After about 4 days of owning the acura I am already thinking of adding some must have mods. But I'd prefer to have opinions/recommendations. Also it'd be nice to see the range of how much something like a CAI, Headers etc. will cost to buy and get it installed at dealership and what kind of effect it will have on the car. Would it be obnoxiously louder? I'm very new to Acura or Hondas in general.

 

oops double post could someone delete one please =(

 

Shoot me a PM with what you are looking to do and what year and model Acura and I will give you advice.

Or click the search button and try to find the info you're looking for.

 

Excelerate is a reliable seller on Acurazine as he is an official vendor. I bought my Comptech exhausts from him and am very happy. He sells some of the highest quality products for our cars, BUT he doesn't sell all the brands (Such as Apexi coilovers...last time I checked...)and a few other things. Do some searches to see how the products he sells stack up with the other products on the market.

He knows exactly what he is talking about so any advice you get from him should be strongly considered.

 

Would the Acura dealers install these mods? Also, would it void any kind of warrantys..? I'm looking at the icebox, comptech headers, exhaust(suggestions?), UR pulleys.. possibly in the long run a SC given I feel comfortable with my transmission someday. Which leads me to another question, would these basic mods put the tranny at a higher risk?

P.S. thank you for the PM Excel. If/When I choose to buy I'll definately be buying from you.

 

Read the Magnusson Moss Act. The dealer has to prove that the part you installed caused the problem. The Comptech Icebox, headers, and exhaust should not void your warranty for any reason. The supercharger more than likely will void your warranty unless the dealer installs it and is Comptech friendly.

The problem with the transmission isn't related to adding performance mods. Someone else can chime in but I believe it's an issue with the 2nd gear clutch pack.

 

for intakes if you are looking for a stock look and slight aftermarket sound, go with the comptech icebox. if you want a more agressive sound go with aem or injen cai. both can be found from excelerate.

buyting a header is a 'big up to you'. you could go with comptech which is $1050. best quality, best of the best. or you can go with DC which is like $350. DC is ceramic and has been known to have some problems on this first batch. maybe wait til they change it to a 3 flange set up. there are other cheaper headers like obx, megan , and XS all under $200. You can try risking it. a lot of members have fixes for many of the problems. but remember, "you get what you pay for".

cat back exhaust set ups don't do much for our car except for sound and looks.

UR pulley is also a semi-cheap mod ($170) for 8-10 hp. Themoblock spacers also help cool down the engine and free up hp. not a lot though.

other than that, you can do the 3.5L motor swap, SC it, or custom turbo. Kris has also done the 6 spd manual swap.

 

PS. don't pay the dealership for installs. they will rip u off.

 

thats true. i have a DC headers on right now. their gaskets are C R A P. you gota buy 2 copper gaskets from summit racing which is only about $6 a piece. but it stopped the leakage which is caused by using broken DC gaskets. + go with CAI. trust me you will love the sound & the v t e c

 

How much should I expect to pay for installs...

CAI i'm getting for sure within this month
Headers hopefully soon
Exhaust I'm planning on same time as headers..

The guy recommended against pulleys unless he says I really MUST have it? :\

 

Also he kind of laughed about it... is it such a weird idea to want to mod a TL? Also how much should these 3 or 4(if i get pulley) mods boost my HP/TQ to? crack + wheel? 1/4 mile times in low 14s hopefully?

 

Outlawengineering.com

How about also thermoblock spacers? Are they hard to install... i.e. would I be able to do it on my own? I can see they're worth it, just can't figure out how to go about it. I'm a complete idiot when it comes to cars as you can tell

 

Don't worry about not knowing much. That's why you're here, to learn. Everyone on the boards for the most part is helpful. Now, as to the thermoblock spacers, I'm waiting to install mine and from the look of the instructions it looks simple, but I don't relly know yet. I'll let you know after I do it.

