The best way to make HP is the buy the right parts the first time, or to buy everything for a project at once. You'll save big bucks, since speed isn't cheap

Using Intakes better at the track cost $0
Have an intake. When you go to the track, with a WAI, remove the entire headlight housing. You allowing better airflow you get to your intake. Even though the battery is still in the way you still get enough air to make a big difference. For CAI guys, remove the foglight, it's held in by 2 10mm bolts and unbolts very easy. Wrap the wire from the foglight up and out of the way. I remove the fender liner too to allow a full airflow. Also have a different filter for the track, this way you have a nice clean filter or even a brand new one. My track filter has about 10 miles on it

Exhaust $400 to 700 pending on company
Aleros work best with a 2.5" upgrade. Most cars today make HP with Backpressure, going too big of an exhaust allows no backpressure which will kill low end torque. I great example of this is the Honda Civic. It has a 1.5" stock exhaust. A great upgrade would be 2" or 2.25" but if you start going up to 3" and 4" and even 5" which I've seen, you just killing 1/4 mile times. Think about it. An 8 second drag car has no mufflers and a 3 to 4 inch header. These usually have a 400 SBC or bigger motor under the hood. A Civic has a 1.6 liter motor (400 motor is 6.7 liters) It should only cost about $75 to install a kit.

Struts and Springs @$250/struts @$200/Springs
Lower Springs and new Struts will stop the front end of your car from comming up and that will help ET's a bit. A FWD car is built on the idea that the motor is over the drive wheels to get better traction do to the weight of the motor, and it's easier for a small car to be pulled instead of being pushed. On hard Accel, the front will jump up and all the weight (inclueding gas) will move back. It's basic science. The stiffer springs will reduce the way the front end jumps up, putting more weight over the wheel and causing less wheel spin. You could get the stiffest springs you want and pervent the front end from comming up at all. One of the fastest NA Corba in the world is in the Greater Philadelphia area, and he has mostly suspension and tranny work done to the car, with very little done to the motor.

Bigger TB $219 for TB $219 for manifolds (v6 motors)
If done right, will increase airflow to the motor. It is pointless to get a bigger TB and not get the manifold ported to match.(Upper and lower for the 3400's) You're only going to allow as much air in, as your smallest opening will allow. Think of it in terms of water in a cup. A quater sized hole will drain faster than a pin sized hole.

Lightweight Wheels and Racing or High traction street tires appox $1000
The poilshed 16" wheels & tires on the GLS weigh about 42 lbs each. My aftermarkets weigh only 32lbs each. Cut 12 lbs down on each wheel and 48 lbs overall. Lighter wheels are easier to spin up, so there is a down side. Small diameter wheels are better for drag racing due to less rolling resistance. If you plus size wheels correctly a 16" wheel is the same diameter as a 17" wheel, with tires of course

Crank Pulley appox $140
A lighter pulley will allow higher and faster revs. The higher the car is revving going down the track, the faster the car will go into the next gear. Pulleys don't add any more than 2 HP, if your lucky to get 2, it's the revving factor you got to look at here

Alt Pulley appox $120
All these do is spin the Alt slower, they free up about 1 to 2 HP. Not recommened if your running a system, or a lot of electrical in your car. This is great point of speed vs bling and showing you can't do both.

Electric fan switch @ $80
In addtion to running the heat to draw heat out of the motor, this will help bring underhood temps down. Be sure to turn it off before your run, because it's like leaving the A/C on going down the track. Casper sells a plug and play system, but it doesn't go off when you turn off the igntion. It will kill the battery in 20 minutes if left on.

Coolant appox $135 at dealer
Clean and fresh to win. Keeps the motor cooler. Coolant does a better job if it's clean.

180 Degree Thromostat $11
Stock is set at 195 degrees, 15 degrees is a big difference.

Headers $600 to $900
4,2,1 or 4 to 1 headers for a 4 banger and 3 to 1 headers for 3400's move exhaust gases faster, and hotter. For a 3400 it adds about 20 HP at the wheels and is a very serious mod. Works best with a 2.5" exhaust system. The down pipe is 2.5" A high quality header will have holes pre drilled and threaded for O2 sensors. Power coating will be the heat inside the header pipes, but I would still suggest a high temp heat wrap

Shift Kit $40
Cheap and easy to install. This will stiffen up shifts and will not allow the motor to rev down too low between. If you hit the gears at a higher RPM, you will get a slightly better time. Before the shift kit my car would drop to 2000 RPM's at a shift, after it was about 2750 RPM's This won't get you into the 12's but will help your shifts.

Enjoy

ive always thought that porting ur intake manifold would only increase power with forced air induction (turbo) system

How does the crank pulley allow for higher revs? A rev limiter is a rev limiter. My car redlined at 6500 and only software could change that.

i think he meant quicker revs not higher.

