I just got a 2003 OZ. I am yet to do anything to it, everything is stock.
I want to get more power out of it, but i also don't want to compramise reliability.

All i want to do is improve acceleration and handling.
Im not gonna be racing it, so top speed really doesnt matter to me

What mods are good for acceleration, but wont kill my car in 2 years. lol

Im going to get a new air K&M air intake to get started. Any suggestions for acceleration and handling would be greatly appreciated.

Also im on a budget. so anything over $200 i will have to wait a while on, prob till next year. Im going to be doing this stuff paycheck to paycheck.
(im saving up for a vacation to england w/my gf)



This is my first car, and im a total noob, I've been researching ALOT but i dont want to ad mods that counter act eachother or make no real difference to acceleration.

Here are some mods ive looked into

Intake, Strut bars, Exhaust system, Headers, that Piggy Back thing, well pretty much everything on RRM's site. lol


Thanks

 

oh yeh its an automatic

 

ok for intake, I have tried the K&N typhoon on my auto lancer. Its good and looks great but, i also replced the blue pipe with the stock one and it feels like throttle respnse gets a tad bit better. My personal opinion, go on ebay and search for Bomz racing. DONT BUY THEIR KIT! But go to their ebay store and they sell just the maf sensor adaptor by itself to mount the filter to. Get that and I think they also sell the little metal piece to hold it up. Then spend a little more on na good K&N filter and that will be just as good as any other intake but much cheaper. If you want acceleration, get all intake stuff first, intake, throttle body, intake manifold, then get a muffler. the entire exhaust isnt really needed unless you have a lot done. magnaflow sounds great. Call RRM right now and you could get a GReddy weld on muffler for $79 dollars. they had 2 left yesterday. Welding that should cost no more than $100. A shop here quoted me $110 to have a custom catback 2.5" welded to my magnaflow. oh and get the RRM ver. 2 Piggyback. used if possible cause its expensive but easy to install for some nice gains. lastly, or first even, the RRM lightweight crank pulley. $99 but a little harder to install. Most shops quoted me at least $100 to install, but i looked around and found one that did it for $35 not knowing how hard it was. hope all that helps. also i mainly said just intake side because it seems like the more intake you have, the better bottom end (acceleration/torque) and the more exhaust side done= more top end (top speed/hp) although i could be wrong on that.

 

How difficult are thos piggybacks to use?

 

Read this.

This may answer some of your questions on what you should get for your Lancer.

 

Ok here are two mufflers i looked at, what do you think?

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

 

the problem that comes in is where you stated, "i dont want to ad mods that counter act eachother or make no real difference to acceleration." it is difficult to improve the car that much, short of buying a turbo kit. probably the best mod that you could do currently on your budget is the RRM pulley. it is $100, and with shipping it comes to ~$110.

 

RRM's is the simplest, you just splice up the ecu and it self adjusts. most other PBs you'll will have to get it dyno tuned or learn how to correspond it with air/fuel ratios and you can tune it yourself (however, tuning yourself is going to cost more if you plan to wideband and do it yourself.)

 

ok what about the muffler and intake. should i still get those?

I mean i dont want to do a whole lot. I just need the acceleration and speed for city driving, (florida drivers are terrible)
and also maybe to impress a couple of my friends would be nice. lol

So i dont want anything to hardcore, just bits and pieces to improve handling and accel.
are strut bars worth getting?

 

The exhaust will kill your torque and not do much for you right now in terms of HP. Unless you're able to fabricate your own exhaust you won't get much more than a fart can for $200.

If I only had $200 I'd start with a MAS adapter, a K&N cone filter and spend $4 at home depot for some vacuum ducting (make a ram air duct- lowers intake temps by 30-40 deg depending on speed). That should take care of your first $100.

Then I'd get the RRM piggyback in a couple months. I'm not usually one to pimp RRM but it comes with a decent tune and now that they offer the software for the piggy it's a good investment (I went with the eManage back in the day because I couldn't get the split/second piggyback software and I wasn't doing anything that they were tuning for- like cams and ported manifolds )

You can get a ported G94 manifold for about $150 (after you get your core charge returned) if you know who to ask.

