Best performance mod for the money?
 

Give me your thoughts on the best performance mod for the buck so i know what i should do next to my car (already have a cold air intake and exhaust + header)

what is your car? 12A or 13B?

Dont matter if its 13B or a 12A,The FIRST thing I would do is exhast,header,bigger pipes,no cats if you can,and free flow muffler,Thats your biggest and best noticeable gain before cracking the engine open.

You can always do the mech secondaries, that free and easy!

remove air pump

1.) full exhaust
2) intake
3) remove accessories
4) e-fan (?)
(this is more geared towards the gsl-se, if it's 12a then a CARB would probably be #2 for hp gains)

I keep hearing this but why? Does the air pump rob that much from the engine?

Ok, I have been wondering about this same topic since I purchased my 7. But my I am very hesistant to start removing stuff from my 7 because everything works perfectly and is stock (besides the cat and air filter element- oh and the new urethane suspension bushings)- and that includes all interior switches and lights, and the a/c (including the recirc- brrr cold), and it starts easy and idles smooth at 750rpm. It seems everybody has removed the "rat's nest", but why remove it if everything works perfectly?
Can I upgrade the intake, carb and use a header and still keep everythig else as stock? Can these be done in stages- like upgrading the carb and/or intake seperately?

If its bang for the bucks, lets establish a target say $10 a hp and get some factual evidence.

lol...

Got to start off with a bone stocker.

I would do all the free shit first then,
AIR PUMP,
RATS NEST

ummmmmmmm.? :confused:

Excuse me for being dumb, but exactly what is the "rat's nest", what does it do and what will happen if I take it out?

Thanks!
Ray

if you remove your "rats nest" of wires and vacuum hoses it simplifies teh engine bay, but removes any hope pf pasing emissions :)

Pending where you live,

FL dont have any inspections or emissions.

But simply doing this doesn't make your car any faster, right?

suspension. good brake pads.

nope it makes no power difference

mike

then why do it?:confused: Just need to kill some time on Saturday or something?

removing the rats nest makes it look much better. You don't have all of that emissions crap there to clutter up your engine. It is un-necessary if you have no emissions to deal with. It also makes for fewer things to break.

Removing the air pump will add horse power. Not only is it sucking power by having to be driven by the engine, but it is also sucking air from your intake thereby decreasing the amount of air that can get into the carb.

I'd like to see a dyno sheet with before and after stats on this. ;)

my ass-o-meter told me that it had more power!!!

I don't discount that but what else did you do when you removed the air pump? Did you upgrade to a header, remove the cat? Those are things that are usually done when disabling the pump. I just find it hard to believe that the belt will draw that much power from the engine. A little yes but not a lot. As far as O2 starvation goes, well, the air comes from the air box and quite honestly I don't think it sucks away that much air?

You need to divide this one into two categories. Bolt-on mod or engine intrusive mod. Hands down the biggest HP gain on a STOCK rotary would be a free flow exhaust(and header). Depending on what you purchase you can spend alot of money here but typicaly in the $500 range you can get a really nice setup. There is a mod that will give you more HP on a STOCK rotary and that is porting. Porting however is an engine intrusive mod so the motor needs to be removed from thew car and dissassembled. Technicaly, porting will run you about $400-$500 depending on the shop BUT, I have never seen a port job done without at least freshening up the rotors and using up a new gasket kit. At this point you are about $500 in labour and $1000 in parts but you come out with a fresh and ported motor. As an example, a 12A with street porting will usualy produce in the neighborhood of 140HP. Add the free flow exhaust and you now have a 180HP NA motor. These figures are approximate. The range is about 150-200HP depending on the port job and the exhaust. Done properly you would also change the carb to maximise the power gain.

As a side note, the turbo is definately the single most mod one can do to add HP but I thought the cost would be prohibitive and wasn't in the spirit of the question. Nitrous also falls into this category. Although much cheaper, you need a fresh motor to run the juice or you will be dissappointed with the result.

Toughguy :)

when i disconnected mine, my car felt like it had lost a couple hundred lbs. it had a lot more go at the low-end. i think it's pretty negligible at higher rpm (and thus doesn't affect peak horsepower much), but it sure seems to help lowend.

Wheel alignment.

Admittedly this will only help, if your settings are out to begin with. I got mine done a couple months after getting the car, and it felt completely new. I didn't replace any parts or anything, just tightened up the steering rack and did a full wheel alignment. Definately worth it.

Apart from that, i'd agree with the exhaust thing.

Its like this, for every 7 lbs taken of the Crank, you get 1 HP. But nothing to really notice!

I'm surprized at all the replies i've gotten, i forgot to mention every accessory on my car has been removed, only belt i have drives the waterpump and the alternador. some moron rigged up an electric fan in my car, i was running it hard one day the wires got crossed and caught on fire so i'm going back to the stock clutch fan, it's far more reliable and i want to keep my engine as cool as possible, losing a few horsepower to me is worth it insted of ruining my engine due to getting hot, i've already got a full exhaust set up and cold-air intake, perhaps getting a 3rd gen throttle body to fit my car if it mechanically will work fine, i'm not worried about port matching and the holes not lining up.... i've got drills.

