N/a Modifications

[Comsteal]

After some careful consideration, I have decided for the short to mid term I would like to upgrade my IS300 with N/A modifications, with a possibility in the long term of going toward forced induction. I just got my Lexus and I'm satisfied with the performance so far. This is my second car now, got it off my Dad and I'm only 17, I guess I'm rather lucky. I would like to ask some further advice. I am planning on going with the SRT CAI w/ Race-ECU in addition to mounting a new header from a friend in the racing business and a new Catback (this I haven't done a lot of research into yet, but I'm leaning toward the Apexi). My question is what advice would you give to squeeze more out of the engine N/A style, and if I gather up the cash in the future for a turbocharger with some of my Mod's but useless. My budget for the car is around $500, with 2 grand I have now.

Ultimately my goal for the vehicle is increased acceleration so I'm also leaning toward a new torque converter (I have the EShift), with my asspiration for a 6 second 0-60 N/A.

[smooth1]

Hello Comsteal. Welcome to the LOC!

Wow, 17, and you have an IS 300? and already lookin to go faster huh? LOL!! Well, let's start with keep it safe huh? Are you planning on running those 6 sec goals on the 1/4 mile track or racing everyone from light to light?

Don't waste your money on the tc. Unless your talking about adding a tranny brake your not gonna add anything by switching to a modified tc. The problem your facing right now is to stay n/a you would have to go in the exact opposite direction you would need to go if you want to later go forced induction. So until you make up your mind, don't waste all that money on parts you will have to get rid of. Just focus on speed prep stuff. Speed prep stuff is the suspension, brakes, tires, etc. etc. If you wanna be able to get any significant hp gains, your going to have to upgrade those first. Other wise you'll have more power than the car can handle. Also, it will give you time to research and set some real hp goals first. Then it's just a matter of putting together the combination that achieves those goal. Your at the beginning now. I know alot of people who just start modding and putting stuff on thier car without a plan or hp goals and end up wasting thier time and money, and not getting what they thought they wanted.

So when your talking about going faster, are you talking about 25 more hp? 50? 100? You answer that question, and then we can lay out some ways of acheiving the goals you set.

[Comsteal]

My first question would be, realistically, how much power could be squeezed from an N/A engine, and what would that power band look like. There already are sports tires on the car and I'm looking to get some lower springs and a coilover as well. What I would like to see in the end would be around 100 HP at the wheel, so I'm thinking that may not be accomplishable through the N/A route. I'm not looking for one single number, but moreover an improved and customized ride, with emphasize on acceleration times.

I don't plan to really take test the power on the road except in the small hours of the morning.

[smooth1]

You can get 100 more hp n/a. It's gonna be pricey and a ton of work, but it can be done. A BC Stroker kit, higher compression pistons, head work, larger custom throttle body, raise the rev limit to say 8000 rpm or more, stand alone tuned ECU, and a few other things and your there. You could also just hook up a 100 shot nitrous system. Heck those are cheap and easy! Car probably won't last very long, but 0-60 times will sure look good!

So you see, your asking a big question. There are so many ways and combinations out there that we would need pages to go over them all.

You could do a Myth/02 spray with an intake, header and exaust, and get a stand alone ECU tune.

You could do a Nitrous system and a Myth/02 spray system and header, exhaust and ECU tune.

You could do a BC stroker kit, header, exhaust and ECU tune.

You could do a BC stroker kit and a Myth/02 spray system and ECU tune.

You could do a BC stroker kit and a nitrous spray system and ECU tune.

You could do a BC stroker kit, nitrous, and Myth/02 and ECU tune.

You could do a BC stroker kit, headers, exhuast, intake, nitrous, Myth/02 spray, and ECU tune.

You could just have the motor bored over and balanced, and a slew of bolt on stuff again.

So, how much time and money do you have? BC stroker's start at $10,000.00, Are you doing all t he work yourself? Or are you paying someone else to do it for you? I ask because that makes the budget smaller real fast!

