First let me thank everyone on the site. I don't post very much, but I do a lot of searching for information. I would like to post this thread for hopes that it will help someone make a choice as the site has helped me.

Part #1
Forged Recirc Blow off valve. I have this in combination with the HKS suction kit. The BOV seems just fine right out of the box. It comes several springs to change the diaphram sensitivity. I have the same spring that it came with from the factory. In combination with the HKS intake the Forge BOV is loud. You can scare dogs and people with a little boost and then throttle let-off. I was surprised as this is not a vent-to-air BOV. The idle characterists seem to have improved with the HKS and Forged products. With the stock set up the car had stalled with the AC on with a fast let off of the throttle. This has been cured with the new set up along with the woosh sound now coming from the hood.

Part #2
HKS racing suction intake. My hands have the proof of the cuts from the difficulty off the installation of the product. The quality is just fine, the space to work in is small. The intake and filter fits like a glove. You can hear the turbo "sucking" air like a hoover. As mentioned before, combined with the BOV it is music to your ears it you want to make a statement. Dogs and children run for cover.

Intermission:

I wanted to put the intake and BOV parts on and take it for a drive. I drove the EVO for one day to get the feel of the car before I installed more parts. As I suspected there is not much, if any, seat of the pants feel of improvement from these parts. They do give you more insight into the workings of the sweet engine through your ears. It was time to install more parts.

Part #3
B&B catback exhaust. This was the simplest part to install. The can is nicely polished stainless with the pipes bent with precision. The pipes are 3'' in diameter and as straight as the underneath of the car will allow. The catback is much lighter than the factory exhaust. The sound has more base than the factory unit, but is not much louder. If loudness is your goal this is not the pipe for you. If exiting the gases faster with a little more base rumble is your goal, then the B&B system is your ticket. There is no highway drone or RPM level drone. This is a great system.

Intermission:

I drove the car again for a day to see if there was any seat of the pants improvement. The was none that I could tell. The car was starting to sound like it should from the factory. The exhaust opened up as the day went on and started to sound even sweeter.

Part #4

Greddy profect B spec II boost control. With the help of Silver Surfer (props to the man) this has helped the EVO gets some legs. Silver Surfer explained the installation process to me over the phone. The instruction are mostly in Japanes. The display unit is small and can go anywhere in the inside of the car. They give you plenty of vacum hose to get the job done. The unit comes with control of a low and high setting,start boost, set, set gain, warning , limiter. The are easy to scroll through and set. It takes a little time to understand the functions an how they control the feel and psi of the boost presure. After a couple of days of carfully tuning them up I now have a low and high setting. I have the low set around 12.5 psi for around town and 19.5 went it is time to get it on. The most amazing thing is the ablility to control boost up to the 7000 RPM. As we all have felt the boost drop off around 5000rpm with the stock boost solenoid setup. Even in the low setting, to maintain the boost level up to redline feels like the factory setting while saving gas mileage.

Finish:
I wanted to make the car breathed and exhaled better before I put the boost control on. With that accomplished, the seat of the pants feel of the boost control is totally insane. The sensation of pull is increadible. The stock pull we feel at 3500rpm is now way stronger and starts at 3000rpm and pulls way harder up to redline. The boost control is a ton of power for your money. I would only suggest to take it slow while programing the boost. Once you get a taste of the power you want to pour it on. I have taken it slow and it is well worth the wait.

This information from me in no way makes me an expert in power for the EVO. Also the parts I installed may not be your favorite choice in brand name. I am just a car nut who has done some reading and decided to give it a shot. I have no dyno charts and the nearest 4 wheel dyno is 4 hours away. I have had the parts on for a week and the smile gets wider everytime I get in the car. I welcome your comments and questions.

 

let me be the first to say thank you for taking the time to make this great review. i am sure it will help many people make the right desicion.

thanks again

 

Thank you for the nice write up.

