Power Mods
So far, I have been showing you what I did on the outside. But every motorhead knows that it is inside that matters most. Up till now. the engine has remained relatively stock. One of the first thing I did was to remove the stock air filter and replaced with a Jim Conforti CAI. It came with an ITG foam filter which I subsequently changed to an Apexi cone filter. The ITG filter is not recommended. The foam tends to disintegrate and piece of it can actually get sucked into the engine. There's the possibility of over-oiling it if you don't want that to happen. The Apexi cone filter was much better. It was virtually maintenance-free. Of course, the usual maintenance rules apply. What you see in the picture is the Simota version of the GruppeM. It comes with an integrated heat shield. So, it kinda make the JC heat shield irrelevant. However, I am an anti-heat freak and anything I can do to reduce heat affecting performance, I would go for it. The Simota CAI worked well. Having a bigger air filter, the high end was much better. The low-end remained unchanged. This is a good CAI mod if you want to remove your original air filter. The GruppeM costs 4 times more but works along the same principle. You decide if it is looks you want or performance.
However, the best power mod I did must be the replacement of the headers. The stock headers are puny little things that create a choke-point for the exhaust gas. I went for the Hiop headers because the Supersprint ones were only made for LHD cars. What a world of difference the headers made. It gave me an instant 10 bhp. The only drawback is that you will lose the 2 catalytic converters. The installation took a day to comeplete. What I did wrong in this mod was that I should have ceramic-coated the headers before installation. They do run hot and the heat from the pipes increase the temperature of the engine compartment. The original headers had some heat shield but it did not fit the Hiop, so I had to remove them.
Headers are the best bang for bucks mod you can do for your car. Forget all those magnetic stuff that attaches to the fuel line, power whatever valves, etc...If you want instant power that lasts forever, this is the mod to do.
posted by gabey @ Saturday, April 29, 2006
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