Performance Mods for 98 CE

[sbuswell]

Hey guys, I come here now and then to get info about my wife's car and I've found this to be a very informative site. I myself drive a 99 Acura TL and have I/H/E/P, spacers, iridium plugs and a few other engine mods and want to get a little better performance out of my wife's corolla as I drive it now and then to work. Currently I put a K&N drop in air filter and Bosch double platinum plugs in and keep up witht he maintenance very well. I seafoam her car every 5k or so, use mobil1 oil, run fuel system cleaner from time to time and her car has solid tires that are pretty much new. I also hooked up the sound system, it has a 10" Eclipse sub in a sealed box 500RMS/1000peak Watts with a Kenwood 300RMS monoblock amp, then a pioneer deck with built in EQ(decent HU, 180.00, can't remember the model off hand) then kenwood excelon 6.5" up front and 4x6's in the rear powered by a Rockford Fosgate 50RMSx4channel amp. Sorry for the long post.

Now to my questions......finally.
What is out there for bolt-on mods and what are the best brands?
What is the best bang for the buck mod, headers??
Are there any performance chips that actually work??(There aren't any for my TL so I'm skeptical here).
What are some good suspension brands out there(for shocks/springs, sways, strut tower bars & braces, lower tie bars, etc.)?

Again sorry for the long post.

[Flashmn]

bolt ons suck.
Turbocharger is a best bang for buck.
No chips, toyota ECU's arn't flashable.
Bilstein and Koni make the best shocks, springs maybe eibach, esperlir, H&R or custom wound ones.

But I think its cool you care for your wife... alot of people what I bump into at work dont give a rats ass about their wifes car.

[sbuswell]

Really bolt-on's won't do much huh, that sucks. I noticed a very big difference in power with bolt-on's on my car. I was thinking headers and a UR crank pulley. Wouldn't plus the K&N give a solid noticeable gain? Turbocharging would be awesome but too expensive for me and with her car having 165k I don't think her axles could handle too much abuse as I believe a turbo'd corolla would put down about 160-170whp or close to that, And hell ya about koni and bilsteins, those shocks kick ass big time. Bilstein's are by far the best shocks out there, but expensive. If I change her springs as I believe they need to be(way too much springback in the rear and fronts are a little squeeky) H&R makes great springs for the TL as I want them for my car also and Tokico Illuminas. How much are the turbo kits for this car by the way and how makes them?



I want my wife's car to be as reliable and enjoyable as possible. I have to drive it sometimes and going from my TL to her car is a big difference so I want to make her car more fun to drive for both our sakes. She has a 1250.00 stereo while I have a stock shitty Blose system that's terrible.

[Flashmn]

I bet if you dyno'd your car the gains would be alot less than the gains they claim.

But truthfully you wont get 160hp with just bolt ons.

turbokit costs depends on who makes it. I made my own, so costs were greatly reduced compared to an off the shelf ready made one.

[sbuswell]

so a header won't give much, even a 10whp gain in her car would be noticeable to both of us. I haven't dyno'd my TL yet, but want to soon. I also want to track it just see if I can touch 100 in the 1/4, which I doubt I can, but I believe 98 is attainable.

[Flashmn]

You wont get 10hp with an exhaust pipe.

[w203]

Yea you wouldn't get astronomical gains with the simple bolt ons, get I/H/E followed with a tune and it should be better but not by a lot. You can't compare a Honda engine to a Toyota. The engine designs are also different with different purposes. You can't get any more reliable then stock. And best bang for the buck would be nitrous and weight reduction. Your maintenance plan seems overboard since I don't think you should seafoam every 5k miles (I'm against seafoams). If you looking for performance start with the stereo system.

[sbuswell]

her stereo system already rocks good enough. I don't like nitrous at all, too expensive and runs out too fast and causes too much stress on the drivetrain and axles. Seafoam kicks ass, I can't understand why you would be against it. I have 149k on my TL and her car has 165k and they both run like brand new. No lie, they run like tops and both get great gas mileage for their class. I use seafoam every 5k because the carbon deposits aren't as plentiful then and fouling the spark plugs is less likely. Changing plugs on a corolla is a 5min job anyway so that doesn't matter to me. I also used BG44k every 5-10k as well, which works extremely well in helping engine response.

So in summation the only truely good performance mod for a corolla is FI?

[Flashmn]

And best bang for the buck would be nitrous

Heck no it isnt, its frigging expensive on the long run.