Well, I have had my 04 MCS since new and 17,000 miles later I still enjoy driving it everyday, but I need more power. When she was about 3 months old, I put a 15% pulley on it and changed out the runflats/wheels to some lighter ones. That satisfied my needs for a while. I also bought a cheap Ebay air intake, but didnt really notice any difference and didnt like the quality, so i put the stock air box back in and left it. Without having to read this forum for a week to decipher what people have done and what works and what kinda works can you guys help me out? Lets say my budget is around $500 and I already have the pulley installed. I build custom cars http://custom-musclecars.com for a living, so I will perform all the labor, and have access to most tools, fab/welding shop etc Heres my questions:

• K&N Drop in filter or CAI? Realistic how much hp difference?
• Any pcm tuning worth it? My Ford lightning really picked up big numbers with a tune and CAI, why cant the MCS? Im willing to even send off my pcm if I have to. I hear the shark isnt that impressive.
• Spark plugs: Iridium makes any noticable difference with 15 psi boost, what heat range?
• Exhaust: not noisy like a 16 yos Honda civic, i like the stock exhaust sound, do cat backs make decent hp numbers? What about a muffler only swap?
• Do i need an oil catch can? I know everyone did it on the SC Lightnings also.
• No N20! What about intercooler mods, any DIY things that work? Whats the typical AIT difference with an aftermarket IC?

My goal would be to pickup another 15-25hp for $500, is this a realistic goal?
Thanks in advance!

 

If you can do your own work, then I would just pull the head, do a full port/polish, and drop in some oversize valves. Spend a little more time to match it up with your itake and exhaust manifolds, and you are probably adding another 25hp easy. Gasket, valves, guides and seals will probably come in way under $500.

 

with an ECU tune it is Realistic or simply going to smaller SC pulley or Larger Crank pulley

 

i would agree with everything said ex[ect the par about getting 3-10 HP by one balling the exhaust, i would say you would see 2-4 HP

 

 

Instead of an aftermarket intake, I did a drop in panel replacement, and modded my stock airbox:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ight=honeycomb

Testing of the one ball modded stock exhaust versus pricey catbacks have shown that it outflows some of them: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...23&postcount=9

 

Thanks for the info guys, I think im gonna go with a Pro Dry drop in filter, add another 2.5" hole from the air box to the cowl, one ball exhaust, then a custom tune. Hopefully this will get me where i need to be. There is a local guy who designs cams and cylinder heads for the big 3 as well as development on F1 cars and Porche racing in Germany. He has had a MCS head for a few years, and has started developing port improvements by making plaster casting of the ports, then porting the head and checking it on the flowbench to make improvements. I think he may have done one cylinder then put it off to the side. I may have to talk him out of that head or get another bare head for him to work on as it may take a while to get one complete.
Custom tunes cost $500 without even dynoing the car?? Wow, how much does the software cost?? I think i would want some hard part (like the shark) to justify spending that kind of money. My mods are not out of the ordinary, i would assume they would have a flash ready to go that would work perfect for my situation?? For that kinda money, i would expect a pretty decent improvement right? My front tires only cost $150 a set, so I dont mind changing them once a year!

 

 

Why not just stick a pulley on it? 120 dollars or so for the pulley and if you have a friend who is good with cars you can do it in a few hours yourself. That is good for about 15hp.

 

He already did.

 

Well dont I fell silly now.

 

How embarassing.

 

I also have a 04 S, I've done a 1-ball exhaust( $60.00 and 20 min out the door) and picked up a PiperCross CAI for $75.00 new, so I've resonably picked up at least 10HP for less than $150.00. Also put in the MossMini BigAir Modified Cowling panel($60.00? I think,yea splurged on that, just didnt want to cut a hole in stock one) to increase the air flow. Need to dyno it and see what I got now. You said you've got the shop etc, if you got some exhaust pipe (a 90 about 2ft long) laying around and a welder and the know how, you've got a one ball for next to nothing!! I'd do that first thing, I love how mine is now, throaty if ya nail it, but nice and quiet when ya want.

 

Get an aftermarket exhaust and a ALTA CAI. That got my jollys off.

 

The one ball exhaust is proving to be more difficult than I thought. I figured if what everyone says is true and the muffler shops can do it in 20 minutes for under $60, its not worth my time to do it myself. However, after stopping at two local muffler shops with diagrams and pictures of what i want to do, they act like deer in the headlights, and their shops were completely empty!! There are very few craftsmen or people left in my town that think outside the box, if its not easy or straight forward, they cant do it! We make everything from scratch on our cars, and very seldom sub anything out. But since i dont have access to a tight radius tubing bender right now, i was gonna let the muffler shop take care of it, now I guess I gotta get the 2.5" pipe bent then weld it in myself, no big deal, but i would rather leave the simple stuff to the local shops.

 

I believe someone sells a pre-bent One ball pipe, search the "one ball exhaust" threads I'm sure I saw one there, (or someone here knows offhand)

 

 

Here ya go:

http://myminiparts.com/proddetail.php?prod=MRE&cat=7