And the power band is all up to you and you decide to go about doing this. Do you want the power to come on low in the rpm's or high? are you wanting as flat a line as you can or what? Huge questions your asking bro. HUGE!

If your just gonna put a cold air intake, header, exhaust, on, your not gonna get under that 6 sec. goal. You will make the car a bit peppier, but you anly adding really 25 ish hp.

I would suggest that you also look into making the car lighter. Some signifacant weight reduction will help alot.

[Comsteal]

From the looks of it now doesn't look like N/A will be the route for me. I'm looking to keep up with my friend's S4 on the freeway. While I am a better driver than him, the superior horsepower really shows. Also how can you really go wrong in corners with 4 wheel drive. I do have the means to do self installation. Although my own mechanical experience is rather limited, I have very close friends in the racing industry willing to let me use their garage and help out.

That 10k for the BS stroker kit is a bit pricey, while the performance it adds is appealing. Did you mean to say that some of that 10k is installation costs or the kits itself. If the latter it's basically out of the question budget wise. I do see, however, me being able to get the cash to add a turbo kit. I see the SRT and Turbonetics (the one's I'm leaning towards) ones on the market for around 4 grand, which is definitely an amount I can pull off.

Also, I'm not trying to destroy my engine/rice out my car as the NO2 might accomplish.

A concern of mine would be turbolag, however with the motor already with good performance it doesn't seem like this should be an issue.

Will boost provide the performance I'm looking for (getting fast but not too fast), while still having the comparable refinement. I have never really driven a boosted car before, other than my friend's 95 which doesn't really fall under the performance category.

If I do go with the idea of a turbocharger, I think I would go for mid range power over low or high rpm

[smooth1]

An S4 huh? Those are some pretty quick cars out of the box. 340 ish hp? you know that when they stomp on it, their fuel mileage dropps to single digits on that car right? So just stay on em, he'll probably run out of gas during the race!!

And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but even those turbo kits really cost around 10K also. Neither of those kits come with boost controllers, or timers, or widebands. The fuel mgmt systems they come with suck, so you'll have to get a different one, in fact, the SRT system is actually 5 or 6 grand. And you can't put those systems on a stock exhuast system. I mean, you can, but your turbo won't last very long because of the back pressure created by the too small of an exhaust system. YOu'll have to go to atleast a 3'' exhaust, which, for the IS 300 is a custom exhuast. You'll need to upgrade the fuel pump, I went with a walbro 255, and the injectors those kits come with are to small. So you'll need to upgrade from the 380 cc injectors to atleast 440 cc injectors. 600 cc is much more ideal. And with your limited machanical experience, your gonna need to have a proffesional install it for you. They make it sound easy and all with thier "detailed" instructions. Just wait till you see how many parts are in that box!!! Iv'e installed more than a few turbos, my dad owns an auto shop, and it still takes us more than a few days to properly set up, and install a turbo system. Then there is dyno tuning. Again, I don't know how familiar you are with ECU tuning, but the timing will need to be retarded by about 10 dgrees, and the A/F mix will need to leaned out and tuned for wide open throttle mapping . And if you run a complete stand alone, then you have to configure cold idle, idle, light load, and wide open throttle conditions. That's alot of tuning. It takes time do get all those maps right before you can go out and start racing.

My advice is to either just be happy your driving one of the nicest cars a 17 year old can have, do some realistic mods if you want. And a few years from now, maybe after college, take your time and do it right. I would hate to see you spend all that money and then go out and crash it soon after. I'm sure your a really good driver. 2 years now behind the wheel, I know you are very comfortable. But I have been racing cars now for 25 years. Both on the track and strip. The street is no place for a 400+ hp car and a 17 year old behind the wheel wanting to race his buddy in an S4. My turbo IS 300 is sneaky fast! You just don't realize how fast the car is eccelerating when the turbo charges up. Even I had to reel myself in. the temptation to race everyone from the light is just too much. So now my car IS 300 is going to be a track only race car.

