demonstrocities

FYI, brand spankin' new to these forums and the TL. Hello!

I just purchased a 98 3.2 TL (white, 138k miles) and don't know much of anything about the car (bought it 'cause I talked the dealer into a great price on quick turnaround, it had JUST been traded in). I'm curious to hear this community's input on what performance modifications should be performed first, are most cost effective, general input/advice, etc. I know more than the average human being about cars, but compared to the average enthusiast forum goer, I'm a complete newb.

Thoughts? If there's a thread for this elsewhere I didn't see, I apologize. Thanks in advance!

01tl4tl

Welcome to the forum

Just read down the list of 2nd generation postings- learn more than you want to know about brakes and oil filters and tire choices and mods from $50 K&N air filter to $100 intake spacers and then the big money starts- crank pulley, exhaust, cold air intake setup,
Better brakes were first on my list!

Go90go

^ 01tl4tl, he's got a 1st gen... BTW, I hardly think the things listed are big money items, but to each his own.

@Demon, alrighty, welcome to the boards. There are a few things you can do to start modding, but I warn you: it's a disease. Start and I'm fairly certain that you'll have trouble stopping.

An intake is usually the first thing people do, and can be had for fairly cheap. I (along with quite a few members) have a Weapon-R Secret Weapon short-ram intake. I modded to cold-air using a spare Civic intake I had lying around, and I started a thread on that matter with photos somewhere in the Performance Parts & Modifications sub-forum.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright, I had written two more paragraphs but I decided to literally draw ^the line, haha. There is a thread titled "List your mods and discuss!" where a bunch of us went on about our mods, etc. There's a few recent threads on exhausts, I believe, and one on my crank pulley. Haven't seen another member with one, so I might be the only one, but then that's going a bit further than you should be going just after you got the car. Same thing goes for the NSX pistons in Colt45's car.

~Cheers~

demonstrocities

Thanks for the welcome. It's a disease I already have, although the stuff I've done to my own cars has been minimal at best. Most of my experience poking around a car was helping a friend with his 92 Supra, replacing the exhaust system and tearing apart his turbo. Not that I learned much, I was just the free muscle, but it was good fun.

This the intake you're talking about?

Go90go

No, this one, :



That's assuming you have Traction Control. If you don't, it's this one:



Those are the exact ones for 3.2s, the one you found is for 2.5s. Your buddy still have the stock CT in his Soup? Or when you tore it apart you upgraded it to a 60-1? I mess with Supras a little, too.

~Cheers~

Kicker09

I have a 98 3.2Tl. Put a WeaponR Dragon short ram and Borla Muffler on it. I would go for the intake to be the first thing to do and maybe work on the exhaust. I am currently working on upgrading my short ram to the WeaponR Ram Air intake. Go90go, was wondering if you have any ideas/suggestions anything as I cannot find anything on here about that sort of thing. thanks

Go90go

It works if you're willing to have an ugly hole in your bumper for a MARGINAL increase in the top end. Even converting to cold air affects the lower end response slightly. If you are looking to upgrade your intake, I'd just switch to the Secret Weapon as that works quite a bit better than the Dragon. With it's neon colours, it was mainly aimed at people looking to dress up their engine bays.

~Cheers~

csmeance

if you want a cheap "mod that will increase power, and the life of your engine, seafoam the TL. Run it though the gas, the oil and if you have no fear of blowing up ur car,, a vacum intake line. Doing this will clear up 138K miles worth of gunk inside the engine.

triggerc

Does anyone know how much noise the secret weapon makes? I'm thinking about getting one, but if the noise level is high then I'd probably scrap that idea. Comfort comes before performance for me here.

Go90go

The SW does hum a bit at idle, and at WOT, you can really hear the difference when the VIS opens up at 3900 RPM. If you follow my pics and convert it to a cold-air, the droning at idle goes away. Well, for the most part. It's still there but barely noticable.

~Cheers~

P.S. SeaFoam works pretty damn well for cleaning, I have to say.

Kicker09

ya, i installed the ram air kit and its pretty nice. put it right below the grill and license plate-no cutting into bumper and such. does open it up a bit over 4000 rpm and has a different sound than a normal short ram or converted cold air. Screw the neon colors..looks retarded, i just have the regular silver.

demonstrocities

Beats the hell outta me, it was seven years ago and I wasn't really paying attention (again, I was the muscle, not the think tank) .

