Hi everyone,

I've had the car for just over two years now, and I started modding it about a year ago or so.

I think she came from Illinois, it wasn't easy to find a manual. Before this, I had a volvo S60R, also manual. Here she is when I first got her:





From my 1st or 2nd Azine meet, photos courtesy of RockStar hanging out the passenger window in another TL:

 

Looks sweet! Rare colour, too.

 

The car had a front license plate holder on it, plus a clear bra, which I'm not a fan of. The plate drilled right through the bumper

I removed the clear bra and had the holes in the bumper plugged up. The whole bumper was then re-painted.

The A-Spec aero kit was also installed at this time, along with the roof spoiler:





Now that the car wasn't an eye sore to me anymore, it was time to start working on the driver experience.

The CT short shifter, hybrid racing bushings and Skunk2 shift knob were installed, and the check delay valve in the slave cylinder was removed:




That immediately improved the driving experience for me. After that I did all the bolt-ons in my sig. Here's a shot of the RV6 exhaust:



I'm splitting the story of the car into a couple posts to break it up a bit btw.

My latest project, just completed, was a PnP on the TB, IM and runners, along with the removal of the engine bay plastic covers.

The TB was done by Maxbore. Here are the before and after shots:










Great work IMO

Azine member Gerzand did the PnP on the IM and runners and boy does he know his shit, excellent work IMO

Before and after shots:















Of course, the engine under the plastic covers has always been fugly looking (to me), so I had the valve covers and IM powder coated:








I forgot to take a before shot, but here's one where you can see a little bit of the original engine bay:




And the work begins. Here's a comparison shot of the original and new valve covers:




Valve covers installed, plus PnP runners:






PnP IM and TB installed, and engine bay degreased. Braille aluminum battery holder was also installed:

 

Dude, everything looks good.


You can even post in one thread!

 

Sorry Steve, I don't think I could've kept track of everything in one single post. Kinda summarizing the last year all at once all caught up though, with this post.


Installed the final touch yesterday:






We also removed the bumpers. They are a bit heavy:








Car feels good, drives good and pulls good

 

wow i love how the engine looks!! SOO freaking clean!!!

Can i copy you?

 

wow very impressive! your car is beautiful bro!

 

oh and the rolling shots are DOPE! i need to find someone to do that for me with my TLS

 

Go for it

 

Great job with car FamilyGuy it definitely is coming along. I myself purchased a RV6 TD exhaust and I can't wait until late December of its arrival. Once again the car is spectacular.

 

Nice work! LOVE the rolling shot from the back left, looks perfect! About the front bumper and drilled holes.....what is wrong with people? Why in the world would someone drill holes when the bumper already has holes designed for the plate holder bolts? ugh, so frustrating when there are people out there that are really that clueless. Reminds of when I bought my new 2012 Grand Cherokee Overland. I told the dealership 20 times DO NOT install a front plate. I go to the pick up the car, and the F'ing people put not two, not four, but yes SIX fucking holes in it. Ok im done venting about holes in bumpers and stupid people :-)

Beautiful car!

 

Thx guys!

JTS97Z28 - yeah I feel the same. Luckily FL doesn't require a front plate. But Acura kind of messed up a bit here too because the bumper comes with two pre drilled holes with covers for the front plate holder, but the holder itself comes with three bolts, so they end up drilling that 3rd one right smack in the middle of the bumper

 

Where did you get that "3.5 VTEC" badge from on your IM?

Did the port and polish make any noticeable difference? What about the AEM V2 intake you have? The common consensus is that an intake wouldn't do anything on our cars, however, until I see a dyno sheet showing a completely stock car next to one with only an intake and nothing else, I'll have my doubts.

I had the V2 intake on my '03 Accord 6MT and my '99 Civic SiR. Because the Civic had so little power and no torque (160hp and 111lbft) on a 2650lb car, the effects of the V2 were apparent very quickly- once I removed it- And they weren't good. I noticed that all the intake did was shift the power range. I lost low end power and had it moved up high in the rpm range, which was completely useless for daily driving. When I put the stock airbox back on I was like "whoa, where did this low end grunt come from?!".

