Hey everyone,
I have been reading about all the different performance parts out there for the tl and i need just a little help from someone whos tried a lot of these. My car is a 2005 tl 6sp, all stock with 70k. Its my daily driver and i never wanted to replace anything on it. However my "fun car" will be out of commission for at least a year due to a huge rebuild. Now im contaplainting a few modes to my tl, however i dont want to make it loud. So other than suspension parts are there any engine parts that would potential add or free some hp with out making the car sound like its not stock?

 

^you said you have a fun car.

so, you might be mechanically inclined.
How do you make power?
How do you free up power?

intake and exhaust.
but will make the car louder.

you could always put the TL on a diet.
which will net you a more nimble TL, while staying stock sounding.

 

Just meant are things like pulleys, thermospacers, ecu, worth it on their own. Also my fun car has a v8 so the power gains are much larger with more pistons and increased displacment. Basicly i dont want to spend $2000 on engine parts and get 10hp, i would rather get a suspension kit and some light wit wheels and nice tires at that point.

 

you answered your own question.
anything you do to the TL will cost money, due to the adage of less pistons and less displacement.

there is an ECU available at $1400 with gains of 20hp/20tq.

there is a light weight pulley, I believe at like around $200 dollars.
but certainly not the gains you'll be looking for.

you can free up the exhaust, by adding better flowing pipes, but will add sound.

 

I appreciate your honest, in regards to suspension kits and other parts, what will best improve my handling? Again this is my daily driver so im looking to improve handling without sacraficing ride quality too much. I have to stock 17 inch wheels with summer performance tires.

 

I dropped my car on ASPEC suspension.
this is Acura's specified track tuned shocks and springs. it lowers the car a tiny bit. (forgot the actual numbers)
the shocks are also valved more aggressively(actually it might be the same to the 6MT shock or a little stiffer, but not by much. it benefits people without the 6mt, as their shocks are softer.)
I only used the springs, and I paired it up with Koni Yellow shocks.

also, I've done a Progress Rear Sway Bar.
the stock RSB on the 6MT's are I believe a 20mm.
the Progress RSB upgrades it to a 24mm bar.

Ive also complimented these two upgrades with a max summer tire; the Nitto NT05


I have an '06 6MT TL.

 

I feel the same way, I want a bit more performance without the noise. I suggest MDX intake manifold, UR underdrive crank pulley, Jpipe (little bit of sound), homemade icebox intake.

 

no to the UNDER DRIVE pulley. you want the UR stock diameter LIGHT WEIGHT PULLEY.

 

If he doesn't have a sound system or planning on SC, what's wrong with underdrive?

 

^correct

 

XLR8 V2 j-pipe (will slightly increase exhaust note but not significantly), XLR8/UR stock diameter crank pulley, Progress RSB. Those are the 3 best mods that don't add sound.

 

I've been in your shoes. If you have a fun car already, no sense in wasting money on power mods. It takes very little to make these cars handle well. Suspension geometry is great, it doesn't have to be super stiff to handle well. Add a rear sway bar to get rid of some of the understeer. A-spec springs and shocks with give a slightly firmer ride over stock and better handling along with a 1/2" drop. And of course, the most important part, tires. Nothing else will make as much of a difference than tires.

If you intend to drive it hard from time to time and you have the 5at, a brake upgrade is worth it. From better pads to a big brake kit. I've run a Rotora 13" kit for years now but just switched to a Stoptech 13". You won't change the one stop stopping distances but you will get better brake feel, no warping, and no fade over repeated hard stops. I would never do rims on this car, the goal is to keep it looking stock and these brakes fit under the stock 17s.

If you do engine mods, exhaust is where you want to concentrate. The stock mufflers don't seem to be too restrictive. Some people have run precat deletes and a j-pipe with the rest being stock. They picked up power through the stock mufflers and they sound stock until you go full throttle. Even at full throttle, it's not loud and the tone doesn't change much, more like stock but just barely louder. I still couldn't bring myself to even do that much considering it's over a grand for about 20hp.

Now that the car is older and it will never go to the track again, I only spend money on the audio and stock replacement parts to keep it looking new.

 

Just not enough gain to justify the potential negatives. With the water pump being driven by the timing belt, it's not as bad as some cars but I've heard from some people the alternator does not spin fast enough at idle to energize. Whether that's true or not on this particular car, I don't know but I've seen it before on others. Not sure how it would effect the AC at idle either. I'm guessing not that bad.

The alternator would be the deal breaker. Mine has enough trouble charging the battery for my short trips, I would be in trouble if it stopped charging at idle. Maybe some people with this pulley can say whether it's a problem or not.

 

From the "Old Hot Rodder"...the last car I had (a GTP) I changed out the thermostat, made her run cooler, so the computer made it run richer, which meant more power. (Hell, 30 years ago the first car I ever owned, I ran without a thermostat in the summer time, course it was a carb car.)
I've done my own fender well air intake, which without a Tuner I could never tell whether it made a difference or not. Did seem to make the engine a little more responsive.
I did make a change to the exhaust, deleted the resonator, didn't seem to make much difference in the sound....seemed like it ran a little faster...

The 08 3G I have now...is a true daily driver...(if my dau was younger it would even have a car seat!)...
So what would I like to do now, if the old man had some free cash? Sway bars Front & Rear, I don't street race or race at the drags, too hard on the car. I do like on ramps and off ramps and doing the occasional Autocross...Sway bars won't make her feel too harsh...struts and springs might be okay, if all it did was give adjust-ability to the valving.

If I had more money...I'd do the pre-cat deletes, leave the stock resonator & stock mufflers, bet it wouldn't sound too much different.
If ya got the money find a tuner....cause truly your gonna have to get really radical to do much to the TL. (If you spend the time and look at the mods these guys....& gals are doing, they are all doing about the same thing)......

So...If your gonna go radical, find something else...if ya got $2K go find a 5-spd Mustang or a Camaro and beat the crap out it....hell for that matter, go find a Supercharged Pontiac Grand Prix and beat on it like I did....

 

Thanks guys thats a lot of good suggestions. Now that im a little older and need to look respectable pulling up to work i want to keep it as close to stock as possible. I think im going to try pulleys(stock diameter), and maybe the manifold with thermo spacers, possibly a j pipe. As for the suspension, i noticed my car has a rather large front strut bar already. Again its a great car stock but my weekend car is a 90 nissan 300zx with a v8 swap so i just miss the power when drive the Acura daily to work.

 

That's a nice swap, I've never heard of a V8 into that generation, only fast turbo versions. Sounds like a lot of fun. I drove a NA version years ago and they're a lot of fun to slide around.