Ca dd fd?
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Junior Member
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 22
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From: Santa Monica, CA
Ca dd fd?
I am looking for an FD that is stock, so I can have some fun putting in big wrench time...but I was wondering, what would be generally considered a reasonable max HP in a non-commuter DD that is CA legal? What I mean is this car won't be going HUGE distances every day, but it will be driven around town...so I do want reliability to be good.
I do plan on spending most of the money on reliability, cooling, etc. with performance sort of an after thought, but I would love something that has some definite power to it still...and at the same time, I do not want to have to worry about being light on the gas in fear of massive tire-slip or anything...you know? I MAY even consider a LS swap...IDK
Anyone know of good links they could share to help me out with this research?
I do plan on spending most of the money on reliability, cooling, etc. with performance sort of an after thought, but I would love something that has some definite power to it still...and at the same time, I do not want to have to worry about being light on the gas in fear of massive tire-slip or anything...you know? I MAY even consider a LS swap...IDK
Anyone know of good links they could share to help me out with this research?
The problem you'll run into being in CA is inspections. If you want less hassle, just do bolt-in's, increase the boost to around 13 PSI and enjoy a fun car. With the correct mods/tuning, you would be around 330 RWHP at that boost level which is quite fun in a lightweight sports car.
Recovering Miataholic
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,562
Likes: 53
From: Fountain Valley, CA
A word here in defense of leaving hp alone. The 255 hp stock FD is quite fast as a daily driver; 0-60 in 5 secs and a top speed of 158 mph can pretty well keep up with traffic. IMHO you should do all the reliability mods and just drive the car for a while without upping boost or reducing back pressure in the exhaust too much. If you are not into seriously blowing off other vehicles on public streets, the stock FD is a fine GT car.
As Mahjik said a 330 RWHP is plenty fast in these things. I was rather happy at around 300 to tell you the truth.
While I do concur that leaving a stock alone is not a bad idea all together, I will say that a stock FD is rather on the slow side especially by today's standards. Given the FD's "fast reputation" people get surprised how slow it really is in stock form. Again they don't realize that fast is a relative term and the FD was FAST in it's day.
FYI- A healthy stock FD falls flat on it's face around 6500 RPM in third gear. Yeah it still has umph but nothing compared to it's bottom end. Open that puppy up and it's a screamer in every gear.
A word here in defense of leaving hp alone. The 255 hp stock FD is quite fast as a daily driver; 0-60 in 5 secs and a top speed of 158 mph can pretty well keep up with traffic. IMHO you should do all the reliability mods and just drive the car for a while without upping boost or reducing back pressure in the exhaust too much. If you are not into seriously blowing off other vehicles on public streets, the stock FD is a fine GT car.
FYI- A healthy stock FD falls flat on it's face around 6500 RPM in third gear. Yeah it still has umph but nothing compared to it's bottom end. Open that puppy up and it's a screamer in every gear.
in reality you probably won't break past 300WHP much even with a high flow cat but you can get about that with a fully legal california emissions car with a little tweaking.
apexi powerfc for tuning and retaining all the stock rats nest for visuals and operation
walbro or supraTT fuel pump
upgraded 1200cc secondary injectors from RC engineering
rewire the fuel pump
full 3" turboback exhaust with high flow cat
any front mount or SMIC is a legal california mod
the HKS and Apexi intake kits are a carb legal mod but you will need to show paperwork to the smog tech and possibly officers that pull you over, they do not come with the paperwork so you will need to get it from the manufacturer or the executive order office site of california for emissions
street porting the motor will get you more power from the stock twins
an upgraded radiator will keep engine temps lower, just try to avoid doing a FMIC or you will run into hotter temp issues
the only issues you will have with emissions is the check engine light which there is workarounds if you use your head, i won't say how it can be done to keep people from spouting there big mouths about it and drawing attention to it. the techs do not check for codes, just check to make sure the light is working when you turn the key on.
the other issue is the precat which would be missing, you could use a gutted precat or just cross your fingers and hope they ignore the downpipe, the main cat does all the work anyways so it will still pass fine once fully warmed up.
those 2 points are illegal mods but the car still will pass cleanly with the rest, i would rather promote doing it more in a gray area than saying screw the cat and put a single on it even though that is much better for the car.
you can also get a set of upgraded twins from BNR supercars to get you about another 50-80 horses even with a cat on the car, that is more than fast enough for a light sports car now getting closer to 400WHP.
this has been done and with minimal hassle during smog tests. there is other things you can do to make it quicker without the higher horsepower, which is weight reduction, there is a bit of things that can be ditched if you don't mind missing the luxuries.
apexi powerfc for tuning and retaining all the stock rats nest for visuals and operation
walbro or supraTT fuel pump
upgraded 1200cc secondary injectors from RC engineering
rewire the fuel pump
full 3" turboback exhaust with high flow cat
any front mount or SMIC is a legal california mod
the HKS and Apexi intake kits are a carb legal mod but you will need to show paperwork to the smog tech and possibly officers that pull you over, they do not come with the paperwork so you will need to get it from the manufacturer or the executive order office site of california for emissions
street porting the motor will get you more power from the stock twins
an upgraded radiator will keep engine temps lower, just try to avoid doing a FMIC or you will run into hotter temp issues
the only issues you will have with emissions is the check engine light which there is workarounds if you use your head, i won't say how it can be done to keep people from spouting there big mouths about it and drawing attention to it. the techs do not check for codes, just check to make sure the light is working when you turn the key on.
the other issue is the precat which would be missing, you could use a gutted precat or just cross your fingers and hope they ignore the downpipe, the main cat does all the work anyways so it will still pass fine once fully warmed up.
those 2 points are illegal mods but the car still will pass cleanly with the rest, i would rather promote doing it more in a gray area than saying screw the cat and put a single on it even though that is much better for the car.
you can also get a set of upgraded twins from BNR supercars to get you about another 50-80 horses even with a cat on the car, that is more than fast enough for a light sports car now getting closer to 400WHP.
this has been done and with minimal hassle during smog tests. there is other things you can do to make it quicker without the higher horsepower, which is weight reduction, there is a bit of things that can be ditched if you don't mind missing the luxuries.
