What would you do?
 

You have a stock 2003 touring and have a baby budget of $1,000 (give or take) to put into your z. Your goals are primarily gaining hp/torque, but exhaust sound would be a plus too. What do you buy?

As of now I'm thinking a pop charger, pulleys, plenum spacer and some high flow cats. I'm a z noob, so critique me if I have poor goals for my first mods. Also to those of you with the spacer - would you recommend 5/16 or 1/2", and why?

Exactly

you really shouldve just read a few forums, theres plenty of sticky's that tell you all this info, none the less most of its common knowledge, start with intake/exhaust, move from there, some of the best spent money would probably go to suspension..

get an SRI or CAI, plenum spacer, 5/16" seems most common, probably for a reason... should be left with around $500, spend on an exhaust someone is probably selling on forums you should be able to find a decent one for around 6-800$

try to do more research.. or you will get flamed pretty bad from some of the regulars here...

I've read dozens of threads lol. This isn't a matter of not doing research or not, it's me asking opinions lol. Not too sure why everybody gets so uptight about seeing threads like this, if it bothers you then don't reply. Sorry if you've seen this exact thread or something similar before, don't mean to inconvenience the regulars.... lol. Not directed at you FOOK, cause you actually gave input... just an observation of the forum thus far after researching and reading a bunch of threads.

inb4 more "OP do more research" replies than actual opinions (which is the point of my thread)

I would get all the things you mention except pulley. Those are pretty much useless. Or maybe a spacer and motordyne mrev.

yeah, i wouldnt call myself a "regular" yet, im on here everyday but im no pro on 350z's but ive read a very fair amount about them now. but it seems suspension is the most common suggestions for first mods, but i agree with the other person, pulleys wont do you much good, honestly you should just do "prep" work for FI if you're looking for power, you wont get much n/a unless you have the hr and you could get in range of 300 whp with bolt-ons with a good tune, but the DE, id say do your pistons, injectors, fuel pump, maybe some Head bolts, step colder spark plugs, exhaust, get the MREV2 or p&p and 5/16" spacer then go into getting your turbo, TT or SC, get a good tune, probably a trans cooler, then possibly get the pulleys. dont forget the suspension somewhere before turbo..

$1k is nothing. Ask us again when you have $10k available to use on mods and then we'll talk.

So many combo's but all of them need to come together with a tune. I would get a popcharger, plenum spacer and UpRev tune.

I always do suspension and brakes first. FI will be nothing if you can't stop or you run off the road. Everyone wants to go fast but no one wants to stop.

Get your car up on jack stands and look/inspect the bushings & bearings. My 2003 needed new front wheel bearings, front control arm bushings, rear diff bushing new rotors and pads, oil change, trans oil change when I bought the car. Once all that is done then I'd say get......

Option #1: a JWT Popcharger, Morotdyne Spacer, and uprev (for your budget)
Option #2: Hotchkis Sway bars and Powergrind endlinks (for your budget)

also remember you have the un-revised suspension and will have to be address at some point when you have more money (I am in the research process of which coilovers I will buy to go along with the SPC rear camber arms and the Kinetix front camber arms.)

Get one of these. Some Honda guy in college had one on his Accord and said he made about 40 horsepower to the wheels......

Some good suggestions here. But if I stick to what the OP's goals are, I'd be searching the want ads on this site for an exhaust I like. The CAI won't do much of anything, Nissan did an excellent job of engineering that. The 3/8" spacer allows the OEM strut bar to be used, without rubbing the hood too badly.

The suggestion on suspension upgrades, like swaybars and shocks, will provide the biggest bang for the buck IMO. But inspecting your car up on jackstands could also reveal worn brakes, bearings, bushings, etc. that should be addressed BEFORE buying anything else.

a thousand bucks wont get you much... i have more than double that in just exhaust alone, it will get you an intake and knock off exhaust, or a set off mediocre coilovers....

Use that money to make more money so you can buy non-crap parts.

