What are some of the cheapest and easiest mods to do? So far i have seen that i can get a K&N Drop In filter, remove the resonator and also do the throttle body spacer mod. Possibly get a little more than 10whp with all this?

Is there anything else i can do to get a little more power? I know about hondata reflash and tune... but at $700 that's a bit much.

 

you know what. ill just be blunt now and save everyone the time. (not trying to be rude, just honest).

The filter and resonator and spacer really dont do much for whp. Those mods are all good for the engine and efficiency, but doesnt really give direct power. Atleast thats what I think. Some people claim the spacer will give 2-3 horsepower but who really knows.

And when it comes to performance mods, you gotta pay to play. Your best bang for your buck really is the flashpro.

 

Decals - depending on whats on the decal, its 5-10hp per decal!

 

thunderbt3 is right on the money. my car was bone stock and felt very sluggish, so i got a "i<3jdm" decal off of ebay and a injen sticker i stole from my friend's car, and damn, i've gotten 23 whp. here's the dyno

 

lmao decals. I'm actually in the same boat though. Do you guys recommend the flash pro for my 08 tax?

 

tsx**

 

The best performance mod is a driving school. You can easily transfer it from car to car and it is the one mod that may just safe your life one day.

Combine that with a decal and you're golden.

 

Dude this dyno graft doesn't look right not me. When you add JDM stickers the power band gain doesn't incline, in at constant increase all the way up to 8k.

 

I'd start with a CAI, Lightweight Crank Pulley and the HONDATA Flashpro.

 

So hondata is the best way to go?
How much power can i expect to gain with a flashpro?

 

hmm maybe because my "jdm" stickers were made in china

 

I'm trying to find a dyno sheet of the 09+ TSX but here is a dyno sheet of a 06 TSX after the HONDATA reflash.

 

maybe i'm missing something but i don't see a field for how many stickers were applied after the reflash.

 

So it looks like hondata reflash + tons of JDM stickers is the way to go. I'll probably still remove the resonator anyways (apparently it makes the car sound better / louder?).

Are there any dyno sheets for a 09+ TSX though?

 

This is an area in which I love to share my knowledge of. I'm always looking for free or low cost ways to get more power. Cheap is probably not the right term as it implies something of lessor quality. I prefer low cost as a good term to use. More importantly you want to maximize your power to weight ratio. I've owned a lot of cars over the last 15 or so years and always look for ways to increase this ratio with easy things to do. I've taken this so far in that my Honda (of course) lawn mower even has a couple "low cost mods" done. So here are somethings you can do that are easy and low cost to maximize your power to weight ratio.

I'll walk you through what I did with my 2011 TSX 6sp Navi. I immediately changed the oil over to a full synthetic oil. Most of the full syns are pretty much the same and it's really just a matter of pref. I've had a great experience with Mobil-1 and that is what I use. The full syn will lower your internal friction over standard oil and should free up a couple horsepower. Don't expect OMG gains but overall it does help. This has been backed up by numerous dynos including the ones seen in Import Tuner's Power Pages. I also change the tranny and rear diff fluid over to Mobil-1 Full syn gear oil as well but the rear diff is a non issue on the TSX and the Honda tranny is pretty specific in what it wants, so I usually go with just regular Honda MTF. So no gains here, just change it when recommended and you'll keep the friction as it should be from the factory and not lose any horse power.

My next step is to get a drop in high flow air filter. Just like the syn oil they are mostly the same regardless if foam or cotton gauze. The Big difference will be not having to change this out every 24 months as you just have to clean it every so often. You'll save money in the long run, not much but every dollar counts.

Next step is to get that intake resonator system gone, like yesterday. You will however run into an issue with the increased sound and on the TSX it is rather loud and noisy with the intake sucking air from the engine bay. Simply fix, I went to home depot and got a 4 inch pvc elbow from the plumbing dept. It works beautifully, as I attached it reusing the rubber coupler from the bottom of the stock air box and positioned it halfway down into the fender well to draw cool air and muffle it to a nice low growl. I can provide a pic if you want to see it. IMO it's pretty much a poor mans version of the CT carbon intake. That was a very noticeable gain, in fact I'd like to hit a dyno day with another TSX running the CT carbon intake to see if there's any difference in power. I can however tell you there is a major difference in cost at about $400.