Thanks for the input thusfar! I could've sworn I mentioned, but can see now that I didn't, that I'm more concerned with modifications that will increase longevity, replace sub-par factory parts, etc., as well as those that will increase engine performance.

Anyone have any recommendations for cutting down the noise from the wheel wells? Or at least, I think that's where all of my remaining road noise is coming from.

Go90go

^DynaMat. Works a treat. Put it in your fenders and it'll help quite a bit. Also, check to see if your driver side little triangle (for the side view mirror) is leaking air in at speed. That's a common issue...

~Cheers~

daemonicus

that's most likely where it's coming from. our cars, no matter what tires are on them, seem to have a lot of road noise. i deadened all 4 wheel wells and that made the most dramatic difference out of any other place i treated, and i've done almost the entire car.

definitely check out that triangle. mine was so annoying at highway speeds, i couldn't stand it. i tried filling it with caulk (heh), taping it, and a couple other things but nothing worked. finally, i found the solution; i loosened the driver side door hidge (between the front and rear seats) and pushed it further in towards the car. now when the door shuts, it's forced to shut closer to the frame of the car and tightens up the gap between the triangle and the weatherstripping. now i've got absolutely no noise coming from there and it's quite enjoyable compared to what it used to be.

as far as using dynamat, i'd only suggest that if you dont mind spending the money. i've experimented with almost every brand of deadener (fatmat, brown bread, dynamat, edead, second skin, stinger...just to name a few) and dynamat never performed better than anything else but was also the most expensive. a tri-pack of dynamat retails for about $100 and comes with 12 sq. ft...more than $8 a sq. ft...? no thanks. there's better products out there that go for less than half of that price and perform even better.

Go90go

I had considered FatMat for myself, but since DynaMat's the operating name, that's what I used, haha. When talking sound insulation, almost everyone knows what DynaMat is. It's like saying Kleenex or Band-Aid.

~Cheers~

daemonicus

trust me, you made the right choice. well...maybe not the right choice but without a doubt, the better choice. fatmat is the worst product you can possibly buy. it has no adhesion strength, it's, honest to god, almost as thin as construction paper, the "aluminum" layer is nothing more than basically silver leaf they decorated the asphalt with and there's another problem; it's asphalt based so whenever it gets hot, it smells like absolute shit in your car. and because it's so thin, it doesn't stop noise or vibrations, which is the exact purpose of sound deadening. i tried lining my rear bumper with 4 layers of it and it didn't make any damn difference once my sub was on. there's honestly nothing good i can say about the product.

Go90go

Damn... Didn't know it was that shitty. BTW, I was referring to using the word DynaMat earlier. I don't have any additional sound deadening as it's not a priority ATM. Well, not for my cars anyway, haha. What would you recommend? My bro's got a slightly lifted Dakota 4x4 on off-road tyres, so you can imagine the droning that goes on in the cabin at freeway speeds.

~Cheers~

daemonicus

ah alright. i feel you on that noise from the dakota though, a buddy of mine has a lifted jeep with some meaty, off road tires too and man...you honestly have to yell to have a converstion.

as far as deadening, if you're looking to control vibrations, edead just came out with a new product called UE. it's 150 mils thick, which makes it the thickest mat you can possibly buy. it also weighs in at almost 1 pound/sq. ft. which is why it's extremely good at killing vibrations. because of it's thickness though, i'd only recommend using it on flat surfaces (floors, roof, firewall, etc.). it's just too thick to bend around the curves of the wheel wells.

for everything else though, i can't say enough good things about Second Skin. they make absolutely great products and i'd put them up against anything out there. i have their damplifier pro (80 mils) on my wheel wells along with their luxury liner (3/8") and my tire noise is almost comparable to my dad's lexus now. exhaust drone is also responsible for interior noise too, so doing the floors with damp and luxury liner also helps a lot. here i am babbling on about something that most people dont even care about, heh, but honestly, i've experimented with so many products out there that i know what works and what doesn't. i'm just here to help

Go90go

Great advice! Thanks alot, m8. I'll see if my bro wants to do it, and yeah, we DO have to yell in his truck.

~Cheers~