need ideas
 

I bought my 86.5 NA about 3 months ago. So far I have done the following:

• tuned up with new plugs, wires, cap, rotor.
• put on new 225/50-16's
• Gutted the Cat (no not the feline, the converter)
• new Magnaflow Performance XL 2.5 in dual 2.5 out (which I hate btw)
• polished the wheels
• lowered it 2inches
• added a new front lip
• front strut bar installed
• reupholstered door inserts, shift boot, console cover, and E-brake cover.
• added a new head unit, 4 new speakers and an amp and sub box
• put in white faced reverse EL glow gauges
• short shifter mod
• TEMS diag mode mod
• JDM look alike tail light mod
• added stock rear spoiler
• cleaned and detailed inside and out including under the hood
• removed, sanded and repolished the body mouldings
• swapped out lights with diamond cut lenses and H4 superwhites
• fabbed mesh grills
• modded AFM

The car runs great, drives smooth (except when the targa is out, where it developes an obnoxious shimmy around 65 and goes away around 85), stops ok. All the electrics work properly and hood and hatch stay up.

Thats all I can remember right now. I am planning on putting on CD'd/slotted rotors and semi-met's when funds allow. Im also right now having a targa brace fabbed (laser cut front and rear plates with 1" tube bars connecting front to back). What Im wondering is anyone has an ideas for other mods or upgrades that would be relatively cheap, say $200 or less ideas. Obviously that means no engine/trans swaps, and no TIEN coilovers...lol.

1 piece driveshaft? Header pipe? does anyone make a TB spacer for the 7M? Electric fans? all valid ideas, and Im hoping someone will post up their experience with those mods (sources, trouble spots, results) and possible help me come up with ideas I havent thought of yet. Help me brainstorm it folks!

onyl thing i have for an idea is some sweet tint, and a front window sticker.. all i could think of right now. just curious, any idea what kind of hp gain you got with gutting the cat? and how much did your custom intake help?

btw, ill buy your magnaflow :)

I have one of those magna flows, It is entirely too loud. It makes this annoying fwaping sound between 2 and 3k rpms. Magnified a lot when the window is down, and even more when next to another car/solid object to reflect it. As for mods...hmm. I would def say a header....make the most of the exhaust. Get the head shaved a little. More compression. But then you need better gas and that sucks. Get adjustable cam gears and follow some of the settings ive seen on forums...cant recall exactly where right now. The header and exhaust and cam gear timing should def open it up at high rpms thou.

yes, you hit the nail on the head with that magnaflow, I dont mind the loud as I also put in a bullet style resonator after the cat. But that "fwapping" sound you describe is just a bit irritating to an old guy like me. So yeah if someone wants to buy it off me its got less than 500 miles on it.

Im not a big sticker fan, in fact Im a big fan of de-badgeing entirely. I have done my own tinting in the past and Im pretty good at it when I have all my resources available, but right now Im going through a divorce so Im only in a temporary living situation. There is a shop up in Portland advertising a summer special for a 2 door vehicle for 99 bucks. I have to go to Portland to look at some leather samples anyways, thinking about getting it done.

So, if I was gonna change out that muffler for a decent sounding one, that isnt real expensive, what would ya suggest?

I really have no way to judge HP gain other than seat of the pants. When I got the cat out and looked into it I noticed right off the cat was toast. It was severely melted on the first and second biscuit, and I would say was 30-40% restricted. It seemed to me that gutting it opened up the powerband a little, both on the low end and high end. I definately got better off the line throttle response.

The custom intake was a little more subtle because it was done in stages. I first put on the cone filter, and a couple days later removed and replaced the air chamber, and yet a couple more days later I added a cold air funnel system. Over all I would say it was good for maybe 3-5 HP gain, and alot better sound...not that I can hear it over this loud ass muffler. lol

And yes you can buy the muffler off me. I had two chrome tips put on it, and like I said it has less than 500 miles on it. its this one here: http://www.magnaflow.com/02product/s...ne=main&id=563
I'll take 60 bucks plus shipping if your serious.