Get your spare tire and tools gone. A can of fix a flat and a cell phone will be fine for 99% of the time. While your at it try not to carry any more in your car than needed.

Next on your list should be wheels and tires. This is another often misunderstood and overlooked improvement that will be noticeable if done right. Now we all know a set of 19" Vossens is gonna get the ladies wet; Unfortunatly it will probably hurt your power to weight ratio. So take a little trip over here and get the lightest set of rims you can afford that look decent: https://www.tirerack.com/wheels/resu...&filterNew=All
You can get a set of RPFs or OZs that ring in uder 15lbs. [side note] One day I had my stock wheels off and decided to hop on the scale and a do a rough measurement . It came in around 44lbs including the tire. I went on Tire Rack's website to look up the tire's weight and subtracted that from the total and figured the stock 2011 tsx 17" wheel weighs about 22 lbs. So going from 22 to <15lbs and saving 7lbs is a huge deal . Unsprung weight like that of your wheels and tires translates to 2lbs saved for every 1lb reduced from the wheel/tire combo at each corner. In other words every pound saved from wheels is like saving twice as much or more from your cars weight.: http://hpwizard.com/rotational-inertia.html Basically you could save 60 or so pounds by going with light weight rims over stock.

Next thing I do and this comes with a stigma in some circles and understandably so, is I get rid of the cats, gone, later, bye bye, cya. I went with the RV6 combo at around $500, but I believe it's still the best bang for your dollar. You can free up around 12-15hp and you will notice a difference.

Lastly lower your car, if you want to maintain ride quality go with a moderate 1.2-1.5" drop I perfer Eibach but Tein, etc is fine too. What does this do? Well it lowers tha car and reduces drag. Where you ask? Well it reduces the amount of air flowing underneath your car which causes drag. Take a look at cars from recent years. Manufactueres have gone to great lengths to cover the underside with lots of plastic trays to smooth out the air flow undrneath to reduce drag. I believe I paid $180 for a a set of Eibach prokits.


What's next on my list?
ECU tune to take advantage of the intake mod and cat delete. Maybe Hondata will want to make some money off of us 2011 and up guys. Or they may choose it's not good from a business standpoint.

So as you can see these mods were easy, low cost and still retain the reliability of the car.

Remember:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-to-weight_ratio

Last but not least the money spent on a throttle body spacer from a pure physics standpoint is probably better used somewhere else. Your intake runners mitagate any change in air flow prior to entry.

And the final tip is this, surf the web and research gas saving mods, 9 out of ten times it actually can be used to get the drag reduced and help the power to weight ratio.

 

2011 TSX, great post

 

Can you provide a pic of this? Thanks!

 

Post pics you say?...Not a chance in hell.


and a nice shot of the down pipe combo for the ladies.

 

Great! How does the downpipe combo sound? Raspy / or deep? I saw a downpipe video posted sometime back and it was very high pitched.

Thanks again!

 

First, sorry for the late reply. The down pipe combo had a really bad rasp at around 3k rpm under part throttle. Needless to say that's about 70% of real world driving. I'm thinking though not sure how possible it is for RV6, but maybe they could look into making the secondary cat replacement a short perforated resonator instead of a basic straight pipe. Might be worth a look. So I went and had the longest perforated core resonator (24") I could find and had a local shop in Cali weld it up to the stock exhaust. Total cost was $120 and worth probably twice that since the exhaust sounds stock now. Here's the crazy thing though The power felt better, now I know the butt dyno can be off at times and it's hard to get a good calibration on the butt dyno, but it really feels quicker. Other than besides an ECU tune for the 2010 and below guys the straight pipe combo is the best bang for your $$$ even when you factor in the added cost of a resonator install.