mccvii

This is some car! So, I've been looking for a daily driver for some time and I happened upon this 99 i30t with 30k miles for $14k so I just had to jump on it. this car will be mainly used for the weekly commute as I have a weekend car that'll be used for summer cruising and such. But, I'm kind of a performance bug and I see an empty canvas here just waiting to be tapped. I'm looking for ideas to release some of the potential that this 190hp motor has. That seems awfully weak so I'm guessing we have room to play. I'm well aware that how fast you want to go is directly proportionate to how much you want to spend but I'm looking for the mods that will offer the best RoI.

Starting from the front... Intake .. keeping it NA, what do you guys see with CAI's, mass air intakes, polishing & porting, throttle bodies, etc...

Engine .. reserving comment until I learn more about the platform, but, if there are any techs, engineers , mechanics, or personal garage mechanical specialists (aka, tinkerers) who have some lessons learned that they might share, that'd be great. I'm sure that people in here have installed underdrive pullies, electric water pumps / compressors, and the like. Again, I'm probably going to want to keep this NA (although, I've not priced SC's or turbo's for this car.. I'm used to a tuned sc costing between 5-7k installed) Hmm.. wonder how much a couple of those volvo turbos would cost...

Exhaust ... I'm a header, x-pipe, cat-back guy... What options do we have on the i30 / max ?

I'm not so concerned about interior and exterior detailing but I'm not crazy about the lighting and I might want to see what can be done about that. Other than that, the detailing on this car rivals the beemers. Every car I own is treated to a weekly appointment with the Zaino Brothers. If you don't know about them, visit www.zainostore.com . this stuff has no equal.

I'll be spending some time foraging around the max boards for some ideas but I'd greatly appreciate any nuggets of wisdom you folks have.

I30tMikeD

iTrader: (8)

Every questions you have can be anwserd with our huge data base of informantion, but I am in a good mood with a few extra minutes........




Auto or 5-speed?

There is a decent amount of NA bolt -on's available. Intake, Y-pipe(what you probably call a down pipe), Headers, cat-backs, UDP's, flywheels, variable intake manifolds, reprogramed ECU's....

Port, polish, bigger TB's have been done but have not been proven to yield much so far, at least for NA applications. Cams are available as well.

Vortech makes a SC for our cars that can be bought through Stillen for around $3K I think, but a use one can be had for not much more than 2k. There are turbo "kits" avaiable for 4k+, but there is still custom work that has to be done to them.

Your VQ is a great engine, one of the best v6's ever made, especially for it's time. The stock engine can handle 400+ fwhp, so don't underestimate it. 190hp might not sound like a lot, but it's 205lbft of torque is nice. It holds it's own against motors producing much more hp. The VQ is a stop light to stop light monster with great midrange power.

I run mid 14's with just a few bolts-on's.







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