I would do nothing. I modded in this order: bolt ons, tune, wheels/tires, suspension, body work, brakes.

If I had to do it all over I'd do: suspension, wheels/tires, brakes, bolt ons, tune, body work.

With $1,000 you can't do much in terms of quality suspension upgrades. Maybe some sway bars and springs, but that leaves you needing dampers soon enough. A grand won't get you good coilovers, so that isn't an option. I'd just save until I had a bigger budget otherwise you're just spending money and not really making a significant difference.

$1,000 sounds like a lot of money until you start modding your Z and figure out exactly how much you've put into it. You can hardly tell I've modded my Z and I have over $3,000 into it.

For $1,000, here are some options in terms of performance
- skip the popcharger, it sounds cool but doesn't really add any HP, get a K&N drop in filter if you want to add hp ($50~)
- plenum spacer ($200~)
- exhaust ($600~)
- test pipes ($150-500~)
- tune ($450~)
- coilovers ($1,000~)
- lowering springs ($150-400~)
- New tires ($100-1,000~)

I can promise you, as soon as you start modding your Z you won't want to stop. You will say, 'wow I added all these performance mods but you can't even tell' so you will add body stuff then you will go back to performance. It's a never ending cycle. I would recommend the RDX antenna ($20~) if you don't have a shorty antenna already. Can't get any suspension or new wheel setup for less than $1,000. You could spend like $1,500 on a wheel setup and get a couple hundred back by selling your stock ones.

Replica exhaust $280
Kinetix V+ plenum $290
OEM k&n filter $50

Nothing more you can get for under $1000 for power adders

EDIT Missed Jah70's post. Add that in

Save your money so you have some to fix it when you decide to pull a Dugan.

:icon18:

Man alive...there's no reason to attack these questions...change your diaper guys and help someone that's just wanting help the same way you needed help when you didn't know?

He's asking for help on how to increase torque and sound and people are saying to buy coilovers....he's not asking your opinion on what you would do with a grand...so do you attack yourself for not being able to read a question?

For torque...Motordyne ART pipes are the obvious answer for easiest way to add noticeable torque/hp....about $600 but you'll have to pay to have them installed or if you can do it yourself, that'll leave you with about $400. Will raise the volume of your exhaust some, but it won't be as aggressive sounding as a TDX2 exhaust of course.

The MD plenum spacer gives you gains above 5000rpm, nothing mega...but it's there...and that's $200...and you can install it yourself carefully.

That leaves you $200....a popcharger will give you some sound, but no performance gain...so I would do the K&N drop in air filter for $20 on craigslist or something (I have an extra one for that matter...not trying to sell you...just FYI to show that it's easy to get them for $20)....that would leave you with $180.

IF you wanted to lower your car...sure...coilovers are good...but most spend too much money on a set when you can get SWIFT Spec R springs for $200....put those on and your car's ride will be smoother, you'll dropped just past an inch, handles better, looks more aggressive...but...you'll need an alignment and you might need more suspension pieces to get a perfect alignment.....I'm on Spec R's with no other suspension parts and I'm fine...best $200 I've put into the Z.

All that to say that..with the $180 left over...I'd buy the SWIFT springs and sell your oem's for $30 a pair or so...but you'd have to be able to install the springs yourself or you're over budget.

Not interested in lowering your car for better handling? Then I'd save the $180, add $50 - $100 for selling your oem exhaust, giving you $230 to $280, save up a little more until you can afford a knock-off exhaust to change the sound that you want.

Or..if you have to have more sound now...then for $200 you can get a Magnaflow muffler or something like it, that gives the sound a little more personality, combined with ART pipes it might just be what you're looking for on your budget.

Later....get a tune.

You could forego the ART pipes and get an exhaust setup for $600, not a great one but it'd be kinda fun to hear more sound burble...but you won't see any hp/torque gains and the sound likely won't be of the quality you want. ART pipes are the way to go for your stated goals.

Hope this helps,

Saved

I did help. Buy an electric super charger and one of these
http://www.turbowhistler.net