etcts-v

What's up fellas, I've got some cash burning a hole in my pocket and I'm having a heck of a time deciding on where to spend it, so many toys have my attention!

So here's what I'm working with, I have $2,500 to spend now and will have another $2,500 in January.

The items on my list are D2 or Ksport coilovers (currently running H&R springs with MM kit and scraping the **** out of my headers and exhaust), Hotchkis Sways (with adjustable end links), Extreme Composites hood (with accompanied paint job which I got quoted at $600), 92mm FAST intake and/or HP Tuners (with wideband o2 setup).

I'm trying to decide which to do now and which to do in January, I'm sort of leaning towards HP Tuners (despite my professional tune, car seems to be running rich and idols like ****), Coilovers and Sways for this go around.

Any feedback, thoughts, opinions, personal experience, or suggestions are more than welcome!

Thanks in advance for the Input!

kl2onik

iTrader: (3)

the extreme comp hood will run you around 1200-1500. Coilovers are a waste IMO for the gen1 unless you are a track junkie. Fast will be a good add-on for your mods. But I would scrap all this and wait till you have the whole $5k and get the TVS unit in there.

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

1. Recommend either the $2700 LG coilovers (skip right past the KW V3s) or the following: Ground Control kit for $500, BMR toe rods for $280, Killernoodle or BMR trailing arms ($200-300), and Hotchkis sways. Good prep for Forgestar F14s and new tires. Say hello to 1.25+ lateral G's.

If you reject that package recommendation, the sway bars are a no-brainer. You can get C5/C6 end links for the front, but you'll have to get adjustable ones for the rear because of their weird 90 degree turn. I hear the toe rods are similar--I'll know soon.

2. Save everything for a TVS2300 and a ATI SuperDamper. Don't bother with the FAST. Too expensive for what you get, and the supercharger will replace the stock manifold.

3. Bigger cam.

4. Full Lloyd's Ultimat set (not Velourtex).

etcts-v

Good input thanks fellas! One reason I'm leaning on the coilovers is because my car is sitting too low, would be nice to be able to raise it a touch and stop the damage happening to the underside of the car. I'm also running on the non -FG2s and the ride is a bit sloppy.

That said a TVS2300 would be badass! hmm.. the plot thickens!

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

Sounds like you need new shocks, which means you're looking at $1000 minimum ($500 GC + $500 used FG2s). If I was in your shoes, I would still hesitate about dropping $2300/2700 on coilovers. You can do a lot with the $1300 left over.

Have you considered spending $400-500 on about 40 lbs of acoustic treatments?

etcts-v

Which is why I was considering Ksport or D2, they only run $1k for the whole setup, probably not track worthy, but I'm sure they would be a big improvement over my current stup.

What is acoustic treatments?

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

Roughly 50 square feet of damper and 50 square feet of MLV. You use them in different spots to attenuate structureborne and airborne noise. You should be able to knock a huge chunk of that Magnaflow drone out of the cabin. Let me know if you want design details. The whole installation takes a couple of hours.

Onefast V

iTrader: (3)

A former member on here used to track D2s regularly so i'm guessing they are an improvement from stock. I have some sitting in my garage i intend to tackle in the next month. I will be tracking on this setup several times a year.

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

There's like one guy running D2s, and he's slammed to the point where you'd never get out of the driveway, so I'm discounting his opinion on them.

FG2s are solid. They just don't have adjustable rebound, which I'd like. The advantage of the GC kit is that you can buy standard Eibach springs for them whenever you feel like playing around with new spring rates.

etcts-v

Gotcha, I'm actually already loaded to the hilt with sound dampner already, when I did all my stereo mods I pulled the entire interior out and hit not only every inch of floor and under the seats, but the inner and outer skin of every door, all the pillars, roof, trunk, everything, actually did too much! haha

It made a huge improvement on sound, you could hear a pin drop inside the car, also made the doors solid as a rock, no ting when you shut them. It was a lot of weight, but worth it to me.


Did your Hotchkis sways make a big difference when you installed them? I'm really low so I have hardly any body roll as it is, but I've heard sways are one of the best investments.

adanieljohnson1

iTrader: (1)

Wait til january and get an 8.8

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

The sound you hear is a half dozen members smacking themselves for neglecting the obvious. Although I would go with the 9" IRS if I had that kind of money.

Sways don't necessarily make a big difference when you're lowered a lot, unless you corner like a madman (e.g. I did 1.15 G right and 1.10 G left on my 7 mile drive to work this morning). Still, the advantage they provide is measurable. Money well spent. Having the swaybars also presents some interesting tuning opportunities. If you just install the front swaybars, the car will act like it's got a ton of caster in the suspension and try to re-center itself pretty hard. If you install both, the car will feel very neutral. The example I always give is in regards to what I call my "benchmark turn"--a downhill 135 degree banked offramp that gets tight 2/3 of the way through and squirts out into an uphill straightaway:

1. Stock, best minimum speed was 48 mph.
2. With Ground Control 550/600 and lowered: 54 mph.
3. With Hotchkis sway bars: 58 mph (limit of summer tires).
4. With Forgestar F14s: still learning the new tires, but things are getting scary fast now. I can feel the stock toe rods flexing a bit, hence the BMR toe rod order.

Most people drop to 35 mph in that turn.

DMM

Hookers and blow FTW

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

I know these aren't big ticket items, but how about a CG Lock and a set of stainless steel brake lines?

etcts-v

CG lock? What's that? You're opening me up to all kinds of new toys to lose sleep over! haha

I am going to to the Stainless steel lines, that's a quick low cost item to check off the list.

Great info on the sways, hmm... maybe just pick up some of those hookers and blow and call it a day!

FuzzyLog1c

iTrader: (4)

http://www.cg-lock.com/how.html

Cadzilla

iTrader: (3)

How do you spend Monies? Is that plural for Mona?

Skidmarcx

Just installed some D2s on a friends V last weekend and I'd say they're pretty damn good for the money... Install and adjustment is easy... Ride is controlled and you have plenty of ride height adjustment to play with...

RRsV

Mona's.

"Grammatical repair"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monies

etcts-v

Sweet I like the sound of that. I also asked whazard how he liked his and he was really happy with the results, said it was well worth the investment.

Thanks for all the input guys, I finally just placed some orders today, was killing myself with so many possibilities.

Ordered a Pro Version of HP Tuners along with Wideband Sensor as well as a kiwi wifi adapter for my iPhone to OBDII. HP tuners comes with 8 credits and I only need 2 to tune my car so I figure I can tune a few of my friends cars once I get good and studied up on all the ins and outs and make some cash back.

Also bought the Hotchkis sways, D2 coilovers, pair of high flow magnaflow cats, Goodridge Stainless brake lines, Creative Steel Diff Bushings, a volant CAI (sold my K&N on e-bay today for $200 and bought the Volant for $240) and some buffing pads for my Porter Cable.

January will come the Hood, FAST intake (maybe), and control arms. Then I'm going to stop throwing money in the toliet and start saving for a V2!!