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thrasher cai - i
currently have a thrasher cai insalled,
allowing for a much less restricted
inflow of cold air, which is essential
for a supercharged engine, imo.
an added benefit of the free-flowing
intake is an awesome sounding "whine"
from the supercharger which can
now be heard. i purchased my cai
from a friend, but they can still
be purchased new from thrasher.
asp 3.0" supercharger pulley
- as a replacement to the stock
3.8" pulley, i have installed
a 3.0" pulley. typically, with
my current list of other mods, a
3.0" pulley would be too small.
however, since i am living and driving
at such a high altitude, a 3.0"
can be run on our engines with less
"complementing" mods with
relatively no problems. cars at
sea-level would never be able to
do this without having knock-retard
numbers off the chart. guess that's
one benefit (?) of living here.
i purchased my (press-on) pulley
from south
florida pulley headquarters.
exhaust - i don't have my
exhaust completed yet, as i would
like to have it done. i presently
have my u-bend and resonator replaced
with 3" pipe. hopefully by
the end of summer, i plan to replace
the downpipe and cat with a less
restrictive setup, followed by 3"
pipe splitting into 2 x 2.5"
pipe with ultraflow mufflers. this
is my next major mod on the horizon.
ramairtech fpr - to allow
for the increase of boost, given
by my cai and 3.0" pulley,
i was in need of a bit extra fuel
flow. i installed a rat adjustable
fuel pressure regulator and a fuel
pressure gauge from summit
racing to allow me to fine-tune
the amount of fuel flowing into
the engine.
transmission cooler - since
the transmissions in our cars are
known to be the weak link, i have
installed a transmission cooler
to help protect it. this was the
first mod i did before taking the
car to the track.
plugs and wires - i am running
msd wires and protect-a-boots, which
i purchased from motorsportsperformance,
along with ngk tr-55 plugs gapped
to .055.
wheels and tires - although
these can be thought of as "appearance"
mods, i think they are as much "handling
performance" mods as anything
else. i replaced my stock wheels
and tires with american
eagle model 077 wheels, currently
skinned in kumho 712 tires. although
the tires are virtually worthless
in the snow, the setup is great
on dry, or merely wet, roads.
buick f-bar (strut tower brace)
- i have installed the buick strut
tower brace, aka f-bar, in the front
and rear of my car. this is by far,
the best handling mod you can do
for the money. two kits can be purchased
for under $20-25, typically. these
restricted a large amount of "body
flex" while cornering, and
allow the car to corner much flatter
than as stock. these can be purchased
from any gm dealership - part number
12456148.
poly-eurothane sway-bar bushings
and end links - installed poly
bushings and end links on my stock
front sway-bar. i was pleasantly
surprised at how much they actually
helped... front corners don't want
to "dip" near as much as they used
to in corners. install was quite
a simple task... remove the front
wheels and you can easily get to
everything you need to from there.
just unbolt the factory bushings
/ end links, replace with the poly,
and rebolt everything back together.
for the relatively low cost of this
mod, i would highly recommend it
to anyone who doesn't want (or can't
afford) to spend the extra money
on a completely different sway bar.
i picked up my bushings / end-links
at the grand
prix store.
future - the next mod on
my list will be to complete my custom
exhaust system. after that? who
knows... see where that takes me,
i guess.
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