I'm conflicted - long story short I love wrenching and tuning cars. My wife and I decided to pursue adoption which, for anyone who is familiar, is not a cheap endeavor. Being so, I decided to part out my DSM (drag car) and raised quite a bit of money for us to help with the fees and such. I bought my IX MR, 70k miles, about two months ago. I absolutely love it - it drives smooth, puts up about 335 on VD (no AWD dynos very close to me) after a retune-of-a-tune that put out 330 whp on a Dynojet, albeit with 2 psi more boost. It has the basics - FMIC piping, 3" TBE, MBC, and I am tuning with ECUFlash/EVOScan and all of this is being done on the stock, original clutch that grabs really well, doesn't slip at all at this point.

I have all of my parts needed for the t-belt service. I tend to try to not waste effort so I'm thinking ok, I'll have everything apart to swap in some GSC S1's. My issue is not money or time, it's just... should I do that to a car I intend to DD for at least the next two years? Or should I do something a little less "invasive" and go with a better O2 housing and/or ETS 3.5" FMIC?

I am doing all this purely for my own enjoyment - I do not intend to drag race this car, though I would like to take it up to Gingerman and take a driving school with it. Otherwise, it's purely "because I can" if that makes sense. So, what would you do in my shoes? Leave well enough alone, or will I not overpower the stock clutch and trans with a few additional mods?

Lastly, I notice - and have seen many cases like this during my searches - boost falls off pretty hard after about 5000 RPM. What causes that on the stock turbo? The stocker is significantly larger than some of the turbos I used to run on DSMs and those could hold 26-27 psi without any issue with just an MBC. My car has no semblance of ECU boost control at this point, but if that would help maintain boost pressure up top, I'll gladly look into it.

Thanks for any advice guys. Steer me right

Todd

 

to be honest, i think u should do the o2 and fmic. the cams will make the car louder. i kinda regret my gsc s2 cams (i think the s1's are kinda loppy too). it made the car obnoxiously loud with the loppy idle. even with dual mufflers its still loud for a dd car. but thats just me, u might like loud cars iuno.

 

My car didn't get louder with cams and it does not lope at all

I would suggest replacing the clutch first. My car did not have any signs of slipping and when I had it changed out the disc was completely gone.

 

Im in the same boat (not adoption just mod or not to mod). If you plan to keep the car though and money isnt an issue and your just doing bolt ons why not?

 

IX cams are fine, no need to change yet with your mods. An EBCS should help with the boost drop at high RPMs.

 

Thanks guys! On the clutch, is there an afttermarket unit that drives like stock but holds 400 wtq or so? To those with external dump O2's, do they get annoying or is the dump location (thinking JM Fab) enough to not make them so obnoxious? I've heard from a very reliable source that IX cams are really good for aa stock car so I'm definitely thinking about skipping those and just doing an ebc, o2 housing and fmic as it sounds like that's a safe yet effective path.

 

you can do cams, however, considering your mods, you can either buy s1's, and eventually when you get the power bug bit again, youll eventually want more power, in which case you shouldve bought s2s. if your boost is dropping off too much, an 02 housing would help, but its mostly due to your mbc, no way to get around that high spike high taper. Only way around that is to buy a 3 port boost solenoid, then use the stock ecu to help control boost. What fmic do you have by the way? I wouldnt worry about the clutch, clutches dont slip when your in high rpms making hp, they usually slip around peak torque, so as long as your peak tq is kept a bit low, you should get more life out of your clutch.

so considering your mods heres what I would buy:
3 port boost solenoid
fuel pump and or injectors since I didnt see those listed
if your going to buy an 02 housing, send your stocker out to get ported and coated
buy cams if you have the funds after all that
get retuned not to question your tuning ability, but our stock ecu compared to dsmlink or whatever ems you were using on your dsm, if you dont know what your doing on the stock ecu it could explain why there might be some power left on the table. Itll take quite a bit of reading to understand how much u gotta learn to tune it properly.

good luck if you have any other questions let me know.

 

Das, wonderful post, thank you for all of that. I forgot to mention, I have a 340lph jay racing pump I can put in. Injectors may be on the docket as well, I'll just spring for ID1000s when that time comes. As far as tuning, I have a really knowledgeable EVO and BMW tuner helping me with all of that. Oddly enough ECUFlash seems very similar to the Cobb tuning software so I'm at least not totally lost there.

 

your welcome, ok well if you have injectors n pump, thatll help with the tuning, so that way your idcs dont sky rocket when you start pushin up the boost. Well its always good to have someone helpin you, all it takes is one wrong key stroke then your in the $hitter. haha, whats your end goal hp with this car?

 

Sorry for the confusion, I was posting from my phone - I do not have injectors right now but when I'm out of IDC, I'll pick up some ID1000's based on reputation. I do have the fuel pump now, just haven't gotten around to the install.

As for goals, I haven't really thought that far ahead but is it realistic with basic mods to put together and tune a car that runs around 120 in the 1/4? That's ultimately where I'd like to be but I'm not sure what kind of whp that takes in a full weight IX. My gut says that should be somewhere around 375 or 380 whp but I could be way off. I am a firm believer that the track is the true test of what a car can do. Dyno's vary, tracks do not (ok, they can but not to the same degree).

 

Cams in IX do not lope at all like VIII. I would highly recommen doing O2 housing, It made huge difference on my car. Car runs much smoother with O2 housing. I installed GSC S2 cams on my car and it does not lope and its not any louder.

 

im in the same situation just picked up a evo for daily driving purposes but now i feel the need to get more out of it..i have a honda race car with alot of $$ into it. so can realy justify to the wife to have 2 race cars.lol but i cant help buying parts to go fast...glw your car..

 

Competition Clutch 5152-2100, feels exactly like stock and can hold 450tq. I personally wouldn't do the o2 housing. I thought it was a waste of money unless you can pick up a cheap used one.

 

if you go with the 3port and throw in injectors/pump, you can run e85 and surely get well 9 over 400whp/tq on VD. Im thinking you would pick up 100hp from where you are currently.

As others stated, the MIVEC on the 9 will take care of lope, but with the 9, you really don't have to worry about cams until you run a larger turbo. my s2s on my X are very quiet, but netted very small gains compared to a good mivec tuner with the stockers. The stock 9 cams are actually quite good.

 

You're obviously a drag guy. So modding the motor clearly appeals.

Personally, I'd leave the motor alone and likely save the 6-speed from blowing up for a long time ...

I'd rather capitalize on handling: I'd get an ACD remap from Matt. Best mod I've done to the car. Absolutely transformed the car ... way more enjoyable to drive.

Then a set of springs (Robispec, GTWorx or Swift) and a wheel alignment and call it a day.