Unbelievable...wow....look, this easy...you go to eBay and put together..

nnnaaaawwwwssssssssssssssssssssssssss


Seriously, nothing will get you the same bang for the buck, not even close...;) :cool:

...bringing this old thread back, okay, what's this rat's nest thing everyone is talking about, i've got an SE so does this make a difference or something? is it the series of vaccum lines under my TB or what? and how is this removed, i did a search and couldn't really find much.

Junking the stock cats on a STOCK 1st gen is the single biggest mod you can do to get more horsepower.
If smog is not of any concern then the rats nest can go as well as the airpump.
On an SE leave all that under the hood alone.. it needs to be there to run, unless you go turbo with aftermarket computer, etc.

Hit the Gym! That'll make your car faster! :)
If you wanna make the car faster, learn to drive it smooth throught the corners...

How does going with a stand alone ecu effect vacuum lines?

What exactly are you losing when you remove the air pump. Does this pump the air in during warm up or what?

Joshua

the air pump pulls air from your air box and pumps it into the cats to facilitate the burn off of excess fuel...

Removing the air pump renders the catalyst ineffective.
FD owners can test the effect by unplugging the electrical connector and running before and after 40-80MPH 3rd gear tests.

I dont remember if 1st gen uses an electric clutch.
Anyway you can reroute a new belt with no air pump and see if the difference is really worth changing your emissions to where you pollute as much as 500 late model cars.

I have a lotta mods but I still pass strict emissions with flying colors!

ok when i take off the air pump what do i have to do? any changes to vacuum hoses or anything? can someone give me a step by step process on doing this??

Thanks,

Bluezone.

how do you do the mechanical secondaries for free thing?

If this has been discussed before (i'm sure it has), link on the forum? :)

juist do a search there is LOTS of info on this pratch even has a nice detailed write up with pictures and everything.

1. Exhaust. Remove emissions if possible.

2. E-fan, lighter crank pulley/dual pulley/yoohoo belt, etc...

3. Pineapple racing sleeves in 5th & 6th ports. Make sure ports are working, or wire them open.

4. 2nd gen intake and throttle body.

Now the only bottleneck in the system is the little 2.5in. AFM, and I don't know any cheap way around that.

This is also more for the SE's, the carbed guys have a lot more choices when it comes to fuel...

Someone was wondering if removing the rats nest makes any performance increase...

Well the nest alone, no. However, when you remove the nest, your emissions go to shit anyway, so you tend to remove the air pump at the same time (as per Rx7Carl and Pratch's tutorial). This frees up hp.. And since you're producing more emissions and not pumping air to the cats, you probably straightpipe those too..

So just "removing the rats nest" for me, also includes air pump and cat straightpipe, since it makes no sense to keep either of those after the nest is off. This would lead to a substantial, and pretty damn cheap, gain if you hadn't already done the exhaust thing (which unlike many others, I noticed in your 1st post!).

Other than a good header/exhaust, removing the rats nest, air pump and cats.... The next thing I would say is a street port. You *could* get a carb if you're running a 12a, but it won't get you anything much until you do the port... And a simple streetport I would imagine is such a satisfying experience because it rebuilds your engine, and a good shop will even clean the exterior so it'll shine nicely ;)

To whoever asked about 13b's and rats nest - doesn't exist. The "nest" is on the 12as and is tightly tied into carb stuff... I know, a leak in that damn nest of vacuum tubes is currently causing me more than just one headache as my car only runs at 3000rpms or more... grrr... Damn I wish there was a local Rx7 car guy who knew his stuff and would be willing to lend a hand in the afternoon for free beer ;)

Jon

i am surprised no one has mentioned a Lightened Flywheel, change this when changing your clutch (they do wear out eventually)

I've yet to wear out the clutch, and I've had the car 10 years...

yeah, but you have to drive it! :D :D :D :D

Tutorial is only a click away :D

I started school in May (college at age 30 is weird) but Carl and I are still planning a few write-ups.

The title of the thread asks for the BEST mod for the $$$ and a lightened flywheel is not, that's why....;)

If i remove my air pump wont my cat melt down

id probably use nitrous for your most bang for your buck

Actually, just the opposite is true. That's why the ACV unit is so important. It STOPS air input to the cats at high RPMs so it won't burn it up. More O2 means more combustion in the cats but you don't want too much, and the air pump at high RPM can be way too much...

nnnnaaaawwwwssssssssssssssssssss!!!..yea, buddy!!:p:

good call, often overlooked by -se owners. i know it made a huge difference in mine just to open those back up and get them working properly. DEFINITELY the best bang for the buck. . . 5-10 more hp when i need it for free :o)

For all the lucky -SE owners, it doesn't get any cheaper than that!