Advice on some first mods?
 

Hey guys, I'm a newbie modder that has been researching and taking input from numerous people across the internet and I'm starting to come to a conclusion on what I want to get as my first mods.

From what I've been told, a new header is a safe bet for ez HP gainz and to sound meaner, and I've been suggested this header as my potential choice. If there's a specific header that any of you recommend, I'm always open to suggestions as long as it remains under $1000 for this specific part. I'm also interested in getting a throttle body spacer, as it'll free up my engine a little bit and costs virtually nothing in comparison. I could, to tag along with that, get an entirely new throttle body as well.

Let me know what your thoughts are, and what I should go ahead and do. It's just kinda intimidating as these mods are a decent chunk of change and I want to make sure it's the right choice for my vehicle.

Thanks in advance! From what I've seen you are all generally helpful people, so I'm looking forward to seeing your responses.

New tires. Finally switched from stock and holy chit, it makes a huge difference.

Ah yeah, I actually forgot to include this in my main post. I've been considering 18" 245's, as I've seen both 17" and 18" 245's in some posts around here as recommendations.

Throttle body is a do last item that will give very little gains even then. Don't mod random things just for the sake of modding.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96158

I'm assuming you have a 2017, since your profile says you have an 860? If so, the first things I'd do are a drop-in filter as well as a Perrin inlet hose to delete the resonator box and sound generator, unless you like that stuff. On my 2017, I didn't have the wing that you do, so I put that on first, and now I'm doing a Subaru auto-dimming mirror w/ compass and rexpeed polarized wide mirrors since headlights bother me at night and I do a lot of my driving at night, but next up for performance is a TRD catback + the two intake mods I mentioned.

I don't know, this smells of troll. Anyone who took a minute to search would learn the throttle body or spacer has no real gain. And you really have to look for that on part sites.

This is correct, I do have a 2017 860. I've been told about drop-in filters as there's no point in getting a whole new CAI. I've heard about catbacks, but what does it do for performance? Thanks for the reply.

Not a troll. I just don't think I know how to research properly *shrug*

Catbacks do nothing for performance they just sound like they do.

What are your plans for using the car? Unless you have the exact same goals and plans as others then all the suggestions you will get are just a waste of time.

For simplicity's sake, to look nice, sound nice, and go fast. My car is a daily, and sometimes I do the occasional drive up fifty or so miles through some mountain roads. So, not sure exactly what you mean by these suggestions being useless.

Quick edit: I also have plans to track in the future.

You will have guys telling you to turbo, slam, go with light weight pulleys, do engine swaps and all sorts of other weird and wonderful things. Some of those things are a great idea if tracking, hard parking at shows or drag racing but are piss poor for a daily driven street car. That is what I mean by some suggestions would be useless.
If you simply want to enhance the driving then start with the header, drop in filter and tires. Then drive for a bit to workout for yourself what else you may want to change. Don't base you plans on what some random stranger on the internet says he did. There are guys on here that will have you totally screw up your car if you follow their advice so tread carefully when following recommendations.

Thank you so much, and that's exactly why I've been waiting and observing for so long because I'm just unsure. If a header, drop-in, and tires are what you recommend then I will go ahead and begin. Is my header choice in the OP up to par? I've heard good things.

A catback won't do too much for power gains, but it's, in my opinion, a necessary step to accomplish before you do a header. A catback might net you a couple hp, I know that Toyota advertised 10hp for the TRD CAI + catback a couple years back, but mostly the catback will get rid of the weak Camry/Impreza sounding stock exhaust note.

A drop-in filter definitely sounds like the way to go since most tuners say the stock airbox is actually the best option for this car, it's just that the stock filter is garbage.

A catback will increase exhaust flow to get you ready to put a header on, but just note that with a header you'll likely need a tune but I've seen some people put a header on without ever actually getting an engine light, and as far as I know, there are no tunes for 2017s quite yet. Until we get tunes, I'm not doing my header so I'll focus on other things like better wheels and tires, some aesthetic stuff like carbon fiber replacement shift trim and door handles as well as carbon fiber hood struts to delete the prop rod.

