After searching the forum for simple bolt on mods to increase power without breaking the bank or having expert mechanical skills, these seem to be ones that give any real gains and the order they should be performed in: 1) intake of your choice, 2) y-pipe, 3) cat-back exhaust. Is this correct? Did I miss anything signifigant?

 

I'd have to throw in, fix any problems with ur max first. I.e. oil leak, check engine light, etc get it nice and clean, throttle body first then once you've got it all squeeky clean then i'd start with bolt ons, ur order sounds right

 

Yes, this is presuming that the car is properly tuned and maintaied to begin with and not a pile of junk. Cleanliness looks nice but I dont think it will add any performance.

 

Sounds like you have the right idea. Those are the basics, but the y pipe will see the best results for power. It depends on what you want, loud, quiet??? IF quiet, just go with y pipe, but if you want more noise, get the whole deal (what you mentioned).
Whatever you do, make sure you do it for yourself, not because others tell you to do it. It's your car, personalize it your way.
Happy modding....

 

(internal cleanliness) lol

 

Personally I’d rather see a clean car, than a POS that may be modded out, a nice wax job is always very impressive

 

Sounds like most of the cars around my house, POS with a horrible exhaust and knock off turbo that hardly works lol.

 

If you want to keep your max quiet then don't do any of those mods. If you want it sorta quiet then get a y-pipe first and see what you think. It will give you some power but it does buzz a little bit (my budget y does anyway) but it isn't something that you can hear when the radio is on. An intake would add maybe a little more power on top of that but increase the noise significantly. Your choice of intake makes a difference too. You can choose between a true CAI, a short ram of some sort, or just a simple popcharger or cone filter attached to your stock midpipe. If you don't give a damn about how quiet it is then go ahead and add the cat-back but don't expect a ton of power from it.

 

BTW, people on this board can't even come close to an agreement which type of intake is the best. Some even say that completely stock setup or just a hacked airbox is the way to go. I haven't seen any dynos to say for sure what is best. I did see one a while ago that seemed to prove that leaving the stock midpipe in place is better than replacing it with a CAI or short ram setup. I am leaning towards leaving the stock midpipe and resonator? (the black box looking thing) in place and putting a JWT popcharger on there.

 

I hacked my airbox, I love the sound but it isn't the quietest thing in the world either...