Performance Plan - Advice Appreciated

[Stutopia]

I've been looking at styling mods, got a list to pick through and there seems to be lots of info around. I'm learning daily. With styling mods, it seems mainly a matter of personal taste and fitment. However, performance mods seem to require a bit more strategy and long termism. I'm trying to figure out a performance upgrade path, which will lead to a remap and possibly after that a supercharger. I love supercharger whine and I always dreamed of owning a car that makes that sound, first things first though.

 

I've inherited from the previous owner a 2004 Zed with a Scorpion exhaust, a Cosworth panel filter, and what has been identified on here as a poorly fitted plenum spacer. Other than that, she's fully stock. I have read here that it's best to get the breathing right first, then go remap from there. The upgrade path I've identified seems to be:

 

Breathing In

Motodyne basic plenum spacer 5/16ths - http://tinyurl.com/bqmhma3

On the basis that it fits straight in under stock brace and bonnet. I'm a little confused as to what the iso thermal aspect of some spacers is, so any explanation is appreciated. I've also picked up from some threads that the benefit over the basic is negligible, please correct me if I make poor assumptions.

Velocity Stack

Don't know much here, beyond the fluid dynamics theory. Do they even fit in the 04 air box? If so, anyone on here sell them?

Intake

I believe the Cosworth panel is reasonable and other intake variants (pop charger, ram) on the stock airbox are more aligned with making a better sound, not necessarily better performance. I'm not after much louder, but interested in good airflow with proper levels of filtration.

 

Breathing Out

Y-Pipe - http://tinyurl.com/d9pod4n

The cobra seems to be a popular choice round these parts and reasonably priced. A decent choice? Again, not after super loud and motorway drone is a no no.

HFCs - http://tinyurl.com/cgphbxu

An area I've read a lot but learned not so much, other than the Berk HFCs seem popular. Where do these fall in terms of legality and current MOT regulations? I'm not keen on anything that the Feds will be even remotely interested in, even if the likelihood of them checking is only 1%. I don't have a friendly MOT mechanic, or any desire for my insurance company to get the hump if the worst happens. Does this mean I'm stuck with OEM and will that ruin my plan?

 

Misc

Belt and lightweight pulleys - http://tinyurl.com/cb7j66z

Another are with plenty of theory, not much practical. I get reducing pulley weight drops load, I've also read a few bits about undercranking, which I think I'm happy enough to live without. Any comments on this are appreciated. No idea about belt - please help!

Uprated Radiator Caps

Seems too easy & cheap to me to make any big gains, but happy to be disproved. Also are there any risks of increasing pressures in there? If so, what's the sort of max pressure rated cap you'd want before risking leaks?

Grounding Kits

I've read a few back on forths on the benefits or not of these, performance wise there's plenty of opinions, but nearly everyone agrees it's beneficial if you run quality ICE and will at least smooth idle.

 

Have I missed any opportunities here? Massively mis-understood any of this? Identified these in the wrong order?

 

Please bear in mind that 3 months ago I thought performance mods were fluffy dice and leopard skin seat covers. I'm not aiming to order all this tonight, I would just like a bit of a plan to budget for and do things in the most appropriate order. I started off here (http://tinyurl.com/co8e3lt) as my basis of making a plan but I’m very much open to suggestion. Thanks (sorry I've gone on a bit).

Edited April 11, 2013 by SuperStu

[Dblock]

Come on man lack of reserach and search!

 

Y pipe is good. Doesn't make the exhaust louder.

 

HFC's. They are HIGH FLOW CATS. They will take a little while to heat up to get to max efficiency.

 

AMS pulleys don't underdrive or undercrank what ever that is . They are stock size so belt is same size.

 

Grounding kits. Some people say they work some people say they dont. If it doesnt sell it someone will buy it.

[Stutopia]

Thanks for the comments. My bad, undercranking is a film making term, something else I'm learning about. Two brain wires shorted there. I could've been clearer about what I was after re: HFC info. I wasn't asking what they are, simply how they fall in current legislation and if not going down that path is hugely detrimental to my plan.

 

As for research I have read so many pages, so many threads, I started at zero not long ago. You should see the list of bookmarks I have filed under Zed, it's ridiculous. The problem I have is information overload, so I tried to distil it into a short list to do a quick sanity check before splashing the hard earned.

