hello evoM....after driving my stock IX for over a year now, i've finally purchased my first mods...
-HKS exhaust
-Megan DP
-Megan O2 housing
-Megan test pipe
-and lowered the care on Teins
Im thinking of picking up an intake this week, and leaning towards aem....i was wondering if anyone can give me some opinion about this product...and also, will it be safe to drive the car for a while without getting tuned? also wanted to pick up some gauges with the intake...can't really afford DEFI's so im stuck with autometer gauges....

am i going in the right direction...? im not looking for high HP gains, i need my car to be reliable since its my daily...after these mods, is it really necessary to get a tune?

im really hoping to learn a lot from you guys....thanks everyone in advance...

 

no its not necessary to get a tune only when you want to get the full HP out of your mods will you need to get a tune but your fine w/o a tune

 

Test pipe in socal???? Are you nuts?? Put a HFC on the car or risk $2k + fine....

 

if you get a intake get a tune. i would also add to your mod list, a mbc and a fuel pump. look into stewart warner gauges

 

omg thank you so much for saying that...i've been searching here what the fine/penalty would be for running with no cat in SOCAL but didnt find anything....i bought the pieces already, the megan DP and the test pipe but havent put them on yet....thanks for mentioning that...good thing i hesitated on having them installed yesterday....so far only the exhaust and teins were installed....now that you've mentioned what i've always wanted to know about the risk of running with no cat, i can easily return it and exchange it for a high flow cat.....

this will be a stupid question to ask but i'll ask it anyway just to be on the safe side, so please be patient with me....
-now that the test pipe's out of the picture, will putting a HFC be the same as having a factory cat....? and avoid having to pay a whole lot of money on fines?

thanks again for answering to my post...i really appreciate every input that you guys can share with me....

 

a hfc isn't the same but it will quiet down the exhaust and since it looks like a cat it should save you some trouble with Johnny law

Tein springs suck for evos...they'll blow out your struts so you should chuck those

you can run without a tune but the intake will fubar your idle and can even make the car stall in certain situations

my advice...hold off on the intake until you are ready to be tuned

 

Skip the intake, get an MBC and fuel pump and get that thing tuned. Then save up for Defis (don't start cheap like I did, you'll regret it, I promise). At that point, you're pretty much where I was and was satisfied with the car for 2 years (at least powerwise...)

 

?? i have a testpipe, and so do many of my evo friends in socal
no of us have ever been busted for it
its not like if you live here and get one youll automatically get a ticket
but he is right in that its expensive as hell if you do get caught
depends if you wanna risk it or not
i have the RRE stealth TBE with their rally cat
luv it

 

OK a few points about a HFC:

(1) Technically you need to run the stock cat. (legally speaking)
(2) The stock cat. is quite good (in terms of flow), so a HFC is really not needed until you modify your car more
(3) Cali. is installing tail pipe sniffers on on ramps with cameras (much like traffic lights) and will be mailing tickets

Also, a lot of noobs telling you to get an MBC ??? The stock ECU can easily manage boost and can do so much better than an MBC. (Look in the ECUFlash section if you want to learn more or just work with a professional tuner.) Save the $75 for an MBC and talk to John @ Jestr Tuning -- jestr@jestrtuning.com....Raise the boost (via ecu) and get your car tuned. Or if your are near Tuning Technologies, go see Alfred.

 

thank you very much for all the replies....i really appreciate all the help and info you guys are giving me...a few hp gained is not worth 2k in fines, and i dont want to learn it the hard way...good thing i posted here before i had things done...thanks very much for all the info......intake will be scrapped so will the gauges till i save up enough money for better ones and a tune.....

thanks very much everyone.....