Easily Reversible Mods

[Westen]

Hey folks,

I would like to mod my BRZ to get a little bit more power out of it but I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be keeping the car. I might bring it up with me to college in New Hampshire from Texas next year, or I might sell it and buy an 80's Chevy truck.

Are there any easily reversible mods I can do to add a little bit of power? I haven't done a ton of work on cars before but I want to start. I've changed a lot of fluids (oil, brakes, etc) and I'm pretty comfortable with brakes in general. Right now I'm thinking catback exhaust and a CAI to start to add a bit more power, but I'm not sure how hard it is to reverse these.

Also would like to paint my brake calipers yellow, but I'm not sure if that would effect the value of the car.

Thanks y'all!

[kberkel]

CAI is unnecessary IMO. Catback or axleback is super easy to reverse, but you probably won't feel a difference in power.

Header + OFT will be good bang for your buck. A header swap doesn't take that long, surely reversible. About $1000 for both

[ryoma]

don't paint anything since that is more permanent. especially yellow brakes since you are limiting your potential buyers market to people who like yellow brakes.

swapping over any exhaust components are pretty easy as long as you keep your stock parts. like kberkel suggested, headers and an OFT tune are extremely simple mods. the header only took me about 1 hour to do. the tricky thing is the overpipe but if you take off the heat shields first, it can slide out really easy.

as for intake, just put in a drop-in filter. I personally sold my Grimmspeed CAI for a Perrin drop-in filter lol.

[cdq85]

Engine swaps are pretty simple. A LS motor just bolts right in !

[SPCorBUST]

Header, supercharger, e85. Easy on, easy off, all of them. You would make north of 300 whp and maybe not sell the car anymore.

Or, just do a header and e85 tune via OFT. Cheapest route to good gains.

Intake and cat back are nigh pointless.


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[tracerit]

i've done the catback and cai mods and i agree with everyone else, you're not gonna get much gains compared to a header and tune. my perrin catback looks good and sounds nice. my perrin cai sounds awesome and there was a noticeable stronger pull past 5k RPM. if you do any of those mods, don't buy new. i bought my perrin cai for $315 and now it's only worth $200 or so lol

[rookie]

I would also say no to CAI and exhaust.

I like the tune and header idea.

[Atropine]

I am going to be the old man I guess...

If you are about to go to college, save your money for college.

If your parents are paying for college, consider yourself lucky...and save your money to eat out or to take a girlfriend to dinner and movies etc...

Really, depending on what you think is "inexpensive" or "Easily reversible" easy stuff doesn't really provide actual gains. Such as a drop in filter may make it sound a little better, but won't change your actual HP.

If you did E85 and a Tune that WOULD actually make a difference though. Not sure if this is what you had in mind.

About yellow calipers...don't do it. It would limit your buyers if you decided to sell it.

I will use me as an example:
Lets say I was looking at buying a lightly used FR-S or BRZ. And one had painted calipers and one didn't. I would bet that the one with painted calipers had other stuff done to it as well...that may not have been done professionally.
I would not really consider the painted caliper one. I have seen too many threads with bastardized looking cars with weird paint colors or partial wraps. There was a guy on here who claimed to make 221 NA HP (I won't mention his name) and if you just look at his timeline, I would be afraid to buy a car from someone like that.
By painting your calipers you would be associated with guys like that potentially.

Anyway enjoy your car either way, enjoy school. And if you sell your car and get a older Truck, that's cool too. You can always get another sportscar or even another twin when you are done with school and making more money.

[Mim]

You could also include lighter wheels as something that could be taken off at a later time (for your next project perhaps). Quality drop in filter for the stock CAI and a set of Crawford power blocks if looking to stay with the stock tune.

I'm a huge fan of changing the FD gears for an easy .5 to 1 sec faster acceleration on their own, but it would be a hassle and a bit costly to swap back over. Not all go faster mods have to relate to the engine is the point I'm making. You could even get some of that faster gearing effect with smaller diameter wheels / tires like going to 16's.

I would also head over to the FI sub section and have a read of the electric supercharger. This owners thread has a bunch of great links and might prove to be an interesting option as its easy to reverse. http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66862

[zc06_kisstherain]

this car is not honda so Intake does not give much hp gain. header will give you most hp gain. i would just leave stock alone and enjoy driving if you dont know whehter keeping it or not

[Westen]

Judging by everyone's input, I'm thinking the move is going to be UEL header and an OFT tune. I already find the car a lot of fun to drive and this should just add to it a little more and give me some much-needed experience. How is the used parts market for UEL headers for these cars? Can you even get a used OFT?

I really want to mod this car right now, but keeping it stock is something I should give some thought to until I'm certain I'll be keeping it long-term. It's definitely the smarter option money-wise.

Also, if I take the car up with me to New Hampshire, I must get a set of winter tires. As a native Texan, I'm completely inexperienced in winter driving and the price of the tires is more than worth it for my safety and not wrecking the car. I'm thinking if I do that I'll put winter tires on the stock wheels, but I feel like swapping out winter/summer tires every year is going to be a worse deal in the long run than getting a new set of wheels and just swapping the wheels myself.

[MisterSheep]

Drop-in filter,
Headers,
Open Flash Tablet

CAI is unnecessary
Catback is purely for noise only.

[daiheadjai]

Intake/drop-in filter and Axleback for sound (if you like, and can find a decent deal).
Camber bolts from Subaru (no point reversing it, but a good step up in cornering prowess).
MTEC shift springs
TRD Quickshifter (installs under the car, and can be reversed)
Wheels/tires

[unplugged]

Originally Posted by zc06_kisstherain

this car is not honda so Intake does not give much hp gain. header will give you most hp gain. i would just leave stock alone and enjoy driving if you dont know whehter keeping it or not

This - if you only plan on keeping it a very short time, I would probably not invest much in the car.

At most, I would pick up the open flash tablet - $500 and gets you more gains then intake or exhaust system. And you can bring it with you to another car.

It's easily reversible and will probably get you a higher resale value if you don't end up wanting it later on.