Junkyard_Mad-Scientist
SHO Member
based on experienced suggestions I think Im going to break this up into stages, after all, when is a car actually "done" i think the foundation to everything is going to be a tuner and the supporting parts, GH sells the power pack for $650 which the tuner itself is $500 retail and it comes with the plugs, a 170 tstat and 3bar map, not sure if it includes a tune or not but the general consensus seems to be go with AJP anyway. E30 from what Ive seen is in more dense areas and south florida, up here in the sticks theres only a couple stations ive seen that have it, usually by an interstate and nothing within 20 miles of my house.
From there i think ill slowly start working on exhaust, I agree the 3.5 does NOT have a good note to it. even the GT doesnt sound all that good and I was always told that if it has less than 8 cylinders leave it alone, plus theres the sleeper factor to consider. but a mild pair of mufflers that breathe better might be the way I go considering the dumps are off the table. I had not considered the leaking or the failures and now i remember my old hot rod buddy saying the only dumps that work are the ones that you have to unbolt a cap from.
so phase 1 will be tuner kit, mounts, and brakes, phase 2 will be exhaust changes starting with mild mufflers working up to potentially going catless, and if i deem it needed phase 3 will be bigger turbos, IC, and intake pipes. from what Ive gathered here it would seem shes set up to get where I want to go without having to change much, a quick run of figures has me well under 2k for everything for phase 1.
This also leaves room for upgrades as certain parts fail, cat clogs or turbo dies, I can justify the upgrade as a replacement. I also have no intention of replacing drive train so I dont want to put a bunch of power to it and blast my PTU into glitter. i feel safe with this, very good info from all and I really appreciate it, I definitely would've gone overboard if not for some words of reason.
From there i think ill slowly start working on exhaust, I agree the 3.5 does NOT have a good note to it. even the GT doesnt sound all that good and I was always told that if it has less than 8 cylinders leave it alone, plus theres the sleeper factor to consider. but a mild pair of mufflers that breathe better might be the way I go considering the dumps are off the table. I had not considered the leaking or the failures and now i remember my old hot rod buddy saying the only dumps that work are the ones that you have to unbolt a cap from.
so phase 1 will be tuner kit, mounts, and brakes, phase 2 will be exhaust changes starting with mild mufflers working up to potentially going catless, and if i deem it needed phase 3 will be bigger turbos, IC, and intake pipes. from what Ive gathered here it would seem shes set up to get where I want to go without having to change much, a quick run of figures has me well under 2k for everything for phase 1.
This also leaves room for upgrades as certain parts fail, cat clogs or turbo dies, I can justify the upgrade as a replacement. I also have no intention of replacing drive train so I dont want to put a bunch of power to it and blast my PTU into glitter. i feel safe with this, very good info from all and I really appreciate it, I definitely would've gone overboard if not for some words of reason.