Hey guys and gals,

I'm looking to do some real power making mods to my car in the near future. Thinking about TOMEI Cams, springs, head gasket, and then maybe some connecting rods and pistons as well. Intake manifold? Lower plenum? Injectors? Would putting larger injectors on a NA engine be useless? Also, I am considering a plenum spacer even though, for some reason, I feel like it's a "cheat mod." I know I would need a tune after all these things too. I already have GReddy Airinx Intake and GReddy Ti-C True Dual exhaust. But really looking to make some nice NA power, and not interested in spending all the money to go FI.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

-Paul


P.S. I get the feeling I'm about to be called out hardcore hahaha

 

add up the price of all that stuff installed (essentially you are building [cams, rods, and pistons] your motor which will cost over 2000$ in labor alone) and you can buy a bolt on turn key supercharger kit that you can install yourself with jackstands.

but its your money, and if 30 hp is a big gain, sounds like you have the NA bases covered.


but really, you need to set a budget. What you have listed above is well over 5000$ worth of stuff to get done. You cant just swap in cams, or add pistons and rods. Its very labor intensive and needs to have the motor pulled to do it properly. All that money to make 280hp to the wheels

 

Have you seen Z1's NA Build???

 

I was reading up a little on switching the gear ratios, a lot of people seemed to think this was one of the better 'bangs for your buck' for better response and more torque throughout the gears.

 

FWIW My car dusts a vortech setup on a stock motor (at least non revup) ...I've run them several times. Without the build I was at around 270 whp, and then post build, that # grew. All told, I gained about 100whp with my relatively simple build vs my car when it was new. I have not had a chance to redyno the car after the latest additions, but hopefully the peak # grew along with a nicer curve.

To the OP - the budget is the first step, as well as clearly defining for yourself what your goals/intentions and uses are for the car. From there, the rest tends to fall into place relatively easily. Overall, the cost to do a proper NA build and a bolt on FI setup are relatively equal by the time labor/tuning/ancillary parts are taken into consideration, so it ultimately comes down to what you are after.