Yeah more quicker than higher but I can push over the redline now after putting in the Crank pulley

It helps more with a s/c or turbo but it still helps a NA engine.

Plus with a turbo, you want a lower compression ratio

You forgot a reprogrammed PCM to take advantage of all your mods

i think 2.5 is a little big for a near stock cars exhaust....you may want to say, light bolt on's is 2.25 tops, 2.5 for heavier mods. i know lots of other much more powerful cars recommend 2.5", and where talking 300+hp. what you need is maximum velocity and scavanging effect (smaller pipe helps with this) and minimum backpressure (free'er flowing muffler)

nice list :thumb:

Exactly. exhaust backpressure does not make low-end power. the correct piping size to balance good velocity and high rpm flow works the best, along with the most free-flowing muffler you can get. the 2.25" for light mods and 2.5" for heavier mods is just right. 3" is a must for forced induction where the exhaust gets pushed out instead of relying on the smaller piping's velocity to draw exhaust out of the engine. but no matter what, you want the very least amount of backpressure possible.

i kept the stock pipe which is 2", replaced the resonator with a 31" glass pack which has no obstruction to flow, its a perforated core. and a muffler with a strait through magnaflow, single in dual out.

i have very little back pressure because i barely have mufflers. so this helps my top end, the car pulls ALOT BETTER at higher rpms speed. i was used to a dohc aurora, and thought the 3400 was slow up top, now it feels pretty quick.

I kept my exhaust velocity up by staying with a 2" pipe, this helped me to keep all, and gain some torque, its much easier to spin the tires, and sometimes it fights for traction through most of 1st gear if the roads not 100% perfect, wasn't like that before the intake/exhaust. i even have stiffer, lower suspension helping me get better launches (less weight gets transfered to the back)

If i wanted to further reduce backpressure, i could get a highflow cat. ive seen flow charts showing they do flow better, but by going this way instead of increasing pipe diameter to reduce back pressure, i keep my exaust velocity, which brings low-end torque


since my car will only see light mods, intake/exhaust/pcm and maybe a pully, this is the ideal setup for exhaust. but if i was to go with a ported TB, intake manifolds headers, id want a mandrel bent 2.25. then add a bunch more on top of that, mandrel 2.5

I have yet to see a 2.25 inch exhaust kit for a "N" body

Reprogramed PCMs are good but I know very little about them. I won't talk about what I don't know fully

Borla's kit was 2.25, and its my opinion it was for a good reason.

with your mods redog, id really talk to DHP, it will be $220 well spent, or $400 for the software

I'm going to pin this topic.

Working on some things :hide: ;)

Wouldnt taking the headlight out actually have negative effects in terms of aerodynamics? I easily see the point of taking out the fog lights as those seem dead weight anyway...

If you running a WAI no, becasue all that air that goes into the space where the headlight is gets into your intake.

My first run ever was a 16.20 and taking out the headlight I ran a 15.85 on the same day. I got the idea from wacthing early 90's Mustangs and Grand Prix doing it, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

The fog light comes out when running the CAI. I put in on the back floor boards after I take it out

The electric fan bit is BS. ITS ELECTRIC so it does not add rotating mass to the engine like the old style crank driven ones. having it on (or off) has negligible effects on the engine. Now if you remove a crank driven fan and put in an electric fan you will notice a diff...

I have serious questions about the positive effects of removing the headlight, Two runs is by no means scientific results.

About half of the other things are minimal, might give quicker revs. The rest are a decent start. The one thing that you neglected to mention was motor/tran mounts, not sure which ones are avail on which combo though, these would also go a looong way t odetering wheel hop.

i dont have wheel hop, ever

removing the headlight for a wai makes sense to me, lets it get colder air easier. the filter is going to suck in how much air it wants regardless, but without the healight you have a fresher feed of cold air. not a huge different, but worth the 1 minute it takes to do at the track

and furthermore, yes, the electric fan is (all caps) ELECTRIC, hence load on the alternator, resulting on more drag to the engine, and every stinkin bit counts fighting the timer.....BS that.

The alternator is going to produce a load on the engine as long is it is mechanically attached to the crank, only way to reduce that drag is to remove it (not advisable if you have a street driven car). The amount of resistance being produced by the alternator is also a constant, regardless of current is being drawn from the battery. So adding an electric fan will not produce more drag on the engine b/c the alternator is not a variable resistance unit, its either there or its not.

