So I discovered when I bought my car that the previous owner had hacked out the intake silencer. Other than that my car has remained basically stock performance wise (which is a big deal for me considering my past cars). Well, the warranty ran out recently and I just got done with my timing belt service...so I figured it was time to have a little fun (yes I was bored and updated my sig in advance :P). The TL-S is pretty anemic in the mid to low RPM range and there's a little more slop than I want in the ride handling when pushed so here's what I've got coming tomorrow:

Nitto 555s (old Falken Ziex 912s were about beat)
Ingalls rear camber kit
XLR8 J pipe (beautiful exhaust by the way)
Progress Rear Sway Bar

I will post back on my initial thoughts after driving it home tomorrow! Will probably end up resetting the ECU as well to give it a fresh start with the new exhaust piece.

I'm hoping that this will all tide me over and I won't need to pull the trigger on PCDs for a while.

 

Congrats on the future mods. Are you dropped? Hey I got the golf club mod too, I'm thinking about an upgrade though..

 

Just put the turbo in. You know you want to.

 

My P RSB just got in Today!

 

I'm not dropped, probably never will. I'm ok with the ride height on this car and it's a commuter so I rarely ever push it hard enough to want to start seriously diving into the suspension.
Hahah man....I can't go that route again. Especially with a FWD car. I will have another project car someday soon though
Nice! I've heard it makes a HUGE difference, so I'm stoked. Let me know how you like it!

 

Oh man, buddy just called and said everything is dialed in. Sway bar made a huge difference, the Jpipe actually added a throaty sound and the rear camber kit finally allowed them to tweak the suspension settings so this car won't eat up tires so quickly. Picking it up in about an hour, excited for the drive home!

 

I havent installed mine yet, tell me how it is!!!!!

 

First impressions:
I'm going to start with the handling. It's been a while since I've driven a car with any kind of suspension mods. The new tires always make a big difference, but I like the Nittos already over the Falkens. They seem to have a pretty stiff sidewall and are much quieter. Alignment specs came out DEAD on thanks to the camber kit, which is awesome because that has never been the case. Apparently there is an OEM part that Acura sells that serves the same purpose as the Ingalls kit, which puzzles me...did they mean for the camber to purposely be positive from the factory? I don't know, but I'm tired of going through tires every 25k miles.

Turn in is much more precise now with the RSB, MUCH less body roll, a healthy bit of oversteer when pushed hard. I will need some practice before I push this car hard through some twisties, but 99% of this car's duty is daily driving so it's not a top priority.

J-pipe. Awesomeness. I had Chris reset the ECU with the Honda programmer at the shop so it's still a little sluggish in the learning phase. The mid to top end so far though have been noticeably improved, which was exactly what I was expecting. Especially toward redline the car pulls noticeably harder and overall the entire power curve has been smoothed out. No more fake boost kick at 4900 RPM, just smooth power. The sound was unexpected too, I can hear the whooshing / whistle of the air a bit louder from either the intake or the exhaust....can't tell which. At first I thought it was an exhaust leak, but I've had those before and it doesn't sound like those do. It almost sounds like a turbo only when VTEC kicks in. Yo.

Overall I am very pleased and I'm looking forward to driving the car more. Hopefully I won't need to do the PCDs like I wanted to do anytime soon. I would prefer to leave the cats in this car....but I'm sure I will end up doing them anyway :P

 

Nice! are you automatic?

 

Yep automatic. I refuse to drive an MT daily driver with the amount of driving I do and after having grown up with the insane traffic in the northern VA / DC area.

Next project car will be MT though as usual

Here was my old one:




and the one before that:

 

Now that the ECU is getting back on better terms with me, the top end power is more noticeable than the mid range torque. The only thing I can compare it to is when I added the cams to my old STi. Thumbs up!

The damn tires saved the front of my car last night. When it rains here in Charlotte people are CRAZY DRIVERS. I had to jam on my brakes when some douche in front of me slammed on his brakes while hopping onto an interchange. It was raining and I had minimal sliding thank God....my old tires probably would have squealed up and I would be replacing a front clip.

 

Thanks for the detailed review man.

Does the swaybar really help with body roll, I mean can you barely notice it? I really like the Type-S suspension but it has a little too much body roll IMO. Also, did you use the soft or stiff setting?

 

What exactly does turn-in mean? Is it the amount of freespace between in your steering when changing lanes?

 

It helps dramatically. I have it on the stiff setting and you really don't notice it until you push the car hard into a turn. I agree 100%, for a car with a sporty suspension the Type-S definitely has too much body roll...but the RSB seemed to fix a lot of it. The only other thing that would make a difference would be springs or full coilovers, but I have no desire to ride that stiff in a daily driver.

I describe it as the willingness of the car to go where you point it to go when you turn the steering wheel. When pushed hard on on/off ramps for example, especially off axis ones, the body roll coupled with the stock suspension and sway bar just caused the car to understeer and not be willing to go where you wanted it to go. It is much more precise now; there is far less slop in the responsiveness of the car when I want it to turn. I much prefer a bit of healthy oversteer to understeer.

 

Thanks again for your feedback. It sounds like this is exactly what I needed. Going to place an order for one right now.

 

of topic but when i was at a road course there was a full race wrx sti and i was in love, thing was insane and obviously completely gutted

 

Nice, you will enjoy it! Have fun!
That was the route I would probably have ended up going with that STi. The next steps would have been a bigger fuel system (it had a Walbro 255 and I think 800+ cc injectors...would have had to put in another $1500+ for a dual Aeromotive pump setup with new lines, rails, injectors, tune, etc.), a dogbox transmission, new axles and sticky tires for the track.

One of the fastest time attack cars I've ever seen was Phil Grabow's Element Tuning STi. He is the guy who actually tuned my old STi. That thing was insane.

 

After driving it for about a week I am very pleased with the subtle increase in power / torque. I was actually surprised the XLR8 pipe made more of an impact on the top end. I have pretty much decided that I am going to go ahead and get the RV6 PCDs at some point this year...I think with the addition of those I should have more than enough power for the street. This is what happened with my other cars though, once I started modding I just didn't stop... haha! It's such a slippery slope.

Does anyone have PCDs + Jpipe with a Magnaflow resonator and the stock third cat + mid muffler? I'm curious to hear what that sounds like.

Next up is to fix the scrape on my rear bumper and the curbage on one of my wheels

 

Another question, do I need to purchase any endlinks or anything else with the sway bar? Also, does it come with grease and did you notice any creaks or clunking noises after the install.

The sway bar should arrive tomorrow and I want to be sure I have everything needed. Thanks again man and glad you're enjoying the mods.