I'm curious if it's the same on the J-series engines, or not. Since they have so much more power right out the box, losing a bit of low end power might not even be noticeable. The sound of the V2 is intoxicating enough :P

 

It's the badge from the plastic engine cover. It's also sold separately, comes with a high temp 3M adhesive backing, and luckily is perfectly sized for the top plate

Engine cover emblem P/N 17125-RDB-A00, listed at $11.55 online at acuraoemparts.

 

Family guy!

red covers look great!!!!!!

 

looks amazing
great work!

 

Looks great, I really like the powder coated intake manifold.

 

oh and dyno it!!!

 

You have great taste in your modding choices. The engine bay looks Fantastic without the engine covers and that's saying something. I love the look.

 

These are good questions and I wish I could answer them, but I didn't install the AEM V2 by itself, it was installed with the RV6 HFPCs, XLR8 J-Pipe + exhaust (I've since changed to RV6), the UR pulley and Spec lightweight flywheel, so the car felt stronger after all this, which was expected. How much stronger I have no idea, since I haven't dyno'd it yet. I've seen enough dynos here on the forums to know it should be around ~240-245whp stock, so I'm saving a few bucks waiting for a final dyno when I tune it. That's my plan.

I have come across one or two posts here on Azine where people, including Josh from XLR8, have commented on dyno testing by Injen or AEM (forget which) on a TL, which measured a gain of 12-13hp. I don't know which model TL or what mods it had, if any, and keep in mind that any performance dyno numbers advertised by companies are always peak power numbers, so it's possible that it can lose on the bottom end or shift the power curve, I honestly don't know. I will say this, if you're just looking for intake noise, just remove the OEM piping below the resonator box, and if you're looking to maximize your CAI, then look at aftermarket options, including the DIY options. The more supporting mods you have, i.e. full exhaust, PnP, etc. the more you'll squeeze out of an aftermarket option over the stock setup.

Yes, the PnP def made a difference! When I had my XLR8 J-pipe and exhaust, the car had great top end pull but the bottom and mid range felt starved in comparison (I'm pretty sure it was still stronger than stock). When I switched to RV6 j-pipe and exhaust, I immediately felt a stronger low and mid-range, but lost ~80% of the top end kick in vtec range. The PnP job has regained the vtec kick, with no loss of low or mid range - hell, the car feels stronger across the whole band, but the most diff is at the top end.

Now, like I said, I have never dyno'd it, so take this with a grain of salt. My comments are purely based on my driving experience and butt dyno on my particular car with my particular mods

Soon brotha, soon Hondata is next in a few months, so it will be dyno'd then.

 

What a gorgeous engine bay

Excellent work so far!

 

Looking good!

 

Great job on the build thus far!!

 

Snapped a quick shot today:

 

man could you post some in cabin video of that thing going WOT through the first couple gears? Nice clean work bud!

 

Rolling shots look great! Although I think I'm the one who took them

 

Honestly, that is one of the nicest engine bays I've seen on the 3G TL. Well done.

 

Nice progress!

Wrinkle red

 

Nice progress, I just drooled all over that engine bay.

 

I'll try, give me some time to learn how, I've never done videos before

Oops my bad bro, I thought it was Jeremy that day you did a great job, we need to do another rolling shot session.

Btw, my buddy up north has a 2013 APR Stage III Golf R pushing around 500HP, that thing screws!

 

Nice shot!

 

The Carbon Bronze looks dynamite and yours is an incredible example. Looks like the under hood insulation was removed also.

 

Clean machine!

 

I love the work under the hood.

 

 

No worries! I'd love to go Stage 3 with mine, but I put on too many miles to justify doing that with a daily.

 

 

Looks real clean, Any more Mods coming?

 

Yes, if things go as planned, wheels, suspension and finishing off on performance with cams and hondata.

Fingers crossed

 

Wow .... The engine bay is one of the best I've seen on this forum