Absolute Favorite/Worst First Mods
 

Hello Everyone,



I just purchased a 14 Scion FRS, I am ecstatic considering it is my dream car and couldn't be happier to have found an un-abused, slightly less mileage, good overall example recently.



I am obviously overwhelmed by the amount of crap there is for this car, also, I am extremely worried about buying tons of unnecessary parts when I haven't even figured out the stock limits of the car. I've decided to stick to relatively small jobs for now (routine maintenance), however, I would like to dabble a little more into the performance realm...I've been thinking about buying the OFT tuner for now since it seems like it will be needed at some point down the road no matter what, I'd like to see if this is where people's opinion leans toward considering that's the conclusion I feel logically comes into mind hours after of glaring at every FRS/BRZ/86 Vendor imaginable.



With all of this being said, what were some of the first things in everyone's different experience that really improved or conversely messed up the overall fun factor of the car? And, do you think it's logical to get the tuner ahead of time essentially?


CONFESSION: I bought a Remark Muffler Delete, please don't shame me.

I just bought a 2016 BRZ and with 19k miles. I'm considering getting a remark muffler delete. They also make midpipe too so can get a full catback system out of it. It's the easy way to build on a budget IMO.

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Tires and oil cooler.


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First thing, I'd spend a good month or two with it as is and read everything you can in here before touching anything.
There isn't much out there that hasn't already been done in here satisfyingly or regretted over.
Learn from others mistakes and successes.
Or if you got money burning a hole in your pocket, just go into the classifieds in here where people are unloading costly
mistakes they made and have a field day.

Max performance summers and an E85 tune.

Yeah, I've been looking into the Indy 500s heard they were good FL tires and rain is a definite concern here, thanks for the input!

I'll let you know how it is once I get it in, hoping this week :bow:

My brother was telling me to go to the classifieds as well :laughabove:

Since you already have a catback/muffler delete/whatever, that would be my no.1. After that, wheels and tires are awesome. Taillights are extremely easy to put in too. Alot easier than headlights bc the front bumper needs to come off.

Tyres and alignment solution for your use.

"Good" coil overs with appropriate spring rates and valving to suit your use, if you want to drop it a bit, 15mm is working well for me.

Full OEM exhaust decat

Some time on the dyno tuning

With the money saved from "not" buying things that give "questionable" performance gains, you can find a "good" tuner to who can actually tune.

But, as stated, research.

Find what the local racers are doing, generally track guys only use parts that actually make a difference.

Everyone on the interwebs will tell you to do what they have done, just like I just did....

Some of "my" truths

Catback is just for noise

UEL headers are a well marketed gimmick that makes fluid dynamics and thermal dynamics cry.

Manufacturers will use marketing to lie to you.

Finally, don't piss money away on a cheap disposable sports car, spend a bit to make it yours, yes, but ensure you stick to your budget.

In 3 to 5 years you will most likely have a different car, even if you think "I'm going to keep this car forever", LOL, YEAH NAH.

OFT should be your first purchase.

Best mod - Oil catch cans and tires.

Worst mods - Cold air intake and brake booster delete

first big mod was a shift knob. it made it mine. second big mod was the driver mod. drive it for at least a year daily if possible, with changing nothing. understand the chassis and the platform first, especially on the oem tires, and the positive and negative attributes will make themselves known.

curious if you've got more info on this somewhere? i'd like to read it

uhhh ( 3 month ownership, everything driving dynamic and input was swapped)


Opps


Favorite first mod: Anything Driver input, so shift knob or pedal kit
Worst First Mod: cheap coilovers. OR Cold air intakes

There are 100's of papers, multiple how too's and other various guides on how to design and build a exhaust header.

The whole "tuned length" bit seems to get pushed out with good marketing.

Give them a read, all about torque curves, rpm, hp, primary lengths, secondary lengths, collector design, yada yada yada.

Every single one states to attempt to acheive a equal length in runner length to help with flow.

Lots of talk about reversion, sound waves, pulses, 4:1, 4:2:1, exhaust temps and other groovy stuff.

I actually had a play with a Tomei UEL header vs a OEM header with the cat punched out.

I found the OEM header performed better.

And that is a OEM header with the compromises in the pipe lengths due to the need of fitting in a cat.

It wasn't until the WRX STI turned up that the sound of a poorly designed exhaust header became fashionable.

Prior to the Rex the only other car that sounded like that was a VW beetle, who's exhaust was designed that way because of packaging and cost.

Opinions may vary

Why was the WRX STI header designed this way, from talking to some old rally guys it was about packaging and available room.

Opinions may vary

Why do the ACE headers and other top of the line headers feature so prominently in motorsport?

