Do bloated exhaust pipes do anything?

[Fausto]

S2000 is normally aspirated (no turbo), but makes HP by revving to the moon (higher RPM = more fuel/air burned in a given period of time = more HP). Power made at high RPM is usually at the expense of torque and power made low in the RPM range tho. Peak HP is made at 8300 (!) RPM whereas most cars are tuned to make peak torque and HP more in the mid-range as that's where you really need it on the street. If you can find some hp/torque charts of various cars and overlay them, you'll see what I mean about how the peak torque/hp is in the powerband depending on how the car is tuned.

As far as modding a car in this fashion: if you make all the moving parts inside the engine lighter/stronger (titanium connecting rods, lighter pistons, ti valves/springs, lightened/balanced crankshaft) then it can safely rev past the factory redline and thus make more HP. An excellent example of this is just about any 600cc sportbike as they all make almost 100hp at the rear wheel despite displacing just 0.6 liters (they redline at 14 to 15,500 rpm) and those are STREET bikes. A race bike with the same displacement can make upwards of 180bhp. The new 4-stroke GP bikes (limited to 1 liter) are making something like 220bhp already and they're still officially in development until next season!

Fausto

 

[Gunbuster]

The big tip on the car is to compensate for the small tip in the pants

 

[RSI]

Fausto: Really, interesting! I always liked bikes... But I prefer the Kawasaki Ninja style bikes. They just look awesome to me.

What would a really easy to mod car be? A Civic? Toyota Supra? I don't really know, I'm curious. What makes a car easier to mod.. ??

-RSI

 

[Soybomb]

By what do you mean easy to mod? If you mean for performance, then mustangs, camaros have lots of aftermarket parts available, although I prefer cars that were turbocharged from the factory If you mean for "looks" (which I think are often uglier) then yes hondas and stuff ahve a lot of parts out for them.

One of my turbo cars' exhaust exists as a sidepipe under my door. No muffler. Its kinda loud, but not too bad because the turbocharger muffles alot of the sound itself. ANother car has a 3" pipe running out the back. On naturally aspirated cars too large of a pipe can actually hurt performance, but not so on a turbo car. The bigger the pipe is the quicker the turbo can spool up, up until the point where its so efficient that no larger pipe will allow an increase, but it still does no harm either.

 

[RSI]

I'm not sure what I meant. I guess for performance. But what MAKES the car easy to mod?? I'm not sure I understand.

-RSI

 

[Aihyah]

i don't get it, if all you need to do is increase pipe diameter, why didn't the manufactuerer do it in the 1st place. a couple bux for extra metal isn't gonna eat their profits. does it mess with your fuel economy? do you pollute more? hmm, heard the new civic has a flatted exhaust system.. is why they don't have a center lump in the rear floor, modders will love that

and yes, i hate the sound those bastards make, its as bad as thumping bass. reminds me of how little kids clip cards to their bikes to make that clack clack sound. on the other hand if u ever have any garbage and no where to put it.. leave it in some suckers tail pipe

 

[Soybomb]

Primarily what makes a car easy to mod for performance is the combination of parts availability and potential. If you've got a poorly built engine or transmission, etc where the internal parts aren't capable of sustaining much more power than it has right now, most wouldn't consider the car a good candidate for modification. Also if there are good aftermarket parts many consider it a good a mod car. For example for mustang 5.0's, you can dig up supercharger and turbocharger kits, lots of different headers, new manifolds, different displacement pistons, stronger rods, better cranks, etc.

I consider my 2.2L turbo dodge a good mod car because the forged parts that in the engine from the factory are good to about 350HP, the manual transmissions are also quite beefy. And I can get alot of custom parts for it like bigger turbos, injectors that flow more fuel, ported manifolds, etc.

This is why a geo metro isn't a good car for modification, the 3 cylinder engine doesn't have components that can take lots of HP, nor are there any parts available to make it make that power.

aihyah: Most people don't like the sound of a louder exhaust, thats why the manufacturers keep it small!

 

[Fausto]

Depends on what kind of car you'd like to work on. There are plenty of 5 liter Mustangs to be had and plenty of parts for them if you like V8's. I know a guy with a 1990 Mustang LX rally car that has had some headwork done (port/polish to flow more air and get a better mixture), has a cat-back exhaust system, and some other intake work that makes well over 300hp/300 lb-ft of torque without having invested tons of cash. You can get bolt-on superchargers for a lot of muscle-cars that will add HUGE hp without having to do much other than just bolt it onto the top of the block and run the belt to drive it. There's a saying: "no replacement for displacement"....which is to say that the bigger the engine you start with, the more power you can get out of it for less money. Another car that is pretty cheap and can be tweaked is a Mazda RX-7. Since they're a rotary engine, they have a ridiculously high redline and tend to respond well hp-wise to relatively simple mods like intake/exhaust stuff. They are pretty strangled from the factory, so if you allow them to "breathe" better by opening up the intake/exhaust, they will make noticeably more power. Don't think you'll be able to get 200+ hp out of a Civic without investing major cash, tho.

There are also tons of kits for just about any import coupe you could think of (HKS makes turbos for almost anything japanese). You're really only limited by how much loot you have. Pester some local shops that specialize in whatever kind of car you're after and ask for ballpark figures on mods.

'Course you could just buy a ZX-9R Ninja (they make something like 140bhp stock), add a turbo running maybe 2-3 lbs of boost and you'll have a bike making close to 200 bhp at the rear wheel for around 10 grand or so. Good luck keeping the front wheel on the ground tho.

