All,

Well, not exactly. I did work for it and the guy paid me a little extra bonus for getting it done ahead of time.

Hey! I have to spend this on the car before the wife finds out!

I currently have the 15% Pulley, Madness Intake, Madness (early) rear Swaybar, HSport Springs and a Quaife LSD. I also have Kosei K1's with decent rubber.

I'm thinking my next step is the Milltek Header/Exhaust, Alta Intercooler and Koni's. Or should I wait on the Koni's and get Bilsteins or Ledas? I autocross about 15 times a season and I'm not too shabby IMHO but like everyone else I want just a liiiiiittle more stick.

Thanks for any reply!

 

donate it to a starving college student

 

LOL, that would be safer but not more fun.

 

Leda Coilovers would be an awesome next step. A solid BBK too!

 

Open the head and play with the fun bits.

 

With $3600 I would do a head/ schrick cam and get a BBK.

Or of course you could just buy 10,800 cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and make a LOT of friends. I have to say Pabst (NOT the genuine draft or light ones) is actually a lot better than people give it credit for. Plus by the time you are on #10,799 you and a thousand (or more) new and close friends won't care

Just an idea.

Patrick

 

not only that, but you'ld have $540 back from the empties to buy mods with!

 

A head is a good thing, but it's a bit of a chore if you do it yourself and a real drag to pay all that money to have someone else do it. But it's a good mod.

I would;

• Dump the madness intake and replace with complete Alta.
• Milltek header/cat and catback
• Alta large intercooler (An oil catch can is a must with a new intercooler)
• Denso IK22 plugs
• And most importantly, if you want to get all of this running at 100%, get the Unichip from Webb.
• Alta short shift (love this mod)

 

I've been considering dumping the Madness; it's been good but it was the first one on the market and I'm sure it's been improved upon.

How does the MTH mod compare to the Unichip? MTH is like 74 bucks and the Unichip is 10 times that. Do they compare in performance? Is the Unichip better? One thing that is neat about the MTH is it removes the top speed limiter and I have proof of that.

Oil catch can, why do you recommend this with the IC change?

I agree with the short shift - it's awesome. I did this when the LSD went in (you're there anyway) and it took some getting used to but I'd never go back.

Thanks all!

 

I can't do the BBK because I run 15" for autox. Oh well. I can put B.B. King in the CD Player though. (snort)

I'm just a bit worried that the Leda's might be a waste because I'm not Michael Schumacher - I just have fun and want to be competitive. I'm thinking Koni.

Thanks!

 

"I have $3600 and not sure what to do with it...." brag brag brag....brag brag brag brag...

jk


I would do the Koni's too instead of the coilover kits unless you need to
raise the height during the winter or pinpoint corner weighted. the
H-sports settle pretty much flat, so I don't see the need for coilovers
on this car. For street, I don't think I really need Koni's either though...


im doing my G35c's springs tonight. I will be TEINed again.

 

Gaaa, I tried to not make it sound boastful.

Do you still have your Unichip? Think it was "worth it"?

 

Well that's better than investing in tech stocks between 2000-2003. So really that would be an investment no?

 

You and I have similar mods.. If it were me I would go for power upgrades. I don't have the LSD and even I have traction left for more power. I would get:

Cylinder Head w/schrick cam
Unichip
Throttle body
Header and Exhaust

And find someone who will help you install it for a case of beer. I'm sure you could work a good deal if you bought all of the above from the same vendor.

 

I wouldn't dump the madness intake for an alta. You are lucky if you see 1 to 2 more hp over the madness. That is a lot of money for 1 or 2hp. I wouldn't get the Alta intercooler. It is too expensive. I would get the GSR intercooler, which is about $250 cheaper, or bug RDR to release his which should be in the $500 range. The GSR intercooler is really nice and has some good documented numbers with it.

jlm, got some nice head work with larger exhaust valves done by TOO. He then got larger injectors and played with the fuel maps with the a piggyback unit. He got some really nice gains. You open up those exhaust valves and match it with the Miltek header, it would really be nice. He added a larger intercooler and was seeing some serious hp numbers. So I would get:

Ooopps. To much money.

