Sooooo....gonna have some money to mod soon
 

So im going to be getting my hands on about $5k soon which I would like to buy some presents for my car with. I just wanted to poll the community and get an idea of what you all are recommending. My current mods are in my signature.

I have been thinking the following:

1. CNT catless downpipe /w OBX cat back
2. Top or front mount intercooler
3. lowering springs or coilovers
4. HKS SSQV bov
5. TIP

:wave:

I would throw it in the bank, but that's just my current level of paranoia speaking.

-The CNT downpipe has been a bit of a dissapointment flow wise

-Tmic on the gen2 (@ least imo) performs every bit as well as a fmic. If sticking with the k04, I would say tmic.

-If getting lowering springs, go Swift (I'm a suspension Noob, but from what I read, if you are going to use lowering springs, Swift's R&D borders on overkill)

-The HKS valve is not my favorite, although the people who have it like it

-Corksport's TIP's fit is excellent, and mimics that of the "fix" that Mazda put out for the smoking turbo issue. i.e. the valve cover vent hose is relocated to the tip (if you decide to order the Corksport, you have to specifically order it that way)

-Edit : how did I forget ... CUSTOM TUNE!

Hehehe definetely sound advice...but I have made the decision to move forward modding so its gonna get spent one way or another! LOL

I had the HKS....it sounded really cool but it did affect the way my car drove. It shifted rough (especially 1-2 and 2-3) and I had some after fire with it. You can adjust for it with the way you work the clutch pedal but it was weird. I put the stocker back on when I got tired of it, but switched back because it did sound really good. :D
Check out Corksport's stuff too, I saw they have a catted dp now. I had their tmic and for the money it was tough to beat.

You are going to be well short of 5k, so you may be able to mod and use Wankular's advice.

Nice. Thank you. The Cobb DP is my first choice but seems so damn expensive. I half thought about going Cobb for both that and the TIP but like the idea that a "fix" might be in place for the smoking turbo issue. Probably going to head in the fmic direction as I am not ruling out BT possibilities in my future. I guess most people are looking at the Forge these days for bpv?

Heh score! :35:

Yeah...I am a bit of a **looks around**...ricer...so I enjoy a nice clean sounding blowoff. I will probably try it and switch to Forge like everyone else I have seen hehehe

I know that Jacksonms30 and Bluestreak are both BT on x series turbos and maintained the tmic. A good flowing tmic may be the ticket.

If I had to do it over again, I would have gone tmic w/ meth (even with plans of eventual bt).

Forge is a good, affordable bpv, as are the turbosmarts. I think that atvfreek uses the go fast bits bpv and has a high opinion of it as well.

IMO, many of the TIP's (other than the Corksport) are too short where they extend from the turbo. I've had CP-e, Cobb and Corksport tip's, and Corksport's tip, @ least imo, is definitely the best option.

Thanks man. Good information. Everytime I see your name now I think of Cundiff blowing the Pats-Ravens game :biggthumpup:

Must be tax refund time :slaphappy:

Are you on the Perm list?

:biggthumpup:Well...that is going towards our trip to Disney in April...this is more of a "making stupid financial decisions and getting a bigger mortgage than we need" time LOL

Negative. I feel like I need to learn more about tuning before I dedicate money to a professional tune. I've read the guides, etc but am not grasping it all well enough yet. Need to put some time into really "getting it".

That is why you get someone to tune your car for you. You let your dentist fix your cavities, and your tuner tweak your car.

If you spend the $ on the mods, you HAVE to get a tune.

IMO, regardless of the "team" you use, getting a custom tune is going to net you the biggest hp gain.

With the stock K04, if you get an upgraded IC and a test pipe along with a custom tune, you are pretty much done in terms of power that can be had from the engine without going big turbo or E85 (which does not require new hard parts). I have many customers with this experience.

The TMIC is fine but it still heatsoaks from the engine when moving slowly or in traffic.

Aside from that, I would not spend any more money on engine modifications unless you want to move into a big turbo.

Awesome! Just to add, getting a tune is also relatively cheap insurance for the long term health of the car. Monitoring with the AP is great, but even better to have someone that can interpret all the data and give you the most relevant tune based on your mods. Its like buying the best computer available but running Windows 2000 instead of 7.

Perm is a steal at $200 imo. I dont know what the others charge but I'm sure its competitive. Oh, and I dont know shit about tunes, other than picking an OTS off the AP, which is why I have an expert for my custom tune.

Gold! I was typing and just saw this! I'm at this stage (getting custom tuned) with my hardware and am seriously considering BT now but living in CA with emissions crap is killing me.

Excellent!

You could go balls out and get the Full-Race EFR kit when it comes out.

@Lex, so would you say that getting a downpipe is not going to net that much? I pretty much have intake, testpipe (second cat delete), HPFP and a tune by Justin (atvfreek) and figured that getting the downpipe would be the last bit that I can really get out of the k04 on 93 pump. I'd probably get an upgraded TMIC closer to summer but didnt figure it'd help much in terms of power.

Let me know if you need a great packaged deal OP I will get you hooked up! :biggthumpup:

more info on this? I was looking at the cnt catted since it's a full length DP for a decent price. I figured flow wouldn't be as nice as a corksport with the divorced dump tube, but for a bolted k04 turbo I thought it would be fine, especially as an upgrade over stock. I see that they have a cast bell housing welded onto a 3" pipe, which isn't ideal I know, but it seems still better than the ebay dp's with their stretched tubing that meets the exhaust housing. I'm in a gen1 and have the same overall plans as the OP (downpipe, tmic, plugs...basic stage 2 bolt ons) so I'm curious about this statement.

