power gains and opinions wanted

[tweety2300]

Wife says no forced induction she's smart enough to not leave me a loop hole no supercharger nos or turbo till we get it paid off and another car

 

[KrayzieFox]

Boost is the way to go on these cars. The Si was rated at what.. 160 hp?? You'll need quite a bit of work to surpass that if you plan on staying NA. Pretty much all the bolt-ons that have been mentioned so far.. And without wanting to open up the exhaust, that definitely puts you at an even bigger disadvantage.

And I can personally vouch for the quality of the Racing Beat catback, I had it on my P5 and it purred like a kitten. It was such a good sounding exhaust, not loud at all. Definitely no louder than the stock MP3 exhaust.

 

[tweety2300]

Mp3 exhaust is the racing beat cat back isn't it? But the si is rated at 20 more hp than the mp3. header and intake should make up for that correct? But the si probably weighs less. I will also have a ported and polished head and intake manifold before the strip opens hopefully
According to charts I've seen power differences to the wheels are as follows
Intake cam 10-20
Exhaust cam 5-15
Intake 5-10 (ebay claims 10-15)
Header 10-15
In reality may be looking at those numbers to the flywheel and on the lower side at that. Anybody got reliable input on actual numbers?

 

[tweety2300]

Anybody know how well the electric superchargers work off ebay? Saw that just now.seems too good to be true

 

[HKPRO5]

It's not even good. don't waste your money.

As for horsepower gains, every car acts differently to hp.
So if you get cams don't expect 10-20 HP.

 

[tweety2300]

I was expecting maybe 15 with both

 

[HKPRO5]

Same with the civic. I have seen two stock civics dyno on the same day with a difference
17hp between the two. Why do you try getting a baseline dyno to see where you are at?

 

[tweety2300]

I think the closest place that does dyno tests is like 100 miles from me or I would have already done it out of curiosity. I'm tempted to get a 25 shot just incase but not worth blowing it up. I think with the intake header and port and ploished head it should be close. be more decided on take off but I'm more worried bout the top end run guess it will be vtech vs. Vics not that vics does much or anything...

 

[KrayzieFox]

Mp3 exhaust is the racing beat cat back isn't it? But the si is rated at 20 more hp than the mp3. header and intake should make up for that correct? But the si probably weighs less. I will also have a ported and polished head and intake manifold before the strip opens hopefully
According to charts I've seen power differences to the wheels are as follows
Intake cam 10-20
Exhaust cam 5-15
Intake 5-10 (ebay claims 10-15)
Header 10-15
In reality may be looking at those numbers to the flywheel and on the lower side at that. Anybody got reliable input on actual numbers?

Only the axleback (muffler) of the MP3 exhaust was done by Racing Beat, the rest is identical to all other NA Proteges. Then there is the Racing Beat cat-back.. an aftermarket product which was bigger diameter piping than stock. Sounds amazing too. I would suggest this with a high-flow catted midpipe, and maybe a header too. Search for video clips of similar setups and decide if that would be too loud or not.

And your gain estimates are pretty high. In reality you will see more like:
Both cams: 10.. maybe 15 at most
Intake: 2
Header: 5.. maybe more but no more than 10 I would say

These engines don't respond that well to NA mods, hence why most people seeking power go turbo. Not to say it can't be done, but you'll need pretty deep pockets.

Anybody know how well the electric superchargers work off ebay? Saw that just now.seems too good to be true

Total garbage. If it doesn't make any sense, then it doesn't work..

Stay away from nitrous as well, you'll blow up your engine for sure.

 

[tweety2300]

Intake was more than 2 it was very noticable imo. As for the numbers I was just going by what was advertised by anyone selling the parts. And I've been pulled over twice this year for the stock exhaust eventually they will get the point so highflow cat is out header is pushing it. How big is the stock exhaust? It would probly be cheaper to take it to an exhaust shop and have a larger cat to axle pipe put on. And I said tempted with the nitrous but nothing I own will ever have nitrous again one expensive bad experience is enough. Btw I have very shallow pockets but I'm at war with my brother with this he's sposed to be keeping it stock...

