Help me decide.
 

Alright so I'm about to sell my 2002 SC430 and pick up a new Whiteout MT FR-S. It is going to be an adjustment because my torque on my SC is rated at 320 and this will not have near that much, as you all know. Well, I am looking for some mods to help with the power and of course the sound. Plans right now look like the FT-86 V1 Exhaust + Invidia Catted Front Pipe + Perrin Over Pipe + Borla UEL Header. The same setup that ft-86 speed factory has on their FR-S. Along with that, I will get Toyota emblems, shark fin antenna, hopefully new rims or powdercoat the stock ones, and some lowering springs. I'm open to any recommendations on to stay away from a specific product or if anything is not needed. But I just want to know what would be best to increase power and sound. Would a tune be more beneficial than anything for the power? Is anything I listed not needed to make mor power and just adds sound? Thanks for any help.

Do you want the honest answer, or do you want the one with sugar on top?

Honest.:party0030:

Also, just a drop in filter or full CAI system?

Tune will give you the most gains, not sure the SC430 is anything like the FRS though. I wouldn't apply the same logic from that car to the scion. I'm sure the FRS pulls harder stock.

Oh I know it's nowhere near the same. My car actually pulls harder than the Scion I test drove a few weeks ago. But because of the weight and agility of the FR-S, it won't take much power to overtake the SC. Stock the FR-S would lose in a close drag, but I still just want more power out of it.

I'm not one to look a 1/4 mile times personally. However I suppose its not unlikely that the SC would win. Honestly when it comes to cornering that's where the FRS shines, I could type a mountainous review of the steering feel etc but it wouldn't be news to anyone here.

Heres how you should do the mods, IMO.

Exhaust / intake (or drop in filter) / Tune - If you're going with a FA20 / Visconti tune

If you're going with a piggyback system like the unichip, you can do the mods in any order you'd like. Exhaust (header back) will give you the most gains as far as bolt ons go, for intakes you're only going to see ~6whp depending on which you go with. There's a lot of issues with Bogging / CELs with some intakes and the AFRs aren't always consistent with stock, so I'd do your homework before you chose one. There's a lot of helpful information over in the technical topics. You can also PM members who have the parts installed on their cars, that's whats helped me make a majority of my decisions. Vendors are a wealth of information too.

I haven't done a lot of research on Headers as I want to retain the cat up front, if you go with any aftermarket header on the market now, you'll require a tune to get rid of the CEL thrown by the lack of cat.

Cool, thanks. So the Perrin headerback is probably my best option then? Catted or catless? And is the Visconti tune easy to get back to stock so I don't void warranty?

You can do whatever you want for exhaust. Right now I have a Motivs concepts test pipe laying in my basement. When my tax return rolls in I'll be getting an Invida Q300. (not doing over pipe for now) Brands don't necessarily need to match, some people prefer it - however as for mid pipes there's really no difference between the brands; all dyno within margin of error and construction is about the same. I think perrin's a bit expensive for what it is, just a pipe with two flanges (if you're going testpipe).

There's a 'what exhaust should I get' thread every week, to boil it down for you it goes like this - the difference in gains between them is pretty much negligible, build quality is high from *most* brands represented here on the forum. It all comes down to weight (which varies greatly between options) and sound.

To me weight doesn't make a large difference as I'm getting the exhaust to change the sound, so I went where I thought the best sound was produced.

From my understanding, all tuners on this forum (fa20/visconti) can be flashed to stock. There's been extensive discussion about this on the forum, the consensus is : pay to play. It SHOULDN'T void your warrantee if you flash your car back to stock when you bring it in to service because there's no way for them to see it. However by flashing your ECU you're voiding your warrantee according to the terms of the warrantee.

The TRD supercharger should be out by march they say.


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But it'll probably not help much and cost stupid money, like the Tacoma S/C. I'd like to think it'll up the performance a lot, but knowing their track record, it probably won't.

You can always get a smaller pulley and better intercooler/heat exchanger and get more power. It's not like a supercharger only has one setting.

I know that, but if I were to get any kind of forced induction, I would probably go with an aftermarket turbo or s/c kit rather than the TRD one.