You didn't tell any of us what you are looking for out of the upgrade. Do you want more power? Better handling?, better ride?...

 

Give it head, er, get head, er, install a new cylinder head ...good bang for your buck. Coil overs run real stiff, not sure I'd do it on a daily driver. IMO

 

If you want better handling on the track, I'd go with Konis. However, there was a recent thread somewhere about a new coilover kit made a Swedish company with distro out of the UK - apparently more comfy than the PSS9s at full soft and nastier on full stiff. They're called AST and you can find them here: http://www.powerstation.org.uk. Look under BMW for the MINI application, and the prices are high because they include the 17.5% VAT (yow) that we don't pay.

Also, I have heard great stuff about the B3 brakes from RLMini - they may even fit under some 15s. Dunno.

IMHO I'd spend some dough on having the head done, but without a cam. You won't wring too much more out of any cams on the market, and thus you'll save some serious cash there. Just opening the exhaust ports will net you more than an exhaust, my bet.

You can pick up an ALTA i/c from jscspeed for $765 plus s/h. The GRS motorsport still might be cheaper, though, especially in light of the recent price drop on the ALTA.

If you have a 15% pulley, you might want to consider 19%, unless you already have it and mentioned it. See how lazy I am? I just glance through the other replies...

You can do a LOT with $3600.

To maximize the amount of stuff you can get, I'll do a little breakdown of my own here:

19% pulley $105 (JSCSpeed)
M7 injectors $400
Apex'i SAFC II $319 (JSCSpeed)
ALTA TMIC $765 (JSCSpeed

So there's $1600 if you install it all yourself, though the SAFCII will require dyno tuning for A/F ratio - figure another $2-300.

You can get a Magnaflow exhaust cheap, maybe around $550-$600, and get yourself to a HPDE event for another $400 or so.

Then you STILL have about $600 lying around for more gas.

Marty

 

Think I will do the Milltech header+exhaust and a set of big brake kit, that will add up about $3600.

 

Call Webb Motors, Randy will "Hook you up!" You get a 2 year warranty.

 

the TOO head with larger valves was about $1,500; (cam is not required) 440cc injectors require the Apex'i piggy and a dyno session, total of $750; header another $750. Add about $300 for extrude honing and port matching your intercooler snoots. should give you 200+ wheel hp which equates to about 230 craanky, if you want to brag more.

 

jlm -


do you advise going w/ larger valves? sounds like that's the case - take advantage of bigger ports with bigger valves. the exhaust config on these heads seems like it is so restrictive that just about anything will help open it up.

what is TOOs turnaround time like?

thanks

Marty

 

Heh - good point. :smile:

I daily drive the car so I won't do anything too crazy. What does that mean? Well it's pretty subjective but here goes. The Magnaflow was too loud IMO and my 5 year old complained about it. I LOVE the HSport springs and don't find them too stiff even over big bumps. I knew the 15% pulley would be a safe enough mod (I was one of the first) and I've been nothing but happy with it.

To answer you directly, I want more power and just a little more stick for autox. I rarely hit the track. (2 times a season?)

 

19% will give you more torque at earlier rpms - nice for a car that sees auto-x and street use but little track use - you won't be bouncing off the rev limiter quite so much so it's safe. seems like the belt breakage issues on the 19% cars are happening during prolonged track usage.


LSD for more grip.

mayeb ECU if you like, MTH has a program for 19%.

Marty

 

The head may be too much for your application. It would give the biggest bang for the buck but is much more involved than say a header or chip. Its whatever your into though.

I don't know what wheels you run, but you might check into losing some unsprung weight (and seeing sice gains). $3600 would get you most any wheel plus some left over for those konis. Driveability could be much improved too (small, light).

 

you guys reading post #1???