Increasing your intake side helps low to middle power.
Exhaust is mid-high to upper end power but sacrifices some low end.

The pulley is only $100 but the install is going to cost you about 3 hours labor, last I heard (I don't know because I do all my own work... )\


FWIW I autocross (successfully- I'm currently 2nd in my class against some cars that I really shouldn't be racing against. CAn you say Mini Cooper S? What about RSX-S? See, I knew you could ).... anyway I used to have all the bars and now I race with none. The car is much less likely to have "snap oversteer" without them. Snap oversteer is where the suspension overcompensates for the load and "snaps" back to the other side and usually results in a spin. Fun, but bad for lap times and probably deadly on an onramp

 

There are a few things that can also be done cheaply:

- Tighten the throttle cable to increase the pedal response to the engine when you hit the gas.
- Better spark plugs. Gap them correctly and when installing, make the open spark part face the intake manifold. This is supposed to help all the gas burn quicker and more efficient. Im not sure if it works however.

Exhaust you will loose your acceleration, but when you hit ~3500+ rpm's, i think you do feel a difference (atleast with header+catback).

Suspension you can get springs, coilover sleeves or a full 'true' coilover set. That all depends on the price, the drop and quality of handling. A full coilover set is expensive and gives much better suspension setup. Springs and coilover sleeve kits are less expensive and help suspension, but not as much.

I'm running a NEX coilover sleeve kit (mostly cause I could drop it really far and it was cheap .. :/ ) and it actually handles suprisingly well for a sleeve kit. I've also an OZ, so it has the stock rear sway bar and a RMR front upper strut. Plus my super cool WanLi tires I'm fairly happy with the handling considering all of that (yes i have low standards :P).

Do the intake first and think about what to do next. Also, look for used parts on this forum as they are usually very well priced and rather than getting 1-2 NEW parts, you can get 3-4 used parts for the same cost. Check out the for sale area. There are some good priced parts in the partout area: https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/fo...ysprune=&f=136

Alchemist - where are the autox pics? vbmenu_register("postmenu_3181305", true);

 

ok i will def get the intake then. i might buy one of those crappy ebay mufflers just for looks and sound. i dont even think they improve performance, i just cant stand the sight of the turd stock muffler we have. lol

I will prob just splash out and get a full K&N intake kit. im also gonna put a hood scoop for the intake.
In about a month i should have sum extra cash and buy the pully, i know a guy who will install it for dirt cheap. lol
and mayB by christmas i will have enough money for a Piggy Back.

Until then i might use that resistor mod (no check engine light, and helps a tiny bit, ive read VERY mixed reports on these. does any1 have a definite answer on possible engine damage? i know they DO work, not much extra, but a little. I had it installed for a day, then took it out till i got more informed)

also your saying strut bars are NOT a good idea?
what about those torque dampner things
https://www.evolutionm.net/features/...vomfeatures/53
you think thats worth me buying, they should help acceleration right?

 

If you want your car to run for a while (I'm assuming you got it used considering its your first car and its a 2003 model), I would make sure that the mods you are doing won't cause problems. The resistor mod, I would be concerned about reliability.

strut bar - I would recommend, as I like mine

engine torque dampner - I don't think any in the market actually fit the lancer (even though they state they do), but I could be wrong. Not all evo parts will fit your car and I don't think the one in that link will.

 

can you give me a link on how to tighten the throttle cable please, and also that spark plug thing. (im a total noob, this is my first car)

Ok i will skip the resistor mod.

I dont want to mess with the suspension, only because of time and money. Strut bars sound like a good way to increase handling without going hardcore on replacing parts.

Is gettin just a muffler gonna effect my acceleration to much? im not gonna do a cat-back, just the muffler.

 

also does any1 know how effective those grounding thingys and voltage regulators are?