So yeah BS :P

why not just remove the headlight and remove the filter from your WAI setup.... that way you have no restriction, and your MAF takes care of the rest

Yeah but anything can get sucked up into it

well your on the race track..... there isnt exactly cow poop flying at you

OWNED

lol, jk

redog, you may want to edit that

the reason A/C takes away more power is when you turn it on, the clutch engages and the a/c pully gets very hard to turn. that robs you of power. when its off, the a/c pully is just free spinning. your alternator has no such clutch, its always the same amount of resistance to spin it.

are you sure the stock rims are 42lbs? i have the 16" polished 2001+ gls rims, and they feel very very light to begin with, they dont feel like 42lbs to me. i can put it on a scale next time i take it off, i think you have a 99 right redog? i know they had a different style rim, maybe it weighs more. If your 17's weigh'd the exact same as my 16"'s (im just saying if) your 17's would pressent more of a drag on your car than my 16's. this is because your weight would be positioned farther out from the center axis, it all has to do with physics.

also, running a smaller diamter tire doesn't change the rolling resistance. a smaller diameter tire is basically changing your cars overall drive ratio. putting a smaller tire on is like changing your gear ratio from 3.05 to 3.15, the amount it changes obviously depends on how much of a difference in diamter you do

That last para. should read a smaller wheel/tire combo not just the tires, sorry Im a stickler for the details ;)

OWNED

lol, jk

redog, you may want to edit that

the reason A/C takes away more power is when you turn it on, the clutch engages and the a/c pully gets very hard to turn. that robs you of power. when its off, the a/c pully is just free spinning. your alternator has no such clutch, its always the same amount of resistance to spin it.

are you sure the stock rims are 42lbs? i have the 16" polished 2001+ gls rims, and they feel very very light to begin with, they dont feel like 42lbs to me. i can put it on a scale next time i take it off, i think you have a 99 right redog? i know they had a different style rim, maybe it weighs more. If your 17's weigh'd the exact same as my 16"'s (im just saying if) your 17's would pressent more of a drag on your car than my 16's. this is because your weight would be positioned farther out from the center axis, it all has to do with physics.

also, running a smaller diamter tire doesn't change the rolling resistance. a smaller diameter tire is basically changing your cars overall drive ratio. putting a smaller tire on is like changing your gear ratio from 3.05 to 3.15, the amount it changes obviously depends on how much of a difference in diamter you do
[/b][/quote]
I have the 2000 GLS.

I weighed the wheels and I came out with 42 lbs. I'll try weighing them again next week. They are in my storage locker right now and I'm moving out of there on Sunday

but i didn't say lower profile tire, i said smaller diameter tire. so if you start with a 26" diameter tire, and change it to a 25" diameter tire, you've affected your gear ratio (not really, but it has the same effect) no matter what size your wheel is :P

What about the cheapest mod of all to increase power, loose some weight. If you are a fat as*, all that extra weight will definitely slow you down. :lol:

passenger seat will save you 40+ pounds, 15-30lbs from the spare and jack, there is other things, but those are the major ones.....

ok, ya got me that time. I think it must be #$%@ the Tourette Syndrome that causes me to blurt out crap without thinking.
and wouldn't removing the engine reduce several hundred pounds as well? :blink: heh heh
<#$?*!

From what I've heard, a crank pulley is worth more than just 2 HP. Assuming you drop 4 lbs of rotating mass from the crank, you should gain closer to 8 HP. The alternator pulley I'd believe, but I've heard ~2.6 hp per 1 lb. of rotating mass removed from the crankshaft. Alternator pulleys are little anyways, so it'd be hard to subtract much weight from them.

the ffp unit was dyno'd to add 7hp 8tq by someone

turbo alero, how hard is it to take out the passenger seat? mine is probably closer to 50lbs since its leather.

its easy, 2 bolts

but i didn't say lower profile tire, i said smaller diameter tire. so if you start with a 26" diameter tire, and change it to a 25" diameter tire, you've affected your gear ratio (not really, but it has the same effect) no matter what size your wheel is :P
[/b][/quote]


OWNED LOL :beerchug:

a TB by itself is NOT pointless.....my friend's 01 GAGT gained 8whp with just adding a 62mm TB to his stock manifolds.

Wow, you really have no idea about anything and you've proven it again.

Do you know how systems of energy work? You can't just take energy from the engine and not have it go anywhere.

Do me a favour and go get a hand driven generator. Hook up a lightbulb to the generator with a switch in line. Now turn the switch off. Crank the generator. While cranking the generator turn the switch on. Wow!! It just got harder to turn! Isn't that neat!?

:eek: Turns out energy can't be created or destroyed, so if your not producing as large of an electrical draw, it takes less force to turn your generator/alternator. This has to do with the 'magnetic feilds' but we'll save that one for a later lesson.

Science and Cars 101 brought to you by b-spot.

