unlike some, I have a budget for my mods, so I am starting with about $1000 for now (and probably stuck for a while) I am leaning towards

1-Tests pipes (10-13 whp???)---$200

2-Crawford Plenum (HP???)---$650

OR
3-Borla Tru Dual (10ish WHP)---$650

thoughts on HP and gains here??

 

What I would get... get custom header-back exhaust, something like wicked4u2c had done, then a 75 shot of nitrous...

if you don't want to have to squeeze for power, I would go with the xerd headers (if gains are proven to be true) and save the extra $300 for something in the future...

 

Agreed

 

I would say go for the plenum and the test pipes since they are a bottleneck on the stock system. You also live in CA where you get smog checks so with the bolt in cat pipes, it would be alot easier to swap them out for the cats come time to smog test. Then down the road you can couple a good equal length header set up to your test pipes. A full length header setup like the XERD, which deletes the cats also, would be ideal, but then you lose the ability to "easily" swap your cat back in if you need to.

 

Test pipes and plenum. Or just save a bit more and get cams.

 

Nitrous

 

I'm really waiting to see more on the X.E.R.D headers.

If they prove they're the stuff, then I say go for them.

I'm getting the Plenum first, then building from there.



Spike

P.S. - You could blow the whole $1000 and get the Bling Plenum.

 

Well I did a little compilation of dyno #'s vs. list of mods and found that the most that was gained from bolt-on piping was ~20rwhp.

It's my guess thats the most you'll be able to "free up" as far as breathing bottlenecks go. I'd aim for the cheapest intake/exhaust bolt ons to get to 20rwhp and then move forward to cams, pulley, flywheel from there (if you need more).

My point is that intake, plenum, headers, test pipes, and exhaust will probably net you the same gains as only two of the above.

My recommendation:

Borla exhaust ~$700 for 10rwhp
Test Pipes ~$200 for 8-10rwhp
Crank Pulley ~$200 for ?rwhp

This combination should (based on dyno's i've seen) get you a little over 20rwhp (put you at ~260-265) for about $1100.

Check out my member dyno comparison here