performance parts

[kms1990]

i know the car cannot perform much better even with mods (speed wise) unless you spend more than its worth. but i just wanna perk it up some. will a cold or short ram intake be any noticeable difference or a waste of money? any suggestions on how to make a noticeable difference

i know this is no race or speedster car she handles great though and feel if i could eek out a little more from the engine it would be a little more fun to throw around bends or on an empty freeway ( i dont drive in and out of traffic like many people my age(24 years old), only time i go around people like the "young punks" do is when everyone is going like 55mph in a 65 zone and i wanna go 65 or 70 so i get up and go around them) i know this car will never be faster than my friends new ford focus st but i just want a little more. it handles as good or better than his car and i can keep up with him on windy roads

so any ideas?

 

[The_big_dill]

First off, you can crank enough power out of this car to beat an ST if you were willing to go that far.

A CAI in my opinion, is more of a psychological placebo on power gain. I say so because I got mine for free from the scrap yard and it makes a nice growling sound, but other than that doesn't feel much faster.

The best bang for your buck is turbo charging. It really depends on how much you can spend and how much you can do on your own.

 

[kms1990]

i cannot afford turbocharging i make $9.77 and hour working about 35 hours a week and i am a full time college student living at home, i do not have a grand or more to turbocharge it

 

[The_big_dill]

Anything else that's cheaper will be very limited on the power it gives you. Change your exhaust to a performance one or get a piggy back ECU for tuning. If you have the skill, get a standalone and run a parallel set up, then use your butt dyno to tune.

I don't know what you are expecting us to tell you here if you want power but have no money.

If you want to reduce the cost of performance you need to be able to do it yourself.

 

[kms1990]

i have some but cannot spend thousands upon thousands i just want alittle more pep out of it not looking to stomp other cars

 

[hornsfan10609]

You already know the answer to your question. If you want 'a little more pep' then get the CAI you were asking about. You can get a header and delete the first cat then get a tune or piggyback to make more power but as you already know you aren't going to make more than an extra 15-20hp without some custom cams and other bolt ons.

 

[kms1990]

true just looking for ideas

 

[danielschweer]

as far as bang for the [very little] buck, i'd go with header or MP3 ecu over the intake. all can be had used for around the same price.

 

[zackmac]

I was the same as you. Then, I got sick of piecing together parts that would not give me the output i wanted, power-wise. So, I decided to do a msp turbo. Almost done too can't wait

Here is what I would recommend for you though, staying n/a

1. cai/sri - there is literally no difference here. if you drive in rain a lot and puddles, go with sri. if you want to take the "cooler" air, go cai. dont make my mistake and buy k&n or some other name brand, just go with ebay piping and a k&n cone filter
2. full exhaust. this is reasonably cheap. for example i did an obx header (requires non fouler trick to eliminate CEL), paired with a SLS hi flow catted mid pipe (to pass emissions, you could go straight pipe mid if you dont worry about emissions) and a racing beat catback. there are tons of catback options i will just say this; racing beat is quality made, quality performance. not a fart box or ricey sound. low and deep tone, hear it while your on it, no drone while cruising. do research to mix and match
3. mp3 ecu. this is a no brainer if you want to gain performance. i didn't do this because i decided to go turbo so i got the msp ecu but if i ever go back n/a i will get a mp3 ecu
4. hard motor mounts/short throw shifter. these will not necessarily gain any performance per-say, but let me tell you. on ANY future standard car, the first mod i will do is hands down a short throw shifter. you use it every single day, it's like buying nice grippy handlebars on your bicycle as a kid. TWM makes a good one. the motor mounts will only enhance shifting in making it more 'seamless' AWR makes good ones, plus the oem ones will fail you sooner or later and you might as well replace aftermarket
5. SUSPENSION... this should really be #1 though. SUSPENSION IS WHERE THE PROTEGE FLOURISHES! cheapest route is getting the msp suspension on the p5. racing beat springs, tokico struts, and rb rear sway bar. may need adjustable end links. try 2002 ford escape v6 awd for the front end links. another route which will perform better but be more costly is tokico illumina adjustable struts and your choice of springs. eibach pro kit and tein ss are most popular here. then, you have coilovers. yellowspeed is a nice bang for your buck. bc racing is also good, same with ground control. theres plenty more expensive options here too but unless you autocross i wouldnt invest. there are also larger sway bars such as awr and progress which are a few mm thicker in diameter than the racing beat from a msp.

these five things i would and will recommend countless times to new p5 owners. took me a good year of browsing and being active on the forums to find this out for myself and i think that most people would agree with me

hope this helps sorry for the wall of text, rushed this. gotta take the browns to the super bowl

 

[Fresco]

If you want noticeable power, make a list of what you want as far as parts, save up, once you have everything on that list then install, you won't notice much with a piece here and a piece there, and as already mentioned the best upgrade (n/a power wise) is the MP3 ecu flash/swap, the cheapest mod is the intake which was already mentioned (eBay piping) and a good filter so start there

 

[TURBOJ1]

The BEST bang for the buck you can do is lighten up your car, light weight flywheel, lighter wheels, coilovers, etc.ect...