Hell, a UEL header is basically a excellent example of how "not" to design a exhaust header.

Opinions may vary.

Our racing series here, they all run EL.

The Jap STI, EL.

Nearly every man and their dog swaps the UEL header on the EJ for a EL.

Why do manufacturers still sell the UEL header? the sound....and the fact that with enough good marketing, some companies sell a exposed pod filter and call it a performance upgrade.

Disclaimer: opinions may vary

Best cosmetic upgrade : take off front license plate. Looks better, saves weight.
Cost = about 1 minute of your time, and a little energy = 10 calories maybe.

I'm going to keep my car forever.

I'm not in the same league as some of fanatical modders on this forum... I've done the following, no regrets:


Tomei UEL header
Berk fast cat fp
Miltek op
Takeda CAI
EucTek tune
Eibach sportlines
Eibach spacers
Negative camber bolts
STI Group N engine and transmission mounts
Williams Ceramic coating..


The car looks standard.. only other "fanatics" clock the different look.

The most bang for your buck that I have found is running E85. You only need the OFT to tune it.

This right here.

E85 and obviously some real tires.

Are you kidding or did you really do this?

I mounted Indy 500s after my MPSSs went. I'm very happy with them overall. Good in the often-heavy Florida rain.

FYI: Illegal in many jurisdictions and just gives the local constabulary an easy reason to pull you over and look for other offenses.
Don't ask me how I know . . .

This is an initial estimate. Both time and monetary investment will likely increase shortly after being pulled over. :(

Better tires
Hood struts
Arm rest

Oh I didn't realize these were things you had to have done, they were just what I think are the worst mods for this platform

I dont.... *sigh*

I dont think the brake booster delete is a "bad" mod. typically its done on one of two mindsets

Shaven Engine bay ( bad mod)
Better Braking feel

The dirt fish guys all have brake booster deletes and are running slightly better masters ( think ) for better feel under braking. and while yes you have to really push the brake pedal to make the car stop your control is almost unlimited. and when you get used to it, it doesnt matter
the whole boosted portion is for comfort on daily driving.

I totally get that it has a purpose. I just think compared to just about any other mod a normal person would do to their car, it's one of the worst. People would argue that adding a turbo, or going hellaflush, or adding a roll cage are bad. They all have a purpose, it's just that the niche for brake booster delete is certainly the smallest on my opinion :)

I agree the brake booster delete is definitely a small niche.

are those much louder than the mpss over choppy or rough pavement? or about the same. considering those for my next set though i've always have either michelins or bridgestones.

to answer OP, i would go with exhaust as first mod. sounds too much like a tractor stock.

Not louder at all. Went from MPSS to them and the only thing happened was I have more grip now. I might have had a bad set of MPSS but I would slide all over in them.
In wet it was really bad. Two or three times I did a 360 making a u-turn in the rain....not fun. Also if I remember correctly, it was just under 10k miles they lasted. The current
set of Indy 500s are almost at the same 10k and they easily have another 15-20k miles in them still even with my aggressive driving.

I've always been boggled by this when reading about our cars and UEL's, so when people say the UEL is better for torque and the EL better for top end, is there any truth to that?

I'm sorry for your troubles, there are practically no rules in FL :iono:

In the early life cycle of this platform that was the case. Once manufacturers like ACE and JDL started developing 4-2-1 EL headers they have proven to be a straight upgrade in every way over UEL in terms of performance.
Edit I forgot about PTuning.

A custom tune is required to get the best out of them.

Oh Gawd....lmao no worries here, I'd rather not have one at all honestly.

Do you know if OFT makes tunes for such headers?

Not that I'm aware of. The generic OFT tunes aren't optimized properly.
My understanding is that the cam tables are entirely different.

You could use ECUTEK and custom tune that way. Delicious has a ace header specific tune you can run. I believe counter space garage has a package available with header+tune.

You could just design the EL header for where you want the power.

For a UEL header, I found no advantage, science says it's bad, race engine/exhaust builders say it's bad, internet on the other hand is of two minds.

I have found that the internet is generally waffle.

IMO the best looking pre-fabed headers on the market look like ACE.

ACE have different headers for different HP levels, rim sizes and final drives, both 4:1 and 4:2:1

Plus a tuned header keeps the fluid and thermal dynamic gods happy.

But not my wallet.

Me, If I could justify spending the coin (most likely $2.5-3k) to try another header, a ACE 350 looks like a good bit of kit with alot of though gone into the design.

Pity about the cost to get one to my door.

But as I don't race for sheep stations I'll just deal with my comprised catless OEM 4:2:1 ELish header.

TL;DR this linky explains the basics much better than I ever could > https://www.onallcylinders.com/2015/...header-tuning/