You could also replace the front and overpipe but I've heard that it's essentially useless except for sound, I had a guy at my work (I work at a Subaru), with a BRZ go with a catless Borla header, catless Borla front and overpipe, and Borla catback and it was extremely obnoxious, he ended up reverting the front and overpipe back to stock and it sounded much more controlled which still sounding mean, but not obnoxiously loud.

Read fully the thread that Tcoat referred to. That is the first thread I read when I came here, and still refer back to it.

Then - come back and ask specific questions in the relevant subforum!

BTW - there is a subforum specifically for all things track!

GL and Welcome.

leave the suspension alone unless you want to spend a fair bit on it.
better tires, light wheels, catback, header, tune, brake pads.

that will make your car just a little quicker, grippier, and make it stop shorter for around $3-4000 depending on the parts you pick

Well good. Looks like you already have a lot of good responses.

My .02. Sounded like you are on a budget. If I had one of these cars with a tight budget I would:

1. Get an OFT,

2. Get whatever I could to free up breathing out the rear that my state will allow (headers, pipes),

3. Drop in a filter,

4. Run e85 if available.

After that, your budget is way blown.

And cosmetics, do whatever the fuck you want. No one cares and it is your car.

I generally try to stay away from recommending certain products since I have not used them myself but from all information your choice of that header is a wise one.
Keep in mind that just adding a header (or other parts for that matter) without a tune is going to give you minimal gains. The ECU can adjust to some degree but to take real advantage of changes you need to tune for them.

Not just new tires,new wider wheels in general. I went from the shitty 215's to 235's and you wanna talk about a difference! The car sticks to the road like glue now! I feel like this is the easiest mod to significantly change the driving dynamics of the car.

I've heard that putting in a short shifter is another easy change,that's somewhat cheap,you could do to improve driving dynamics.

I personally feel like a new full exhaust setup is pretty much a waste of money unless you are going FI. The "gains" aren't worth the price. All you are really paying for is sound,which leads to a placebo effect that you think the car is faster.I have heard that a TRD exhaust (and I'm sure others as well) helps with the torque dip,but I still just don't feel like it's worth $1000+.

A catback does nothing for performance but a header and tune will show some gains.
If the TRD catback exhaust has any effect on the torque I have never noticed it. The improved sound is worth every penny to me though.

The tuner (William Knose of Delicious Tuning) who tuned my car said I could get 10 more HP if I put the stock exhaust back on. They say the TRD is more restrictive. They said they cut apart a TRD and the pipes are actually smaller. I'm still keeping mine. I love the sound and the look. I have enough HP.

inlet tube, sound generator delete and k&n filter

IMHO get a Apexi drop in filter and call it a day. Enjoy the car for now and learn how to drive it well. As for headers just FYI, your power train warranty will not be honored once you install aftermarket headers. If you don't care about the power train warranty then do whatever you want. Join your local FT86 Club and then you can hear some exhaust systems for yourself. Suggestions for catless headers are Gruppe S, Tomei and catted JDL. Just my 2 cents! ;)

Instead of telling you what you should do, I'll just tell my favorite mods on my car, and you can take it for what it's worth. Everything else is in my journal, link in signature.

Gruppe-S UEL header
OFT E85 tune
TRD quickshift kit
Wheels/Tires (too many options to be specific)

No luck w/ magnusson-moss on that?

This is a 2017. Stop saying get a filter. It doesn't do much if anything for a 17.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

It helps the owner feel like they did something.


Good point though.

The low end torque bump from a header and tune is definitely worth the money IMO.

Nope, according to dealership. My dealership specifically said aftermarket header the warranty will not be honored. As for drop in filter there's one available for 2017 models. Blitz I think is the brand ;)

Air filter, header and exhaust will sound great and help the engine breathe better at higher RPM. But if you really want to go fast on those mountain roads or the race track you should look at upgrading the tires, suspension and brakes.