Flowmaster 40 series sound rather nice, I just stuck one on the end(it was my dads) and drove around with it. Quieter than the magnaflow too. Its the glasspack style mufflers that make that noise, So just get any one with chambers instead of glasspack style. The muffler when i got the car was so awful.... It was just a can with 2 stainless steel tips, And it was so loud and made this terrible droning noise. So I put the magnaflow on that i had laying around for my monte carlo...and viola no more droning, but insted fwapy noise. But i will admit it is way better than that hummmmmmmm noise. Actually, inbetween taking the old off and the magna flow, I did just the flowmaster, sounded nice, and just an open exhaust was actually a little less loud than the original ricer muffler.

well if its as annoying as you say, im not to sure. would u be able to snap a pic or two of it? and i take it its louder than stock? ill see how my next pay check is and tell you if i will buy it or not, if not.. maybe you'll still have it in 2 weeks?

im thinking of getting my cat cut out and doing the custom intake to get some hp increase.. along with a muffler. im almost thinking i want a quiet muffler.

heh, if you want quiet this muffler is not for you...personally I love the deep low rumble of it. its just in a certain rpm range at a particular throttle opening its just TOO loud. Like I said, Im too old (42) for that kind of noise. Its not like Im some tuner kid trying to attract attention. I bought it for the free flow nature of it...not realizing just how loud that free flow would be. lol

yeah I'll try to snap some pics of it this week, but I got alot on my plate right now. Gotta get my targa bar done before Saturday, then cruising to Portland for a meet, and I just grabbed a parts car off Ebay for 25 bucks (yeah, you read that right) that I will need to get up here to Corvallis, and I got a guy coming over to possibly take my 88 turbo shell off me. Might be a week before I can ge back to ya on that.

So of the mods I mentioned in the OP, has anyone had any experience with those? Im particularly interested in what a 1 piece driveshaft would do for me.

well if it has a low rumble to it, im in :) because i really hate that really high pitch noise from those "fart cans" like.. cherry bombs and such, any idea if i could find a sound clip of it? if you want to hold it, ill buy it in two weeks.

I'll try to get a sound clip made up of it, I have a digital video cam I can use.

ok here is a movie file of the exhaust note for that muffler:

http://home.comcast.net/~kthaney/files/magnaflow2.wmv

save as...or open in place

sounds/looks great to me, ill let you know when i get my paycheck in two weeks. im curious this shipping cost, i live in saskatoon, sask, canada. thanks alot.

ive read you arent really looking for performance, so id have to say... not really sure, most the things i wanna do to mine is performance... how about shaved door handles? light weight flywheel? lighter rims? im not so sure those are undre 200 but thats i can think of.

if you didnt care what kind of mod id say tackle the whole exhaust w/ headers and dp. you could also take out all the unnecassary things in the engine bay: charcaol canister, emissions, etcs. can also replace all the hoses and gas lines, how about new brake lines?

I didnt say I wasnt interested in performance, its just that Im mostly satisfied wiht the performance as it sits. I think I may be getting a Turbo Donor with bad RK. Im now seriously looking into doing an NA-T. Either that or the full GTE swap after rebuilding the donor. So I think any engine mods would be a waste right now.

My paint is decent as is so I dont wanna do any body work yet. I think Im kinda just at the end of what I can do with this car right now until I get some more funds and do the engine swap. Oh well, I'll just keep selling my parts for now and keep saving up

If you do get the donor...can i have some stuff? haha. Ill buy it cheap!

Well to contribute now, If you want the car to look better, Take the rear wiper off, Tint the windows, Take it to a detaling shop...they can do a wonderful job. Recover/paint more of the interior. Build a cool perfect fit speaker box. Def work on the exhaust too. There was a big dif between my rusty stock exhaust and the meinike 2.5" with the magnaflow. Id do a header and hi-flo cat if i wasnt getting a whole new turbo supra...

P.S. - Your car(if thats it in the video) does sound similar to mine, But a little better. So whatever it is, I like it.

yeah thats my 86.5 in the video. probably the difference is that I have a 12inch "bullet" resonator behind the gutted cat.

Im going to stick with working on my interior now I think. I started with the little paneles and pieces I could do myself, but now I want more. I have an extra set of seats that are in great shape (wrong color) that I think Im going to tear apart and use for templates. My only problem is I dont have a sewing machine capable of doing upholstery work, but for the money I can save doing the covers myself I think I can afford to buy a second hand one.

I wanted to say, Whatever new exhaust, make the same kinda video :)

could u post me a link for the tips you bought? or no? :)

I bought em off the shelf of the muffler shop...they were left overs...they arent resonator tips, just angle cut chromies.

well if you are doing the interior can i suggest changing the gauge cluster bulbs to another color. its not that hard to get the cluster out and you just twist the bulbs and they just come out.

already swapped out the bulbs when I put in the white gauges...but now I want to take it back apart again to paint the needles.

when you get time could you find out the shipping cost, i love those tips xD and it take it that its pretty easy to put on the muffler? just a couple clamps?

You're a 42 year old hooligan. Peeling out at stop signs, damn whipper snapper. That exhaust sounds pretty damn good.

ROFL...that gave me a good chuckle!

Its really best to have it welded on...clamping almost always leads to leaks which sound like crap!