So at the moment, my car is fairly stock. I started looking into upgrades to make my car faster. I am currently looking into a custom exhaust, headers and possibally an ecu chip. That right there would get my HP up to around 300hp(I think). Eventually I wanted to get a super charger and air intake, but that would get my hp in the mid 300's, and this is out of a four cylinder engine. There's no way that can be good for it. Which would be the best things to get realistically?

 

You will be no where near 300hp. If you get those mods, engine management and a supercharger, that would net you in the area of 300hp. 300hp isnt bad for 4cyl. Keep the maintained and you should'nt have any problems. So the realistically and easiest way to get those numbers is to go with the Supercharger.

 

I wanted to do a super charger but the only one I could find for an 06 tsx was $3,000 and from the parts I found I could do a chip, intake and headers for under $1,000. So thats why im wondering what would be more useful.

 

Get header, icebox, ecu reflash and call it a day. If u want even more, get UR pulleys.

 

UR pulleys are awesome, and I don't even have the reflash or intake and header yet.

 

+1 or shoot for a turbo application

 

3K for the super charger? Is it used?

 

just make sure you don't buy ebay chips.. @@

 

I"d suggest a Hondata reflash, UR pulleys, intake, header, lightweight wheels, and a progress RSB. That should give you the most bang for your buck, but won't get you near 300 hp. If you want 300 hp, you'll have to go with a FI set up. Stay away from any "chips" that make your car faster, they're all BS.

 

What does all that come out to be. Close to 2k right. I'm saving up for a SC I already have 2k. I say go for the SC.

 

It depends alot on the wheels you get, but the rest of the stuff should be around 1300. The wheels I'll be getting are about 1,000 (after the mounting and balancing and re-alignment I need).

If you have 2 grand already, just keep saving for the SC and forget the rest of the stuff till later.

 

Yea I was looking at the Hondata, a greddy evo2 exhaust so far. What is a UR Pulley? I'm still learning about cars.. I was looking at my car the other day from an angle and I noticed the hood of my car didn't match the fender color, then I had my buddy look at it and he said it looked like it got repainted, because it didnt match up height wise either. So I was thinking about getting a carbon fiber hood for around 400, but does it really weigh that much less? As far as the super charger carmagnut, the one for 3k was the lowest price I found brand new. I don't know how good it was, but thats the lowest I could find.

 

AFAIK the only supercharger built for the TSX is the Comptech, which is ~$4k brand new I believe.

UR Pulleys are lightweight replacements for your stock crank, alternator, and power steering pulleys. They're the "wheels" that the serpentine/drive belt is strapped to. The result is a good reduction in rotating mass. NST crank/alternator pulleys are another option. UR is ~$350 with a new properly-sized belt, NST is ~$250 with belt, but does not include the power steering pulley. Since the pulley sizes change (under/overdriven), you need to replace the belt. Here's a recent thread about pulleys: https://acurazine.com/forums/1g-tsx-performance-parts-modifications-126/rotating-mass-questions-718302/

 

Your right I really don't need rims now. I want the SC more.

 

No they are going for 3800 on most sites. I'm sure these SC's ain't flying off the shelves so they may cut you a even better deal due to the economy.

 

I think the TSX is very nice. And gets pretty good gas mileage. I think if you're hellbent on power, you may be better off starting off with a platform built for it. Especially with a 3K down payment.

 

I don't really know much about this, so I'm curious: wouldn't the benefits of the supercharger be held back if you don't at least have I/H/C upgraded?

 

What are the gains from the UR pulleys? I'm not so much hellbent on the power aspect, as much as making the car my own.

 

I get ya...I guess I've always been more of a all show and no go kind of guy. I like it dropped and clean, maybe some rims, some music upgrades. When it comes to reliability, I generally choose not to mess with the Honda/Acura guys that designed the car to run without issue.

Then again, i have a manual TL and it gets going fast enough. Had an RSX-S previously and an Si before that. I guess that's where I was coming from with the foundation thing.

 

research this website. I found a before/after dyno and the guy gained 10HP and 13 lf-ft of torque. JTso posted another dyno claiming a 5-7HP gain. I lean towards 10 HP because the car pulled a lot better and felt lighter.

 

Yea, I test drove an 04TL-S but this was also when gas was 4 bucks a gallon, and seeing as this is my first car, I chose to go with the tsx. So far I have one alpine 12' R-Type for sound, LED interior lighting and racing pedals. I'm about to put on tail light tints and am just doing some research on exhaust. I'm planning on getting that done this month. Suggestions are welcome.

 

Are the a spec kits purchased aftermarket ridiculous for the TSX? That and maybe a nice drop would really set the car off and separate it visually from all the stock ones you see on the road.

Pink racing stripe would probably make it stand out as your own too though. Lol...

Anyway, your first car!!!?? Good move...this is my 8th car, but I'm 30. My first car was a sweet 1988 baby blue ford taurus station wagon. It was known affectionately around high school as the "panty dropper".....righhhhttttt!

