What can I do to make my NA get more power?
 

I really enjoy driving my 7 around. My NA motor is still great, still only 82,xxx miles and I think I will stay NA for a long time. I hear that driving a NA in a city is better than a turbo and also that NA are much easier to mantain. I would like to know what is there to do to make my NA motor get some more HP? I'm looking for a gain of 60-80 horses. Is it even possible? Thanks.

it's possible, but the most logical thing to do would be a rebuild with a streetport for starters. the subject has been covered many times, so you may want to do a bit of searching.
i will add a few things, though:
rebuild with port-job (w/ series5 [89-91] n/a rotors)
standalone ecu
individual throttle bodies (or a custom intake manifold, but this is so rare i hate to mention it)
going carb (this is its whole topic all to itself, but again, it's worth mentioning i guess)
throttle body mod
header
new exhaust system
new intake setup

in short, the two biggest things to do would be a rebuild with a hefty streetport and a well-tuned standalone ecu. a healthy running car is very important. :) i don't find n/a 2nd gens to be a favorite of mine. i like all motor, i just don't see it as the ideal platform unless you're completely redoing the car.

Does anyone know how much gain i can get from the racing beat road race full exhaust system?

That is a VERY loud exhaust...

Putting in a TII engine. It'll probably be cheaper and easier in the long run.

I don't see how TII's would be harder to drive in the city. They have more torque. I love not having torque on my N/A with all the hills around here. My clutch probably hates me...

easier probably, cheaper, in the long run maybe not, TII's require generally more maintanance. Either way'll take a bit of work, you'll need to swap out a large portion of your car for the TII

just wondering but, does anyone know about how much power increase you'd get outta doing these and how bout ball park prices?

i have a GXL w/TII swap...but it would be nice to have an all motor set up too

look at kahrens posts. he builds nice na setups.

I'm assuming hes referring to the true dual racing beat exhaust with testpipes? Is it really that loud? I got one with the car but I live in a city area and daily drive the car...GHEY!

nitrous

Sorry i disagree. Ive been told and read continously online that the road race setup of RB is mad loud. My freind has it on his s4 vert the complete RB road race setup, and his car is relatively quiet until he opens it up after 4-5k RPMs.

But for normal street driving the APEX N1 beats it out the ball park

They have a good write up on this forum, theres a better more detailed write up on the www.nopistons.com check the 2nd gen section


Jason NYC
NYRA President
www.nyrotary.com

Or a snail ;).

he said n/a nublet! if it was turboed it hardly could be called n/a now could it. :p:

Depends on the port. What kind of port would you want? Street, bridge, peripheral?

It might not be loud for some people, but it's loud for me. :) And I think that a peripheral port with an N1 style muffler is quiet... :D (I'm dead serious).

I hate you.

But honestly, how much power is the poster looking for? Otherwise nitrous + porting is the only real way to go.

but nitrous is F/I
:confused:

Add another rotor.

weight reduction, alot.

You can replicate the RB dual exhaust as I'm sure many have done. I recently saw one with high flow cats, 50 inch glasspack style pre mufflers and magnaflow rear muffflers. It was very quiet and smog legal. The owner had built the heat sheilding up around the header so that evan that to the casual observer looked nearly stock. I find it hard to believe but the Guy claimed 226 WHP with a big street port, megasquirt, T2 injectors Rx8 rotars etc. It was an S5 BTW

if he had a nice standalone and solid tune maybe use the RX8 E shaft too I can see it making 226whp... without the cats.

There's a community maintained n/a performance page that might be a help too.

Turbo lag, it does make driving around town a little trickier in the stop and go traffic. You get used to it i'm sure. The NAs always take off pretty quickly with light throttle, in my turbo i find i have to gas it more to start then back way off.


If you want alot more power from your NA it will be alot louder. Exhaust is where you start... The NAs can be a lot of fun, you wont get those kinds of gains with easy bolt-ons though.

Since you dont want to rebuild that motor, my advice is get a good exhaust setup, and some good struts/tires/clutch (if needed). Then think about what more you need from the car. Exhaust mods are easy and give you the most power. Everything else gets more complicated.

Do TII's have less torque than N/A's at any point?

They do for about 1.5 seconds while the turbo spools up. Only a problem in stop and go traffic. The nice thing about driving a NA around town is the car responds to throttle exactly how you expect it too. In the turbo you have to get used to compensating for boost or lack of boost with the throttle. I find i have to rev the turbo up a little more before i start to get it to take off at the same speed.