 

Thanks blonde. This site combinded with Silver Surfers instructions make the EVO experince that much better. My goal is for the subject words to come up in a search. This may help someone for these common parts. As you already know, the parts availible for improvement of this already awsome car are numerous. I am not stopping with these mods. Supension, and a little more fine engine tuning may settle my obsesive nature for speed and power.

 

I was glad to see that we both almost went down the same path. I've got the Forge DV (stock spring), HKS Racing Suction Kit, except I've got the Buschur Turbo back (3" Hi-Flo), and am looking to get the AMS MBC set to 20psi to redline all day everyday..Nice review, we need more like that!

I was relieved to see that I wasn't the only one that felt no increase in power in the butt dyno with an intake, exhaust, and bov. Hopefully the MBC will cure my need for [feel of] speed!!

 

WannaRace, thanks

Whatever Boost control you get, you will feel the power of the force my friend. It is what we are looking for. From what I understand of the MBC has the potential to have a boost spike. The eletronic boost valve cycles the wastegate at a greater rate so the pressure is constant and the tunablity is finer. The MBC will get the job done and give you the power you want.

From what I understand now about the boost control is the wastegate on the turbo is set to release pressure around 12psi with no boost control hooked up. The stock solenoid boost controler montors the vacum pressure for the wastegate. The ECU and the solenoid speak with each other to control boost consistancy and pressure. You will find this out for yourself when you start to unplug the wastegate and wastgate actuator vacum lines. The factory sets it very safe of course. The EBC or the MBC bypass the factory setup and tells the wastegate give more boost, earlier, hold it longer in the RPM range. Both bypass the ECU.

I will give you two suggestions if you don't mind. One, make sure you have a boost gauge. You don't want to spike and blow your engine head off. The MBC could spike. My greddy has spiked but the limiter opens up the wastegate before it becomes a big problem. Fine tuning make the spiking go away. Most EBC have some way of giving you real time boost pressure. Two, tweak it slowly. When the boost comes on, it come on hard and fast. It is easy for the levels of input to go to your head. Have fun!

 

Get some sort of fuel managment, you will make the most power then...

Tuning is key, no matter how many boltons you have.

 

The numbers seem to point in that direction. I have no tuner or dyno near me. Do you have any opinion on a system that is fairly simple to install and tune by someone who has never done A/F tune? Or is there any good info on the explaination of A/F management? Can you tune without a dyno? I would think that would be very difficult.

 

evolutionist, nice write up thanks! This makes me look forward to my safc-ii / avc-r mods to come soon. I too am going w/ the hks suction intake and forve d/v (most positive feedback for a dv I have seen around here). I plan on doing a full turbo-back though and the avc-r will take the place of your greddy.

4 hours to an AWD dyno and I'd be there every weekend, get an safc-ii or something similar and get down there!! You can probably put ~ 280whp down or more! Nearest awd dyno for me is in CT. =/

 

evolutionist , good to know someone that like to get their hands dirty. I'm currently have SAFC II/ AVC-R setup on my car. I can tell my car is really improved. I'm waiting for my next mod, HKS Hi-Power catback, downpipe and SSQV BOV.

Too bad, I never get my car to a dyno. Maybe someday.....

 

The SAFCII/AVC-r is an air/fuel ratio device I assume. How did you tune it without a dyno? Does it come premapped? How does it hook up?That seems like the next logical choice for my car. Thanks for your response.

 

The safc-ii is the 2nd generation safc from a'pexi. It's an a/f controller.

The avc-r is the a'pexi boost controller. HTH!

 

Looks like I have something to research again. Damm, I can feel the pocket book already screaming at me.

 

I found some seriously good pricing on ebay for both of those items, so make sure you include that in your research.

 

For fuel mangemant get the s-afc 2. When you buy it from us it comes with the preset settings along with the install instructions for your car. These preset settings will give you a lot more top end and 30hp. Then when you get to the dyno you can always fine tune it.