Mozi

Hi everyone,

New members come in read "pulley", "plenum", "grounding", "cats","headers" etc etc. as if it is some alien language .

It would help if we can have an enumerated list of all those elements (basic bolt ons I guess), explaining what they are and how they would affect the cars's HP when added / modified, and their effect on warranty.

I am dying to increase the power of my car, but don't want to void the warranty. What is the max that I can do?

What I have now is CAI Injen and Stillen Exhaust.

Thanks you for your input,

MoZi


__________________

Ben Davis

Pully: Under drive pully, it is lighter and drives the accessory's (ac/alternator) slower, turnig accesories takes power, and as such turning thrm slower frees it up.

Plenum: Also known as a manifold or intake maifold, between the throttl body and the head, greatly effect the rate of air flow into the motor.

Grounding kit: supposedly helps the ECU recieve a better signal and thus increase power or smothes idle

Cats: Catalytic converter, this is needed for emissions by law, but is a restriction toexhaust flow, as such, eliminating it in place of a stright pipe can make more power.

Headers: Coming off of the heads, the header is the first peice of the exhaust. How the header routs the exhaust gases is important, the header is to the exhaust as the plenum is to the intake, the design of both can greatly change the power delivery ot peak numbers.

Hope that helps some!

Mozi

Thanks Ben. Helps a lot actually

Some clarifications on:

Cats: If you eliminate the Cats, how do you pass emissions test? In addition, I heard that taking out the Cats screws up the electronics... Myth?

Headers: My Z came with a Stillen Exhaust System. Can I add Headers to that. How much power would that add?

From what I have read, only Cams void the warranty? What are they anyway?

Are there other N/A mods that one can do? If you do all of those, how much additional power can I expect to have?

Do the dealer isntall these things in some cases?

Most important question: For N/A mods, do u need to tune the engine to get optimal performance. Some people here said no for my Injen CAI and Stillen, yet a veteran sports car mechanic / mechanical engineer here assures me that he can notably increase performance if he tunes it...

Thank you very much

MoZi

Ben Davis

Without cats you cannot pass emissions, solution, keep stockers and swap them back on when neeed

Headers are a seperate peice fomr exhaust, form the engine it goes headers, cats, exhaust, muffler... never ask what kind of power a mod will add, all cars are diferent, do a search for others with headers and see theuir thoughts.

Cams effect alops how your engin breaths and where you make your power in the RPM's. They will void warrenty (so will most of the stuf above though) lenghty instal, but normally substiantial gains, however a good top en cam will sacrifice low end pull for top end pull... so it depends what ou want, a very agressive cam will make your car peaky meaning it will feel wek in alot of the power band then suddenly rip in a narrow part of the rpm range.

HTH

BTW, search for all of these on www.howstuffworks.com for basics