History: Well it all started a couple of months after I got the car, I had gotten used to the power (I moved up from a Hyundai 90 hp 4 cylinder so yes it was a lot to me), and had been reading up on different things to do to the car...I had never worked on a car before and was mechanically stupid at the time.
MOD# 1: I noticed porting was a very popular thing to do, so after reading several internet articles on porting and some Barnes and Nobel books I broke out the Dremel and smoothed the casting on the upper and lower intake. I also half shafted the throttle body at the same time. I was very disapointed, I felt no gains (99+ v6 intakes are not very restrictive on a stock car).
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MOD#2: Several months later someone gave me a densecharger CAI, and spurred new life into me, having feeling a decent gain.
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Mod#3: I wanted a little more sound from my car, and as much hp gain as possible. After reading up I decided on Borla, they flow the best at the lowest DB level. Not a lot of power gain on a v6 here, but a nice sound for sure!!
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Mod#4: I noticed a lot of people were putting a different gear ratio in their car. I decided upon 3.73 gears, being a good middle-of-the-road choice between performance and gas mileage. After reading up extensively I decided to attempt to install them myself. This was a good learning experience however there were things that i still could not do on my own, expecially without a lift, or a press, such as putting the new bearings on or crushing the crush collar to the proper spec, after making a couple of "help me out" trips to the local garage, I finished up the install in about a weekend and was fairly satisfied by the results, however I still wanted more....
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Mod#5: After much convincing and reassurance that my motor would not blow up I put a 75 shot of nitrous on the car. fun stuff!
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Mod#6: 23 Jun 2003 1.8 Roller Rockers were my next mod of choice, and after receiving them in the mail I went home and bolted them on. This was probably my favorite bolt on. It seemed like the higher RPMs pulled harder and it gained some TQ. I was very satisfied with this mod. I dynoed 175 rwhp here, without the nitrous.
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Mod#7: After doing the RR I had convinced myself that opening up the valves a little more would result in another decent gain. A 207/215 cam and better springs were on order. Anxious to jump into this project I begin tearing into the motor before the weekend. Wrapping up on sunday I started to have a lot of problems with stuff such as incorrect pushrod length, rockers coming loose, bending pushrods and a slew of other things. After finally working everything out I was disapointed, the car not being tuned lacked a lot of power. I dynoed 181 rwhp with no tune, no nitrous.
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Mod#8: After the disapointing dyno results I went straight out and bought some underdrive pullies to make me feel better.
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Mod#9: Oct 25 2003 A chip was on order! Diablo made me a chip for all my mods and after plugging the chip in I was very satisfied with the results. Everything was now working together, and I was a happy camper. I had gotten my missing TQ back and the top end gained some too, and my car quit loping as much.
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Mod#10: Oct. 27, 2003 I bought a 7.5 T-Loc for the car to help get the power to the ground, no more one wheel burn outs!!
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Mod#11: Nov 30 2004 I went over a year without really doing anything to the car, my wife had a baby, and money was in other places. After going a while I had really wanted to do something, I saw I had a big tax return coming, so I took an advance on it and bought a turbo. It was a custom made kit from Andy Littleton (TMA preformance). A t3/t4 turbo with Tial 38mm and a Bosh BOV. dynoed at 275 rwhp on 4.4 psi no intercooler, 350 rwhp on 10 psi with an intercooler.
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Mod History