You are correct the alt turns on and off but it is based on the state of the battery, not the total vehicle draw, this happens regardless of the presence of an electric fan. But since the alternator produces a constant output, when engaged, regardless of the draw on the battery (which in this system acts like a huge capacitor) the only thing that would posibily change is the amount of times the alt is charging and possibly the duration, And that is difficult to control. So yes if the alt comes on in the 15+ seconds you are going down the track you will lose power, a negligable amount but a net loss. However, you run that risk w/o an electric fan.

I'm probably missing something else :huh: but I'm sure someone will straighten me out. And I humbly aplogize for the above oversight of the fact the alt does turn on and off, so to speak. :blush:

It doesn't actually turn on and off, its always 'on', but the mechanical force necessary to turn it depends on the current draw placed on it (assume fixed voltage). Because its all one large circuit (charging/battery/accessories) your alternator is in effect actually directly supplying power to your accessories (stereo, ignition system, fan, lights, computer). Ideally, your battery should only ever discharge (slightly) upon start up, and should be at full charge after a very short time of the engine running, which is why, conceptually, your alternator is hooked straight up to your fan/stereo/lights etc.

You are correct again, the alt does not turn on and off I am mistaken. (Im not doing to good with typing these explanations, i think the medium is the problem)

Anyways, the mechanical force to turn the alternator is not based on electric load. The alt produces a set amount of electrical energy, based on engine speed (there are more variables but we assume they are constant). That is then manipulated by the diode pack to convert from AC to DC and by the voltage regulator to meet the demands placed on the battery. Conceptually the alt is powering the whole electric system. In reality the battery is powering the elec. system and the alternator is maintaining the battery's amount of chemical energy. Like I said before the battery acts like a huge Cap. in this system.

The alt changes mechanical energy (via a crank pulley) to electrical energy. (I will leave it that simple cause I believe this application is that simple.) When that electrical comes into the battery it is turned into chemical energy and stored. When an electrical device needs electrical energy the battery converts the stored chemical energy into electrical energy and voila. If there were no volt regulator on the alt. then when the battery had converted all the electrical energy it could store into chem. energy the electrical energy would begin turning into thermal energy and you could experince some serious problems, like the battery melting, or worse. The whole system is a push-pull system with the battery in the middle. The alt pushes energy into the battery and accesories pull the energy from the battery. The battery is constanly discharging, however in normal operation it is constantly charging as well.

Your argument is like saying the hose fills my pool faster when I want more water or slower when it is full. In reality the hose fills at a constant rate but the number of people splashing (accesories) determines how much water leaves the pool. The beauty of electricity is that you can maintain the same power, and manipulate the Amps and voltage to suit your needs. Kinda like saying there is less water entering the pool but its wetter.

In conclusion an electric fan does not cost wheel (or engine) horsepower.

Not true, the mechanical force to turn an alternator/generator IS a function of electric load. Like I said before, get a hand crank generator/alternator and feel it for yourself, or just look up the equations to calculate force and output for generators/alternators.

Quote:

Originally posted by Fast Eddie@May 3 2005, 12:24 PM Like I said before the battery acts like a huge Cap. in this system.

Yep, the battery is just there for cases when the alternator can't keep up (very high electrical load, or times when the car isn't running).

Quote:

Originally posted by Fast Eddie@May 3 2005, 12:24 PM when the battery had converted all the electrical energy it could store into chem. energy the electrical energy would begin turning into thermal energy and you could experince some serious problems, like the battery melting, or worse.

Not true. If the alternator was generating the same amount of electricity, it needs somewhere to go, and for that to happen, something needs to heat up, give off radiation, sound, etc. What happens is the battery stops drawing charge from the alternator and the mechanical force on the alternator is reduced to that necessary to overcome the internal friction.

Quote:

Originally posted by Fast Eddie@May 3 2005, 12:24 PM The whole system is a push-pull system with the battery in the middle. The alt pushes energy into the battery and accesories pull the energy from the battery. The battery is constanly discharging, however in normal operation it is constantly charging as well.

The alternator doesn't 'push' energy. It is drawn. Also, the battery isn't constantly discharging. If the charging/discharging you speak of are equal, the battery stays in equilibrium.

<!--QuoteBegin-Fast Eddie@May 3 2005, 12:24 PM
Your argument is like saying the hose fills my pool faster when I want more water or slower when it is full. In reality the hose fills at a constant rate but the number of people splashing (accesories) determines how much water leaves the pool. The beauty of electricity is that you can maintain the same power, and manipulate the Amps and voltage to suit your needs. Kinda like saying there is less water entering the pool but its wetter.
[/quote]

No, my argument comes from physics. Its like saying it is the same to fill the pool when its 10 feet above the pump as when its 10 feet below the pump.

Seriously man, read up about it, I'm not kidding here. If you can get ahold of a hand generator its pretty cool to feel the difference just a light bulb makes... and then imagine what a couple 12" subs are doing to your alternator.

dare I say? owned?