tenblade2001

So, I am a daily driver, but am looking into some mods for the engine. What will give me the most bang for the buck? What does the intake ie. injen intake do vs a header? Sorry for the lame questions, but I'm newbie, wannabe grease monkey.
Thanks,
TB2K01

baxdatass

Best bang for the buck in order of least expensive/daily driveability. To the most expensive with arguably less daily driveability.

1) Injen or AEM Cold air intake. (Approx. $200 9hp gain)

2) Apex i VAFC. (Approx $320-500 tuned and dynoed 9hp-20hp gain. Results vary according to tunning and what additional performance parts you already have on your car.)

3) Clutchmasters or ACT clutch and pressure plate upgrade. (Approx. $800 no Hp gain but it will probably lower your acceleration times.)

4) Vortech or Comptech supercharger (approx. $4100-4700 90hp-100hp gain. Upgradeable to ?hp. All a question of money.) If you do this then you should definetally upgrade the clutch aswell.

5) Speedcraft or custom turbo kit (approx. $6200- ? 90hp-100hp gain gobs more torque Upgradeable to ? hp, again just a question of money.) You would need a new clutch immediatelly after installing this kit.

Hope this helps.

chipperman

1. Lose weight, seems to work for that Spears girl.
2. Trade in for a Z06 Corvette, way better bang for the buck.
3.Do all that baxtadass suggests, then you'll have more in it than a Z06 and it still won't be as fast, but less reliable.
4. As my German friend Bruno says, weld the hood shut, drive the car, and have a nice life.

Peace to you, and good luck

Gernby

I think that baxdatass quoted some high numbers for gains with the CAI and V-AFC, but they are good mods. I haven't done the V-AFC, but plan to. I recommend the Hondata Insulator / Gasket for the intake manifold. It doesn't really give hp 'gains' directly, but on really hot days, it could prevent you from 'losing' 10~15 hp. It is a cheap mod ($60), but it takes some effort to install. You can read more about it at http://www.s2000.org/mods/insulator/

The Unabageler

the vafc gains are accurate, i gained 9hp across the board and after peak power the gains went up to 20hp at redline.

I'd put lightened flywheel in the list as well...$400 for MUCH faster acceleration.

Gernby

I wanted to clarify to tenblade2001 that the V-AFC will not turn a 240 HP S2000 into a 260 HP S2000. Most people that I have seen dyno their car before and after adding a V-AFC to a generally stock motor, get more like 7~9 HP at the rear wheels (peak). The power advantage at 8900 RPMs is not really going to be an issue for a daily driver.

turbo_pwr

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...&threadid=75214

9906

I have a VAFC and harness on order from Diablo, but the only mod that has made observable power on my tuner's dyno for me is the Injen CAI.

tenblade2001

okay stupid question...what's a CAI, V-FAC? Thanks for helping the automively challenged

Gernby

A CAI replaces the HUGE air filter box and pipe. There are several different designs, but all of them serve the same purpose. The stock air box is designed primarily to keep the engine quiet at the expense of performance. Since the stock box sits right behind the radiator, it absorbs a huge amount of radiant heat, and hot air through its inlet. The CAIs pull the air from another location, that hopefully has more cool air.

The V-AFC modifies some sensor signals to the ECU, to adjust the Air / Fuel ratio. The OEM settings sacrifice performance for reliability. If a more "optimized" fuel mixture is used, the engine will make more power, and if you tune it correctly, you won't sacrifice reliability. It also allows you to adjust the RPM at which VTEC engages and disengages.