[rtbiscuit]

Breathing In

Motodyne basic plenum spacer 5/16ths - http://tinyurl.com/bqmhma3

On the basis that it fits straight in under stock brace and bonnet. I'm a little confused as to what the iso thermal aspect of some spacers is, so any explanation is appreciated. I've also picked up from some threads that the benefit over the basic is negligible, please correct me if I make poor assumptions.

 

nissan had to chage the design of the plenum to make it meet certain regs regarding bonnet clearance; so they shaved down the back chambers and sloped the plenum - this in effect slightly starves the rear cyclinders (plenum spacer restores the spacing.) (or something like that) a possibly tiny gain is achievable

Velocity Stack

Don't know much here, beyond the fluid dynamics theory. Do they even fit in the 04 air box? If so, anyone on here sell them?

 

the new 06 + boxes have a larger velocity stack the older ones have a tiny one fly boy does a mod to turn the old boxes into somethinng close to the new air boxes. - gains are small but it smooths throttle response. only useable with pre 2006 air boxes. but becomes obselete if you replace with an induction kit. those chasing BHP numbers stick to stock airbox and performance filter and VS.

 

Intake

I believe the Cosworth panel is reasonable and other intake variants (pop charger, ram) on the stock airbox are more aligned with making a better sound, not necessarily better performance. I'm not after much louder, but interested in good airflow with proper levels of filtration.

 

basically make the car louder. will suffer heat soak at slow speeds but will be fine at speed. more likely to see gains from long ram kits and sealed airbox kits. but basically the difference on power + or - is almost unoticable in real world figures. but might affect pub bragging rights on a dyno.

 

Breathing Out

Y-Pipe - http://tinyurl.com/d9pod4n

The cobra seems to be a popular choice round these parts and reasonably priced. A decent choice? Again, not after super loud and motorway drone is a no no.

HFCs - http://tinyurl.com/cgphbxu

An area I've read a lot but learned not so much, other than the Berk HFCs seem popular. Where do these fall in terms of legality and current MOT regulations? I'm not keen on anything that the Feds will be even remotely interested in, even if the likelihood of them checking is only 1%. I don't have a friendly MOT mechanic, or any desire for my insurance company to get the hump if the worst happens. Does this mean I'm stuck with OEM and will that ruin my plan?

 

HFC's are road legal and will see small gains, decat pipes see biggest gains but arent MOT legal. HFC's should pass an MOT but might need a spirited drive pre MOT test.

 

Misc

Belt and lightweight pulleys - http://tinyurl.com/cb7j66z

Another are with plenty of theory, not much practical. I get reducing pulley weight drops load, I've also read a few bits about undercranking, which I think I'm happy enough to live without. Any comments on this are appreciated. No idea about belt - please help! basically improve throttle responce but not a massive gain in actual performance

Uprated Radiator Caps

Seems too easy & cheap to me to make any big gains, but happy to be disproved. Also are there any risks of increasing pressures in there? If so, what's the sort of max pressure rated cap you'd want before risking leaks? snake oil

Grounding Kits

I've read a few back on forths on the benefits or not of these, performance wise there's plenty of opinions, but nearly everyone agrees it's beneficial if you run quality ICE and will at least smooth idle. snake oil

 

to give you the short answer if you want to eventually go supercharged, then save up and do it from the start, if you do lots of NA mods and then go have an uprev you'll have spent about 2/3 of the cost of an SC install in the first place.

 

personally speaking; i'd just get what you want for making the noise you want i.e. filter and exhaust, then get it uprev'd at somewhere like horsham. and enjoy the car for what it is. SC'd zeds are great but its not a cheap route. and once you have something likea DIY build its never a fit and forget item, you will need to be checking it and tampering it on a regualr basis. if you want an FI car, save the money and spend it on buying a factory fit FI'd when you come to change from the zed in a few years.

[evilscorp]

The only supercharger that will give you the whine is the stillen = chopping up you bonnet and not as much hp as centrifugal type.

[Stutopia]

Thanks for the comments RT, I appreciate the detail and dditional perspective on SC, as well as and some confirmation of ideas I'd been turning over.

 

Thanks evil, I'd not really thought through the bonnet on SC, only spacer. Again, appreciated.

 

[rtbiscuit]

no worries just trying to be honest. how and what you spend your cash on is up to you. but alot of people on here will atest to spending a shed load, then realiseing nothing is useable and spending a shed load more on an SC setup, and then saying i wish i'd just gone SC in the forst place.