK]

No shouting here mate, just a bit of banter.

I am going to be doing;

Ported intake and throttle
Flex sensor
Efi tuning 93 + flex tune
Hp tuners device
Kn drop in filter

All in its looking like $1600 plus self fitting, for a good 50hp... that screams bang for buck to me

Cai I am on the fence about - with a KN showing at least a few hp gain I am having a tough time convincing myself that an extra $400 is worth low single digit gains

Longer term I am considering an ECS centri SC so I am also loathe to do too much that will not contribute to that. I wouldnt be able to run E85 for example.

I am going to be doing some minor exhaust mods like swapping the rear mufflers, but this is for sound, not expectation of power.

Longtubes for me would be plus shipping and plus fitting and I'm not even sure on the legality (definitely couldnt go catless), so the benefit to cost ratio is too poor for me to consider.

If i dont go FI then the other option would be ported heads and cam, but I would need to be sure on fuelling before i commit.

[oldman]

Originally Posted by AndyUK

No shouting here mate, just a bit of banter.

I am going to be doing;

Ported intake and throttle
Flex sensor
Efi tuning 93 + fles tune
Hp tuners device
Kn drop in filter

Cai I am on the fence about - with a KN showing at least a few hp gain I am having a tough time convincing myself that an extra $400 is worth low single digit gains..

Sounds like a great bang for the $$. I did the green filter vs KN. I tried two of the 4 CAI on the market. I cut a slot in the stock box also.

Originally Posted by AndyUK

Longer term I am considering an ECS centri SC so I am also loathe to do too much that will not contribute to that. I wouldnt be able to run E85 for example.

I am going to be doing some minor exhaust mods like swapping the rear mufflers, but this is for sound, not expectation of power.

Longtubes for me would be plus shipping and plus fitting and I'm not even sure on the legality (definitely couldnt go catless), so the benefit to cost ratio is too poor for me to consider.

If i dont go FI then the other option would be ported heads and cam, but I would need to be sure on fuelling before i commit.

If I were to do FI, I would do the front cat deletes and weld in O2 bungs behind the back cats, theoretically that should work.

[EFI Tuning]

Originally Posted by oldman

Sounds like a great bang for the $$. I did the green filter vs KN. I tried two of the 4 CAI on the market. I cut a slot in the stock box also.



If I were to do FI, I would do the front cat deletes and weld in O2 bungs behind the back cats, theoretically that should work.

There are bungs in the front cat deletes for a wideband.

Tim

[oldman]

I meant the bungs for the rear 02 so they would actually "work" for smog.

[EFI Tuning]

Got it!

[Ecchi667]

Originally Posted by oldman

Sounds like a great bang for the $$. I did the green filter vs KN. I tried two of the 4 CAI on the market. I cut a slot in the stock box also.

If I were to do FI, I would do the front cat deletes and weld in O2 bungs behind the back cats, theoretically that should work.

There are all sorts of restrictions in the UK, unfortunately. It's pretty much the same as California. You have something called an MOT every year, and it goes over the car pretty thoroughly. If you fail that you can't get tax on your car. You need a tax disc (lasts six months or one year), an MOT certificate, and insurance in order to be able to drive. New cars get a three year grace period if I remember correctly, although I don't know if Imports have a different rule. You may be able to lose the cats for three years of fun and then put them back on for testing, I guess. Certainly for my GSX-R750 I used to just swap the exhaust for the test. Not entirely legal, though, I'm sure. Mind you, it's technically a federal offence here in the US, but I've not known of anybody having issues from it.

Another negative is you need to claim all modifications to the insurance company, and they'll charge you more for having a modified vehicle. The most ridiculous example I have of that was adding an atmospheric blow-off valve (generally called a dump valve in the UK) to my s13 and having to pay an extra premium of $75 for it. Bonkers! But, if you don't claim your mods, you could have your insurance denied if you need to make a claim.

Living in South Carolina now is an absolute dream for me! Cheap gas, cars as fast as you want without an extra premium (unless you want to insure the actual parts in case they need replacing, of course), and guns, guns, guns!