First Few Mods
 

First post on the forum! I don't even have my FRS yet, waiting on my current car to run out of life (so I'm driving it a little harder than I should admittedly) but I am already anxious to start my mod projects. I want to have some fun DIY bolt on stuff and feel a noticable difference in power to feel as if something was accomplished but do not want to spend a forture (ie going FI).

I have read alot on this forum and it seems like for the bang for your buck, I should start with headers; most likely Tomei. For some increased sound and flow I was thinking about just doing the axle back. At the same time as the headers I would go with a OFT stage 2 tune and a drop in filter probably HKS.

How does this plan of action sound to the guys out there who have been there done that?

it sounds exactly how the people reported in the threads you read about.. welcome ;)

Sounds pretty good. I myself am taking a similar route I have the greddy sp elite axle back, and K&N filter. Going to add headers next but don't forget some new tires/rims can be a nice visual upgrade and performance upgrade.

How do you like the Greddy? Do you notice a different in output with the axle back and drop in? And what kind of headers do you like? I have read alot about the borla's tomei's and nameless and I feel like the tomei might be the forum favorite.

i would never recommend an off the shelf tune for anyone.

I thought the OFT stage 2 was a pretty solid way to go esp for those that have no prior tuning experience? Why is this a bad route?

works wonderfully for me.

The greddy sp elite sounds perfect its adds some more bass to the sound note especially you go wot its a nice deep growl, with zero drone. The K&N filter increased the throttle response so my car definitely feels faster than stock even with my snow tires on. For headers I'm looking at FT86 catted uel headers just so I don't have to deal cel codes from going catless.

Honestly I have done what you are listing and its just not worth it. You are going to spend 50-75% of the cost for a used supercharger kit and get 20% of the power. Save your money up and buy a used supercharger kit. You can get them on here with everything you need for less than $4k pretty regularly.

Why ??

For NA guys with basic mods they represent good value. You get probably 90% plus of possible gains for far less cost and hassle, especially for people not located near a reputable tune shop.

Even for FI , Ecutek/OFT ect guys are offering OTS tunes for FI kits

This is a really good point. Amateur question here..there is a cat in the headers and downpipe on the stock exhaust? If that's the case if you go to catless headers then it will throw a code is that right? If you do have catless headers will you still be alright with emissions testing? I know you are NJ and I'm PA so i'm not sure the differences in the law specifics.

Remember kids, altering the factory header and/or the catalytic converter is illegal under federal law.

So is going 1mph over the limit.

Yea we have to 2 cats without the cat in the header people usually get cel codes. And I dont know if you would pass emissions for PA you guys emissions testing is way more extensive than NJ's. We don't pay for ours and it literally takes 5 minutes of seeing if your exhaust gases meet regulations.