Spring upgrades?
 

Hey guys/gals. Well, the winter in Chicago has been... interesting to say the least. Although I dumped some cash into getting my winter tires/wheels (good idea btw), I have been able to scrape together a few hundred bucks to get a few upgrades.:happyanim: Outside of already installing the K&N drop in filter 2 days after getting the car in June, my next upgrade will be the Greddy SP Elite axle-back exhaust system. Any comments on it for the folks that have it? After that, I was thinking some sort of intake tubing... I really want to get rid of the sound generator tubing and the generator itself. It also seems like a new intake system is both pointless/pain in the butt. I'm not going to BS anyone and pretend like I know a lot about performance upgrades but wouldn't those 3 at least improve overall HP a bit? Any CEL's? I have looked at dyno sheets for all 3 and am still trying to make sense of the number gains. Would an inlet hose be worth it? Specifically the Perrin one. I plan to do upgrades slowly and would like to reach at least 230 HP to the wheels when it's all said and done (staying NA). Header, over-pipe and whatever the middle piece is called would be replaced with a larger diameter possibly next year. Tune if necessary (still trying to wrap my head around tuning). Any help/suggestions would be appreciated. :D

I'm no expert either but I will say you won't get that kind of extra HP without a tune considering the 200 advertized hp is at the crank not the wheels.

Sorry mate but 230 whp without FI or replacing engine internals is just impossible unless it's some crazy E85 tune which will kill your engine very quickly. 200 whp is an achievable target though. Especially if you have E85 available.

Re mods that you are planning - those will not cause any CELs, don't worry. But don't expect any notable improvements from a Perrin inlet hose and axelback alone, apart from look, a bit different intake sound (maybe), good exaust note and sound tube deletion. 3-5 hp max at 7000 rpm which is almost within the margin of error of a dyno.

I have an SP Elite. Only had it on my car since Monday. I personally like the sound. It's definitely one of the quieter exhausts, but it's you're trying to keep the factory characteristics with just a fuller sound then you'll love it.
Also, the sound is said not to fully open up until about 800-1000 miles. Not sure why exactly, but at first you won't hear a huge difference. After it opens up it's said to be more full sounding.

I don't think you get much gains from it. A lot of people who want more power suggest not going with it because there's not a mid pipe that fits it or something. I don't know too much about it but that's what I've read.

You can find a lot more information on the SP Elite in the Exhaust section. There's at least 3 recent threads talking about it.

Also, there's a 7 min YouTube video of a guy with an SP Elite showing off the sound. I recommend watching it. It helped me make my decision.

I personally recommend the SuperTek intake tube, which is what I'm running. It's super easy to install, and because it's made of aluminum, it will hold up better than the silicone tubes. One guy here had one of his belts cut right through the Perrin tube. =/

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54710 for his thread.