Baffled by bolt-ons....

I've got a 98 GSR 4DR and I'm looking to boost my performance. I figured I'd start with basic things like I/H/E, but that's becoming somewhat of a challenge. I've pretty much decided to go with the Weapon-R Dragon intake, and DC 4-1 headers. But I'm stuck on the exhaust...... I can get the Greddy Evo2, SP2, Skunk2, and APEXi for all about the same price. Just wondering which one you guys feel is better (opinion or life experience, doesn't matter). And after that, where would you go from there? I've got right now about $2500 to work with so any suggestions would be helpful.

i have a greddy evo2 and i love it... very deep sound and not shitty annoying

You could most likely piece a decent turbo kit together yourself with 2500. that's probably your best option.

If you buy I/H/E ... put a stage clutch in. Build your engine then think about adding a turbo. Thats the way I would have done it, but no I got hot headed and put in a turbo kit. Even though its fast as hell now, it was a b*tch getting it to were I could drive it longer than a month without something going wrong.

Oh and from my experience Skunk2 Exhaust is sweet.

what is a stage clutch? if he only has I/H/E then the stock clutch will hold fine, and be alot easier to drive than a HD clutch. if he ois going to turbo later, dont spend the 250+ bucks on a nice header right now, and the 50+ on an intake, when later hes just gonna ditch them. Id just boost it, because the clutch isnt gonna help it to run without whatever problems you were talking about. he could peice a kit and a decent clutch and tune if he just saves up a little more cash.

Well, I definitely want to build up my motor before going with turbo. I don't have a lot of mechanical experience so I can't fix stuff that randomly goes wrong...... what would be best to next do. I looked into the exhaust thing and Thermal R & D looked incredibly good to me, even found a sound bit on the internet of their exhaust and it was nearly PERFECT.

well, if you dont wanna boost it, I guess go with intake(50), 4-1 header(250), exhaust(id go to a muffler shop and juust have piping ran to a muffler of your choice, 200), no cat(if you have no testing in your area), some nice cams(not too wikld though, 600), spring/retainer kit(400), some adjustable cam gears(150), a N02 wet kit(small shot like 50HP jets or so, 450), hondata(300, 425 if you want launch control and ful throttle shifting) and some dyno tuning(????), and probably a exedy or comprable brand clutch that will hold the power(260). you can almost do it in your budget, just ditch the N02 for now and you could have al the rest. and spray later.

yeah the stock clutch will hold fine for i/h/e, but if he is planning to add a turbo or some other high hp mods, he will need a staged clutch before he raises it 100hp or more. If you plan to build and turbo, you will definately need the staged clutch. Besides putting a turbo in will take your Intake and Header out most definately.

yeha, if he wants to boost for sure later, id spend my money right now on a bullet proof block, nice clutch/fly combo, and maybe if hes got more money a better fuel pump, afpr, and some bigger injectors. then when he saves the moeny up for the turbo kit alls he needs is the computer and some tuning.

Yeah, boost is a big EVENTUALLY for me now, so I'll focus on building the motor up and when I'm satisfied with how it is, I'll look for turbo. But I live in Cali so would it be better to turbo or supercharge seeing as we have crappy emissions laws...

I dont know much about the emision laws at al, I dotn have ANY where I live. no inspections at all. not even visual ones.

Im willing to bet though that if you got the turbo on and everythings tuned right you wouldnt fail the test, but dont know for sure, and also is it even legal to modify your car that way down there? I guess you gotta find a kit that comes with a CARB plate or something. have to get better info from someoe whos dealt with this I guess.

As long as the catalytic converter is close to the engine (ie the engine gases are hot), it should have no problems passing the emissions test provided you aren't flooding your engine. Just get it tuned right and you'll be fine, whatever mods you decide to add.

In some stats old models dont have to get emition tests, (ie: North Carolina its like 94 and under dont have emition testing, but I dont know where you live so you might have to worry about it. Find out some emition laws in your state. Where I live we dont have emition tests.

Mine's a 98 so it's not exempt, but you guys are probably right about tuning, thanks for the tips

Well, I definitely want to build up my motor before going with turbo. I don't have a lot of mechanical experience so I can't fix stuff that randomly goes wrong...... what would be best to next do. I looked into the exhaust thing and Thermal R & D looked incredibly good to me, even found a sound bit on the internet of their exhaust and it was nearly PERFECT.


I have the Thermal Stealth model, and absolutely love it. It is not obnoxiously loud and it has a nice deep, throaty tone.

Is yours a 2 or 4 door?