Well, tax return time is just around the bend! Right now I plan on getting HPTuner, a lid, and I have a guy down here in San Diego holding on to some chrome Firehawk rims for me, and I plan on getting some Goodyear F1's to wrap them in. Any suggestions for other items I should pick up? I thought about heads, but that's really more than I want to spend right now, since I'm gonna set aside a good chunk of the money to pay off credit cards. Unless of course I can find a reasonably priced used set... Maybe a clutch. The stock one is definitely having trouble coping with this cam, but if I don't abuse it too much I should still have plenty of miles on it. Whatcha guys think?

 

So you have headers, cam, true duals, and a nifty laptop mount.. Is that all you have done? I saw in your pictures you don't have SFCs or LCAs. Might want to get at least some LCAs. Post up a list of all your mods so we can all see what you need most.

 

I vote for rear end with 4.10's. get a billingsley 9" then a torque arm panhard rod and lca's. maybe some poly bushings for the swaybars and then look for a clutch.

Nate

 

And these increase my horsepower how? Yes, I've been thinking about SFC's. There is quite a bit of torque flex in the body now when I really get on it. Gonna be tricky tryin to find a set that'll clear those duals. Or maybe not. Other than the cam, valvetrain, and exhaust stuff (and the nifty laptop mount of course ), the car is pretty much stock. Haven't even had it a year yet, so it's still in it's modding infancy.

A new rear, like a new set of heads, is gonna suck up more money than I really wanna spend at the moment. Any recommended brand of SFC's I should be lookin at?

 

spohn chromoly weigh only 6.5 lbs per side so 13 lbs total. but they also come with a price of around 350 bucks. i'd still look into doing a little w/ the suspension out back for some added traction

Nate

 

Ported Throttle Body?

 

Hooters Girl Hood Ornament?

 

If you still have the stock rear end, I wouldn't change the clutch out just yet... a grippier clutch will put even more stress on the 10 bolt than it is already getting with your new setup.

I would save some money and do the rear end and clutch at the same time... or do the rear end first if you can make the clutch last.

However, if your clutch is slipping so badly that you absolutely need a new one, FWIW, I got a McLeod Single kevlar disc kit for my car recently... should be a really good street/strip clutch. Isn't too aggressive, but will hold a lot better than stock.

 

If you are getting tires, I would go with the Goodyear GS-D3's.......IIRC from prior talks on this board, a lot of the guys up there seem to like them. I know I LUV them and they will be the next ones on after these freebies wear out.....I had several friends with them and they will not get anything else for their DD.

As for the SFC's.....how is your dual exhaust set up? I had the SLP bolt on SFC's on my car when it got true duals done last year and they were not in the way at all.

As far as HP Tuners goes.......is there anyone else around you that has the 2002 version? I went in on it with 4 other guys down here who have '02's and it cost us $100 each.....for as infrequently as I need it, it worked out GREAT!

 

That might be a good idea, if it holds up okay. It's not horrible now, but I know for instance if I power shift it, when I drop the clutch the RPM's flash up maybe 500 or so, and the car kind of "hangs", then the clutch starts grabbing and the car starts pulling again. I don't think it's neccessarily "bad" yet, it just doesn't have the clamping force to handle the increased power.

That's the plan. 275's for the front and 285's for the rear.

They tuck up to the body real tight. I know I've seen posts about SFC's not fitting with the TSP Duals. That's one I'm going to have to research a little.

I want a copy that's just mine, because I plan on fooling around with it pretty extensively. Especially because I want to go the SD route and ditch the MAF. Lots of logging and lots of tweaking, so it help to not have to share with anybody.

While we're talking about chassis stiffening: is a strut tower brace really worth it?

 

Good call on the tires. I have heard the TSP duals have trouble fitting with some SFCs as well. Makes sense about the HP Tuners.....I am just a cheap bastard and someone else suggested it to me. STBs are nice for looks, but on the 4th Gens I have had (4 of them) I have yet to notice any difference with them on or off.

 

That's exactly what happens with mine... I could really notice it on my DVD of my last time out at the track. The rpms were hanging on every upshift... that slipping during the shifts and the fact that I couldn't launch hard is what slowed both my ET and my trap speeds from where it should be. I'm pretty sure I'll run a high 11 with around a 116 trap speed this season with the new clutch, transmission work, and some skinnies up front.

 

Regarding Shock Tower Braces, some people say yes, other say no. My car used to get jerked around on the freeway by the tire ruts. After installing my STB, the prolbem's all gone. I do not think it helped cornering (like the SFCs do).

And GS-D3s are great tires. I plan to run the Toyo equivalent in the PE.

 

Just eyeballing them, the BMR SFC's look like they would probably fit, since they run pretty close along the sides. The double diamond style is definitely out of the question, though!

LCA's are looking like a good buy as well at under $200 for the BMR street adjustable set. What kind of an improvement in 60 foot times, wheel hop, and the like could I expect with these? What would be a better starting point: SFC's or LCA's? Keeping in mind that I'm primarily focused on straight-line performance; I don't do AutoX or anything like that.

 

Oh, Tranzor: cruising down the highway at about 70, how many RPM's are you turning with those 4.11's? How has it impacted your gas mileage? Whether or not I wait for a new rear, I'll be doing gears eventually to help match the cam a little better. 3.73's are so close to the 3.42's that they hardly seem worth the effort. At the same time, I don't want to completely kill by gas mileage, since it is my daily driver and I do log quite a few miles on it. I think I only lost about 2 mpg highway driving with the cam, so I'm pretty happy with that. I just don't want to end up getting 17 mpg highway like with my Grand Cherokee...

 

If you're focused just on straight line traction first and foremost, then the LCAs will do the most for you there... the SFCs won't help traction, just help keep the car from rattling so much.

And you don't need adjustable LCAs... I don't see how adjusting them would help at all. Just get a nice set of either tubular or boxed LCAs and those are plenty.

I have BMR boxed LCAs, relocation brackets, and an Edelbrock torque arm... I get absolutely no wheel hop at all at the track on ET Streets or on the street with my normal street tires.

 

I'm turning about 1800-1900 rpms at 70 with the 4.11s. Not bad at all... the only problem is that the 4.10/4.11 gears in the 10 bolt/12 bolt will whine. If you want to step up to that kind of gear ratio and don't want a lot of noise, go with the 9 inch... for some reason those are dead quiet, but the 10 bolts and 12 bolts whine a lot.

You will lose about 1mpg-2mpg with 4 series gear ratio... but it shouldn't be more than that.

 

Doesn't Linda want new hardwood floors?

 

Check and check!

Why is that? In my experience (not that I'm all that experienced ) as long as the gears are set up properly, they should not be making much noise, if any at all. The first set of gears I installed (3.73's in an 8.5 10 bolt) I did the gangster way, and used the factory carrier and pinion shims. They whined a little (well, a lot). Since then, I've installed 3.73's in a 7.5 10 bolt, and 4.11's in a Dana 30 and Dana 44. Those times I did it the right way with an install kit and dial indicator, set the preload and backlash, got a good footprint with the marking compound, and never had any noise at all.

 

hey man i found a set of chromoly sfc's on billingsley's site for 155 bucks. Go check em out. --->

And i would definitely suggest getting adjustable lca's at least on one side if you ever do anything that would need such. it's nice to have things to adjust to keep an eye on your suspension.

Nate