 

Well my first car I actually own. I learned on a 2000 Honda Odyssey. I was looking at the a spec kits but dropping the height is probably a bad idea since I live in MA and our roads are always torn up thanks to the plows. Already blew my tire and bent a rim, and I always go around potholes...Just not this one, didn't see it. :P

 

Well that certainly sucks! How about airbags?

Lol..yeah right...not at 4 or 5 grand. Just lip kit with no drop then? I don't know...south florida has it's bad streets...but they can be avoided! Thank goodness.

 

^ aside from bad streets there are also animals in the street when they shouldnt be.
on the FL turnpike i bent a rim when a skunk ran out onto the highway....

threadjack over.

To the OP: ASPEC is nice, but i think youre missing out on a good drop. It can do wonders for the car in stock form. Looks much better IMO.

 

^ I agree. Lip kits do nothing but add weight, just like the body kits. I dono if u dont consider them ricy, but come to think about it they are... anyways, if u want better look, drop the car by ~1 inch. That will make a difference in both looks and handling

 

Yea I talked to my buddy who has a car shop and we were talking about loweing it 1.5" and eventually getting a lip kit. I would like to do performance before appearance though.

 

If I had to do it all over again, I'd go this route, in this order:

- A-spec bodykit (no spoiler)
- Progress or Comptech RSB (rear sway bar). The car is completely changed with this simple and inexpensive mod)
- 1-1.5" drop (I'm on Tein H-Tech w/ Tokicko "blues" shocks)
- Cold air intake or Comptech Icebox
- UR Pulleys or an alternative from another manufacturer (NST?)
- Header (Comptech can rattle, DC Sports can separate, but both are good performance-wise and the DC sports separation issue can be prevented with a few tack welds before installing it)

 

Going off of curls list I would do a drop first, then RSB, some type of intake (CAI or Icebox) or you can simply remove your resonator, pulleys, then H/E. The kit can wait as it's more for looks than performance.

 

this reads almost like the order of my own mods list.

1. CT icebox
2. body kit
3. progress rear sway, tein basics, UR pulleys
4. CT header, RT cat, hondata and p2r IMG

somewhere in there were my tints and p2r TB spacer/gaskets.

 

By the way, an exhaust is about the lowest HP increase for the dollar you can get. It just doesn't add much to the car performance-wise with our cars. It changes the sound, but doesn't add much performance. A waste of money unless you are looking specifically for a different sound.

I chose A-spec kit first because I truly despise the look of the front bumper (side profile) for the 04-05's without the lip kit. I would not have bought my car if the kit wasn't available as part of the deal (or immediately afterwards).

 

Could I get the ct icebox, header, rt car, hondata and pulleys for 1.5k?

 

I'm guessing it'd be close to or just over $1.5K, depending how well you shop for used deals. New parts for all? Not even close.

 

CT icebox = $160
CT header = $550-$630
RT Cat = $300
hondata reflash = $599
UR pulleys = $250-300

those are just ballpark figures off the top of my head. if you bought everything brand new, assuming the lowest prices, it'd be over your budget. but if you could find some of the parts new, you could do it.

 

my list would be....

1- Pulleys
2-header
3-icebox
4-RSB

 

Like I said before, I would like to do performance before doing visuals, otherwise I would just look like a poser However, I did want to drop the ride height about an inch to two inches, but nothing more than that, espcially if I get a body kit. My concern with the ody kit is that the paint won't match. As for the exhaust, I was told that I didn't need to replace all of the piping and that it would save me money to just get the parts I need. Any opinions on a carbon fiber hood? I know this is kind of irrelevant, but does anyone happen to know if tail light tints are illegal in MA?

 

I started off with an intake back in 05, then slowly got some cosmetic stuff, m3 spoiler, cf grill which then got recked fast, used rims, comptech header new, then fujitsubo exhaust used.

After that i went for a kit since no one really sees your engine stuff.

one by one picked up ur pulleys a highflow cat since i needed it to fit my cusco type two bar.

I bought a used front aspec lip then got 06 sides not knowing that they were 06 aspec sides, it was my mistake on that.
finished it with buying a used euro r lip.

really theres not much performance to do besides the main few, but cosmetics can set your car off a whole lot.

I came from a long history of used parts and mods stuff that sucked and i threw out practically. Now after what almost 4 years, i'm almost out of ideas what to get now. no money for the sc hehe but reflash keeps me happy.

 

^ JDM conversion?

 

If that's your car in the picture then this is what I'm talking about! I don't like ruining the resale on the car by changing too much performance stuff...but the looks are great. The point I was making I guess was that there's only so fast you can make a particular car, so if that's the case, I've always felt...why bother. Espcially a car that is so reliable until you start changing things and getting check engine lights and this and that. I had a friend with an EP3...of course the red headed stepchild of the si's...but he did a cybernation stage one turbo and it was soooo fast...great...but every 2 weeks something would go on it...or he had to keep putting oil and it was running lean etc. If I wanted a fast or muscle car I would just spring for one to begin with.

Those are my thoughts.

 

I wouldn't agree I mean i love the extra pep, but really i'm kind of sad that the car hasn't gotten any other alternatives, but i guess were better in alot situations than other cars.

I really do just enjoy driving the car.