Some links to fast things with wheels:

Mr. Turbo kits for motorcycles

American Turbo systems

HKS Turbos

Import Tuner Online

Good luck,
Fausto

 

[flambus]

its all for looks

look here

 

[crabbyapple1]

dollar for dollar and I think the easiest mods and less stressful mods are the following:

air intake (cold or open)
upper intake manifold
exhaust manfold
header back exhaust
pulleys (crank, alternator, ater pump)
and if you have a vTEC, of course a VTEC controller

These are the least expensive and won't increase that much stress on your engine. if you want go with a turbo/intercooler or maybe some NOS. NOS will get you flying but your engine better be prepped before that. meaning you'll shoot a piston out your hood if you aren't careful with NOS.

 

[ultravox]

... ...and all this to street race and:

Kill yourself
Scrap your car

Kill someone else
Scrap someone else's car

And to never, ever see a race track. If you really wanted to go fast you'd be racing in whatever series....that's if you're serious and not some hormonely challeged adolescent who's masculinity feels threated if his best bud's wheels sound faster than his.

woo hoo...5-10 extra horespower....i'll surely get laid now!

 

[Aihyah]

flambus haha thats a good site a miata with chevy fins.. thats wacky.

omg i just saw the vw modded into a startrek shuttle hah

 

[flambus]

beaterz rules... wish they would update it

 

[Bitek]

<< Today I saw a Neon with a pipe that stuck out the back like half a foot - it was also fat. I doubt it's going to handle better or go faster (noticably), because of that? But it does look stupid. Are they trying to look stupid? >>



Yes, yes they are. Some are just better at it than others.

 

[Aihyah]

flambus it certainly does.. i don't get how that porche mod works, did the guy take out his engine to make the back into a truckbed? i thoguht all porches had rear engines


atleast some of those cars are original designs heh, unlike cookie cutter ricers. you can just see that trek shuttle at a drag race..how can you beat warp speed
don't load it in your office, your coworkers will think your nutz from your laughing

 

[vi edit]

Dollar for dollar, the best engine to modify for HUGE gains is the Audi/VW 1.8t. For about $500 you can tack on an extra 50 HP and 50 lbs of torque. It's done with an incredibly simple chip swap. That'll take the stock 150 HP/160 lbs up to about 200HP/210 lbs torque.

For $3000, you can almost double your HP and torque to about 300/300. Best thing is, the engine will still pull 30+ MPG

 

[Shantanu]

<< Dollar for dollar, the best engine to modify for HUGE gains is the Audi/VW 1.8t. For about $500 you can tack on an extra 50 HP and 50 lbs of torque. It's done with an incredibly simple chip swap. That'll take the stock 150 HP/160 lbs up to about 200HP/210 lbs torque. >>



How much would it cost a non-car mechanic like myself to have something like that done by a car mechanic? *Would* a car mechanic tamper with a car like that? Almost sounds too good to be true.

 

[spidey07]

Shantau,

if you are at all interested in mods, get on a personal level with a good mechanic. Some are import specialists, others are great with mustangs/vettes.

My guess would be 100 bucks or less for a chip install. A "good" mechanic will do anything you tell him to do, but will also warn you of the consequences/benefits/pros/cons/what he would do.

doctor, mechanic, lawyer. you should always have a good personal relationship with each one.

 

[Bitek]

Does the engine computer use a removable prom or a flashable eeprom(?)

Chip swaps are easy, my blazer took like 20 mins max, although maybe more than you'd want to do yourself
If its flashable, all you have to do is buy a programmer, and it basically does it itself, and allows for some adjustment if you want.

Think I could talk my mother-in-law into getting one for her new A4??!!!

 

[Fausto]

A 12 year-old could do the chip swap. Seriously, it is literally a remove-the-old-chip-and-drop-the-new-one-in kinda deal. The other stuff could be done by any mechanic who mods Audi/VW's. I wouldn't ask your local Audi dealer to do them if the car's still under warranty tho.:Q

Linkage to some chip options:

Total Audi Performance

Superchips

As you can see, you get some pretty big jumps in HP/torque at the cost of higher octane gas an decreased fuel economy.

Fausto

 

[vi edit]

Shantanu, I haven't done the swap myself, but I've very actively followed the VW/Audi community over at vw vortex and have read up quite a bit on the install. From what I've read, a very mechanically uninclined person should have very little trouble pulling out the chip and replacing it. From what I've read, it's much the same as uprading a card inside of your computer.

Drop a line to Emos here on ATOT. I know he's done the upgrade to his '01 Audi A4.

As for the next step, to double the HP/torque, you are now starting to get into some fairly technical stuff. It involves putting on a bigger turbo, upgrading intake and exhaust, ect.

 

[vi edit]

APR, another Audi tuner.

 

[Aihyah]

best mod? a stuffed pikachu or whatever on the rear deck. Thats worth like 10hp right there plus its fun to make em stare at drivers behind u.

 

[crabbyapple1]

<< best mod? a stuffed pikachu or whatever on the rear deck. Thats worth like 10hp right there plus its fun to make em stare at drivers behind u. >>


hey man you doggin my ride?! :|
but i do have a bunch of totoros in my car. don't ask, i just like the furry guy.

 

[gygheyzeus]

Increased piping size all the way from the manifold can increase horsepower. However, the gains are usually minimal. Best to remove the cat. converter, too.

The kids with chrome exhaust tips just look silly, IMO.