 

you can install CAI yourself. just give it a little time. and headers you can also install yourself aslong as you have the right tools. if you want to learn more about your car then installing mods yourself will build your knowledge. thermoblock spacers & crank pulley are kind of a low-end upgrade but its still a mod.

 

I did install the DC headers myself which I initially thought it required two people. It took me about 5-6 hours including short lunch and rest hear and there since you have to be patience with some of the bolts which are tough and hard to reach.

I also spent about 1-2 hours a few days later to tighten all the bolts again and fix the leak and resonance.

If you are handy and won't afraid of getting your hands, feet and body dirty. You could save a lot of bucks and do it yourself.

Just my $0.02 ( )

 

UR crank pulley is not a low-end mod it is a very good mod and inexpensive it will give you 9HP on average throughout the entire powerband and is not a risky mod IMO. get I/H/P/E/Spacers.

 

I agree with Sbuswell, the crank pulley is a good mod and well worth it. Best part is, it's fairly cheap.

Since your ride is bone stock, I suggest getting the simple bolt ons first. Get an intake and if you wanna shell out the cash, exhaust. Exhaust isn't really worth it due to the relatively low gain in HP, but it does make our cars look and sound cool. Both of these are fairly easy to do by yourself, even for a novice.

Then I say work up to the mediocre mods. Like headers. Honestly, it's a pain in the ass. I took mine (DC sports header) off when I took my car in to the dealer, and they've been sitting in my garage cause i've been too lazy to put them on. Having small hands help, but some of those bolts are hard to get loose, and god.. fixing the resonance can also turn out to be a pain.

Honestly... Pulleys are not that simple to put on. I had to get these professionally put on and taken off. But they are a good investment.

Spacers... eh.. I haven't gotten around to doing that yet myself. Right now my car is pretty much in stock form since I've been too lazy to put on my intake/header/pulley. Maybe someone can post their experience in installing spacers?

And remember: You get what you pay for. Generally the higher the price, the better the quality and reputation you get.

Although.. I've made a list of some good and bad buys:

Good Buys:

XS headers - they're Comptech knock offs and sell for around 1/8th of the Comptech price. But from the rave reviews from both TL/CL drivers, it seems like these are by far best buy for headers. I haven't figured out if they're compatible with the automatic TL though...

Injen CAI - I really prefer the Injen over the AEM intake. Main reason being that the AEM is notorious for having the tabs break in the 02-03 models. Mine kept on hitting my foglight, and eventually the tab broke. To prevent the tabs from breaking, you need to remove the fogs. I have no idea what model you have, but if you have 99-01, you should be fine. If not, look into the Injen. PM Excelerate, he should be able to get you the best prices on these.

Apexi WS 2 - the cheapest Catback you will find (unless you go generic..) for the TL. Great sound. As for performance? Eh... the stock exhaust is pretty flow flowing... so the aftermarket exhausts only gives like 2hp max.. so not really worth it but they look good.

Bad Buys:

DC Sports Header: Dude.. stay away from these. After I bought them it took me forever to get rid of the leaking/resonance. And whats worse, their supposedly changing their flange to fix the leaking problem. I think I'm gonna most likely sell these and get XS if XS headers fit an 03 TL-S.

Anything generic you find on EBAY/anywhere: honestly.. becareful and don't buy something that you haven't heard anything about. Lots of newbie modders get tricked by the pictures/lies on the Ebay listing. IF anything.. run a search here on Acurazine and see if anything comes up before purchasing.

Anyway, happy modding.

 

The XS headers do work on all transmissions.
the headers also fit the 03 TL-s. like you said it is an exact replica of the comptech.

 

in my opinion, dc headers are not a bad buy. the only thing bad is the gaskets which are crap and break and cause leaks. but you can always spend $12 more for a pair of copper gaskets. thats what i did and i felt more power since air flow is going straight through. & no more leaks.

 

DC Sports is re-designing the flanges on the header from a 2-bolt to a 3-bolt. That will eliminate the leaking issue. Or if you have the 2 bolt just buy some copper gaskets and that will also eliminate the leaking issue.