Keepin it NA, suggestions?

brennan

Member
I see everyone nowadays turboing there cars but I was just wonderin if you could get a descent amount of power without putting a turbo in a car? Comments would be appreciated
 
Well first start with the basic three Intake, Header, and Exhaust. These are a must for all NA cars. You could also buy a high flow cat which can give significant gains especially if you have the other three. You can buy high compression pistons, intake and exhaust cams(all available at Corksport). There are I think three flywheels out on the market(indigo, mazdaspeed, some other one). There is a s*** load of stuff available it all depends on how far you want to go.
 
Real power

Three words: Quad Throttle Body! or is it throttle-body? oh well, i saw some posts on it before and its amazing what that can do for you. Huge power gains, but impossible to find one that would work without going custom, and at that point you might as well go turbo. I would say "Bore and stroke" or do you just bore it? anyway, bore the engine a bit, thats usually a must for NA tuning. If you get anywhere let me know cuase i would love to go NA myself. GL
 
Yeah, I agree. CAI, headers, exhaust, flywheel, pulleys, cams, air fuel controller, ignitions system, clutch, port and polish the head, throttle body, _ angle valve job, etc. However, port and polishing things has bigger benefits when turbo/supercharging (oh yeah, and nitrous too). Not sure about the gains you would get on our car NA though.
If you want to be a good sport you can send your pistons and rods out to a company like JE and have some forged ones made. Just make sure you let us know when so we can get in on the order. ;) ha ha just kidding. (I'm broke anyway) However, forged internals (with high compression pistons in your case), the mods listed above, and a healthy shot of nitrous, you could give a turbo MP3 one hell of a run for its money! If not embarass them. It's all about those forged internals though. We want to keep the pistons INSIDE the car! ;) hehe Then again you wouldn't exactly be Naturally Aspirated.
Like melicha8 said, it all depends on how much you want to spend. Just my $.02 :)
 
hey brennan
waz za..
i see your from the same place as me thats cool man..I havent seen you around but i'm sure i will at the lot this spring/summer.

where did you get your car tinted..got to get mine done as well.
 
If going NA get all forged internals get custom regrinds on your cams from Crower and kill the J-Spec cams, get a stand alone, get a custom individual throttle body, headers, straightpipe and muffler with a high-flo cat, get a CAI, gut your interior, and lay a 150 direct port N2O shot to it and just watch the people be amazed! :D
 
Flywheel Questions

I had some questions about using lightweight flywheels and I was wondering if anyone could answer. I've searched for posts here and there, and here's my rather sketchy understanding:

Lightened flywheels help scavenge horsepower (reduce driveline loss) by lessening the amount of power it takes to spin the lighter flywheel. This is supposed to translate into a quicker revving car, and the appearance of a horsepower increase at the wheels on the dyno. So, theoretically this means faster acceleration.

However, the tradeoff is that at higher speeds there is less inertia (again because of the lighter mass) and so the rev's (and the speed of the car too) drop faster. Am I sort of hitting the mark? Are there any more disadvantages? Would gas consumption increase because you'd have to be gassing more to maintain a certain speed (because of the faster dropping rev's)?

How light would be too light? Stock is 18lbs...would there be disadvantages to going too light?

Furthermore, what would be some realistic power increases for a little car like ours (or some other comparable 2.0 Liter engine)? I don't believe in those 'gain 8 to 20 hp from OUR BRAND OF flywheel' bull that I've seen on many advertisements...sure....on a turbo car or a 5.0 L sure...not on a 140 hp 2.0 L that puts around 115 hp to the wheels last time I dynoed! Can anyone feel the difference?

Now, a little bit more on topic: what lightened flywheels are out there for us right now? I know of Mazdaspeed's (3 lbs lighter than stock), Unorthodox Racing is supposed to be developing one, and? Any others?

As an aside, anyone know if we have any other options for a short shifter other than the B&M? I read from some other post that the stock MP3 knob wouldn't fit on it...

Any help, advice, or info anyone has would be great...:confused:
 
Unfortunely, i don't think I'll be of much help. I think your right on about the advantages, but I also have no clue about the disadvantages. What I do know is a couple more brands that make flywheels for our car.

Fidanza- I believe it's aluminum- don't know where to get it from, ask LinuxRcr. He has it installed.

Indigo- about $440- aluminum- at www.srmotorsports.com- among other places

Tri-point Engineering- about $390- weighs only 7 pounds (aluminum)- www.tripointengineering.com

Not sure about shortshifters either. Hope this helps somewhat. (start a new topic elsehwere and people will be more than happy to help you out.)
 
B&M and Pacesetter both make a short shifter for the Protege but spend the extra few bucks and get the B&M you will be much happier.
 
mp3ben, you were correct on the advanatages of the flywheel. There really aren't that many disadvantages. When people say that the drop in rev's is faster at higher speeds they mean a fall off when decelerating or shifting. you wouldn't have to give any more gas then normal, acutally you'd probably use less of the pedal. The only real-world draw back is that for safety I would highly recomned a scatter shield, which fits on the inside of the firewall between the tranny and the drivers compartment. Sometimes the flywheels because of the lighter weight and materials will come apart and without the scatter shield you may end up like all the old triumph drivers with flywheel parts in their leg. Not to scare you, just a thought.
 
Individual throttle bodies setups do produce some great power for NA applications, but they draw back is that you won't be able to drive the car on a daily basis due to noise and having virtually no filtering capability on the air entering the engine.

As far needing a scatter shield, those aren't really needed unless your putting some serious horsepower through your transmission. I've only seen scatter shields on DRAG cars that are slapping 400-500hp all at the drop of the clutch where the clutch having too much clamping force can blast the gearing in the transmission into pieces and send them flying outward. You can buy a scattershield, but I'd see it as a complete waste of money and time. Just my .02 cents.
 
Thanks for all the info! :D

I guess I'll be on the lookout for a nice flywheel for our cars. I don't want anything under 10-11lbs, as I read somewhere that making it too light isn't practical for daily driver applications (clutch slippage necessary to start and smooth shifting through gears more difficult).

That, maybe a set of pulleys (when some actually come out), and a set of lightweight wheels and carbon hood, and I'm well on my way in the power-scavenging dept. A couple horses here, a couple there...

As for the shifter, if only the B&M would allow the stock MP3 knob to fit on it...I actually like the stock knob...that plus I wanna save the money on a new knob to put towards a custom two-tone grey/black leather interior.

:p
 

New Threads and Articles

Back