Just remember, there will allways be another car faster than yours. It may be your buddies S4 right now, then it will be a vette, or a Viper. Hp is a very expensive addiction. Trust me! ;)

[brosnibean]

and I'm only 17, I guess I'm rather lucky. I

they say when you are born you have 2 buckets, a Luck bucket and an Experience bucket. The Luck bucket is full to the brim, the Experience bucket is empty. As you grow up, you make choices (often bad ones) and you pour a little out of your Luck bucket into your Experience bucket. The trick is to fill up your Experience bucket before you empty your Luck bucket! There are different variations on this, but you get the idea.....good luck with your ride, and like i tell my friends before every skydive...Have fun, don't die!!!!

i read this the other day on this forum, check it out and try not to end up a headline

[smooth1]

Hey brosnibean, I really like the two bucket explanation. Very good!! What an awsome analogy.

[Comsteal]

Well given the true cost of those doesn't look like any major modifications are coming in the near future. I'm very pleased with my car, but I live in a very upscale area where there are 2 Evo's, 1 M3, 1M5, 1 S4 and many other high performance vehicles parked in the lot everyday. goes on and I would rather like to be able to keep up with these vehicles. Looks like I'll go with my orginal plan of practical mods like the intake and header and just work on it over a long period of time. If I keep up at a steady pace the car will be a monster by the time I finish college. Don't trip about me driving a car this powerful, while 17's year old's generally are bad and reckless driver's, I for one like speed but know the limit, I just want to get to that limit faster. I'm not going to go 200 over the edge of a airstrip like that rtard did.

Talking of the two buckets, I did just have an experience today. I was going around this tight corner with a very wide entrance I can usually take around 50 if I hit it right. I've seen my friend's S4 take it at 65 though. Anyway today I was taking it at 35 in order to practice the full motion of the turn. Little did I know that unlike usual, there was a large amount of gravel spread over the road. After hitting the apex of this essentially U turn, the car simply carried on forward without turning at all due to the gravel causing the front wheels to took it. I was able to salvage the situation, but it was one of the scariest experiences I've had on the road.

I am aware of the gas mileage issues on the S4, but all in all it's one of the best handling vehicles I've ever driven. The grip on that thing is amazing and the power is very satisfing.

I realize I'm inexperienced, but I'm learning the ways of the road at the local raceway with high perfomance driving schools.

[bartkat]

That's exactly why you can't drive balls to the wall all the time cause sooner or later something unexpected like that gravel is gonna come up and then you're SOL.

Don't worry about those "upscale" cars around there, just take pride in what you have and take pride in being a responsible driver.

[jondao08]

I agree with bartkat. My friend has an evo 9 and I know I'll never keep up with him in my stock IS300. However, I'd like to think of myself as a pretty safe driver for only being 17. I've had this car for over a year now without any tickets or accidents, but my friend with the evo has already had two tickets. I figure I could put that money he wasted from being pulled over to good use.

[brosnibean]

while 17's year old's generally are bad and reckless driver's, I for one like speed but know the limit, I just want to get to that limit faster. I'm not going to go 200 over the edge of a airstrip like that rtard did.

classic statement that if i'm not mistaken was the same song sung by that 18 year old kid.....responsible, competent for his age, knew the risks, had it under control....right up to the point where he killed all his friends....problem is that you are too young to know what you don't know....i'm not your father, and i don't know you, so you very well could be the exception and not the norm, however you're attitude that you know where the edge is and you can tip-toe it simply puts a spot light on the fact you don't know jack.....

a bunch of people with you're same attitude die skydiving every year saying the exact same thing...i know i don't have the experience level to fly high performance parachutes, but i really know what i am doing, i know where the limit is, i am the exception and different then everyone else, blah blah blah.... most of them end up here....2 of my friends appeared on this list b/c they thought they knew what they were doing and paid the ultimate price to find out they were wrong....

i am not saying you are going to die as soon as you get in the car, i'm just asking you to stay humble when you get behind the wheel....if i had a car like this when i was your age, i am pretty sure that at best i would be dead, or at the worst I would be responsible for someone else's death....just stay humble