Subbed for gold mine courtesy of @rfinkle2 and @Lex.

TMIC is a good mod imo. One benefit is I boost less and just ease into accelerating (not mashing on the pedal) because the car pulls much harder without boost.

I think Lex can shed some light on the CNT dp's performance, but I've read numerous times that guys are actually having difficulty holding as much boost @ given rpm's with the CNT pipe.

Admittedly, I don't have any flow comparisons, just logs to go from, and when Lex has info / opinions, my ears are always open.

@anavrinIV and @bigriver...link to Lex's experience with CNT catted DP here:

http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/foru...ml#post1093958

so if I'm reading that right, the stock dp/tp combo held 18+ and the catted cnt dropped to under 17 even post tune?

@Lex, were the 2 VDs posted in @rfinkle2's link of the same car with just different dp combos and tunes? Because if that's the case I see the problem with holding boost, but there is definitely a large power increase with the new downpipe.

Very good information and I thank you all for it. When I reference tuning I agree that I want to deal directly with an experienced tuner. I have no problems whatsoever using those services. What I want to acclimate and learn more is how to log, read the logs, and know what people are talking about when they say do this or do that. The last thing I want to do is begin working with someone who asks me to go out and do a WOT log and bugger it up when I provide it to them :buttkick:

Dude - dont worry about that. Any customer minded tuner (and most successful ones are) will be patient with you. Shit, I had to ask Rfinkle how to do a log properly, lol. Just go for it. You can learn as you go. I ask dumb questions all the time. My car is more important than my ego.

I have had a few customers and so has Dano where boost drops off quite early with the CNT downpipe but can't comment beyond this.

In terms of a downpipe itself ... the big choke point in the OEM setup is the turbo itself. the K04 doesn't have much issue spooling and it falls off in the top end no matter what. For the price of a quality downpipe, I would personally much rather spend the money on charge cooling since that will rob you of much more power via reduced timing and lower charge density once BATs get in the 120+ range.

The dp was great before we had all the tuning controls in place since it freed up the exhaust such that higher boost was achieved. It does still do that, but the price for one versus the benefit while on the K04 is not a great ratio especially since we can now tune for any desired boost level.

Take a look at the link below where I tuned a car with two boost profiles. The race tune is on completely stock boost and the the street tune is allowed to run as much boost as the turbo can make. This should tell you how important it is to balance boost and timing on the K04 to maintain the best efficiency.

http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/foru...341wtq-102374/

It's interesting that you can get so much power just by adjusting timing with the lower boost levels, and hitting that 300 mark on a stock dp is impressive.

I guess my conundrum is this: my speed is purely my dd and I want it as driveable as possible. I'd prefer to stay away from wmi, just because I don't want to accidentally run out and blow my shit up. With that in mind, I would have to take away the flow restriction since I can't cool the bats more than the IC will do. What dp have you had the most success with?

I rock the stock one :) Seriously.

Another little known fact is that a larger intake will make quite a big difference in terms of removing restrictions.

If your set on running catless, maybe look into one of the cheaper ebay catless dp's. I'd really suggest running a cat though, with a highflow cat you won't notice much of a difference between it and running catless. Besides how loud your car is. Even cobb recommend's a cat, the car will overboost without atleast one in the exhaust flow. IT will also wear down your K04 sooner that you would like.

I've been running CP-e's TMIC since it was put into production, haven't had an issue. Great intercooler. Will get heatsoaked, but a few minutes driving on the highway and your all good.

I would not recommend the HKS SSQV BOV unless you like that on/off throttle feeling. Because it will give you that. Please don't run it VTA.. that is metered air.. your car won't run right..

Get a PERM tune! To take full advantage of your new found upgrades.. your gonna want a tune. I ran around for awhile without a tune... and once I finally did it.. boy was I shocked. The car is finally almost as quick as I want it, and DJ may be able to tune your car to run correctly VTA if thats what you plan on doing... Maybe even make it possible to run catless and not have to worry about boost creep.

I have H&R springs, work great. Running SPC Camber arms in the rear, and a JBR rear sway bar, cannot beat it. Car is planted to the ground. Have you looked into JBR's PMM and TMM? They complete the car, I don't even notice the vibes anymore would probly of forgot I installed them.. but I get some really great sounds from the tranny all day.

You're going to make my money go in strange directions with that kind of advice...

For the money, is a test pipe more advantageous than a full length downpipe?

For the money on the stock K04 I would say yes since we are talking $100 versus $700 for a nice catted one.

Great read and info guys. Keep it flowing..

Lex, elaborate when you have a free moment please.

Are we talking currently available options or do you and Dustin have something up your sleeve?

:twak:

Yeah right, I've heard that before.:biggrin:

Dustin's always got something up his sleeve full of hardware :)

That being said, a larger intake does free up quite a few more g/s. The more the airflow the truer this is. For example, a BT is definitely chocked with a COBB SRI even if the MAF is not maxed out.

A larger intake (not 3.5 inch here) would also help the K04 out flow wise.

To add to this I have a customer flowing some serious numbers (320 g/s) from a stock K04 with a Corksport ram air intake at 80-90 BATs and 17 psi which is quite impressive.

Hi Lex, is this with stock DP and cbe with aftermarket race pipe? I'm starting to salivate as I type this.

I was just going to post that...

All he'd have to do is sell his SRI and he wouldn't have ANY redundant purchases after that.

Granted, that's only if he's ready for a WICKED setup! :saevilw:

Modifications for that MS6:

Corksport "Ramair" Intake / FMIC system
Upgraded HPFP Internals
Custom 3" TBE with 100 cell sports cat
Forge BPV
Stock K04

Hmmm tell me more about this EFR setup....:saevilw: