New to cars please give advice
 

Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong sub forum, but I'm new here. I don't have a car yet but a BRZ/86 is my dream car. I'm still a little hazy on how exhaust systems work, so if I were to get a Tomei extreme UEL header setup with a cat back exhaust would that be ok for a starting setup? What if I wanted to go forced induction later?

Yes. That's fine. You will need a tune if you replace the headers. If you replace just cat back you won't

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starting setup for what? the best 'starting setup' is the stock exhaust system. there's really no need to change unless you're after a specific sound characteristic. and that is entirely personal preference, and no different than asking us if a red car is faster/better than a white car. opinions will vary, but be largely unimportant.

it depends entirely on what kind of forced induction system you go with. a turbo setup replaces the header.

Buy a car that has forced induction from the factory. Dont screw around with an 86 unless you have lots of money. I like my frs but if you're modding a car before you buy it you might as well get something higher spec off the showroom

Welcome to the group, there, prandall2460 - :clap:

I would first suggest you get the car.

Then, after it's broke in, determine what you want it to do better/different, if anything.

If you are going to drive it in Ohio this winter, I'd suggest a set of winter tires.

If you decide you just want to hear a little bit more sound coming out of the back, a axle back or cat back muffler swap may suit your pleasure.

Like the old hog farmer from Ohio once said "the more you mess with the cars engine, the more it will mess with you".

;)

If you're new to cars then spend some time with the stock car before you start blowing money on mods that could ruin the car.

1) Your first "mod" should be the driver mod. Learn to drive the car at its limit so you can learn what you need more out of the car first.
2) Your second mod should be tires. The most performance gain you'll notice is a good set of sticky tires.
3) Read into UEL vs EL headers. If you care about performance then EL is the better option to get rid of the torque dip. UEL runs the cylinders hotter and I personally find the boxer rumble obnoxious and does not suit this car (love it on the bigger STi though).
4) I would stop at header + exhaust + tune when it comes to power mods. Forced Induction is a headache and a money pit as it impacts your reliability. You won't be able to enjoy the car at its limit with the added power from FI either.

I love the car as it is from the factory. The chassis is precise and playful enough to make me want to improve my own driving skills rather than adding power. That's the whole point of this car.

I agree with N Raged

My two cents,
The price for performance gains on these cars is just not worth it.
It's 40% cosmetic, 45% noise, 15% "peak" performance. If you like those odds go for it.

Also future tip on cars, the more you mod it, the less reliable it gets.

Buy the car first without any mod plans, drive and get familiar with it for at least a year. FA20 is a highly optimized NA engine. There are very few other NA engines that give 100 hp per liter. That is why a header and other mods will not give any substantial gain more to 15-20 hp. FI modifications are also hard with this engine because of its high compression design. If you will do FI in the end, start with FI and choose every other mod based on the FI decision. Look at the FI kit cost and if spending three times that money would be a problem, don't do FI.

but as others said, FI is at least a $5-8k cost above the car, and if you simply add that cash together, you can get a much higher performance car from the factory, which means a higher reliability.

I paid 5K more to replace the valve springs out of warranty and recall. They could have failed without FI as well but I can't argue about it once I void the warranty.

I still don't regret FI but I am not sure how others can tolerate such a situation. That is why I wrote that expense can be substantially more than the just the cost of FI.

How old are you, OP?

agree with all of the above. The only "power" mod i intend to do is what that majority of owners plan to, header + tune not for the power, but to smooth out that factory torque dip so the car has a more linear delivery. After that it'll just be suspension/brakes if anything and maybe a little rice.

saltywetman: majority drives cars stock (or at most limiting to minor mods like wheels/shift knobs/air fresheners/audio headunits). majority is not on this forum either, majority don't track theirs. What's on this forum is not exactly right statistical representation.
It's just like with flaws, they often get voiced, while problemless working often is considered norm and never posted about, so often generating misimpression as if some product might have been problem-ridden POS even if in reality it's relatively rare occurance.

Don't get this car if you're all about horsepower and beating other cars from a dig.

Get this car if you want a fun, balanced and well handling car with endless modding capabilities.