In this post we are going to figure out where we want to go with this project. Right now our engine probably looks something like the one in the picture on the left. Its probably stock unless you bought a car that the previous owner has modified. So its time to plan out what we want out of our car. To do this we have to ask ourselves a couple questions. One of which is how must do we want to spend. I've had friends who have had some pretty nicely modified and fast cars and only spent a couple thousand over the course of the time they owned it. I also had a friend who dumped fifty thousand into his Acura Integra Type R. Now if you're anything like me you don't have fifty grand laying around to spend on our car. Another question you have to ask yourself is how crazy do we want to go? Do we just want to get a little more power out of our car and give it a little more pep or do we really want to make it get up and go? We're going to start with some basic performance mods. Nothing crazy yet like forced induction (turbochargers and superchargers) but we will touch on that subject later on in this blog. One more question you need to ask yourself is if you have any mechanic ability. Can you install your parts and mods yourself and if not do you have someone like a friend or relative that can help you. If the answer to both of these is no then you have to find yourself a good mechanic who can help you. It pays to learn how to work on your own car. I can't tell you how much money I have saved doing this. Go and buy yourself a good service manual for the vehicle you own. Haynes and Chiltons manuals are ok and available at auto parts stores but your best bet is to try to find a factory service manual or FSM. So lets get started with our planning. Now, if you didn't already know this, more air flow and colder air flow to your engine allows it to produce more power so a good starting point and easy to install mod is a cold air intake. There are many companies who make these for many different types of cars. You can spend anywhere from $25 or so to $300 on one of these. A good place to find your performance parts and save money on them is eBay. I've bought intakes from ebay for $25 before for a couple different cars. Another mod we will want is a new exhaust system. More and better exhaust flow will also increase out hosepower a little bit. Both of these mods not only increase our horsepower but both will make our car sound nice and give it a good tone when you get on the throttle. We are going to start with these mods and talk about them and some other mods more in depth in my next post so look for part 4 of this blog.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Part 3 - Plan of Attack
In this post we are going to figure out where we want to go with this project. Right now our engine probably looks something like the one in the picture on the left. Its probably stock unless you bought a car that the previous owner has modified. So its time to plan out what we want out of our car. To do this we have to ask ourselves a couple questions. One of which is how must do we want to spend. I've had friends who have had some pretty nicely modified and fast cars and only spent a couple thousand over the course of the time they owned it. I also had a friend who dumped fifty thousand into his Acura Integra Type R. Now if you're anything like me you don't have fifty grand laying around to spend on our car. Another question you have to ask yourself is how crazy do we want to go? Do we just want to get a little more power out of our car and give it a little more pep or do we really want to make it get up and go? We're going to start with some basic performance mods. Nothing crazy yet like forced induction (turbochargers and superchargers) but we will touch on that subject later on in this blog. One more question you need to ask yourself is if you have any mechanic ability. Can you install your parts and mods yourself and if not do you have someone like a friend or relative that can help you. If the answer to both of these is no then you have to find yourself a good mechanic who can help you. It pays to learn how to work on your own car. I can't tell you how much money I have saved doing this. Go and buy yourself a good service manual for the vehicle you own. Haynes and Chiltons manuals are ok and available at auto parts stores but your best bet is to try to find a factory service manual or FSM. So lets get started with our planning. Now, if you didn't already know this, more air flow and colder air flow to your engine allows it to produce more power so a good starting point and easy to install mod is a cold air intake. There are many companies who make these for many different types of cars. You can spend anywhere from $25 or so to $300 on one of these. A good place to find your performance parts and save money on them is eBay. I've bought intakes from ebay for $25 before for a couple different cars. Another mod we will want is a new exhaust system. More and better exhaust flow will also increase out hosepower a little bit. Both of these mods not only increase our horsepower but both will make our car sound nice and give it a good tone when you get on the throttle. We are going to start with these mods and talk about them and some other mods more in depth in my next post so look for part 4 of this blog.
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