I'm looking at a bunch of mods for my stock FD. Depending on the deals for the rest of my summer, I could have between $2500 and $5000 of money for late birthday presents to myself when I get back to the states. I plan to have a PFC installed before I start changing stuff around with the car's air flow. I'm looking at buying a bunch of things that I can work on for the end of the summer while I'm not working. Here's the parts I was looking at putting in:

- M2 Carbon Fiber Cold Air Intake
- APEX'i Twin Chamber BOV
- Hi-flow Cat
- Cat-back exhaust

I haven't decided on whether or not I'll throw in things like the Greddy Intake Elbow or the polished intake pipes for the M2 airbox. Except for suggestions on which hi-flow cat and which exhaust system is a best choice, I don't have any real questions except for where and how to stick on the BOV. I know it can be stuck on the Greddy elbow if purchased with the flange option, but what about other places? Can I put it in without buying another few hundred dollars worth of piping? I know the kit says that it has everything needed to install, but I'd like some input on how the veteran tuners would do it. Thanks for help.
-Mako

PS: throw in exhaust/cat suggestions too

 

Garfinkle put his on elbow so the pressure is relieved quickly when the plates are shut quickly .Think about it what needs to happen to the high pressure air.

 

The APEX'i Twin Chamber BOV installs in the stock location if you get the full kit.

If not, you can get creative with it. Honestly, with the stock twins, I don't think it matters a whole heck of a lot if you have it in the stock location or on the intake elbow.

Here's a shot of mine installed in the stock location:

 

I think you'd be better off with a downpipe rather than replacing your stock cat. It gets some of the heat out of the engine bay, makes more power than a high flow cat, and is usually cheaper. Also, be careful about fuel if you're going to do the intake and exhaust work all at once. You'll be getting pretty close to running dangerously lean. And, depending on how much you free up the exhaust, could also see some boost problems, especially with the stock ECU.

 

i have the same bov and painted the maroon ring red to match my car. i thought it didnt look great not matching. very easy to take apart and paint, i suggest doing it.

 

I know the dp option is generally the easiest to go for power and price, but I'd rather stay away from eliminating that part of emissions control becuase my car barely makes it as it is. Damn hydrocarbons....little rich in the warm weather, I guess. But all that's just another part of the reason I'm not doing anything until I have a PFC installed. I know about all the detonation problems on the rotors if the balance of "qi" intake is broken. I was planning to keep my boost reasonable once I get done with all those mods to watch the intake temp before I change out my radiator and put in a stronger intercooler. Aside from that, I'll need to check my injector capacity to make sure I can run enough fuel to support higher boost.

 

What is that hooked on to? One of the intake hoses, or is there another pipe under there?

 

The pre-cat only really does anything when the car is cold. Once FULLY warmed up, the main cat is almost entirely responsible for emissions control. I would think going to a hi-flow cat would hurt you more than going to a d/p. Additionally, I think a hi-flow would be wasted without a d/p anyways (other than the 30 lbs of weight savings).

 

you mentioned upgrading to the power fc, just a word of warning they go in easy, but are a real bitch to tune. if you dont have someone who is very fluent with one you could do more damage then good. id recommend looking into a haltech for the same price, or possibly stand alone boost and fuel piggy back controllers.

 

There are two hoses that connect to the BOV.

 

What would you suggest for a piggy back combination? I was looking at mostly A'PEXi for electronics. How easy/hard would it be to go with boost control and a/f control combinations for plug-in and go ability compared to the Power FC? I wasn't planning on doing any major mods that couldn't be programed in on the PFC's base program functions. Exhaust and intake is about it for a while unless I do injectors. I was planning to have the car taken somewhere like KD and having the turbos checked/repaired/ported depending on my schedule and budget. There's only so much I can do myself with my own garage, so I'll be getting some professional help every once in a while. Let me know.
-Mako

 

the power fc is extremely easy to plug in, but after that its a tremendous head ache. check this forum: https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...threadid=89339
from what ive heard the PFC has much lower resolution which equals less accuracy in tuning, and you have to tune the fuel injector duty cycles cell by cell for every 500 rpms. on the haltech, a similarly priced system, everything is done by manipulating graphs. also in the long run the haltech has many more features which you might not use yet, but which could be a god send down the line. for the same price id say go haltech. a boost controller/afc combo will run you a couple hundred less, and take a skilled technician probably no more then 5-7 hours to install and tune. you will lose some flexibility, for these are very specialized units. for boost control, ive worked with the blitz sbc-id dual solenoid unit and found it to be an amazing little gizmo. check it out here
http://www.blitz-na.com/Blitz_Products.htm
my friends using it on his TT supra, and it is quite an intuitive system. 4 different "channels" or user defined settings can be programmed into it, and navigated between with a click of a button. he has them set to 12 psi, 14 psi, 16 psi, and 18 psi. the unit also displays boost in graph form, and acts as a full functioning boost controller. i havent had as many experiences with piggy back fuel computers but i have heard great things about the HKS unit : http://66.216.67.51/product.asp?0=208&1=245&3=253. i hope some of this info can be of use, i know how expensive tuning is first hand, and just want to help out a fellow fd3s owner.

 

Hey, thanks Izyassmofo. I appreciate the information. I'll look into the Blitz unit. I've checked some of the stuff on the website before and it looks pretty neat. The tuning industry here is pretty big and there's a few tuning shops around my neighborhood that I could drop by sometime before I leave to look at some of the systems first hand. There's a big HKS outlet about 5 minutes away from my house so maybe I'll check out the deal on their systems to see if they have anything new yet. Thanks again.
-Mako