Try checking out the build section and look at people who track their cars.

Oh man, thats like playing Super Mario Bros. and quitting at the first goombah - magnusson-moss is what you use to fight bowser! The dealerships are just minions, they just want to charge you, then they'll probably bill it as a warranty repair anyways. They probably want to avoid liability by removing/reinstalling a part. If you want to minimize the fight just swap the stock manifold back on.

Escalate it; the burden of proof is on the dealer, they have to prove that the part in question is unequivocally the cause of failure.

So I did a quick read through on this thread, one thing I didn't see is what your goals are with the mods, and how much risk you are willing to accept with regards to reliability.

You mentioned you're relatively new to modding, so I'm not sure how quickly you want to get into this. In general, higher risk will net higher reward. If you're looking to just dip your feet into the pool--you will be looking at things like catback exhausts, wheels, drop ins, basically what a lot of people have mentioned--but they won't net you a lot of HP or tangible gains.

On the other hand, if you want to jump straight into the pool--you would be looking at headers, OFT / tuning, stuff that would add some noticeable performance gains to the car. However, these kinds of gains have inherent risks (i.e. emissions issues, chance to get a poor tune, unrelated engine issues that could get you in lengthy 'discussions' with dealerships on warranty validity).

If you're just nuts and have money to burn you can always go forced induction...but you're almost guaranteed to have some kind issues with that as time goes on. Since you mentioned <$1000 for the part, i'm assuming that this isn't your situation.

These are all assuming that you just want to pull some more power and what not out of your car for street driving. However, if you are looking for track performance it's likely that you'd go a different route (one that starts with HPDE and likely involves a focus on suspension parts).

This is just my perspective though. I've chosen the slow and cautious route--had the car for 5 years this month, and I'll finally be doing header+tune next month. Up to this point it's been exhaust from the header back, TRD springs, drop in filter, and short throw shifter. All of which I'd highly recommend, but my goals may be different from yours.

Edit : forgot one of my most important mods--DASHCAM. Srsly.

I can only tell what I did regarding mods.

I didn't do any performance mods initially. I only did some little cosmetic changes like JDM exhaust tips, tires, wheels while enjoying and knowing the car better. After a long while, I decided that the best bet was JRSC + oil cooler with the stock engine. Getting 50% more power overnight was more like a transformation than modification. I think it was the right decision for me. I still don't plan any exhaust, E85, or other modifications. I feel like I am done with modifying this car. I will just enjoy and maintain it in the following years.

Pretty much normal DD type stuff for now.

Sorry guys,I was going off the top of my head trying to remember this video from Everyday Driver
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM_QmVF2-fQ"]Searching for Torque - Header & Exhaust - FR-S Long Term #4 - Everyday Driver - YouTube[/ame]

I guess I'm a little more practical and would rather spend $1000+ on something else,not even car related,than something that just gives you sound and an ever so slight increase in torque and HP.

That is not true at all. To me, my best decision was to skip everything else and go directly to JRSC. I can't tell how happy I am with it.

There's two available, Works and Blitz. I made a thread on them awhile ago asking other MY17 owners if they had either and the thread was basically a ghost town, so I did some research myself, I don't think the Blitz is a resuable, whereas the Works can be cleaned and reused indefinitely if cleaned properly, so I'm gonna go for the Works.

Didn't mean to imply that it wouldn't make them happy. I would love one of those myself...but for someone who is literally just getting into modding as the OP is, that's pretty out there. And pricey.

Good catch. As I said, skimmed through it while at work...obviously missed that part xD

It's nice to be at a point in life where I can be impractical once in a while and not worry about it. There is nothing practical about my supercharged twin. It oozes impracticality. I love driving it.

Instead of spending thousands on new wheels, paint the stock wheels black or white. Actually looks pretty good.

An axle back exhaust to open up the sound of the engine too.

For the interior, adding a sub helps the stock system to not suck so much.

Those are the mods I have done so far. I don't feel like it needs anything, but it is nice to have some extras.