My bone stock '93 base with 33K is about to get it's first engine mods. The mods I am going with are being done in order to keep this motor running strong. Weekend car, getting about 2K miles per year. My goal is to keep the original motor, not HP. Please offer opinions and advice on if I am going In the right direction, and if I am forgetting something. Here is my list. Thanks in advance..

Fluidyne radiator
HKS catback
ATR down and midpipe
Apexi power FC w/ commander tuned by SR motorsports
Apexi Intake
For Monitoring:
Greddy EGT, Boost, Air/Fuel, Water Temp, and Oil Press. Guages

Greddy Turbo Timer w/ harness

 

seeing that the car is an orig. 93, the first thing that i would do is add (replace) the old vacuum lines. this will take a while, but you will have fewer mishaps witht the sequential system than if you leave them stock. they get old and brittle and lose their rigidity after the years of driving, sitting, and load. the mods that you listed are great, however, i would put in an aluminum air separator tank, to eliminat the stock plastic one. i think that most would concur with me on this....

-louis

 

It looks to me like you are going for power

I would suggest you go with an upgraded intercooler rather than a midpipe if you want to keep your engine from blowing up. Not that a midpipe will do that with your proposed set up but all that power that you are going to have is going to be conducive to driving the engine hard which is going to increase the chance of blowing up.
An upgraded intercooler will give you a power boost also but will also decrease your intake temps decreasing the chance of grenading your engine.
By the way, a midpipe is hard to live with all your mods. It will make your car obnoxiously loud, smelly and dirty. But it will be fast.
Trust me on this, I have a midpipe.

The turbo timer, in my opinio, is a waste of money. Just don't go get on boost the last 5 minutes of your drive home and you will never need it.

 

all the mods I am doing are the result of snowballing. If I do this, then it would be best to do that. The computer wasn't in my plans, but I was told that It was needed to go with the exhaust upgrades to increase fuel. Again, I'm not doing it to go fast, I just want to do what is beneficial. I stress that I do not beat the car. I am the ultimate Granny driver.

 

Then, you definitely don't want a midpipe.
A midpipe will give you a lot of power but it will make your car unpleasant to live with.

I have a midpipe on my car. I really liked the increase in power associated with it. However, it really was unbearable. The noise, the stink and all that carbonaceous build up on the rear bumper.

I tried a high flow cat. Much better in regards to all those factors that I mentioned. But I had to go back to the midpipe since I am addicted to the "go-fast-crackpipe".

For reliability and some increase in power, I would suggest you go with the intake, intercooler, downpipe, catback, radiator, boost gauge and a coolant temp gauge.

 

Oh yeah, you would probably need a fuel computer, too.

 

i concur with mr stock