 

[StealthWyvern]

Just to prove the point stated earlier... When I installed my Simota CAI on my auto P5 all I noticed was a sound difference which made it sound faster but did not feel any faster.

Now when I installed my Thunder header I noticed a difference in the way the car sounded and drove. I think it got more torque and hp noticeably. The car even sounded different at idle by just removing the pre-cat with the header. However I will say the car did have 130k on it when I did the header install.

 

[tweety2300]

I can say the intake made a difference I did a before and after on the same hill first time lost speed with pedal to the floor after intake I gained 2 mph with the pedal to the floor

 

[mobius120487]

I'll through in my 2 cents and agree with the CAI, i love my Injen CAI!!! If its an automatic, i've heard about grounding the throttlebody, anyone with any thoughts on that???

 

[bluemp301]

You need to redo you head right? Throw a set of cams in while your at it. Buy a header, highflow midpipe and new piping to your muffler and call it good. Maybe a set of pulleys as well. (as for noise just don't drive like an ass. I mean it can't be that much louder with our RB muffler. Especially compared to big trucks.) When it comes time to needing a clutch, get a lightweight flywheel in the process.

I view our cars as being fun to drive, they just needs a little more zip. No since in droping a bunch of money into it. Its simply a sporty economy car.

 

[tweety2300]

Its not illegal for trucks to not have an exhaust in va as long as it got 1.5 ft past the bed. In my area they write exhaust tickets like crazy and every time I've gotten pulled over for it I was being easy shifting around 2500.I know its not fast never will be I just want it faster than a civic si for an 1/8 mile for one day

 

[neilv]

i barely noticed a difference in sound with a header. im assuming it was the plecebo effect. the cat will make it louder. intake should be the opposite. all sound and barely any hp gains.

the most you can really do would be header, intake, both cams(maybe even cam gears), 91 fuel and reset the ecu if you havent been using it, pulleys, underdrive crank pulley, LW flywheel, deeper plugs and then normal maintence and strip out as much unneeded weight as you can.

at the strip pull out the spare tire, jack, sub, etc.

i have cams, gears, header, midpipe, pulleys and a few other mods and im expecting 150hp crank or 120 something whp. not really noticable over stock even.

 

[NocturnalSpeed]

I have a Brand New Medieval Lightweight Crank Pulley for sell if your interested...

 

[bluemp301]

Sounds like VA is awfully hatin' on our hotwheels cars! ha. At 2500 its nice and mellow sounding...and not even all that lound. They must be prick cops.

I also forgot to mention and I know it will make a bit of a difference....different wheels. I switched rims on my cobalt from the steelies to 17" rims and back (for summer and winter). You can feel the difference(especially in 1st) and I get better gas mileage with the steelies.

 

[jonridinhi]

VA is not that bad. i ran around with mine fully modded and no issues I did not bring on myself. My exhaust was probolly the loudest wot protege I have ever heard with a exhaust system and it passed va inspection with no issues right before I sold it. My only advice is if FI is out the window and you want a good bang for your buck go KL. Those are the best 2 options.

 

[tweety2300]

Its not really va just my area they used to sit around an are where everybody would hang out write trespassing tickets,cruising tickets if they saw you driving more than 3 times one cop would use a ruler and if somebodys car was lower than 3" he would impound it, all cause its a "retirement" and historic area and the old people bitched about it. It passed with the ce on bad o2 senser and precat. Kl swap is out of the question she would s*** a brick if I did that. But I basicly stand no chance I'm assuming it hooks up fine if I stall it up to 4k so take off isn't an issue for me. Owell guess I could take him down a back road...
And I plan on pulling the back seat and everything out especially the subs my box weighs everybit of 50lbs if not more.